Resources

Contact info for Saraswati Buddhist Group: hello@saraswatibuddhistgroup.org

If you would like to join our Google group for up-to-date information then please let us know by emailing us.

See our Facebook page.

Safeguarding is important to us, and we abide by the FPMT ethical policy and Protection from Harm Policy. All of those in positions or roles of responsibility will have signed the International FPMT Ethical Policy, and are aware of the guidance for problem-solving within the FPMT.

Those who are in senior roles or who are registered teachers will also have made a signed confirmation that they have attended safeguarding training and read, understood, and agreed to abide by the Protecting from Abuse (Safeguarding) policy.

If you have any safeguarding or concerns regarding wellbeing in relation to the Saraswati Buddhist Group please contact us on the general email above or via our encrypted email for Shan Tate.

Saraswati Buddhist Group Climate Statement*

“We have entered the unchartered territory of a global emergency, where “business as usual” cannot continue. We must take the initiative to repair and protect this world, ensuring a safe climate future for all people and all species” – His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama

At Saraswati Buddhist Group, our fundamental position is as above. As Buddhists, we commit to five basic precepts, the first of which is to refrain from killing or harming life. A core principal of ecology is the interdependence of the web of life and that which sustains it. A core principal of Buddhism is that everything is interdependent and that nothing exists without dependence on causes and conditions. In our view the compatibility of view between ecology and Buddhism is axiomatic. To us, the causes and conditions which have lead to the climate emergency are clear. It is what we have created and what we must correct.

In Buddhism we talk of the “three poisons” which is the cause of all our suffering; greed, hatred and ignorance and their remedies which are wisdom, generosity and loving kindness. We believe that greed and ignorance in particular have fuelled the climate crisis and on analysis this is probably irrefutable. The remedies of wisdom, generosity and loving kindness, again on analysis are supremely logical. In these days we need the wisdom to accept the harm we have caused and to learn and adapt to ways of living that sustain the planet and permit our precious planet’s ecosystems to heal and flourish once more. We are inextricably linked, as a species, to this need for healing and flourishing. We need the generosity to open our often closed minds to the now desperate need to re-think how we walk on the face of the earth. And of central importance, unless we are motivated by loving kindness, the basis of truly positive and healthy inclusive action, we are lost in the destructive spiral of greed and negative attachment. As an entire species, the human race, imbued as it is with intrinsic buddha nature, we have the power, skills and opportunity to avert this disaster.

*With close reference to Ecodharma by David R. Loy and Spiritual Ecology Edited by Llewellyn Vaughan – Lee