Autism and the Triratna Buddhist Community (Part 4) On Sun, 4 February, 2024 – 15:34 We are back with Ratnaguna and Prajnanandi in the final of our four-part interview series on Autism and the Triratna Buddhist Community. We shift our focus from the challenges faced by neurodiverse individuals within our Buddhist centres to celebrating the positive attributes they can offer, such as highly developed clarity, resolve, honesty and a different way of seeing the world. All of which can help neurotypical people to see the world differently too, if there is a heartfelt willingness to communicate with one another. Prajnanandi sheds light on her personal journey and how being neurodiverse has shaped her spiritual path. Expressing ourselves openly and honestly can be a challenge that many people face, including neurotypical people as well. She speaks candidly about how hard she’s had to work to find a language in which to express her emotions with friends within the sangha. She also describes seeing, from an early age, patterns and connections between almost everything. So when she got into Buddhism and found that it taught that everything is conditioned and connected, it was a strong affirmation of her own experience. Dive into a rich discussion that seeks to bridge understanding and foster inclusivity in our spiritual communities. share view our community guidelines for promoting good conversation Community Guidelines Here are key excerpts from our community content guidelines, which are designed to help create a positive environment for everyone: 1. Please be courteous at all times. If you’re engaged in any kind of discussion, be as prepared to listen as you are to express yourself. Remember that there’s always a real person behind a computer/device screen, and they are likely quite different from you. 2. Think twice before posting anything that’s likely to give offence or be inflammatory. That doesn’t promote good conversation. If you’re upset at something you see here, perhaps let a little time pass before responding. Bear in mind this isn’t a space to vent our views, it’s about exploring respectfully with others what it means to be a Buddhist within our community and in the modern world generally. 3. We may remove posts or comments that are considered off-topic. 4. Everyone has off-moments, and we’ll always try to be in friendly dialogue with you if a problem arises with one of your contributions. But we reserve the right to remove posts and comments (or even suspend user accounts) when we feel these guidelines are not observed.
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