Jai Bhim Network

I had tried to put too much into the day; like an overfilled suitcase that won’t close, bits of my life were bursting out of the seams, trailing behind me in the street. I had the slightly unfocussed look of someone who is almost on top of things. Delayed leaving work, I was late getting to the BBC and late arriving at the Buddhist Centre. As I drove in, I reflected that this was not the best night to welcome four visitors to the continuation Buddhism class – especially when one of them was Subhuti, the man who has arguably done more to shape the FWBO than any other individual. I found them in Earth:

- Subhuti, would you like to lead anything?
- I’d like not to lead anything

(Damn, I was going to have to lead the meditation. Why had I let Hasavajra have his turn last week?)

Subhuti was in Manchester with two mitras from Hungary, Janesh and Tibor, who work with the marginalised gypsy community. To address issues of exclusion, they founded the Ambedkar High School, named after Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar.

As an untouchable, whose very shadow could pollute a high born Indian, Bhimrao Ambedkar wasn’t expected to read and write, let alone design the world’s largest democracy. He got his education by sitting outside the schoolroom & finished his studies abroad. He overcame huge discrimination to become not just a lawyer but India’s first law minister and author of the country’s constitution; a constitution still operating today in India’s month long general election. But he knew that real change happens not just in laws but in the mind of individuals, so he looked for a faith which showed that everyone could change; rich or poor, woman or man. After studying Communism & Islam, he converted to Buddhism in October 1956, to follow the path of ethics, meditation and wisdom set out by Shakyamuni who, through his own efforts, became Buddha or ‘Awake’:

The greatest thing that the Buddha has done, he said, is to tell the world that it can not be reformed except by the reformation of the mind of man, and the mind of the world.

Tibor brought out the parallels with the gypsies of Hungary, mentioning that the same month as the ‘Dharma Revolution’ of the mass conversions in Northern India, there was a revolution in Hungary against the Stalinist government.

For four years Subhuti has visited these men and strengthened their connection with the dharma, as well as with the FWBO in India where he works. Many of the Trailokya Bauddha MahaSangha Sahayaka Gana (TBMSG) are the children and grandchildren of the half million dalits who converted with Dr Ambedkar.

In the shrine room, after the metta bhavana, we saw metta in action; compassion reaching out to help people help themselves.

As Tibor and Janosh showed us pictures of the people they teach, women learning to read after raising a family, kids breakdancing in a disused cinema, my day became simpler. The rushing was over: here was the link with the talks I had recorded at the BBC, here was the most important thing in the day – people who put the Buddha’s teachings into practice coming together to share what they do.

For further information about the Hungarian project visit www.jaibhim.hu

For information on Dr Ambedkar, try ‘Jai Bhim!’ by Nagabodhi, pub Windhorse

Kavyasiddhi’s Pause for Thoughts are on the Janice Long show, Radio 2; April 26 - May 1st

Source: Manchester Mitras