Dear friends

The College of Public Preceptors is delighted to announce that Jnanavaca has been appointed as a Public Preceptor. 

Jnanavaca was ordained in 1999 at the Hsuan Tsang Retreat Centre in India by Subhuti, who is both his private and public preceptor. 

For many years Jnanavaca has been living at Samaggavasa, one of the men's communities above the London Buddhist Centre. He has been very active in the life of that centre, holding a number of responsibilities. He is a kalyana mitra to many and a private preceptor to a number of men. After he stopped being Chairman, he took a six month solitary retreat at Guhyaloka. Since then he has been teaching at the London Buddhist Centre and Vajrasana and supporting those who run those centres. He is also the president of the Cambridge Buddhist Centre.

With metta,
Ratnadharini 

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Jnanavaca –

I came across Triratna in London in 1994 through an LBC outreach centre. I was 28.  I wanted to learn about Buddhism but was wary of organised religion. After my first retreat - an LBC open winter retreat led by Maitreyabandhu and Ratnadharini - I knew I’d found what I had been looking for since my teens.

I have lived in an LBC men’s community with Paramabandhu and Maitreyabandhu for the past 25 years. I started working for the LBC in 1998, initially as a fundraiser and then as the Treasurer. For six years I was the men’s Mitra Convenor and then for 9 years the Chair. I handed on that role to Suryagupta in 2018 and shortly afterwards went on a 6 month solitary retreat - possibly the happiest period of my life.

I am President of the Cambridge Centre and am currently co-writing a book with Maitreyabandhu on ‘Insight in our System of Practice’. Becoming a Public Preceptor marks a new phase of my Dharma life.