New Russian Dharma website launched

Suvannavira, a Russian-born Order Member writes with news of a major new Dharma resource for Russian speakers. He says -

“I do have one news item for you from Russia. There is a new Russian FWBO website - www.buddhayana.ru - which has just gone live. It is a stylish and substantial site with four complete books translated into Russian plus 300 or more pages of the first year of the new mitra study course.

The four books are:

"Vision and Transformation" - www.buddhayana.ru/путь-будды.html
"The Guide to the Buddhist Path" - soon to be available
"Who is the Buddha" - www.buddhayana.ru/кто-такой-будда.html by Bhante Sangharakshita
"Meditation" - www.buddhayana.ru/медитация.html by Kamalashila,

"The study material is at www.buddhayana.ru/учебный-курс.html; and there's samples of the artwork of Aloka and Chintamani at www.buddhayana.ru/изображения.html.

"Saddhaloka masterminded both the creation of Buddhayana.ru and the publishing project, with help with Russian from Nagadakini from Germany. The website itself was designed by Taivo Org from Estonia.

“The site joins two other FWBO websites in Russian - the main “fwbo.org” site introducing the FWBO, at http://russian.fwbo.org; and свободный дух, or the Russian version of Wildmind meditation teaching, at http://russian.wildmind.org.

"As well as making available a large number of Buddhist texts on the web for Russian speakers, Buddhayana.ru and the other sites will provide a valuable way for Order Members to make known their teaching activities in Russia. Saddhaloka, Nagadakini and Sarvamitra have all visited and taught in Russia, and early in 2010 I myself, Suvannavira, plan to live again in Moscow and start teaching activities.

“Much metta from snowy south Estonia,
Suvannavira".

Sangharakshita en français

Yes, Sangharakshita in French!

Three years after Vision et Transformation, the FWBO Paris Buddhist Centre, locally known as Centre bouddhiste de l’Ile-de-France, has just released his second book: Poèmes. This is a bilingual edition of 64 poems by Sangharakshita, translated into French by two mitras, Barbaralaure and Christian, and two order members, Varadakini and Vassika. In addition, another mitra and artist, Marc, drew a picture of Sangharakshita for the cover, and a friend, Gérard, did the typesetting of the book and designed the cover.

The Centre has decided to publish these books - and more will be coming in the future - as it has not yet been possible to find a mainstream publisher for Sangharakshita’s works in France. This is because he is not very well known there yet, the FWBO having only been present there for a few years and through a single Centre so far. For the time being, the books are only sold at the Centre, as selling them elsewhere would require resources and an organisation that the Centre does not have at the moment.

Christian comments: "We started to translate poems to inspire people during pujas or festivals. Then Vassika came up with the idea of translating more poems and gathering them in a book: this will now give people a fuller sense of Sangharakshita as a person. Though he came to visit our Centre a couple of years ago many people attending classes these days have not met him and may never have an opportunity to do so. They therefore only rely on the written word to get to know him, and having the chance of reading some his poetry will give them access to a different facet of him than the one they encounter through his books about Buddhism.

For us translators, it has been as great a pleasure as a challenge to translate these poems. In all cases translation is a difficult but rewarding practice of truthful speech; in the case of poetry the challenge is even greater if one wants to convey images, rhythms, rhymes and beauty as well as meaning. It was also a great pleasure – and a challenge too sometimes – to receive advice and feedback from the author (he does not speak French, of, course, but in a few places we’ve needed his clarification or explanation to make sure we got things right). It has also been an enriching process of deepening our relationship with each other, as in the end all the poems were the result of the work of two, three or even all four of us."

The poems were chosen to provide readers with as "comprehensive" an image of Sangharakshita as possible in a few pages, so there are poems old and new (from 1948 to 2006), short and long (from haikus to The Veil of Stars), with and without rhymes or metre, and showing different aspects of this remarkable man – the thinker, the contemplator, the friend, the teacher – as well as different moments of his life: his life in India and in Kalimpong, his return to the West, and his life as founder of the FWBO.

Una Panoramica del Budismo - the 'Survey of Buddhism' printed in Spanish

One of Sangharakshita’s best-known – and longest - books has just been published in Spanish. The ‘Survey of Buddhism’ ('Una Panoramica del Budismo' as it is known in Spanish) was first published in 1957, and written when Sangharakshita was only 26 years old, at a time when Buddhism was only just beginning to become known in the West. At well over 500 pages it is a remarkable tour-de-force - and a remarkable feat of translation! The work has stood the test of time, with over 9 editions and numerous reprints in English.

