Autism and the Triratna Buddhist Community: Sensory processing, meltdown and shutdown

Autism and the Triratna Buddhist Community: Sensory processing, meltdown and shutdown

We are excited to share another conversation between Ratnaguna and Prajnanandi as they delve deeper into the topic of Autism and the Triratna Buddhist Community. After receiving a positive response to their first discussion, they have decided to record three additional episodes to explore the nuances of being on the autism spectrum. In these episodes, they will discuss how we can make small but meaningful changes to support neurodiverse individuals to thrive in our Sangha.

This episode specifically focuses on sensory processing, meltdown, and shutdown responses. Different thresholds for noise tolerance can be higher or lower than the standard for neurotypical people, which can lead to problems with retreat and group situations. However, some neurodivergent individuals find meditating much easier than some neurotypical people because they are less worried by less sensory input and find a deep appreciation of beauty within it.

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.

5. Our current editorial policy around Safeguarding is aligned with the advice given by those tasked with developing Triratna’s approach to this important area of ethical life. If anyone breaches current policy by posting in ways that mean The Buddhist Centre Online potentially break the law by hosting the material, then we will have to remove their posts or comments. We respectfully request that all users bear this in mind when posting. If in doubt, please feel free to ask first before posting. It will save time, energy, and lead to less potential polarisation in these spaces, even if there is disagreement.

Whatever you contribute we very much encourage you to think about it in the light of the Buddhist ethical precepts around ‘Right Speech’. These encourage communication that is: truthful, kindly and gracious, helpful and harmonious. We look forward to all you have to bring to the site!

We try to keep things light when it comes to moderation of posts and comments within this shared space. And we ask the community itself to lead with this. If you have seen something that concerns you, please feel free to contact us. However, we do ask that you bear in mind the following guidelines, which will help preserve a harmonious atmosphere throughout the site:

Remember there is always a person behind the post or comment you’re objecting to. They may just be having a bad day… If you’re upset, perhaps let a little time pass before responding to them or us.
Try contacting the person first in a spirit of open, courteous engagement to see if hearing their perspective changes your own view of things, or if hearing yours changes theirs.
Take care to make sure what you are asking us to look at is actually against the spirit of the group or the site itself, rather than simply a difference of view or of personal taste. If in doubt, ask a friend and/or the administrator of the group.

The most important things about this is the first bit: we ask the community to lead with this. That means you! Thanks for helping us promote good conversations on The Buddhist Centre Online.

Read the full set of Community Guidelines

So grateful for these conversations, they are so valuable, informative and essential if we are to be neurodiverse inclusive.