ordination
"Excellent, Lord, excellent! It is as if, Lord, a man were to set upright that which was overturned, or were to reveal that which was hidden, or were to point out the way to one who had gone astray, or were to hold a lamp amidst the darkness, so that those who have eyes may see. Even so, has the doctrine been explained in various ways by the Exalted One.
"I take refuge, Lord, in the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha. May the Exalted One receive me as a follower; as one who has taken refuge from this very day to life's end."
Ordination represents the realisation of our decision to base our lives around the ideals, principles and practices embodied in the Three Jewels, and within the context of the Triratna Buddist Order.
Men and women who wish to seek ordination can communicate their request to any order member, though it is important that the request reaches at least one of the public preceptors so that we can respond.
Below is information for public preceptors about the procedures around ordination.
ordination requests and withdrawals
The request for ordination is an important step in itself, representing as it does the decision to wholeheartedly go for refuge to the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha and to form a part of the spiritual community.
Once a request has been made the respective ordination team secretaries at Padmaloka and Tiratanaloka need to be informed. Likewise with withdrawal of requests. They continue to maintain the lists of all people (outside of India) who have asked for ordination. This means that there are central places holding an overview of this information. The ordination team secretaries will pass on the notices to Shabda in the usual way.
ordering kesas
The ordination team secretaries at Padmaloka and Tiratanaloka will normally arrange for the correct number of kesas to be available on the ordination courses, but they will not obtain kesas for one-off ordinations being held at Centres etc.
In these cases the public preceptor is responsible for making sure that there are sufficient kesas available for the public ordinations.
Kesas are obtained from Asvajit. So as to ensure that there are no difficulties public preceptors should (1) inform him as soon as the date of an ordination or a set of ordinations has been decided, (2) provide him with an address to which the kesa or kesas should be despatched and (3) let him know the latest date by which the kesas should be received. Asvajit will send the required number of kesas along with "Welcome Packs", containing order data forms and other information for new Order members such as how to pay Order contributions.
ordination ceremonies
Information about the private and public ceremonies can be found in the section 'private preceptors'.
informing that ordinations will take place
Prior to the private and public ordinations the public preceptor may inform the Order office of the date, time and place together with the name(s) of the ordinands. The Order office will send out the information via the Order email information system.
informing that public ordinations have taken place
Firstly read the guidelines on announcing new names.
Then as soon as practicable following the public ceremony details of the new Order members name[s] should be emailied to the Order office so that they can sent out via the Order email information system. Please make sure that the name is correctly spelt as this will go onto the database.
Please note that if the Order office is not informed of the ordination the new Order member will not be entered as a member of the Order!
information required following ordination
After the public ceremony the public preceptor you should ensure that each new Order member is given a Welcome Pack. This contains important information including the Order data sheet.
a) Completed Order data sheets
It is the responsibility of the public preceptor to make sure that Order data sheets for each new ordinee are sent to the Order office as soon as possible. Experience shows that if left to the individual these data sheets (as well as photos as mentioned below) may not be sent for weeks or months, and sometimes never at all. Until the Order data sheet is returned the new Order Member will not receive any communications, including Shabda, from the Order Office. It can be a time consuming and difficult process to track new Order members down subsequently since we have no address for them (particularly if they live outside the UK)
b) Photos of the new Order members (prints or on CD)
It is best to arrange for these photos to be taken on the ordination retreat or day of the ordination ceremony, and to be sent collectively to the Order office by post or electronically.
c) Transcriptions of the name giving
Where there are a number of private preceptors for one public ordination ceremony the transcriptions should be sent to Shabda in one batch so that they can appear together. If agreed this can be done through the ordination team secretaries at Padmaloka and Tiratanaloka, otherwise somebody should be appointed to do this. They will collect together all details from an ordination retreat, including photos, and send this on to Shabda. In the case of just one or two ordinations, the public or private preceptor should collect together all the relevant transcriptions plus photos, and send this direct to Shabda, with the following subject line "+N Ordination name giving"