Dharmapala College

Cittapala ordained for 25 years, a founding member of the Padmaloka Men’s Ordination Team and President of the Guhyaloka Retreat Centre, has spent a number of years as a trainer for Study Group Leaders. In recent years he has been training to become an existential psychotherapist. An abridged version of the WLS, prepared by Cittapala, is available to download from www.cittapala.org.

Dhammaloka I was born in Germany. After my ordination in 1981, I helped establish FWBO Germany, whilst working as a self-employed management trainer. Before joining Dharmapala College in 2006, I lived at the Vajraloka Meditation Retreat Centre. Finding Chinese culture — and its encounters with the West — both fascinating, irritating, and puzzling I regularly visit China with an aim of contributing to the re-emergence of Buddhism. In my work for Dharmapala College, I’m particularly keen to integrate Dharma study with meditation and contemplation. I have found the Jungian understanding of psychological type and development particularly helpful to deepen self-understanding and support an effective spiritual practice.

Dhammaketu was born in 1941, in a family of small farmers, near Bruges, Belgium. After grammar school he was Benedictine monk for seven years. Deeply dissatisfied with the study of theology, he left and studied philosophy instead. He made a living as civil servant, became one of the founders of the Green Party, and was a during eight years a Belgian MP for that party. While an MP, he got deeply involved in the FWBO, and was ordained in 1995. On retiring as an MP he founded a now very flourishing Buddhist Centre in Ghent, and went back to university to study Sanscrit. Presently he is writing in Dutch an in depth introduction to Buddhism, and is involved in a Low Countries (The Netherlands and Belgium) project for spreading Sangharakshita’s vision in that part of the world.

Jnanaketu worked in two Polytechnics and at Lancaster University for 25 years. He has for many years been interested in developing more effective means of communication and learning in a wide variety of contexts including universities, offenders’ groups, community groups in the UK and abroad, Buddhist centres and study centres. He began work with Dharmapala College in 2005; one of his continuing interests there is to develop material to help himself and others to think more clearly – particularly in Dharma study. He has worked with the Dharmaduta students in this area, and has conducted several workshops in FWBO centres. Among his other interests are: reflecting on the Bodhicaryavatara, studying the Pali Canon, and developing ways of working with views. An ex-classicist, he is interested in Greek tragedy and the affinities between Greek philosophy and the Dharma. He was ordained in 1994.

Kamalashila is known mostly for his writing and teaching of meditation. He was born 1949 and ordained 1974 by Sangharakshita. In 1979, after starting a Buddhist centre in London, he co-founded in Wales Vajraloka, a meditation centre, and later Vajrakuta, a Dharma study centre which eventually (after much evolution) took rebirth as Dharmapala College. In the mid 80s he performed public ordinations in India on behalf of Sangharakshita, on whose invitation he later joined Madhyamaloka community, teaching around the FWBO world wide. From 2001- 2004 Kamalashila went into intensive retreat in Wales in a dome tent, including 18 months of complete solitude. This extended experience of living in nature now informs his teaching work. He is currently writing and may eventually produce a book on the Six Elements.

                                Locana: I have been a practising Buddhist within the FWBO for 25 years, having met the Dharma when I was 20, studying history at Bristol Univeristy. I became involved with FWBO, going on many retreats, requesting ordination, and then moving to Oxford to study the dharma from an academic perspective. After doing a Masters and Doctorate in the field of the Buddhist Tantras in Oxford, and publishing a work on the meditations and practices of Vajrayogini, I decided to leave academia and university life.  I became an internationally certified trainer in Nonviolent Communication™, and founded Life at Work, to provide professional and personal development in the field of communication. I am now fortunate to be able to bring my Buddhist values into the world as I act as a consultant and trainer for resolving conflicts and grievances, in a wide range of environments – working with businesses, doctors, the police and many others. I also practice and teach Focusing, and am currently in the process of becoming qualified as a Focusing trainer.

Kulaprabha is one of the resident teachers and retreat leaders at Taraloka Women’s Retreat Centre and has been instrumental in developing the current programme of retreats there. Her particular retreat interests have shifted over the past five years from study focussed retreats to retreats combining study & reflection and meditation & reflection. Some of these now form part of a set of reflecion & meditation retreats for women who have asked for ordination. the approach in those more meditative retreats originally came from study retreats she led on the themes of viparyas, laksana, and skandhas. Another prominent Dharma theme in Kulaprabha’s retreats are the Brahma Viharas.

Nagadakini When I attended my first Dharmapala College seminar, I knew at once that this was what I really wanted to do. I loved the seminar’s intellectual vigour and scholarly input combined with the meditation. Since then DPC seminars have become a priority in my retreat schedule, and I am actively involved with establishing the DPC in Germany, where I live. – In my work-life over the last 12 years I’ve mainly focussed on publishing, translating, and editing Dharma texts for the movement in Germany. (My background is in languages.) Since my ordination in 2002, meditative practice has become central in my life, and I stepped back from as many responsibilities as possible to give it more space. For one to two years I almost lived a retreat life at home. Over the years it has become clear that Yogacara is of particular importance for me in study and meditation practice.

