Triratna

1. Introduction

Version followed: the Triratna Buddhist Community as it describes itself on its own websites (The Buddhist Centre Online and local Triratna centres) and in the Adhisthana Kula report "Addressing Ethical Issues in Triratna" (August 2020), with the psychotherapist's role written as [synthesis].

Triratna is a modern Buddhist movement and teaching organisation, not a therapy. It was founded in London in 1967 by Sangharakshita (born Dennis Lingwood, 1925) as the Friends of the Western Buddhist Order (FWBO). It took the name Triratna Buddhist Community in 2010 [source: Wikipedia, Triratna Buddhist Community; uncertain: secondary, unverified]. Its centres teach two foundational meditations, the Mindfulness of Breathing and the Metta Bhavana, within what they call a "System of Practice" [source: Brighton Buddhist Centre, Meditation & Buddhism]. They also offer Buddhist study, devotional ritual (puja), retreats and a graded path of involvement that leads to ordination into the Triratna Buddhist Order.

The movement's own account of change: in its account, practice moves a person from integration and positive emotion towards insight, and Going for Refuge to the Three Jewels (Buddha, Dharma, Sangha) is what makes someone a Buddhist. These are religious claims, attributed to the tradition and not stated here as fact [source: Wikipedia, Triratna Buddhist Community; uncertain: secondary, unverified].

For the psychotherapist, the work is not to teach Triratna practice. It is (a) to understand and support a client's own involvement, with consent and in the client's terms; (b) to recognise meditation-related difficulties and group dynamics; and (c) to help clients affected by the documented misconduct of the founder and the past culture of the movement. Triratna itself has published an account of that misconduct (see Harm account) [synthesis].

2. Framework

Triratna has no therapeutic phases. The framework below is the organisation's path of involvement as published, followed by a [synthesis] frame for the therapist's work alongside it. No session counts are given by the sources and none are stated here.

A. The organisation's path of involvement

• Newcomer and drop-in classes. Centres run drop-in meditation sessions, often by donation, and introductory courses that teach the two foundational meditations [source: Brighton Buddhist Centre]. Local centres list newcomer events, courses, regular classes and retreats [source: Ipswich Buddhist Centre].
• Sangha activities. For example, a monthly Sangha gathering for people who have learned both practices [source: Brighton Buddhist Centre].
• "Friends". People who attend regularly, of any faith or none [source: Wikipedia; uncertain: secondary, unverified].
• Mitra. A formal affiliation in which the person commits to five ethical precepts [source: Wikipedia; uncertain: secondary, unverified].
• Request for ordination. This takes a written request and several years of preparation [source: Wikipedia; uncertain: secondary, unverified].
• Ordination into the Triratna Buddhist Order.
  • Order members are called dharmacharis or dharmacharinis. They receive a Pali or Sanskrit name and observe ten precepts, which are not monastic vows.
  • There is one ordination covering lay and monastic-style lifestyles, and no separate monastic order.
  • Ordinations are carried out by preceptors. A preceptors' college took over this role from the founder in the late 1990s.
  • [source: Wikipedia; uncertain: secondary, unverified]
• Retreats. These range from weekends to one or two weeks [source: Wikipedia; uncertain: secondary, unverified].
• Meditation curriculum (Sangharakshita's "system of meditation"). Five stages:
  • integration (Mindfulness of Breathing);
  • positive emotion (Metta Bhavana);
  • spiritual death (reflection on emptiness, impermanence and suffering);
  • spiritual rebirth (visualisation of Buddhas and bodhisattvas, with a visualisation practice given at ordination);
  • receptivity ("just sitting").
  • [source: Wikipedia; uncertain: secondary, unverified]
• Criteria for moving on. Moving from one stage to the next (mitra, ordination) is decided within the organisation by its teachers and preceptors, not by the therapist [synthesis].

