London: KMP visits the Thames Buddhist Vihara

Really, you do find the loveliest surprises in London! There is plenty of the glitz, glamour and the shinest of samsara here in London, but there are also pockets of spirituality and smiles from the Three Jewels.



On Day 4 here (Friday), Susan, Han and I made our way down to the Thames Buddhist Vihara. My parents have been friends with this Sri Lankan monk, Venerable Somaratana, for 31 years and KMP decided to pay him a visit to say hello, make some offerings and donate some of our books to his centre.


We traipsed our way on buses, trains and more buses on the dreariest of English mornings to East Croydon where we received a very warm welcome from Venerable in his small suburban centre. After making offerings of flowers, lots and lots of delicious M&S goodies and Rinpoche's books (Gurus for Hires, Face of Enlightenment and If Not Now, When?), Venerable spent some time talking with us in the main gompa of their centre. The centre even prepared a wonderful vegetarian lunch for us which we gobbled like attached and greedy girls.


Venerable shared a lot about his experiences in setting up and maintaining a centre in London and what he had to go through in the past 30+ years. It was very touching to hear what he had to go through. In short, dear lovely everyone, it is exactly the same struggles and difficulties that Rinpoche has been recounting to us for years. The same monster students exist everywhere in the world! Venerable has been a monk since he was 10 years old and has been in London since the late 1970s. He has also set up an orphanage, library and temple in Sri Lanka - the funds he manages to raise from his centre London go back towards supporting all this in Sri Lanka. He shared with us that although it is difficult, we "must sacrifice our lives for others."


Gurus for Hire, Enlightenment for Sale was the perfect book to share with their centre. The experiences and struggles of teachers and Dharma centres which Rinpoche has often explained to us is experienced everywhere in the world, whatever tradition they are from. Truly, how kind the Lamas are for never giving up on any of us and putting up with all this for others everywhere!

We left with big boxes of Ceylon tea that Venerable packed us off with, warmth in our hearts and the knowledge that the only way we can make the work of kind teachers like Venerable "easier" is to commit as much of our work and life to the Dharma as he had. And how lucky we are to have a Lama back home to show us how.