History of NEB

The Network of Engaged Buddhists began life as the British Buddhist Peace Fellowship, at the height of the Cold War and in response, in part, to the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. It was also inspired by the foundation of the (American) Buddhist Peace Fellowship with which it established strong informal links, as also with the later International Network of Engaged Buddhists,  founded by Sulak Sivaraksa.

Founders and pioneers included David Arnott, David Brandon and Ken Jones.

The Network produced a magazine called “Down by the Riverside”, which first appeared in January 1984, and this was edited for many years by Charlie Radcliffe. Later the magazine was called Indra’s Network and finally Indra’s Net. In the 1990s Eric Teare played an invaluable role in keeping neb afloat as membership secretary & treasurer, and as “indra” editor.

The history of NEB is archived in the Commonweal Library (part of the
University of Bradford Library), and available to all enquirers.  Indra’s Net is also lodged with the British Library.

The principal annual event was the NEB AGM, held at the Friends of the Earth Centre in Birmingham. In 1998, the first summer workshop retreat was held and has happened every year since, addressing a number of themes relating to socially engaged Buddhism. It is often held in Chagford, Devon – see our events archive for more info about past events.

Ajahn Sumedho hosted a Socially Engaged Buddhism introductory event in NEB’s early days at Amaravati, at which David Brandon and Ken Jones spoke. Ajahns Anando and Tiradhammo were also noteworthy sangha supporters, and Christopher Titmuss joined David and Ken in these early communication efforts. In the 1990s Ken was active leading NEB “Barefoot Workshop Retreats”, mounted by local activists e.g. at Samye Ling in south Scotland, Lam Rim Bristol, and Amida Newcastle. NEB took part in the historic succession of annual Aldermaston marches and many other demonstrations with the NEB banner.

Climate Camp 08

More recently, NEB was present at the 2003 anti Iraq march, has attended Climate Camp in 2006, 2007 and 2008 and was part of the Faslane 365 blockade. In 2002, NEB was invited to run a series of workshops on socially engaged buddhism in its own dome space at the FWBO Buddhafield Festival which has continued annually and is a welcome opportunity for publicizing NEB.

Buddhafield Festival

“Buddhism and the Bomb”, by Ken Jones, was our first pamphlet publication, sold on the Aldermaston marches. Other publications included Buddhist Action in 2000, an anthology of some of the best of the Indra’s Network articles. The booklet What Is SEB by Ken Jones came out in 2005.

The membership is currently about 200 and rising though it topped 200 in the early years, on the coat tails of the nuclear disarmament movement. There is also a virtual sangha called nebsangha which gets an average of 40 posts per month and also has about 200 members.