The Work

"Our work is essentially based on the Buddhist practice of generosity. We work to make a profit which we can give away to others in need."

Lotus Realm Traders Team

Our History:
If you ever come to Thames on a Saturday morning head down towards the north end of the main street, Pollen St, into what is known by the locals as Grahamstown. Here you will encounter the Thames Saturday morning market, selling everything from lovely knitted woollen hats and homemade shortbread to all sorts of odds & ends. This is where we started to fundraise for the Sudarshanaloka Retreat Centre (Sudarshanaloka) by selling our own junk and that which was kindly donated by others. We didn’t make very much but it was by all accounts very enjoyable. Soon the fundraising kicked off big time and we were able to rent a small office with a shop front. It did not take long before we became too big and had to move to our current location, 701 Pollen St.
I think it is fair to say we have now established one of the more interesting shops in the region. It contains products from most parts of the world and those from a by gone era, our collectables. However, it doesn’t take a genius to work out that Thames is not a spectacular retail market, so Lotus Realm Traders, our wholesale business, was born.

Our Buddhist links:
Well we were set up by Buddhists to fundraise for Sudarshanaloka. The Buddhists involved (but not all those involved in the Lotus Realm are Buddhist) are part of the Friends of the Western Buddhist Order (FWBO). This is a new movement founded back in 1967, amongst all the hippies you could say, as a way of bringing Buddhism to the West. If you wish to read more about the FWBO follow the link www.fwbo.org. This will give you an introduction and further links to many of the projects the FWBO is involved with around the world.

‘Work’, that word does not often have positive connotations for many people. All of us spend the majority of our lives at work, add sleep to this equation and in a regular week there is not much time left for our family, friends or the things we love to do. Here at Lotus Realm Traders (LRT) we like to think those we work with are more like family, those we sell to and buy from are more like our friends. In seeing things this way ‘work’ can become a very enjoyable place to be. It transforms the ‘work’ from being “just a job” into something more vocational, something we love to do. At the base of all this is our practice of generosity. From offering to make someone a cuppa to doing that bit extra for a customer, those little things can make all the difference, they also help to create a sense of community.
Having a community based on generosity, rather than “the have’s and have nots” does sound quite idealistic. This does not mean, however, that it is unattainable; we do choose the world we want to live in. Here we make this choice and we also create goals to inspire this choice.

A question that could be asked by folk might be “Isn’t generosity something natural not what you practice, it just happens?” This is a lot like the question of friendship, “isn’t friendship just natural, not something you practice, it needs to feel right?” If practice here means putting time and energy into something, even improving your skill, then most people would agree that without this, friendships tend to fall apart or fade away. It may not feel like spending time and energy because often hanging out with our friends is so enjoyable. Putting time and energy into the practice of giving also reaps many rewards both tangible and intangible that seem to make it difficult for our ‘modern minds’ to comprehend.

Who we give to and why, will be a subject for hot debate, mainly because there are so many worthy causes. Currently our agreed aim is to help provide funds to facilitate the building of the Sudarshanaloka, which will be of benefit to many both within our local community and other regions. Providing places where people can retreat to from the busyness of the modern world; where they can have time to reflect, to play and just be themselves is essential for the health of a society. It provides space for genuine “time out”.
After Sudarshanaloka has been completed and LRT is on a firmer footing we will be looking for other community projects to sponsor and support. Who we give to, is not about whether you are a Buddhist or not, its about whether there is a need there.
Hopefully all of this will help us to do our little bit of good for New Zealand and its people. By practicing generosity, on both a large and small scale, this should also make it a very enjoyable process for all.