Finding refuge in personal and social change
Are you looking for a Buddhist community of people who study and practise the Lotus Sutra in the UK?
You’ve found your people.
Rissho Kosei-kai (RK) is a global Buddhist movement of people who hope to manifest the Buddha’s teachings in our own lives, applying them in our homes, workplaces and local communities – working towards a more peaceful world. We join hands with the followers of all faiths and none, and with people from all walks of life to take part in peace activities at home and around the world.
RK was founded in Tokyo, Japan in 1938, and its representative body Rissho Kosei-kai of the UK (RKUK) in Oxford in 1998.
‘Rissho’ means establishing the teaching of the true Dharma in our hearts and minds; ‘Kosei’ means aspiring to perfect oneself through interaction with many people, learning together and encouraging each other, and ‘kai’ means ‘society’ or ‘organisation’.
Our main scripture is the Threefold Lotus Sutra. Our Gohonzon, or focus of devotion, is the Eternal Buddha Shakyamuni—Great Benevolent Teacher, World-Honoured One. We have a Buddhist centre in West London as well as online programmes, which are open to anyone for practice.
For a number of years now I have been very happy to have had the chance to invite the representative of the UK branch of Rissho Kosei-kai (RKUK) to take part in our annual Ceremony at Three Wheels Temple to Pray for World Peace and Reconciliation. This ceremony regularly brings together both clergy from the Church of England and monks and nuns from traditional Buddhist organisations within the UK, along with a number of eminent diplomats from the Japanese and Myanmar embassies and representatives of several international reconciliation groups. Our special encounter with RKUK has enabled profound interfaith insight and deep mutual understanding to blossom between our two Buddhist communities. It is my sincere hope and belief that this will lead to the most wonderful realisation of Harmony within Diversity, the quintessence of Mahayana Buddhism.