Join us at Tiratanaloka during this transformative time! As we prepare for our exciting move to a bigger location, we’re expanding our team—and we’re looking for a dedicated Dharmacharini to step into a vital leadership role. Could this be you?

As Centre Manager, you will:

✨ Support and guide our Going for Refuge mitras (we will have four in the team), offering   spiritual friendship, leadership, and opportunities for deep practice.
✨ Help shape a thriving team environment, ensuring our community continues to flourish.
✨ Oversee the daily running of the retreat centre, keeping everything flowing smoothly as we enter this exciting new phase.

We’re looking for an Order Member who:

🌟 Has experience living and working at a retreat centre and/or managing a Right Livelihood team.
🌟 Is deeply committed to their own practice, Order life, and the vision of Tiratanaloka.
🌟 Wants to be an active part of our engaged, vibrant community.

Why Apply?

This isn’t just a role—it’s an opportunity to make a real difference in the lives of women training for ordination, while immersing yourself in a rich, supportive environment.

📅 Interview Date: 3rd April 2025
🚀 Role Commences: August 2025
📩 Interested? To find out more or to apply, please write to: Karunadhi or Alex
📧 chair@tiratanaloka.org.uk or office@tiratanaloka.org.uk

📝 Closing Deadline: 1st April 2025

We’d love to hear from you! 💛

Weekend for Young Women thinking for asking for ordination, or who have asked (residential)

Friday 27 - Sunday 29 January 2023

Only the Bodhisattva Ideal can carry us beyond ourselves and the world - and back again into them on a totally different basis

Here we are in this life, in this world, with all its troubles and moments of beauty coming into being.  What are we to do with our life, who are we to be?  These questions can feel at times a burden, at times an exhilarating challenge.  On this weekend we will explore how the Order fits in to the big questions: life and what to do with it.  It is an opportunity to meet other young women at a similar stage in life with similar commitment to the Dharma.  

Vajratara and Karunadhi and some of the young people’s facilitator’s kula will be leading the weekend. 

Book Here!

TIRATANALOKA [UN]LIMITED

We've outgrown our building.  Right now we have waiting lists for most of our retreats and more would come if we could host them.  We also need space for a bigger team to support the retreats. 

We want a bigger retreat centre so that we can run retreats for at least 60 people and house a community of 12.

Imagine not being limited to only booking for one retreat but being free to follow your own inspiration.

Imagine not having to undergo the uncertainty of the waiting list but being able to plan your Dharma calendar, or book spontaneously.

Find out more at Tiratanaloka Unlimited, share our video and Give Now!

Karunadhi gave a talk on the recent Order convention.  The theme was 'going forth'. She talked about her life at Tiratanaloka and the vision that prompted her to join the team.

We recently ran a retreat with Buddhafield exploring the symbolism of the 'Going for Refuge and Prostration Practice'.  I say we... it was meant to be Vajratara and Karunadhi from Tiratanaloka, but Karunadhi couldn't come so it ended up being just Vajratara from Tiratanaloka, with Darsavini, Amaragita, Dayajoti and Viryanaya.  Everyday we had a short presentation on different aspects of the practice followed by questions and answers.  The talks were recorded and although the sound quality isn't great, people thought they might be helpful for those who are doing the practice at home or on a GFR retreat.

Introduction

Blue Sky

Appearance

Blessings

Dissolving

We recently had a enriching and inspiring online weekend on the symbolism of the jewel in Buddhism.  Forged deep in the ground under the influence of strong pressures, the jewel emerges as something of beauty and value. In the same way, under the influence of the Dharma, something of great beauty is created or, we could say, discovered. The nature of our own mind, luminous bright and with a sensitivity to life and a beautiful aspiration towards the truth. How can we enable our practice to emerge from abundance, radiance and beauty, letting it shine in all directions?

The talks were recorded and are now available on freebuddhistaudio.  

Vajratara gave the first talk, giving us an overview of the theme: the jewel like nature of mind and the significance of the jewel as a symbol for the Bodhicitta.

Saddhanandi and Kulanandi followed with personal reflections on how they experience the jewel in their Dharma lives. 

Saturday 4 September

Why join an Order? Isn’t enough to simply practice Buddhism without joining anything? Vajratara and Karunadhi from the women’s ordination team along with Dharmacharinis from the young people’s steering group, will communicate a glimpse of the vision of the Order and the potential of spiritual friendship. The Order is more than it appears to be, and to realise that, we must also realise that we are more than we appear to be…

Join us for an online day for young people training for ordination or thinking of training for ordination within the women’s wing of the Triratna Buddhist Order.  

Book Here

7.30 - 8.30am Meditation

10.30am - 12.45pm Talk and groups

3.30 - 4.15pm Meditation

4.30 - 5.15pm groups

8pm Puja 

Tiratanaloka recently ran a weekend retreat on the symbol of the mandala with over 100 participants.  It was a very rich weekend, evoking the mandala and letting it inform our lives.  What would it be like to always dwell in the mandala where every experience is imbued with significance, and our energy flows towards what is most meaningful to us.

