One year on from its opening, Adhisthana – the spiritual home of the Triratna Community – is about to enter an exciting new phase in its development. Since the doors opened at the beginning of August 2013, we have hosted more than 50 retreats, meetings and courses for over 1000 members of the Order and Movement, some of whom have travelled from as far away as Mexico, New Zealand, Australia, the US and Canada.
With work finishing on the Sangharakshita Library and Exhibition building, the focus is now moving from a building project to Adhisthana’s role as an international centre for the study and development of Bhante’s presentation of the Dharma. To reflect that change a new management team has been put in place to move the vision forward. Vajragupta (Triratna Development Team) is the new Chair of Adhisthana and Saddhanandi (Taraloka) will join as Director in January. And, Lokeshvara (International Order Convenor) will join them on the management team.
Vajragupta and Saddhanandi both reported in to the August issue of Shabda about their responses to the invitation from the Adhisthana Trustees and President to move to the project and oversee its direction and growth.
This is what Vajragupta had to say:
“…out of the blue, I was asked to go and work at Adhisthana. More specifically, I was asked to go there with Saddhanandi and Lokeshvara and take-on the project with one or both of them. Apparently Bhante had urged those at Adhisthana to bring in a ‘new generation’ and to do it quickly. Some of the trustees of Adhisthana had then brainstormed possible candidates and we were the three on the list. I was not expecting this at all. However, almost to my surprise, I immediately felt excited and enthusiastic about the prospect.”
And this is an excerpt of Saddhanandi’s report:
“In March, I was asked by the Trustees of Adhisthana if I would consider moving to Adhisthana and taking on running that project with Vajragupta. This invitation was very unexpected and carried huge implications for my life – in particular it required that I leave Taraloka, my home and place of work since 1994. The next six weeks were a turbulent and uncomfortable process of decision-making: I felt honoured to be invited to do such a job, and I felt a huge amount of grief at the thought of leaving Taraloka. I felt it was a decision that I couldn’t make quickly, but at the same time both situations required me to not delay too long. So, it was a period of great tension and difficult emotions. At the start of May, I decided I would make the leap and move to Adhisthana. This will happen in January 2015.”
With the change in focus, the three on-site Trustees who had been involved in the project in various ways from the search phase – Dhammarati, Ratnadharini and Parami – have now handed over their specific responsibilities in relation to overseeing the day-to-day running of Adhisthana. There is a great deal of appreciation for their work and support over the years since the project’s inception and in particular immense gratitude to Ratnadharini who has been tireless in her direction and hands-on involvement in the renovation and development of the site. In addition, the new management team would like to acknowledge the on-going support of Adhisthana’s President, Subhuti and its other Trustees, Ratnaghosha and Sona.