College of Public Preceptors
College of Public Preceptors

Chairs' Letter - April 2021

By Amrutdeep on Fri, 30 Apr, 2021 - 18:40

Chairs' Letter - April 2021

By Amrutdeep on Fri, 30 Apr, 2021 - 18:40

Dear Order Members and Friends,

I have asked each of my deputies to contribute to these letters, and it seemed appropriate that Amrutdeep would write this month, from India. Amrutdeep was ordained in 1992 and has been a Public Preceptor for eight years, and I’ve very much enjoyed and appreciated getting to know him as we work alongside each other in the College. He is thoughtful and wise, kindly and ethical, and tireless in his practice of the...

College of Public Preceptors
College of Public Preceptors

Chairs' Letter – March 2021

By ratnadharini on Wed, 31 Mar, 2021 - 15:23

Chairs' Letter – March 2021

By ratnadharini on Wed, 31 Mar, 2021 - 15:23

Dear Order members and friends,

The main international College meeting is in November and this year we are also meeting for a weekend in March and July, as well as parallel gatherings in our individual College Kulas. (The Kula system is intentionally flexible, to allow for the different number of people training for ordination in different parts of the world, as well as the geographic spread of Public Preceptors in each Kula.) 

Apart from the option...

College of Public Preceptors
College of Public Preceptors

Chairs' Letter – February 2021

By ratnadharini on Mon, 1 Mar, 2021 - 12:24

Chairs' Letter – February 2021

By ratnadharini on Mon, 1 Mar, 2021 - 12:24

Dear Order members and friends,

Being someone who only seems able to write when up against a deadline can be a little scary, as there comes a point when you just have to press ‘send’. This is what had emerged by 2am. It isn’t what I expected or set out to do, but what I happened to be reflecting on.

February has been spent mainly in zoom meetings and writing emails, with Covid lockdown beginning to...

College of Public Preceptors
College of Public Preceptors

Chairs' Letter – January 2021

By ratnadharini on Mon, 1 Feb, 2021 - 09:16

Chairs' Letter – January 2021

By ratnadharini on Mon, 1 Feb, 2021 - 09:16

Dear Order members and friends,

I’ve appreciated being able to work as a team with deputies from as far afield as New Zealand (Ratnavyuha) and India (Amrutdeep) as well as with Punyamala (Sheffield) and Jnanavaca (LBC) within the UK. I appreciated Ratnavyuha’s theme of unity / diversity last month, and look forward to contributions from the others. (You can read Ratnavyuha’s December letter at thebuddhistcentre.com/preceptors) 

My last update was about the (online) College...

College of Public Preceptors
College of Public Preceptors

Chairs' Letter – December 2020

By ratnavyuha on Tue, 29 Dec, 2020 - 13:25

Chairs' Letter – December 2020

By ratnavyuha on Tue, 29 Dec, 2020 - 13:25

Dear Order Members and friends,

Ratnadharini has been writing these monthly letters for about a year now, and recently asked if those of us serving as College deputies would like to write one from time to time. I’m the first to take up this opportunity.

At the start of the pandemic, Ratnadharini started meeting weekly with her College deputies as a way of keeping in touch together with what was happening in the world and in the...

College of Public Preceptors
College of Public Preceptors

Chairs' Letter - November 2020

By ratnadharini on Mon, 30 Nov, 2020 - 23:40

Chairs' Letter - November 2020

By ratnadharini on Mon, 30 Nov, 2020 - 23:40

Dear Order members and friends,

Thinking back over my first year as chair of the College: I took on the responsibility in November 2019 as we marked the first anniversary of Bhante’s funeral, and in spite of having been a fairly active Deputy prior to that, it’s still taken some growing into. I wanted more channels of communication with the Order generally, and in January 2020 I began writing these monthly letters. 

In March our Area...

College of Public Preceptors
College of Public Preceptors

Chairs' Letter – October 2020

By ratnadharini on Sat, 31 Oct, 2020 - 18:52

Chairs' Letter – October 2020

By ratnadharini on Sat, 31 Oct, 2020 - 18:52

Dear Order members and friends,

The theme I’m currently aware of is death / rebecoming. Partly due to it being Autumn in this hemisphere; partly due to the pandemic and being in lockdown again; and today, 30 October, is the second anniversary of Bhante’s death.

I expect we all remember where we were when we heard that Bhante had died. I was in Sweden, and it was such a relief to get to the Centre where Prasadacarin had just opened...

College of Public Preceptors
College of Public Preceptors

Chairs' Letter – September 2020

By ratnadharini on Wed, 30 Sep, 2020 - 19:11

Chairs' Letter – September 2020

By ratnadharini on Wed, 30 Sep, 2020 - 19:11

Dear Order members

Two days ago I attended the public ordination of 16 women at Adhisthana. When Bhante chose the ‘miracle’ design of the stupa for Dhardo Rimpoche at Tiratanaloka, he said it was because the greatest miracle was Going for Refuge; it seemed especially miraculous to be having public ordinations, given the Covid 19 restrictions, with around 500 people joining the live zoom. I was on the balcony, above the flags and aware of the blessings of blue...

College of Public Preceptors
College of Public Preceptors

Chairs' Letter – July 2020

By ratnadharini on Fri, 31 Jul, 2020 - 23:22

Chairs' Letter – July 2020

By ratnadharini on Fri, 31 Jul, 2020 - 23:22

Dear Order members

At the end of June I moved back to Adhisthana and though I like the simplicity of my cell-like bedroom cum office, people on the other end of Zoom calls have been commenting on the bare walls as, until recently, the only painting was above my desk and behind the computer screen. 

Covid-19 and the topic of race and racism, have continued to be major concerns, both within and without our sangha. Both wake up calls...

College of Public Preceptors
College of Public Preceptors

Chairs' Letter – June 2020

By ratnadharini on Wed, 1 Jul, 2020 - 12:25

Chairs' Letter – June 2020

By ratnadharini on Wed, 1 Jul, 2020 - 12:25

Dear Order members and friends,

June was my last month of solitary lockdown in South Wales. In practice that meant spending even more time than usual on my computer, although I did manage one week offline. I also read Analayo’s Compassion and Emptiness and re-read The Glass Bead Game, and went for long walks along deserted lanes and footpaths in the national park.

I emerged from my week off to the deluge of discussion around the subject...

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