You can catch up with talks from Vajratara, Punyamala, and Kusaladevi on our YouTube page.  

Sign up to our next online weekends 

Wielding the Diamond Thunderbolt 25-27 June 2021

Igniting the Fires of Inspiration 13-15 August 2021

We are now in the process of finalising our programme of retreats for the rest of 2021.  The remaining 2021 retreats will be open for booking on 8th March 2021 (not on 2 April and 2 July as previously advertised).

Retreats up until 11th July be all be online.  For retreats after that, we plan to run residential retreats.  However, with the changing conditions, we can't confirm that we will be able to run an in-person retreat until nearer the time.  If we can't open fully, the retreat will be online.  Given the layout of the retreat centre, we’ve made the decision not to try and run socially-distanced residential retreats.

We will decide at least one month beforehand if the retreat will be residential or online.  When you book, we’ll ask you to pay only a deposit for the retreat and we will then ask for the appropriate balance amount when we know the format of the retreat. At that time we will contact all those booked on to let you know whether it will be at Tiratanaloka or online.

Even if we were to re-open in July, we’re expecting to make a substantial loss in 2021 which will come from our reserves.  We’re very grateful for all your generosity to date in helping us to keep running retreats.  If you feel you could support us by making a donation, you can do so here.

Thank you for your continued support.  We look forward to seeing you again.
With metta
Candraprabha and all the team at Tiratanaloka

Following on from our popular 2020 online events for dharmacharinis, three Order seminars offered by the Tiratanaloka team in 2021 will explore the following areas:

1 May: How to assess effective Going for Refuge to the Three Jewels, including looking at the 8 Guidelines recently published by the College of Public Preceptors

2 May: How we can form effective ordination kulas

3 May: How we can support the local ordination process, looking at the specific situation of your Centre.

There will be a short presentation, time to share our experiences, workshops, and smaller discussion groups.

What is joy in the garden of the Dharma?  It is the joy of guarding the bodhicitta, of ripening living beings.

The online Order seminars will run on consecutive days and we are offering them on a dana basis.  Each seminar will run from 10.30 until 1pm. 

Book online for individual seminars. Essential support for all Dharmacharinis involved in the Ordination process!

What does a Buddhist should do about their personality? Should they go forth from it altogether in the spirit of 'no fixed self'? Should they examine and transform their personality? What of our personality remains after years of dedication to the spiritual path? Vajratara gives a personal and reflective talk using her experience of 25 years of Buddhist practice. This talk was given at an ordination training retreat based on Sangharakshita's talk 'Taste of Freedom' and it assumes knowledge of basic Buddhist terms.

Due to the constantly changing circumstances, we are opening 2021 bookings 3 months in advance.  This allows us some flexibility as the Covid19 regulations change.  Until March we expect our retreats to be online, but keep checking the website.  If 2020 has taught us anything, it is that you never know what will happen next!

Book through our website.

Since March we have been offering led online Going for Refuge and Prostration practice to all Order Members and those who are training for ordination. We are now moving into a different phase at Tiratanaloka with some longer online retreats and we won't be able to offer the Prostration Practice to those outside of our retreat. Our last open led sessions will be Tuesday 29 September - Thursday 1 October. We are not offering it on Monday 28 September as advertised so that people can tune in to the Public ordinations at Adhisthana.

The impact of the coronavirus has been felt on all aspects of our daily lives as well as the life of our sangha - severely curtailing the ability to hold in-person retreats, including ordination retreats. Ordination is a significant point in the lives of Dharma farers in our community: many of whom have been training for ordination for a number of years, in preparation for joining the Triratna Buddhist Order. The public ordination ceremony marks the deepening of their commitment to their spiritual journey - for their own sake and for that of the world - in harmony with all those in our particular Buddhist community. Sadly, earlier this year, both the women’s three month ordination course at Akashavana retreat centre and the men’s four-month ordination course at Guhyaloka retreat centre in Spain had to be cancelled in light of the global pandemic.

Despite the challenges however - lockdowns and the necessary restrictions imposed by social distancing - over the course of the last few months ordinations have continued, with all of them having to adapt to the changed circumstances of our new global reality. In March and April there were two ordinations - in Melbourne, Australia and in London, UK. Furthermore, the first ordination on Polish soil took place in Krakow in August and last weekend there was a public ordination at Dharmadhara retreat centre in northern California, US.

As our community adapts to the restrictions imposed by Covid-19, there have also been opportunities presented by an increasingly online world. The ordination teams and retreat centres have been working hard to make larger ordination retreats possible, ensuring that they meet all necessary risk assessments and appropriate hygiene standards to enable a safe retreat environment for the ordinands, but also how to include the wider community in celebrating the important step taken by these women and men.

So we are delighted to say that at the moment there is an ordination retreat for 16 women taking place at Adhisthana retreat centre in Herefordshire, UK, and Tiratanaloka retreat centre, Wales. On Monday 28th September at 14.00 BST the public ordinations of these women will be live streamed on Youtube. And, in a few days, on 25th September, Padmaloka retreat centre in Norfolk, UK will be opening its doors again to men coming on retreat for the first time since March - and this first retreat will be an ordination retreat for five men who were due to be ordained in April. Their public ordinations will be live streamed from the Padmaloka shrine room on YouTube on Thursday 1st October at 14:30 BST.

