You Must Have Friends: Bhante Buddharakkhita on founding the Uganda Buddhist Centre and expanding Buddhism in Africa

The useful part

You Must Have Friends Leslie Booker, Bhante Buddharakkhita "/> Uganda Buddhist Centre. Founded by Buddharakkhita in 2005, the Uganda Buddhist Centre is dedicated to providing a place of refuge for those seeking spiritual growth and transformation around East Africa. Buddharakkhita and his followers have launched a fundraiser to support this initiative.

How it works

• So that's how I started establishing this well, out of compassion, to show people that this is a teaching that they can see for themselves.
• Something I learned when I was in Uganda is how many people of Southeast Asian descent were born and raised in Uganda—including New York City's new mayor!
• Recently, it was announced that UBC has the chance to permanently protect thirteen acres of wetland on the shores of Lake Nalubaale (Lake Victoria)—the source of the Nile—and to expand their work by...
• So that's how I applied to go to meet His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
• How can you establish Buddhism in the entire continent of Africa?

What to take from it

| Image via Facebook At that moment, I didn't think that it was very advice, actually, because I was so isolated in India as an African. You've created more opportunities for people to have access to water, because before, they were walking down to Lake Victoria to get water. Then we saw that the nearby school was also having a problem with water.

Example or evidence

• While at New York Insight, Buddharakkhita sat down with New York Insight's guiding teacher, Leslie Booker, for a wide-ranging conversation about his origins in the dharma, building foundational...
• New York Insight is twenty-eight years old, but we came back into our physical space a year and a half ago.
• We had the intention of creating an environment, a culture of belonging, so whenever people came to the space, they had whatever they needed, they felt like we had curated the space specifically for them.
• When you were envisioning, dreaming into the Uganda Buddhist Centre, what was the initial idea of what you thought it could be?

Details worth keeping

| Image via Facebook Last January, Ugandan Theravada monk Bhante Buddharakkhita visited several US dharma centers—including Barre Center for Buddhist Studies, Spirit Rock Meditation Center, and New York Insight —to raise awareness for his project of the Uganda Buddhist Centre (UBC). This interview has been edited for clarity and concision. First of all, Bhante, I want to welcome you back home.

Related coverage

• Huffpost: The vice president was eager to tell the press about all the friends he has.
• Goodmenproject: …and it's the exact reason millions of us keep rewatching Friends.
• Popville: Thanks to Mary for sending: "She's pretty in pink and needs some lov'n but what a sweet ride." Sweet City Ride is made possible by the Friends of the PoPville […]