ABSTRACT
The Buddha had a radical and distinctive approach to life which underlies the meditation and other practices Buddhists engage in. These teachings are challenging and inspiring, and reveal a unique vision of human potential, but often they need interpretation and discussion if their relevance to our lives is to become clear. Talks, courses, and study groups, that are held at every Friends of the Western Buddhist Order (FWBO) centre, are opportunities to hear the Dharma in this way, and to make sense of it in terms of one's own life. Some people in the FWBO have made very deep studies of aspects of Buddhism. Sangharakishita is a respected scholar whose works have been influential in both the East and the West. The task for thinkers in the FWBO, academics or otherwise, is not simply to know how Buddhism has been articulated in the East, but also to make links between it and western culture.
