Why are we now the Triratna Buddhist Community?

You may be aware that the West­ern Buddhist Order (WBO) and the Friends of the West­ern Buddhist Order (FWBO) have been in the pro­cess of agree­ing to change their names.

This has been in response to a sug­ges­ted name change by the founder of the Order and move­ment – Sangharak­shita. The name change sig­ni­fies how much the move­ment has changed since it was foun­ded in 1967. It is now a world­wide move­ment – not just based in the ‘west’, but cov­er­ing India, Rus­sia and China, as well as Europe and North America

The change from ‘Friends of ’ to ‘Com­munity’ also sig­ni­fies the emphasis on spir­itual com­munity and friend­ship that is such a cent­ral prac­tice within our tradition.

We are now pleased to announce that the names have been offi­cially agreed as the Tri­r­atna Buddhist Order (TBO) and the Tri­r­atna Buddhist Com­munity (TBC).

Tri­r­atna means Three Jew­els – and refers to the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha – the three jew­els that we go for refuge to.