The occasion was celebrated at the FWBO’s Valencia centre with a special visit by Sangharakshita, fresh from celebrating his 83rd birthday in Birmingham, UK. His visit coincided with their Padmasambhava Day celebrations, including a Padmasambhava Puja.

Spanish-speaking readers will be pleased to know that The FWBO’s Libros Budistas, also based in Valencia, offer some 48 Dharma books in Spanish for free download.

de 3 juwelen.org: Dharma translations into Dutch

Bart Van den Berghe, from the FWBO's Dutch Sangha, has sent us this report on 'The 3 Jewels', their on-line Dharma translation project -

"The Three Jewels (de 3 juwelen.org) is a Dutch-Flemish translation project.

"Texts from Bhante Sangharakshita and other FWBO sources (and ocasionally a non-FWBO text) are being translated into Dutch by language-loving members of the FWBO's lowland sanghas. The aim of the '3 Jewels project' is to make Dharma texts accesible to Dutch non-english speaking readers and inspire them to practice the Dharma.

"The texts can be freely downloaded from the website or bought in printed format at production cost from the different buddhist centres in the Lowlands. Of course we encourage people to support or work and consider a donation to enable us to do more and better.

"Right now 14 texts have been translated from English, including 'the ten pillars', 'what is the Dharma', 'change your mind' and 'vision and transformation'.

"In the pipeline are texts like 'the guide to the Buddhist path' and 'what is the sangha' that will soon be available for download on the website.

"Recently all the texts have been restyled and look and read better than ever before. Enjoy..."

A PDF spreadsheet with all existing translations of all FWBO texts into all languages is available on the Resources tab of FWBO News.

FWBO News in Spanish - and the Dharma in translation...

Visitors to the FWBO News website can scroll down below the latest story to see – among many other things – an ongoing list of where the site’s visitors have come from. This currently stands at a little over 23,000 since November 2007 – from no less than 134 countries. That’s not surprising, given the international nature of the internet and the fact the FWBO/TBMSG have centres or groups in some 25 countries.

However, of course many people who are part of our Sangha don’t speak English – including many from the Spanish-speaking world. And so Moksananda, an English Order Member who has lived for many years in Spain, has begun translating selected stories from FWBO News into Spanish. Recent posts include Arte Dalit; Hacer que el Dharma trabaje; and En Krakow - polvo, ruido, sudor y alegría...

FWBO News would be very happy to hear of any other translation initiatives going on at FWBO/TBMSG centres.

FWBO News maintains a substantial database which attempts to list all existing translations of all FWBO Dharma of all sorts into all languages world-wide. This is available on the Resources tab of the site - see FWBO Translations here. This can be downloaded for ease of reference, and again, updates are welcome.

FWBO Home page now available in Russian

A new translation of the FWBO's main website, www.fwbo.org, has been launched, this time in Russian. The address is -

http://russian.fwbo.org/

As with the other versions of FWBO.org, the site carries information on basic Buddhism, meditation practices, and the FWBO's distinctive approach, as well as a short biography of Sangharakshita, founder of the FWBO.

Russian is of course not the only languaged into which the FWBO's website has been translated; below is a list of some others -

Chinese
Dutch
Finnish
French
German
Polish
Russian
Spanish

The FWBO's Wildmind meditation website is available in many of the above languages plus Portuguese.

See our contacts section for a fuller list and for details of the local centres in each country...

Change to wording of Heart Sutra

Following some months of consultation, Mahamati, the International Order Convenor of the WBO, has announced a small change to the wording of the Heart Sutra as recited in the FWBO.

The new wording is

All things are by nature void
They are not born or destroyed
Nor are they stained or pure
Nor do they wax or wane.

These replace the well-known line "all things are the primal void” and the section immediately following. A full copy of the text of the new version can be downloaded from the Resources section of FWBO News here.

The change was approved by Sangharakshita in order to avoid the danger of referring to "the void" i.e. making sunyata into a 'thing', while keeping the rhythm and flow of the original.

Windhorse Publications will be reprinting the English Language edition of the FWBO Puja book soon, with the new version of the Heart Sutra included.

Those of a nostalgic disposition are reminded that the 'primal void' lives on in Kavyasiddhi’s beautiful rendition of the Heart Sutra – sung at last summer’s International Order Convention and posted on Videosangha.