All from our sangha are welcome to join these public ordinations as they take place online and send these women and men their well-wishing as they take this significant step. 🎉

Watch the upcoming public ordinations online

This is part of an online event for people thinking of asking for ordination into the Triratna Buddhist Order.

What are our next steps in this potent time, where the unconscious becomes conscious and we question where we are headed individually and collectively? What part does the Tiratana Buddhist Order play in a new post-lockdown world? Why have an Order at all? How can committing to the Order help us to deepen our Dharma practice and help the world? Vajratara explores all these questions drawing on the story at the centre of the Gandhavyuha Sutra, where the seeker meets wisdom in the sacred grove. A grove full of strange creatures, where the Buddhas of the past let go of what was hard to let go of.

If you are interested in exploring this theme further, book onto our zoom discussion group at 10.30am -12pm on Sunday the 28th of June.

Our income has been significantly reduced due to the drop in retreat income and we are dependent on donations. If you can give anything to support us while we are closed, please donate via our JustGiving page.

At present we are not able to run our residential retreats, but we have been providing online study weeks, Prostration Practice in the afternoons, as well as continuing personal communication with people.

We are doing all of this on a dana basis, at the same as loosing much of our regular income from retreat payments. We still have our overheads to cover and a full team to support.

What we ask from you is to make a donation to support us. We need to raise enough to cover what we need to keep Tiratanaloka running: £11,000 a month to cover our overheads and support costs, and £125 a month to maintain our internet services. What we would like is for you to set up a standing order to help us during this time, or to give a one off gift. This will enable us to carry on running our activities online, on a dana basis, for however long we need to. Please use our just giving page to donate now, and enable us to carry on giving the gift of the Dharma.

This is an unusual time and I would say a spiritual potent time. When everything else is taken away and our future plans dissolve, we realise how important Dharma practice really is. Let us keep practising and build a stronger world for the future.

Thank you so much for considering to support us to keep giving the gift of the Dharma.
 

The response of many people during the Coronavirus pandemic has been to want to help very practically by supporting the NHS, our friends and neighbours, and to want to deepen our Dharma practice, enabling us to better emotionally respond to the difficulties that arise. Some of us are thinking about the future, to how the pandemic will effect long term societal change. What part does the Tiratana Buddhist Order play in this? Why have an Order at all? How can committing to the Order help us to deepen our Dharma practice and help the world?

Vajratara will give a talk to be uploaded on YouTube here on Saturday 27 June. We will also have a zoom discussion group at 10.30am -12pm on Sunday 28 June to talk about our own reflections on this area and to ask any questions.  You can book a place on the zoom discussion via our website.  After you book we will send you out a zoom link 2 weeks prior to the event.

The zoom discussion will be led by Vajratara and Karunadhi.  We are both looking forward to seeing you!

You may be wondering what we are doing at Tiratanaloka during the lockdown. Given the current situation with Covid-19, we're unable to run our normal retreat program here. However, we have been exploring the idea of running online study weeks and have recently completed our first one, which went very well. We’re now pleased to be offering a series of 3 further study weeks running on alternate weeks and starting from the 20th April.  More may be added, we'll see how it goes!  The first is available to book online, and more will follow.  Check out our website.

We also know that the Going for Refuge and Prostration Practice is an important practice that we do together on retreat, so we would like to also offer you the opportunity to join with others doing this practice led by the Tiratanaloka community at 4pm starting on the 20th of April and continuing every week, Monday to Friday, until 22nd May. This is being offered to all mitras who have asked for Ordination. If you’d like to join some or all of these sessions you can register here.  Once your registration has been accepted, you can join as many sessions of the practice as you wish.

A weekend for women (+) who are thinking of asking for Ordination into the Triratna Buddhist Order.  Why ask for ordination?  Why join the Order?  Why have an Order at all?  What do we have to do to join the Order?  We will look at all these questions, as well as any others you bring up, so that you can make an informed decision about your next steps.  This is also an opportunity to visit Tiratanaloka and enjoy the beauty of the Brecon Beacons.  There's a mystery at the heart of the Order, and maybe you'll catch a glimpse.  

26 - 28 June

Book through Tiratanaloka.

Due to popular demand, we have added an extra retreat to our programme in 2020.  Our theme will be ‘The Nature of Existence’: the marks of conditioned existence, the doors of liberation and the topsy turvy views.  We will explore beauty, change, emptiness and ultimate happiness.  The material is taken from Chapter 11 of Sangharakshita’s book ‘The Three Jewels’, which we will study in groups as well as having significant portions of the retreat laid aside for meditation and reflection to take our understanding deeper.

12 - 26 June 2020.  Book through Tiratanaloka

‘As stars, a fault of vision, as a lamp,
A mock show, dew drops, or a bubble,
A dream, a lightening flash, or a cloud, 
So should one view what is conditioned’ 

Vajracchedika Prajnaparamita