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Wednesday 17th September saw the opening of the new FWBO Buddhist Centre in Krakow, Poland. The name of the Centre is Sanghaloka, Osrodek Przyjaciol Buddyzmu, or in English the Centre of Friends of Buddhism. We try to bring to people an approach to Buddhism that is ecumenical i.e. drawing from the whole Buddhist tradition. During the opening ceremony, Bhante Sangharakshita, the founder of the FWBO reminded us that another public Centre being opened enabled the Dharma to be communicated to more people. In talking about the name 'Sanghaloka', he said that 'loka' also meant 'home' as well as realm or world.

There is only one problem... When you say 'home' what do you imagine? Usually a warm place. But a potentially cold Polish winter is approaching fast and we have no heating in place.

We worked hard through spring and summer to do the centre up. However due to the very high increase of the cost of building materials and labour plus the poor exchange rate of the English pound to Polish zloty we don't have any money left for the heating!

So imagine those new Polish meditators sitting there for 40 minutes at the beginning of the mindfulness of breathing, they can not only sense their breath but SEE it as well. And at the end of the meditation their mat has frozen to the ground. Would you like to hear this reported? Surely not!

The estimated cost of new gas installation for the heating is about £5000 (the place hasn't had any kind of heating before). Each £20 donated will prevent one icicle on the nose of a meditator appearing. So please give generously and we will thank you very very WARMLY!

Thanks for your interest – please do pass on word of our appeal to your friends. If you would like to read more about the opening of Sanghaloka please go to: http://www.fwbo-news.org/labels/Poland.html or see photos on flickr.

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