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Amida Buddhism in the Indian Sub-continent

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To dicuss the development of Amida Trust work and related matters in India and neighbouring countries.

Members: 17
Latest Activity: Nov 8

WELCOME

This group exists to act as a link between members of this network who live in India, Bangladesh or Pakistan. Amida Trust has been involved in India for about ten years and has:
- supported the Chakma people, many of whom have been displaced from their homeland in the Chittagong Hills of what is now Bangladesh and had to seek shelter in India
- supported the movement begun by Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar to re-establish Buddhism in India
- run an educational project teaching literacy and English in Delhi to young people of all faiths
- established an Amida Buddhist sangha in Delhi and sent Amidist teachers to support that community.

In relation to issues that are significant in the social politics of India,
- Amida-shu is pro-Buddhist but not anti-Hindu. AT works for harmony between all faith communities.
- Amida-shu is opposed to the caste system and to any tendency to create a 'Buddhist caste' or to divide the Buddhist community on caste lines
- Amida-shu is in favour of Buddhists developing collective mutual aid schemes and achieving social and civic self-sufficiency
- Amida-shu is in favour of free, open, creative education for all
- Amida-shu is against the death penalty
- Amida-shu supports equality between men and women
- Amida-shu is opposed to all violence, public, domestic, or inter-communal
- Amida-shu is internationalist and advocates that the development of Buddhism in India shall be in co-operation with Buddhists in other parts of the world

Discussion Forum

WE WANT LEGALLY CONVERTION FROM HINDU TO BUDDHIST

Started by senthil kumar Jul 17.

Comment Wall (8 comments)

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8 Comments

Comment by Sujatin on November 8, 2009 at 3:12pm: I'm so inspired to hear the news from Amida Delhi. Sending good wishes to you all - Namo Amida Bu

Comment by Sahishnu (Joy Marston) on July 1, 2008 at 7:58pm: I also helpped a womens collective in Bangladesh. They are Chakkmas, buddhist hill tribe people. I gave them £500 pounds to buy 2 modern looms and pay for 2 teachers to train them for 3 months and to provide a roof for the builing to house them.
I have received nothing in the way of feed back and am reluctant to fund anymore projects owing to this and other matters where I have been told money has not been used for the benefit of those for whom it is meant.
Namo Amida Bu
Sahishnu

Comment by Rick Davis on June 19, 2008 at 3:12pm: Modgala -- well my time in Delhi was shorter than expected and I spent nearly a day trying to locate a Swiss company office in Delhi that makes mosquito nets and tarps treated to protect families even better than regular nets from malaria/dengue etc. I have a $1000 donation to buy about 200 nets but found out the india company will only supply india ...so I can no bring them back with me to bangladesh to give to a buddhist NGO that they are for in a malaria prone area.... FUNDING....oh could we have lots of conversations....I keep trying to help this NGO in Bangladesh but have been very unsuccessful both in giving it the time I should and following up with possible leads like I should....I think part is being told (which I have more than once) that ...."that is not the kind of program we support or our funds are not for that are are given only to....." finding funds is a full time job and I wish you all the merit and luck I can send you for trying to do the same in Delhi.....I do not know if I will make it back to india soon to visit you site but hope we are able to chat/email/skype sometime to talk more about you project in Delhi and the kinds of things you are finding successful and I will share the success I have had here....I might have a possible funding/volunteer source for you in Delhi ....the International School I think does a LOT of service work with students required to do service work for graduation...I should be able to find out the name of a person or coordinator for you there???? Interested...

Comment by Modgala Duguid on June 10, 2008 at 9:04am: Thanks for sharing rick, I do hope you get to visit in Delhi after we return in October.
There are many difficulties in running a project in India, not least is finance! Sahishnu can tell you more about the project nowadays. It started up more like a regular school with classes but we found it did not reach the neediest and now most activities take place actually where the people are in small Buddha vihars and in a community outside Delhi. Mostly it is teaching English as a foreign language to younger children and women however our indian volunteers get more advanced English teaching. In the community just outside delhi they are also hungry for buddhist teaching especially in the amida tradition. We now only look for a couple of english speaking volunters to assist sahishnu and try to keep the project small and maneagable. Travel well
Namo Amida bu
Modgala

Comment by Rick Davis on June 3, 2008 at 4:26pm: Aloha, Dhrmavidya, Sahishu, and Modgala.

I just wanted to say hello and see if there was a way to contact you when I am in Delhi on the 15th and 16th??? I will be on school holiday going to a meditation retreat in Dharmasala. I wanted to let you know I am doing four things here Bangladesh that I guess could be called "engaged buddhism" types of activities and trying to see how they fit into the kinds of things you do in Delhi. Two are projects at the school with school clubs...."roots and shoots" is an environmental club trying to assist in improving forest and natural areas in the country thru village and rural development groups/NGOs in the country. This year we clear some forest areas, but up nesting boxes for an endangered cotton pigmy goose, and planted trees in a village to encourage less use and destruction of the natural areas around them. The second project is and ESL tutoring with a buddhist school/orphanage here in Dhaka, biweekly tutoring of about 30 of the best english students, a donation of 40-50 boxes of books k-12 for use in their classes, and donations of soap, toothbrushes, pens/paper and other materials for the boys in the orphanage/hostel. My two personal activities are weekly meditation group of about 6-8 people who meet to meditate and talk about buddhism and discuss a reading from various books we have been reading. It is the closest to a sangha I have been able to have here with no other Amidashu members around. The other is a BIG project that I have only done a little with but they need help. A very good group fo 20-30 professional (teachers, social workers, nurses, gov clerks, farmers, etc) of indigenous hill tribe buddhists started an NGO about to years ago to do, agriculture, education, and health programs and projects with their people in a very rural remote area, politically unstable area (they are heavily oppressed by the Bangladesh military) ......they have never received any funding but have a rough infrastructure and great ideas....just can't find funding....I am frustrated because I keep saying I am going to help them but feel I am not helping, not helping very much, or am unsuccessful at helping because they still haven't found any funding. Anyway.....I do want to talk, pick brains meet and see what is happening in Delhi to see if maybe I can get some ideas to help with the things that are happening here.....

Comment by Modgala Duguid on May 18, 2008 at 2:30pm: Thanks for starting this group Dharmavidya. Yes Sahishnu, there are many questions about what and how we interact with people and conditions in india. also how we can interact with our amidashu members there. i believe some are on email so it may be a good idea to invite them to this group. also i note Rick Davis from Hawaia who is teaching in Bangladesh has joined Ning.

Comment by Sahishnu (Joy Marston) on May 17, 2008 at 8:46pm: What is our role in Delhi what direction do we want to go?
How do we make sure our Amida shu people are intergrated and included? What kind of literature will be of use to take out there that is not culturally based and for people who have limited English language skills but are very keen to learn more?
A lot of the work also is in involving locals of all pursasions helping the project.
Sahishnu