Throughout his life Sangharakshita was drawn to the beauty and lustre of precious and semi-precious stones. Those on display are a small selection from his personal collection.

‘The dream, according to my diary, was both curious and impressive. “[I] was seated round a table,” I wrote, “with a number of other people (as at last night’s meeting). In front of me, on the table, [there was] a collection of jewels, of all sorts of beautiful shapes and colours. Apparently I had been away somewhere and had brought the jewels back with me. In the dream [I] felt rather sad because no one was interested in the jewels or even wanted to look at them. Suddenly, [my teacher] Dhardo Rimpoche appeared on my left, smiling, and looked at the jewels, whereupon I felt happy and awoke.” Jewels, and objects made of jewels, often figured in my dreams, and the beautiful ones about which I had dreamt the previous night were all the Buddhist teachings I had brought back to England with me from India and which I was trying to communicate to the people attending my lectures and classes. No one appreciated those teachings at their true value, the dream seemed to be telling me.’

Sangharakshita, Moving Against the Stream, (CW23), p.110

Buddhadasa first attended classes at Sakura in 1969:

‘My hitherto rosy view of the FWBO was blemished when I realized that the number of active and dedicated Order members was in fact pitifully small, maybe no more than three or four from the two dozen or so that had been previously ordained in 1968 and 1969. The majority in fact had already drifted away. No doubt they sincerely considered themselves to be Buddhist, and no doubt they were happy to have been personally ordained by Sangharakshita but, for whatever reason, they were unable to comprehend his vision for a new Buddhist movement or appreciate the radical and demanding nature of Buddhism itself.’

On the First Rung, p.17