Saramati, as Professor Alan Sponberg, has taught Buddhist Studies for 30 years at various US universities including Princeton, Stanford, and the U. of Montana. He has a special interest in the transmission of early Mahayana from India to China, with emphasis on the Yogacara thought of Asanga. Before coming into contact with the FWBO in 1986, he practiced for a number of years in the Zen tradition in the US and in Japan. He has lived and travelled in a number of South and East Asian cultures had a personal as well as academic interest in how the Buddhist tradition will respond to the pluralistic challenges of (post-) Modernity. He became a member of the Western Buddhist Order in 1993.

Sinhaketu   currently lives on the West Coast of Ireland, in County Mayo, with his dog and two cats! He runs his own training and development consultancy and a small shop.  He has also been very active in offering meditation classes in the area, Belmullet, Ballina and Westport and currently has four Mitras. Prior to that he lived in Cambridge and worked for Windhorse and contributed to the Cambridge Centre.  He has a keen interest in communication, is an Internationally certified NVC trainer, and has been engaged in Focusing since 1992.  He has enjoyed contributing to Order training and development initiatives and was engaged in ‘Lighting the Flame’ project where he developed the VIEW model for (prospective) teachers.  Sharing the Dharma in whatever shape or form and building Sangha is the central way in which he expresses his Buddhist Vision. Playfulness, empathy and the light touch are hallmarks of Sinhaketu’s approach to his workshops.

Taravandana was ordained in 2000. She lives in Lancashire. Initially qualified as a dietitian, she spent many years training and teaching in nutrition and working with people with cancer. Over the last ten years she has focussed more on training and developing individuals and teams using coaching, mentoring and facilitation skills. Taravandana is a qualified Executive and Career Coach and an MBTI Assessor and Trainer in the Health Service and privately in the North West. She wants to make her skills and experience in Training Developing and Coaching available to the movement.

Vajradarshini
Coming across Buddhism when I was 20 years old I loved the ideals but wondered was it really possible to live by them? I got involved in team based right livelihood and communities as a way of putting the teachings to the test and have lived in that way since then. Five years ago I moved to Tiratanaloka and joined the ordination team. I see my work there as trying to live out, and find ways of illuminating, the principles of the dharma, especially those handed on to us by Sangharakshita. I’m particularly interested in taking traditional teachings and attempting to shine a light on them by bringing them together with other ideas, with images, with art and culture…even with, so-called, ordinary life. I believe that the dharma illuminates life, while life illuminates the dharma.

Vajradevi I have been a member of the Western Buddhist Order since 1995, and meditating since 1985. For the past 7 years I hve been interested in meditation based on the Satipatthana Sutta. This interest led me onto retreats with various vipassana teachers including the Burmese teacher U Pandita and Joseph Goldstein in the US. Most recently I spent 3 months in 2007 in Burma practicing under Sayadaw U Tejaniya whose emphasis is on observing the mind and it’s objects directly while maintaining a continuity of awareness in daily life. During the last 3 years I have co-led an annual intensive meditation retreat at Taraloka retreat centre introducing the main areas of the Satipatthana Sutta.

Vajrasakhi My interest in rock climbing brought me to the Dharma; gradually my fascination with fear transformed into a love of meditation, and when I heard the teachings on conditionality I knew that I had found a mountain worth scaling. Years of wildly challenging work in teams around the LBC, at Wild Cherry and on a Karuna appeal has given me a great love and respect for Bhante’s vision of collective practice as guru. After 6 years in the Order I now work with the team at Tiratanaloka, exploring Sangharakshita’s three lineages: of teachings, practices and inspiration.

Vajrasara has worked in communication for 20 years, initially as a writer and editor in the UK national press for 10 years. She worked in team-based Right Livelihood at the Wild Cherry for 5 years. Then she was director of the FWBO Communications Office for another 5 years; she also co-edited Dharma Life magazine, alongside teaching and study leading at the London Buddhist Centre. Currently based in Somerset, she spends her time writing, teaching meditation locally, and leading retreats and courses on Nonviolent Communication and conflict resolution. A qualified NVC trainer, she is currently inspired by creating harmony, kalyana mitrata, the life of the Buddha and the complex, profound legacy of Sangharakshita.

Vishvapani is writing a biography of the Buddha, to be published in 2009. For nine years he edited Dharma Life, a highly-praised Buddhist magazine exploring the encounter of Buddhism and the modern world. He is a regular contributor to BBC R4’s Thought for the Day, The Guardian newspaper and Tricycle: the Buddhist Review. Challenging Times: Stories of Buddhist Practice When Things Get Tough, edited by Vishvapani was published in 2006.