The Triratna Story by Vajragupta

The Triratna Story It is partly because I am a rather complex person that I am a mystery to myself … not so much of a mystery to myself as to cherish many illusions about myself. One of the illusions which I do not cherish is that I was the most suitable person to be the founder of a new Buddhist movement. ... I possessed so few of the necessary qualifications; I laboured under so many disadvantages. ... I cannot but feel that the coming into existence of the Western Buddhist Order was little short of a miracle. ... That one is a person at all means that one has certain limitations … imposed by the fact that one is of a particular temperament and experiences life in a particular kind of way. One can hardly be of all temperaments and experience life in every kind of way … my own personal limitations should not be the limitations of the Order. The Order should not simply be Sangharakshita writ large. ... The Order should be a rich and many-splendoured thing, with all kinds of facets.132 Now, 13 years after Sangharakshita gave this talk, the Order was taking its message on more fully; they were coming to a much more mature and nuanced view of their teacher. It was as if a massive collective projection was being withdrawn from Sangharakshita. One can only imagine what this was like for him.

As Subhuti wrote in Shabda in 2003: One could even see spiritual life as a process of maturing relationships with spiritual teachers ... If one’s teacher is such a remarkable man as Bhante, that is not going to be an easy process. I hope we can be tolerant of ourselves and of others as we 142