This morning I was blessed to attend Tantric teachings with the (as often mentioned here) wonderful Ven. Thubten Lodey. While there I was immensely grateful and reflected again on how many opportunities we have here in Perth. Ever since 1962 when John Glenn passed over Perth as part of his orbit of the earth and thousands of street and porch lights were left on, so the city was clearly visible from space, Perth has been known as the City of Light.
Some New Agers, Wiccans and others have appropriated this tag to refer to the special spiritual qualities of Perth. Since hearing this when I was 16 (and some people do not know the origin of the term) I have never been clear exactly what they mean. But I do know how lucky we are when it comes to the Buddha Dharma. I remember reading on one of Al Billings Buddhists posts (don’t ask me which one) how most American Buddhist centres do not have a resident teacher; someone authorized to teach and holding regular lessons. Instead lay teachers may hold meditation meetings with their teacher visiting once or twice a year.
Now in Perth, still a small-medium city, we certainly do have centres like this. For example, the Diamond Way centre of the controversial Lama Ole. However, we also have centres with resident Lamas and teachers. Just of the top of my head (please do not take offence if someone does not appear on this list) there are:
- Lama Chime of the Origins Centre and Tig-Le.
- Ven Dondrup of the Hayagriva Centre
- Ven Thubten Lodey of Phendheling
- Geshe Jampel Senge of the Tashi Choeling Centre
- Ajahn Brahm of the Bodhinyana Monastery and the Buddhist Society of Western Australia
All of these teachers are also internationally regarded - they are the ones travelling to other places, giving Dharma talks 
It fairly gorms the mind, it does. So maybe there is something to this City of Light stuff after all?
"We are tied together in the single garment of destiny, caught in an inescapable network of mutuality. And whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly. For some strange reason I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. And you can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be. This is the way God’s universe is made; this is the way it is structured." ~
“A religion without a goddess is halfway to atheism” ~
How does my spiritual practice and daily life serve the earth?
How does my spiritual practice and daily life affect the poorest third of humanity?
How will my spiritual practice and daily life affect the generations to come in the future?
"It is through your body that you realize you are a spark of divinity."
“For most of us, however, we only think seriously of food or sex or money when it becomes a problem, which is to say when we feel we are not getting our share. When we find ourselves in that situation then I regret to say that meditational visualisations are really not the best way to remedy the lack. … We are here in a physical condition in a physical world and while in that state we have to abide by the laws appropriate to it.”
"The biblical texts have been strained out through a Greek/Latin mindset, which is very surface and static. I sometimes think it would have actually have been better if Western culture had based so called "Western religion" on Greek philosophy, rather than middle-eastern, because then at least you'd have all one thing. It would be eternally consistent. But what we have now is sort of half of each. And you're left with a basically schizophrenic tradition." 
nice article. good to know that many many people are working to make buddhism more popular.
http://www.buddhabihar.com