TBC - About Us

Toowoomba Buddhist Centre

See a picture of our new sign here

The Toowoomba Buddhist Centre (TBC) is affiliated with the Friends of the Western Buddhist Order (FWBO). The latter organisation was founded in London in 1967 by the Venerable Sangharakshita, an Englishman who spent twenty years in the East where he was ordained as a monk and studied under many different teachers from all the major schools of Buddhism. The movement thus has an unmistakable flavour and approach to the Buddhas teaching (the Dharma ), which draws on the entire Buddhist tradition yet expresses itself through the modern Western idiom in a fresh and dynamic way. It represents an example of the new, eclectic version of Buddhism emerging in the West. The order is not so much creating a form of Western Buddhism as practicing traditional Buddhism in a Western context. The Buddha Dharma has always adapted to the cultures it spread into. What is remarkable about todays situation in the West, however, is that all the major schools of Buddhism are now present here. This has never happened in the history of Buddhism before and so, not surprisingly, Western Buddhism borrows from all the major schools, as if it were the heir to these traditions.

Wheel

People at the Centre are striving to put the ideals of the Dharma into practice in their daily lives. However, the meditation techniques can be used by anyone regardless of their religion or background. The basic aim of the TBC is to provide the opportunity for people in the Toowoomba region to explore the practises and tools available from the Buddha Dharma for personal growth and coping with modern living. Buddhism is not evangelical; you can not convert anyone to it - you can only convert yourself! Since the TAFE (SQIT) course The Buddhist Way of Personal Growth started in mid-1996 (run by Roger Bastick), a sizable group of people (currently over thirty) have become involved in the TBC. These people formed a sangha (a group of like-minded people studying the Buddhist Path) which meets weekly to do a meditation sit together, to communicate with one another, and to study the Buddha Dharma.

Lotus

Initially the group met in friends' houses. then started using community health rooms in the local hospital for its meetings.In August 1999 the group, calling itself the Toowoomba Buddhist Society, decided to rent a premises as a centre and asked Roger to direct it and teach out of it. Since then courses have been run from the centre. All the people in the sangha have completed the Introducing Buddhism and/or the Introducing Meditation courses. There is widespread interest in Buddhism amongst the general public in the West these days. Its occurring in all Western countries. The volume of inquiries received to date in Toowoomba reinforces this view. The appeal seems to come from disillusionment with the all-pervasive materialism of Western societies. Also Buddhism is an ethico-philosophical system that offers the prospect of spiritual development without recourse to a belief in a Creator God and heaven or hell, as in the traditional religions. It also offers an alternative to the nihilism (that there is simply nothing of any worth) so prevalent in our societies. It thus represents a Middle Way between these two somewhat gloomy prospects.