The Friends of the Western Buddhist Order
The FWBO is an international network dedicated to communicating Buddhist truths in ways appropriate to the modern world.
The essence of Buddhism is timeless and universal. But the forms it takes always adapt according to context.
Now that Buddhism is spreading around the globe, the task is to create new Buddhist traditions relevant to the 21st century. During the past 35 years the FWBO has become one of the largest Buddhist movements, with activities in many cities and rural retreat centres around the world.
Around the FWBO and TBMSG mandala
Headlines of current activities and events in both the FWBO and our counterpart in India the TBMSG can be found on our News page. Alternatively, you could go straight to the news website FWBO and TBMSG News, which includes jobs, features, reviews and resources.
You can find out more about individuals in the FWBO by visiting FWBO People, a portal for personal websites. FWBO Photos is a lively compilation of images about FWBO activities around the world. FreeBuddhistAudio offers hundreds of recorded talks by teachers in the FWBO, as well as transcriptions of talks and seminars by Sangharakshita — all available for free download. On FWBO Buddhist Articles you can find links to articles, essays and books on a wide range of Dharma topics.
If you are interested in retreats on Buddhism and Buddhist meditation — for people of all levels of experience — please visit our UK FWBO Retreat Centre portal.
The FWBO in other languages
Many of our friends world wide maintain websites in their native languages; see our contacts section.
You can find broad outlines of the FWBO approach to Buddhist practice in the following languages:
Chinese language siteDutch language (VWBO) site
Finnish language site
French language site (AOBO)
German language (FWBO) site
Polish language site
Russian language site
Spanish language (AOBO) site