Appointment of Virasiddhi and Nagapriya as Public Preceptors

I am very pleased to announce the appointment of Virasiddhi and Nagapriya as Public Preceptors. They are our first Public Preceptors from Mexico, and Virasiddhi is our first native Mexican Public Preceptor.This is a very significant development for Triratna in Latin America.

with metta

Saddhaloka



Virasiddhi
I encountered the Dharma in 1995 at Mexico City, thanks to the work of Upekshamati. Meditation and the Dharma openend fresh and new possibilities for my life. In summer 1997 for the first time in my life I traveled to a foreign country, I visited Cambridge, UK and had the opportunity to have some experience in community living and right livelihood at Windhorse Trading and a retreat at Padmaloka. At the end of 1997, I received a letter from Keturaja inviting me to join Windhorse, so I decided to quit my job to have a full inmersion experience in the spiritual life. 

From 1998 to 2004 I lived in a community and practiced right livelihood at Windhorse and trained for ordination; this really was very important and beneficial to my spiritual life. I got ordained in 2003. After this time at Windhorse it was clear to me I wanted to contribute to Triratna in my home country.  So in 2004, I went back to Mexico with the intention to support Upekshamati´s work at the Mexico City Buddhist Centre. I have been working for the Buddhist Centre in Mexico City for the past 15 years as manager, mitra convenor, facilitating introduction to Buddhism courses and Dharma study. I am also part of the Council.

I am also involved in the Mexican Ordination team with Moksananda, Samamati and Nagapriya. I became a Private Preceptor in 2013. During October 2018 was at Adhisthana as a participant in the International Course, this was a great experience to connect with Order members from different parts of the world and a learning opportunity. Unfortunately Bhate died that month. His death was a catalyst to make my mind about entering the consultation process to become a Public Preceptor.
This new responsibility as a Public Preceptor is a way for me to support Moksananda´s work in the Spanish speaking world, sharing the responsibility for the Ordination process and contribute with my grain of sand to Triratna's future after Bhante´s death.
At present I live with my partner Satyasuri, a cousin and another friend from the sangha.



Nagapriya

I first met Triratna in Leeds, England in 1988.  I was studying for a degree in philosophy and was, so it seems now, searching for the meaning of life. I quickly realized that I had found my spiritual home and, after moving to Manchester, I was ordained in 1992. I worked for some years at the Manchester Buddhist Centre and then at Dharmavastu Study Centre. 

After a period of academic study and work, I moved to Mexico in 2013 and, somewhat inadvertently, co-founded Centro Budista de Cuernavaca of which I am current and founding Chair. I also ended up as the director of Editorial Dharmamegha, a project dedicated to publishing Sangharakshita´s and other Triratna works in Spanish. I got involved in the men´s ordination process in Latin America shortly after arriving in Mexico and form part of the ordination team.

There is huge potential for Triratna in Latin America and I feel privileged to be able to contribute to this process in some small way. Mexico particularly seems a receptive field for the Dharma and our sangha here is growing rapidly.

My published works include: Exploring Karma and Rebirth (Windhorse, 2003), Visions of Mahayana Buddhism (Windhorse, 2009), and The Buddhist Way (New Holland, 2018).