Latest News October 2021
You’ve seen what we can do
Can you support us?
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We need your help for something we have never asked you about before...
Fundraising for the Order in India during Covid; setting up local care networks; giving grants worldwide for Order members with insufficient resources to meet basic living costs; investigating mental wellbeing in the Order… these are some of the projects that the Abhayaratna Trust team takes on to benefit the Order.
If you have donated £50 for example, to one of our Appeals, all that £50 goes to the appeal individual or cause. We don’t keep a percentage for our ‘running costs’, other than any gift aid we can collect if we go over an appeal’s target.
So we rely on regular monthly donations to enable us to run the Trust and support the team. We are not meeting these running costs at this time.
The Trust could not exist without a small team to run it: Mahasraddha, our director, who instigates the Local Care Network projects and liaises with the other Triratna charities for example; Taradakini, our Grants & Care co-ordinator who oversees or processes an average of 150 grants a year; Jinavamsa who looks after our donors and communications; and Utpalavajri who is in charge of our finances. Three of us are part time and we all work from home on very modest support levels.
You have seen what we can do, and we would like to do so much more with your support. Will you help us to further develop care and grant programmes for our Order sangha, so that no-one is left by the wayside when they encounter a financial or health difficulty or crisis?
Please give £10 a month, or the equivalent in your currency. You can support us for as long as you wish, such as 24 or 36 months. Click here to donate now. Thank you.
Biking for better health
Silajala received a Trust grant last month to buy an electric bike. He writes:
‘Because of ongoing fatigue and living rurally I was struggling to get to our local town or the railway station. Then I had the idea that an electric fold-up bicycle would assist me. I wondered if the Abhayaratna Trust could help pay for one, and I’m very happy to say that they did. My new bike is helping me increase my exercise levels, so I’m slowly getting fitter and gaining a little more energy. Yesterday I even went to the seaside via bike and train. A few months ago I wouldn’t have even dreamt about doing such a thing, but now it is possible, and I’m happy to say it did me the world of good!’
Amoghavamsa’s chance of a lifetime
We recently ran an appeal to raise £2400 pay for Amoghavamsa to go on retreat in Spain, to which there was an immediate response. Within a few days we had £3300 in donations.
Thank you to everyone who donated to this appeal and helped us to quickly reach the target. Your donations have paid for Amoghavamsa’s three month retreat at Uttaraloka in Spain, with the extra amount raised covering his travel, and initial living costs when he returns to the UK. He told us:
‘A Big Thank You. I never thought I would have the chance to go back to Spain in this life.’
Let’s talk about our mental health - part 4
Amritasukha lives with intense anxiety. How has this shaped his practice and Order life?
Have you recently taken time to reflect on your attitudes to mental health? Sometimes we can feel more confident talking about or supporting someone with physical rather than mental health difficulties. Perhaps you are concerned about someone’s mental wellbeing but reluctant to ask how they are doing. Or you might be saying ‘I’m fine’ when asked how you are, but you really aren’t. If any of this chimes, we’d like to encourage you to not wait for the perfect moment to open up a conversation or to find support. You can also get in touch with taradakini@abhayaratnatrust.org to see if Abhayaratna Trust can help.
This month, as part of our series of conversations on mental wellbeing in the Order, we are grateful to Amritasukha, in Leeds, UK, for sharing his experience of being an Order member living with severe anxiety. Here is what he told us:
‘At around age 12, I started to realise that what the other boys were starting to show interest in (girls) wasn’t what I was interested in. I liked the other boys, and I seemed to be the only one. This had two consequences. Firstly, it was a slow, emotionally painful, and solitary realisation that, in those days, not getting married meant no children, no reason for a mortgage, so why bother with a career either? It all seemed like a game, a meaningless, pointless game to while away the years and that I had no alternative. How was I going to kill time between now and when I died? Other people in their mid teens might have had better emotional skills to deal with it. I was probably doing the best I could.
Secondly, I was scared of being outed and kept my head down until college. At that young age I didn’t have a sense of any way forward - there were few exemplars – and I thought ‘whatever it is you want, you won’t get it’.
This had an enormous impact on my self confidence and self worth in education, work, travel, love, and produced lots of anxiety. I decided I may as well engage with other things such as green politics and alternative communities. I also wondered how human minds work, especially my own, so I did a psychology degree.
How did you come across Triratna and what impact did that have on the intense anxiety?
I was so anxious about the first year exams at college that I hardly slept for two weeks. I decided I needed to get a handle on it. I tried meditating with one group and eventually stumbled upon the FWBO, as it was. I remember knocking on the door of the Manchester Buddhist Centre and being greeted by a blast of Suvajra’s warmth and friendliness, possibly the most significant 30 seconds of my life … Read More
Taking care of yourself
We can help with all sorts of financial costs. Here are some reasons we’ve found that people hesitate to ask the Abhayaratna Trust for financial support:
‘It’s embarrassing’; ‘Things aren’t THAT bad;’ ‘Surely others need the money more than me – I’m not homeless after all’; ‘I thought I might get turned down and that would be REALLY depressing’; ‘I’ve got some savings so shouldn’t I have to use all those first?’; ‘It’s probably okay for other people, not my situation’.
Well, chances are, Abhayaratna Trust support IS for you, even if you have a certain amount of savings. We make it easy to ask for up to £1,000 at a time and give you an answer within a week, or 48 hours if it’s urgent. You can also ask on behalf of an Order friend. Don’t struggle, get in touch with Taradakini on (+44) (0) 7857 351818 by phone or text, or email taradakini@abhayaratnatrust.org or click the button below. Don’t hesitate. Just ask!
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Communications Support: jinavamsa@abhayaratnatrust.org - Send your ideas, reflections and feedback - we love to hear from you.