The Triratna Story by Vajragupta

Many Cultures, One Community running an introductory class. His name was Amoghacitta and he was from the FWBO. He was explaining the Wheel of Life in a way that was clear and accessible. She learned to meditate and became vegetarian.

However, back home in San Francisco, it was hard to sustain the fragile momentum of her Buddhist practice. Only later did Lisa discover there were FWBO activities getting going in her area. After attending a retreat led by Karunadevi, she gradually got involved. The first centre opened in a storefront in the Sunset area of the city. Then, in 1993, Paramananda and Paramabodhi arrived from the UK and the following year a new centre was established in the Mission District, a culturally diverse region of the city. The two Order members lived on the first floor while Lisa and a friend moved into the second.

Paramananda and Paramabodhi were in the US on a religious visa, and since the centre was small and finances precarious, they lived on $60 per week without medical insurance. Their style was ‘super casual’, i.e. avoiding administration as much as possible.

Lisa bonded strongly with Paramananda, and in 1994 asked to be ordained into the Western Buddhist Order. The ordination training process was still in its early days in the USA. The first retreat was in someone’s house in Seattle; after that she needed to travel to Aryaloka Retreat Center, which was on the east coast – 3000 miles away.

Then she came across a commentary on the Sutra of Golden Light by Sangharakshita. In it, he put forward views about the relative aptitudes of men and women for the spiritual life, views that were later expounded by Subhuti in the book Women, Men, and Angels.92 This hit her, as she was to describe it, with the force of a runaway train. For a couple of years, she struggled with her response to what she felt were deeply negative views of women.

How could a Buddhist teacher hold such views? Why did members of the Order go along with it?

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