Alfoxton: A Renovating Virtue

A reflective delight from Hartley Woolf, filmmaker and member of the new Buddhist community at Alfoxton.

https://thebuddhistcentre.com/stories/alfoxton/#film

THE BUDDHIST CENTRE [ONLINE] presents this poetic and affecting documentary capturing a year in the life of the Triratna Buddhist community who have taken on the ambitious task of renovating the dilapidated estate of Alfoxton Park in the heart of the Somerset countryside.

Once home to William and Dorothy Wordsworth, the community’s vision is to run the house as an arts and meditation retreat centre. Following the seasons, the film beautifully reveals the changes in the land and on the building project, weaving connections between the poetry of the Romantics, physical work and spiritual practice.

JULY 2024

Kit from our Canterbury Sangha is currently fundraising for Alfoxton - any help anyone can offer would be most appreciated.

Kit's Story: Weʼre raising £40,000 to help renovate Alfoxton Park Retreat Centre

This year a group of intrepid cyclists will be travelling from Canterbury via Buddhafield to John O'Groats, over 1000 miles! Completely self supported we will be visiting every Buddhist Centre and Retreat Centre on route, all to raise money for the Alfoxton Park project. Leaving Canterbury on 12th of July, we aim to have reached John O'Groats by the 23rd of August!

Inspired by the tenacity of the community at Alfoxton and the grass roots utopianism that exists within the Triratna Buddhist Community, we will be living on the road eating, sleeping and meditating together, just as the Buddha and his followers did 2500 years ago - but this time with Bicycles.... 

We will be travelling in semi-retreat conditions building sangha together and deepening our practice through our journey, ritual and a connection to the land we call home. To enshrine this journey Kit will be riding a cargo bike carrying a (lightweight) Buddha to ritualise the journey. Just as, in the early days of Triratna, those who were building the London Buddhist Centre drove around London in a van with a big gold Buddha atop it, we hope to carry not only a Rupa but a vision along with us. A vision of a new Buddhist society in the west. 

Many of us will have been touched by the beauty of Sangha and its transformational effects on our lives. Places like Alfoxton Park are living this as we speak, giving hundreds of people a dynamic and powerful context to practice within every year. Just as the Buddha lived, close to nature and at one with their creativity and connection. But they need resources, as the building grows and their capacity increases their little ad hoc kitchen is quickly becoming unfeasible. Also the roof is still falling in..... We hope to raise this money for the community there so they have the capacity to cater for much larger groups and can continue to spread the Dharma.

If you are inspired by the Buddhist path and wish to see the Dharma lived out, please do give generously and share this page around. Together we can turn the Wheel... You can make a donation here.

Thank you.

UPDATE FROM KIT:

Turning the Wheel | Kit's reflections 11th September 2024

As some of you will know I spent the last six weeks cycling from Canterbury to Somerset and then up to the northern tip of Scotland.  All to raise money for Alfoxton Park Retreat Centre. 

If you want to know more about why we're doing this or if you want to support us follow this link.

Below are some video links to videos on YouTube that we recorded whilst on the road with some of our reflections on the road. You can also watch me get progressively hairier…

If you would like to donate to the cause follow this link, any amount will be helpful no matter how small! Please do also share this with anyone you think may be interested.

We've managed to raise over almost £6,000 across different platforms, so a huge thank you to all who have donated.