College of Public Preceptors
College of Public Preceptors

Chair's Letter – February 2024

By Vajrashura on Thu, 29 Feb, 2024 - 23:59

Chair's Letter – February 2024

By Vajrashura on Thu, 29 Feb, 2024 - 23:59

This month’s letter is written by Vajrashura, who first came across Triratna in Ireland, in 1999, at the age of 22. He was ordained in 2007 in Guhyaloka by Kulananda, and since 2009 has been the men’s Mitra Convenor for Dublin where he lives in a men’s community. He now also works for the Sikkha Project on a part-time basis and joined the College in 2020.

Hear more from Vajrashura in a talk he gave on Sadhana, White Tara and...

College of Public Preceptors
College of Public Preceptors

Chair's Letter – November 2023

By ratnadharini on Thu, 30 Nov, 2023 - 16:56

Chair's Letter – November 2023

By ratnadharini on Thu, 30 Nov, 2023 - 16:56

Dear Order members and friends,

November is when the international meeting of the College takes place at Adhisthana, and this recent meeting was especially rich and satisfying. I’m going to attempt to describe how it unfolded day by day…

However at the beginning of the month I was still on the Pan American Convention in Mexico. I wanted to visit Chintamani retreat centre on the way back into Mexico City, and in the end around 20 of us were very generously hosted there for...

College of Public Preceptors
College of Public Preceptors

Chair's Letter – October 2023

By ratnadharini on Wed, 1 Nov, 2023 - 13:00

Chair's Letter – October 2023

By ratnadharini on Wed, 1 Nov, 2023 - 13:00

Dear Order Members and friends,

I’m writing from Mexico, where preparations are underway for the Day of the Dead celebrations, and on the fifth anniversary of Sangharakshita’s death. I’m here for the fourth Pan American Convention, which is taking place in a Benedictine monastery on the outskirts of Cuernavaca as Chintamani retreat centre is unfortunately too small for the nearly 100 or so attendees. There are Order members from Canada, in the north, to Argentina, in the south...

College of Public Preceptors
College of Public Preceptors

Chair's Letter – September 2023

By ratnadharini on Sun, 1 Oct, 2023 - 00:00

Chair's Letter – September 2023

By ratnadharini on Sun, 1 Oct, 2023 - 00:00

Dear Order Members and friends,

As I write, the public ordinations of five women – two from Venezuela and three from Mexico – are taking place at Adhisthana in context of pilgrimage retreat for Spanish speakers; welcome to Varamaitri, Akasadhi, Silabhadri, Parashanti and Chandrakanti. The theme of pilgrimage has been growing, as Adhisthana celebrates its tenth anniversary. Parami invited me to join the retreat one evening for an informal conversation about the search for, and early days at, Adhisthana, and...

College of Public Preceptors
College of Public Preceptors

Chair's Letter – July 2023 – Subhadramati

By Subhadramati on Tue, 1 Aug, 2023 - 17:55

Chair's Letter – July 2023 – Subhadramati

By Subhadramati on Tue, 1 Aug, 2023 - 17:55

This month’s update from the College is a bumper edition before we take a break in August…

Recently the Ordination courses at Guhyaloka and Akashavana were completed, led by Maitreyabandhu and Subhadramati respectively; and the College-led ‘Lineage Retreat’ at Adhisthana was a great success, for which Mahamati was on the team. We wanted to share something from each of these aspects of the College’s work, and asked Subhadramati and Mahamati to write more fully. 

I will be taking part in a few
...

College of Public Preceptors
College of Public Preceptors

Chair's Letter – July 2023 – Mahamati

By Mahamati on Tue, 1 Aug, 2023 - 17:48

Chair's Letter – July 2023 – Mahamati

By Mahamati on Tue, 1 Aug, 2023 - 17:48

This month’s update from the College is a bumper edition before we take a break in August…

Recently the Ordination courses at Guhyaloka and Akashavana were completed, led by Maitreyabandhu and Subhadramati respectively; and the College-led ‘Lineage Retreat’ at Adhisthana was a great success, for which Mahamati was on the team. We wanted to share something from each of these aspects of the College’s work, and asked Subhadramati and Mahamati to write more fully. 

I will be taking part in a few
...

College of Public Preceptors
College of Public Preceptors

Letter from the College – June

By ratnadharini on Fri, 30 Jun, 2023 - 15:42

Letter from the College – June

By ratnadharini on Fri, 30 Jun, 2023 - 15:42

Dear Order members and friends,

My experience this month has been dominated by preparing for, and enacting, a 150 mile pilgrimage from where Sangharakshita was born in Tooting, London, on 26th August 1925, to Adhisthana, Herefordshire, where he lived the last – and some of the happiest – years of his life, dying on 30th October 2018. Having had the inspiration for the pilgrimage, I realised I could share the experience with others and open it up as a fundraising initiative...

College of Public Preceptors
College of Public Preceptors

Chair's Letter – May – A Pilgrimage from Tooting to Adhisthana

By ratnadharini on Fri, 2 Jun, 2023 - 08:37

Chair's Letter – May – A Pilgrimage from Tooting to Adhisthana

By ratnadharini on Fri, 2 Jun, 2023 - 08:37

Dear Order members and friends,

The decision to walk from Tooting to Adhisthana seemed spontaneous but obvious. I still don’t really know what it will mean, but alongside the practical preparation, themes are beginning to emerge – and no doubt there will be more. But before I go on to share one of these in particular, I will just mention a couple of other recent highlights.

The most recent of which is that there will soon...

College of Public Preceptors
College of Public Preceptors

Chair's Letter – April 2023

By ratnavyuha on Tue, 2 May, 2023 - 10:57

Chair's Letter – April 2023

By ratnavyuha on Tue, 2 May, 2023 - 10:57

This month’s update from the College comes from Ratnavyuha – a Public Preceptor living in Auckland, who is not long back from leading an ordination course at Sudarshanaloka. He is one of the Deputy Chairs of the College. Ratnavyuha met Triratna at Aryaloka in North America, and a few years later moved to train for ordination in the UK, working at Windhorse Trading, and being ordained at Guhyaloka in 1999. In 2004 he moved to Oceania where he has been based ever...

College of Public Preceptors
College of Public Preceptors

Chair's Letter – March 2023

By ratnadharini on Fri, 31 Mar, 2023 - 12:02

Chair's Letter – March 2023

By ratnadharini on Fri, 31 Mar, 2023 - 12:02

Dear Order members and friends,

Thanks to Maitreyabandhu for the evocative account of our network of friendships last month. 

First I’ll write with an update from the March College meeting – and end with a personal request.

At that point last month, I was involved in our annual Women Preceptors’ retreat at Adhisthana, which gets better each year as the body of experience grows and the connections between us become stronger. We’d decided to make it an ‘in person’ event, while making the study...