When you meet Sanghadeva you realise how much he values community. As his name would suggest, he’s all about sangha - he’s been living and working in communities for over 36 years.Sanghadeva was one of the first people to move to Adhisthana in 2012. When the small community of Order members arrived to live, practise and work together there, they began to rebuild and convert the buildings around themselves. There was no central heating; one of the first tasks was laying huge pipes across the site for the biomass heating system.
Sanghadeva is now the gardener at Adhisthana. If you’ve stayed at Adhisthana on retreat you will know how much love and dedication he puts into making the grounds beautiful. He rarely takes a day off, and told me he does no work, just plays.Teaching the Dharma is another of Sanghadeva’s passions. When he’s not digging things up he is out and about delivering weekly outreach classes. One of Triratna’s longstanding and respected teachers of meditation and the Dharma, Sanghadeva knows that the dharma changes people’s lives.
Sanghadeva invests his time and energy in what he believes in. Whether he’s creating a beautiful environment at Adhisthana or teaching a beginner’s meditation class, he puts his energy behind serving his love of the Dharma. So when he had some savings he wanted to invest he was clear that he wanted to loan them to Triratna Dharma projects, and ensure that his money too was supporting his beliefs. What does a gardener really know about investments? Here’s how he sees it:… so many of us have money sat doing nothing, with companies that are doing not very good things with it. I mean - that money could be working for something we deeply believe in…. It just seems ridiculous putting it in an account with virtually no interest when it can work for the Dharma…. Sanghadeva’s loan is invested by our partners at Windhorse Trust. Triratna projects can borrow money to get off the ground, and pay it back to Windhorse Trust as their projects lift off. Meanwhile, Sanghadeva and other investors can rest assured that their money is in safe hands – all loans are guaranteed by Windhorse Trust’s property portfolio.
Two of the projects that Windhorse Trust made loans to last year are:Aryaloka Computer Education enabling them to expand their computer training facilities in India, and Triratna Sheffield providing start-up capital for Dana, a new Team Based Right Livelihood café.Sanghadeva is clear he's made the right decision:
It’s a no brainer really… I’m happy to put my money behind this…. It’s a great time to do it. I think loads of people will get involved.
Could you make a Dharma loan to one of our Triratna Projects?
Find out more at: www.futuredharma.org/pledge-a-dharma-loan/
