Episode 137: Sangharakshita on the Middle Way and Buddhism

Sangharakshita is the founder of the Triratna Buddhist Order and Community, previously known as the Friends of the Western Buddhist Order (FWBO). He is also the author of dozens of books and hundreds of lectures on Buddhism. Brought up in London, Sangharakshita spent 20 years in India, where he was ordained as a Buddhist monk, but then returned to the UK in the 1960’s to become one of the first figures to engage seriously with the need to interpret Buddhist practice for Western audiences. He has done so particularly through the use of practical concepts like integration, individuality, creativity and provisional belief. This wide-ranging conversation between Robert and Sangharakshita was recorded face-to-face in Sangharakshita's flat at Adhisthana, Herefordshire, UK. From about 1.45 to 7.40 Sangharakshita speaks unprompted about the Middle Way in his own life and the Buddha's, but after this the conversation is more interactive, including discussion of the Middle Way in relation to the Eightfold Path, the extremes of eternalism and nihilism, business decisions, and meditation. The Middle Way beyond Buddhism is discussed, in philosophy and Christianity, as well as the question of how much Buddhists have actually paid attention to it, and how far it has been important in Sangharakshita's approach to teaching Buddhism in the West.