a chance to support our work

from moksananda




A important part of the work of our Order is that of training the men and women who have asked for ordination. This training is overseen by the College of Public Preceptors, a body of over 30 senior Order members, some 13 women and 18 men. Between us we work with all those who have asked to join our Order, and with the growing number of private preceptors, strengthening our underlying unity while encouraging a diversity of approaches to ordination training. Personally I feel very grateful to be involved in this aspect of the Order, and to witness the enthusiasm and altruism with which the public preceptors engage in their work.

There is a lot of organisational work to the effective functioning of the College. In order to carry out this work the preceptors’ college needs to financially support a part-time administrator/secretary and the college chairman (at least partially). We also try to find funds for the public preceptors from India and Australasia to attend our meetings in the UK: this is one of the important links that keeps the Indian and Western Orders spiritually unified.

The work of the chair and the administrator are central to the effectiveness of the college, as is our ability to come together in relatively large numbers once or twice a year. To support all this we need to find just £15,000 per annum.

Last year I wrote to those men and women who had asked for ordination asking for donations to help support the work of the college. We managed to raise some £6000. We’re very grateful for this help and I really want to thank all of those who made a donation or set up a standing order. With this money the Preceptors’ College was able to support me as a part-time administrator/secretary and to partially support Dhammarati as chairman. As secretary I was able to oversee and develop the preceptors’ webpage, give email support to private preceptors in various ways, as well as give ongoing secretarial support to members of the preceptors college and it’s chairman. Dhammarati has worked with Bhante, with the preceptors kulas in different parts of the world, and with the chairmen, mitra convenors and Dharma teachers to make our training for ordination and preceptor training more effective

This year Windhorse:Evolution have kindly given us the £9,000 to make up the balance. However, it seems that they may well not be in a position to do so next year, so once again we need to find ways to make this important work sustainable. We are asking for help. And we are particularly asking for the help of those who have asked for ordination into the western buddhist order because our work is of most benefit to them: we hope that they will understand its importance and want to make it possible for us to do what we need to do in order to support their ordination training.

We’re suggesting a donation of £50 a year, less than £1 per week, for those in the UK, or 75€ per year for those in the rest of Europe. A standing order would make this simpler and more reliable for us. This could be a monthly or an annual standing order.

To make a donation just click on the donate button below or at the top of the page. This will take you to our page on 'justgiving' where you can donate to the preceptors'college using a debit or credit card. If you need any more information you can contact me here. I can also send a Gift Aid form for those in the UK.

Many thanks.