Cardiff Buddhist Centre

Author: Cardiff Buddhist Centre

  • Marvellous New Mitras

    On Sunday 30th November the Centre celebrated 5 new Mitras making their committment to the Buddhist path and Triratna. Padmabodhini, who led the rejoicing in the merits of the group, writes…

    “Raquel, Marianne, Karl, Debbie and Adam have been involved with Triratna for a couple of years, having attended different introductory courses. They then came together and completed the Foundation study and continued their active involvement as valued members of the sangha.

    During this time, their understanding of the Three Jewels has deepened, which led them to make this commitment as Mitras with Triratna. In the context of a puja, each one took this significant step on their spiritual path by making the tradition offerings of flowers, incense and candles.

    It was a joyful day of celebration with the wider sangha, friends and family.

    We wish them much happiness on their continuing journey. Sadhu!”

    The group themselves write…

    “We’d like to send heartfelt thanks to all who supported our Mitra Ceremony, it was so well considered and each of us now feel fully welcomed into the Cardiff Sangha.

    The beautiful rejoicings truly moved us and the chance to be in meditation and puja on that day with so many of you was a delight that we will remember for many years to come. May we also take this opportunity to thank each and everyone of you for your gifts and cards of well wishing.  

    We look forward to more times together in our Sangha.”

  • Renovation Update

    Renovation Update

    In this video, our Centre Manager Gavin gives an update on the renovation of the Centre…

  • Welsh Language meditation evenings – Y Sangha Cymraeg.

    An update from Prajnavaca, one of the organisers of the Centre’s led meditations in Welsh, which are held on Zoom every fortnight on a Tuesday between 7:15pm and 8:30pm…

    “These have now been held for over 4 years, as I believe the first meeting happened in March 2021. I thought it would be good to celebrate this and update people on how it’s going.

    The initial idea and drive came from Kamalagita when she was Centre chair – diolch o galon Kamalagita, we shall always be grateful for how she took the initiative and with energy and determination made it happen.

    Then the baton was passed to mainly 3 of us – Anantamani (based in Llangollen) Miriam Lynn (Anantamani’s daughter, based in Cambridge) and myself.  Miriam is currently on the ordination retreat in Spain and received the name of Jnanapadma, just last week.

    Jnanapadma is a truly wonderful Dharma practitioner. Her qualities include showing a genuinely felt care and kindness for each group member, regular and new. She has an open heart that is able to hear and really see the people she meets. This is accompanied by her sparkling intelligence – which she uses to great effect when helping us to organise. I am grateful that she is also a fluent Welsh speaker, and is therefore able to share the task of leading the group. We are all really looking forward to her return, probably early in July.

    Anantamani has been an order member for many, many years and is a stalwart of the Llangollen group and her experience and sense of joy brings a special quality to the evenings.

    I’d like to take this opportunity to thank Liam Davies for taking over the fortnightly task of sending out reminders to people and sharing the login details. Despite Jnanapadma and myself not being available for over 2 months, the meetings continued and thrived – diolch o galon Liam.

    Currently somewhere between six to eight participants join the group. Most are regulars, however we continue to be blessed by new faces. They can join from near and far, an average of 4 of us from Cardiff and others from Sheffield, Pwllheli and Pontardawe. In the first 2 years we had a regular participant from Montreal!  

    I really want to stress that although having a reasonable understanding of Welsh is vital in order to benefit from the evenings, there are no expectations whatsoever about the standard of Welsh required. If you can follow, then please join – and join in the brief discussions only if you want to.  One of our participants at present is a new speaker ( this is the current preferred term for ‘Learner.’ If you think about it, one rarely refers to an English “learner” – only someone who is new to the language). Some people have joined us briefly for only a couple of nights, some join us once in a while and of course that’s all perfectly OK, all are welcome. We’d be very grateful if Sangha members could share this update with any Welsh speakers they know. Please remind people that the login details are readily available on the Cardiff Buddhist Centre website.

    The format usually involves a brief Dharma talk, followed by 2 or 3 sits with short breaks. We follow the Triratna tradition of consciously ensuring equal time for mindfulness focused and metta focused guidance. Recently I have led a few visualisations including a Buddhanusati. Occasionally I have introduced examples from Welsh poetry that chime with dharmic values and vision. (e.g. R. Williams-Parry, Waldo Williams) The other recent trend is that we have been using our new Welsh translations of the Triratna puja book, for instance the refuges and precepts and the transference of merit. Ideas about future initiatives include organising a Welsh language retreat, for example Tirylan House near Llandeilo. I’ve noticed that we occasionally refer to ourselves as “ y Sangha bach Cymraeg” ( small Welsh language sangha) and the feeling behind this is really not one of separation at all, but a warm appreciation of what we share and our enjoyment of the language, an appreciation of this unique context in which to practise the Dharma and how it links us with the myriad languages of the world that are used to pass on the eternal teachings.

  • Fundraising Update

    Fundraising Update

    We had a big boost to our fundraising efforts at the start of May when we were given just over £19,000 by the National Lottery Community Fund to help support the renovation of the Centre. We are so pleased that they recognised the importance of our Centre to the community and the significance of the renovation work we are doing.

    This means we have now raised just over our initial target of £60,000, which is fantastic news. We are so grateful to everyone who has donated, raised money and worked hard to get us there, including a big thank you to the National Lottery for their support!

    Next Steps

    The work doesn’t end here, though. Fundraising activities are still happening (details here). £60k was always an estimate of what we would need to cover the main parts of the renovation. As many of you will know, building work is rarely straightforward, and costs are always likely to rise. While we have built in some contingency, once the wall comes down we may find there is extra work to be done, particularly on the roof. 

