In the Triratna Buddhist Community, many centers have Presidents. A President acts as a mentor to the center and its participants, offering support and guidance in regards to the health of the community and its expression in the world. A President helps to connect the local center with the broader Triratna community. A President works closely with the center Board/Council, and is considered a kalyana mitra, or spiritual friend to the community.
We’d like to thank Nagabodhi for decades (!) of service in his capacity as President of Aryaloka, guiding us through some challenging times of growth, and sharing his laughter, wisdom and wonderful stories along the way. His annual visits brought a richness of Dharma-teaching, friendship, reflection and inspired energy. We look forward to his continued friendship.
In 2020, we welcome Dhammarati as our new President! Dhammarati has been coming to Aryaloka for several years now in his capacity as Public Preceptor to help with the men’s ordination process and to lead retreats for our sangha.
"I grew up in Hamilton, Scotland in the 1950s and 60s. In my teenage years I was looking for, well, ‘something,’ and visited everything from Anarchists to Zoroastrians. I visited the FWBO Glasgow centre in 1973, and it turned out that what I was looking for was the Dharma. I moved into the Glasgow community almost immediately. I was Ordained by Bhante in the summer of 1976
In 1980, I moved to the recently opened London Buddhist Centre, to work in Windhorse Associates, the Movement’s design right livelihood. I was a passionate designer, wanting to see the Dharma given a form beautiful enough to do it justice, and I trained as a graphic designer at Central School of Art from 1981-84. After a brief taste of life as a designer in Public Media Center in San Francisco, in 1985 I had the opportunity of becoming chair of the LBC. Though I was passionate about design, I was even more passionate about spreading the Dharma, and was chair of the LBC from the mid 80s till the early 90s.
In the 90s I returned to graphic design for the Movement, and worked for a very satisfying few years on Karuna’s annual reports and FWBO’s new DharmaLife magazine.
In 2000, Subhuti invited me to Madhyamaloka and to join the new Preceptors’ College Council. I became president of a number of centers, in particular on the West coast of North America, and was involved in Ordination training for men there.
In 2003 I was invited to join the expanding Preceptors’ College. I was chair of the College from 2005-2015, and in that time helped to set up Triratna’s International Council. I was part of the team which spent two or three years looking for what became Adhisthana, and moved there in March of 2013."
Dhammarati is now part of Adhisthana's Dharma Team.
