Padmaloka Buddhist Retreat Centre
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Padmaloka Buddhist Retreat Centre is a Buddhist retreat centre for men, located at Lesingham House in Surlingham, Norfolk, England. The centre is part of the Friends of the Western Buddhist Order (FWBO), a Buddhist movement that aims to make the teachings of the Buddha [1] and Buddhism available in the modern world. The name Padmaloka means 'Realm of the Lotus' in Pāli, padma meaning lotus, and loka meaning realm, place, or abode.
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[edit] History
Padmaloka, originally known as Lesingham House, was first established in 1976 by Sangharakshita, the founder of the FWBO and of the Western Buddhist Order (WBO). Padmaloka soon became the FWBO's first permanent retreat centre.
[edit] Community
Padmaloka is run by a resident community of thirteen men. Some members of the Padmaloka community are full time teachers and retreat leaders. Others look after the day-to-day running, such as gardening, cooking, administration, and maintenance. The community engage in work as spiritual practice by bringing mindfulness into their work, themselves, and of the other community members and retreatants present.
Padmloka runs a full annual retreat programme with retreats ranging from weekends up to 2 weeks in length. Some of the retreats are available for all men to attend, some are for men training for ordination into the Western Buddhist Order whilst other cater for actual ordained members of the Western Buddhist Order.
One of the significant aspects of the centre is the Padmaloka stupa. This stupa contains some relics of Dhardo Rimpoche. Rimpoche was a teacher of Sangharakshita. Its inscriptions read Cherish the Doctrine. Live United. Radiate Love[2] - which was Dhardo Rimpoche's motto.