    We aren’t setting any new targets for now but we ask that if you have pledged to give money that you still do and continue to support our fundraising efforts. In June, once the wall has been demolished, we will know better what we are working with, and will be in contact with regular updates.

    Any surplus we raise beyond the cost of the rebuild will be spent on renovating the Centre.

    All our regular events will continue as usual during the building work. It will be great to see as many of you at the Centre as possible! 

  • Vishvapani Appointed Centre Co-ordinator

    Vishvapani Appointed Centre Co-ordinator

    Vishvapani has started working as the Centre Co-Ordinator, for an initial six months, including the period of the building work.

    Vishvapani comments: “The Centre has been without a Chair for some time and that has placed a big demand on the trustees. I found myself in a position to help, and I could see that would be especially helpful through the period of the building project.”

    Vishvapani was ordained in 1992 and has lived in Cardiff for fourteen years. He has experience of many aspects of Triratna and his most recent project a writer is writing a book about the life and thought of Sangharakshita, Triratna’s founder, which will be published in August.

    In case you were wondering, Vishvapani’s post isn’t funded from the donations for the building work as these are ring-fenced to pay for those costs.

  • Fundraising Launch and AGM

    Fundraising Launch and AGM

    What a joy to see so many people at our recent AGM and follow-on fundraising launch, where the Centre welcomed two new trustees bringing the total to eight!

    Centre Trustees are:
    Alokasanna, Catherine Gorno, Liam Davies, Muditalila, Padmabodhini, Prajnavaca, Sagaradana and Vimalajaya.

    The meetings brought forward many interesting questions on how and when the building project will take place, and peaked lots of interest and discussion on how to donate and the more innovative ways to help!

    These have now been formalised into our Building Project, which you can find more details of here, including how you can contribute to our fundraising pyramid (see left) and help guarantee the future of our Centre and our Sangha.

    We are thrilled to inform that at the time of going to press the Centre has received 24k in pledges and donations towards our goal of 60k! In such a short space of time this is so encouraging and heartwarming to see how many people value the Centre as their spiritual home and a place of calm in a world of unprecedented challenges. Thank you so much!!!

  • Meet our new Order Members!

    It is with great joy that we announce the names of our two newest Order Members, Chandrapriya (formerly Stuart) and Jnanadasa (formerly Marc).

    Chandrapriya means ‘He who loves the moon of wisdom’ and Jnanadasa means ‘He who is a servant of knowledge’.

    There will be an event soon to welcome them back formally to the Sangha, keep an eye on our newsletter and events calendar for details.

    Both Chandrapriya and Jnanadasa have spent a month at the Guhyaloka Retreat Centre for their Ordination Retreat, which is the culmination of many years of study, spiritual development and personal growth.

  • Mitra Ceremony and Vajragupta’s visit


    At the end of September, our centre was visited by it’s president, Vajragupta, for a packed week of events and meetings with sangha members.

    On Tuesday 24th, Vajragupta led a sevenfold puja and Mitra ceremony welcoming Shenden, Gemma, Spencer and James into the sangha.

    Muditalila rejoicing in the Mitras's merits

    Muditalila and Prajnavaca rejoiced in the merits of the mitras, the Welsh language sangha joined via Zoom to offer their support, an updated Welsh translation of the sevenfold puja was celebrated, lots of confetti was thrown and the evening ended with celebratory cakes.

    One of the mitras, Gemma, said “It was a really special evening that I’ll remember for a long time. To be able to go through the ceremony with 3 others from my course and then have so many people come and support the four of us felt a real privilege. Massive thank you to everyone”

    Vajragupta giving Gemma one of the traditional offerings

    Day Retreat on Fearlessness

    Vajragupta leading a discussion on what superpowers we have to live with fearlessness

    After a busy week meeting lots of the sangha individually, Vajragupta led a sold out day retreat on “Facing Fear, Finding courage”.

    The morning looked at part of the Bhayabherava sutta. After an impressive shared lunch, the afternoon focused on what could overcome fear and dread.
    Vajragupta led a short guided meditation asking people to reflect on something that was causing them fear at the moment, and what “superpower” they could nurture to address that fear. The retreat then ended with a short ritual where people made offerings of their commitment to nurture that “superpower”.

  • ‘Radiate Love’ – Cherishing Sangha on the Women’s Retreat

    The women’s weekend retreat in June at beautiful Tirylan House in Carmarthenshire was a great experience and an opportunity to get together and explore Dhardo Rimpoche’s motto “Cherish the Dharma, Live United, Radiate Love”. A real sense of community was developed and one comment was “Being inspired keeps us practising and moving forward with understanding”. Long may it continue!

  • Vimalasara Book Launch

    Muditalila and Padmabodhini recently hosted Vimalasara from Vancouver, currently in the UK promoting their new book ‘First Aid Kit for the Mind’.


    Vimalasara has written 11 books and is a practitioner and advocate of the Dharma as a path of recovery from addiction. Their new book is about habits and how we all experience these, and the process of triggers and stories that affect how we think.


    Padmabodhini interviewed Vimalasara about their influences and inspiration for the book, and what has led them to be active in this field over many years.

    It was a very interesting, warm and enjoyable evening of conversation and practice. Everyone present learnt something of how becoming more aware of our habits can lead to a greater sense of choice, change and more freedom.

    This pocket sized book is an accessible guide for anyone to dip into, with exercises, tips and quotes. Copies are available at the Buddhist Centre or on this link.