Annual meetings in centers

The Network meets for three or four days annually at the end of September, immediately before or after the European Buddhist Union meeting. Meetings are hosted by Buddhist centers across Europe.

The meeting is not a conference, though there is often a theme. Many different formats are used to facilitate the meeting, open space discussion, small groups, presentations, practice sessions, world café, walks and sharing meals together.

Inspiration for the network

The inspiration for the network came from a meeting in 1993 held in Dharamsala, India, between His Holiness the fourteenth Dalai Lama and a group of Western dharma teachers from the major Buddhist traditions in Europe and America. 

The aim of the meeting was to discuss a range of issues concerning the transmission of Buddhadharma in the West. The following themes emerged:

• a responsibility to work towards creating a better world for all forms of life
• avoidance of divisive sectarianism within Buddhism
• the need to affirm the equality of the sexes
• the relevance of contemporary psychological understandings of the mind
• the need to advise students of Buddhism to exercise care in choosing authentic teachers
• the importance of the highest standards of ethical behaviour from teachers towards their students
• the need to differentiate the essential teachings of Buddhism from its cultural trapping

Implementing these values is the raison d’etre of the Network of Buddhist Teachers in Europe.