about us
The College has some 33 members. While the majority live in the UK, others are based in continental Europe, India and in Australia or New Zealand. Together we work in all those countries where the FWBO is active.
Public Preceptors are Order members of many years, with long standing friendships with other members of the Order and with other preceptors. Bhante once said that what links the order is ‘a shared understanding of going for refuge’, and this is very much how we see our work: deepening a mutual understanding of going for refuge between ourselves and sharing that understanding with others.
One of the most important ways in which we keep that shared understanding alive is by meeting together twice a year for periods of ten days or so. During these meetings we discuss the different areas of the ordination process we are directly involved in, explore matters of principle and practice, and study and meditate together. You can read accounts of our meetings on our blog.
While some of the meeting involves all of us together, we also do quite a lot of our work in smaller ‘kulas’: small groups of us that consult together about ordinations, private preceptor consultations and our work and practice as public preceptors.
At present there are 5 kulas:
- Sona, Subhuti, Dhammarati, Mahamati, Buddhadasa, Nagabodhi
- Padmavajra, Surata, Saddhaloka, Ratnagosha, Manjuvajra, Moksananda, Satyaraja
- Suvajra, Chandrasil, Sudarshan, Subhuti, Karunamaya, Srimala
- Dhammadinna, Dayanandi, Parami, Maitreyi, Ratnadharini, Sanghadevi, Padmasuri, Mallika, Vajragita
- Varadevi, Dharmanandi, Megha, Sanghadevi and Ratnadharini
Some public preceptors may be in more than one kula.
There are also some public preceptors who are not currently actively involved in the ordination process and who do not form part of the college as such. At present these are:
- Urgyen Sangharakshita, Ratnasuri, Abhaya, Kamalashila and Kulananda
To find out more go to 'who are we?'