B. The therapist's work alongside (all [synthesis])

1. Engagement and assessment. Map the client's involvement: their level (newcomer, mitra, Order member, former member), what they practise and how often, retreats, living or working arrangements, and the meaning involvement holds for them. Screen for meditation-related difficulty and for any exposure to misconduct. Move on once you and the client share a picture of what the involvement means and what the client wants from therapy.
2. Agreed focus. Choose one or more of these:
   • client-led integration of practice into therapy goals;
   • managing meditation-related difficulty;
   • group-dynamic or leaving issues;
   • harm related to teacher misconduct. Move on once the focus is explicit and consented to.
3. Active work. Use the interventions in section 4. Review regularly whether practice is helping or destabilising.
4. Consolidation and ending. The client should have a self-chosen relationship to practice and community (continuing, adjusting or leaving), plus a plan for support outside therapy. For some clients that support is a teacher or Triratna's restorative process, if they wish.

3. Guiding principles

• Describe the tradition as it describes itself. Use Triratna's terms (mitra, Order member, Going for Refuge, metta) with a gloss. Practical meaning: ask the client what a term means to them before you interpret it [synthesis].
• Attribute, do not adjudicate, religious claims. Practical meaning: say "in Triratna's teaching…" rather than endorsing or dismissing claims about awakening, karma or rebirth [synthesis].
• The therapist is not the meditation teacher. Practical meaning: refer questions of technique, especially restricted or advanced practices given at ordination, to the client's Triratna teachers. Do not teach them in session [synthesis].
• Client-led integration with explicit consent. Practical meaning: bring practice into sessions only when the client asks for it and agrees to it, in the client's own language [synthesis].
• Respect a variety of experience. Triratna's own report notes that experiences of the same events were "not the same for everyone". Practical meaning: do not assume harm, or its absence, from membership alone [source: Triratna, Sangharakshita's Sexual Activity].
• Power and consent. Triratna's report concludes that a status imbalance can compromise a junior person's ability to refuse a sexual advance. Practical meaning: whenever a client describes a sexual or intimate relationship with a teacher or senior member, assess power and consent explicitly [source: Triratna, Sangharakshita's Sexual Activity].
• Welfare before reputation. The Kula states that its primary responsibility is the welfare and safety of people engaging with Triratna. Practical meaning: the therapist likewise keeps the client's safety, not any organisation's standing, at the centre [source: Triratna, Sangharakshita's Sexual Activity].
• Avoid labelling. Practical meaning: do not call the group a "cult". Assess specific behaviours (coercion, isolation, sexual exploitation, financial or work pressure) instead [synthesis].
• Watch for adverse meditation effects. Practical meaning: ask about destabilising experiences during practice or retreat, and reduce or adjust practice when they appear [synthesis; research literature uncertain: not verified].
• Boundaries and self-disclosure. Practical meaning: avoid dual relationships (for example attending the same centre or sangha as a client). Disclose your own religious commitments only when that serves the client. Seek supervision when your own views on Buddhism or on Triratna are strong [synthesis; professional ethics code text uncertain: not verified].
• Collaborate only on the client's terms. Practical meaning: contact a teacher, safeguarding officer or chaplain only with the client's written consent, except where law or safeguarding duty requires otherwise [synthesis].

4. Intervention inventory

Part A gives Triratna's own practices in public outline, as the organisation and its centres publish them. Part B gives the psychotherapist's interventions alongside them, which are [synthesis] unless a source is cited. Detailed meditation instruction belongs to Triratna's teachers. It is published, for example, in Vessantara's The Breath and The Body (Windhorse Publications) [source: Ipswich Buddhist Centre review; uncertain: not verified].

Part A: Triratna practices (public outline; refer for instruction)

A1. Mindfulness of Breathing

• Purpose (as the tradition states it). The first of the two foundational practices. It is described as developing awareness and integration and an understanding of how the mind works [source: Brighton Buddhist Centre]. It corresponds to the "integration" stage of the system of meditation [source: Wikipedia; uncertain: secondary, unverified].
• Outline. Triratna teaches it as a practice in four stages. Teaching books cover setting up a regular practice, working with energy and keeping interest going [source: Ipswich Buddhist Centre review of The Breath]. The content of each stage is not set out here [uncertain: not verified]. Clients should learn it from a Triratna centre course or teacher, or from the organisation's published guidance.
• Steps (therapist's role). Do not teach or modify the stages yourself. If the client already practises, use B2 (client-led integration).
• Example language (illustrative). "You mentioned you learned the Mindfulness of Breathing at the centre. Would you tell me how you practise it, in your own words, and what you notice afterwards?"
• Watch for.
  • Breath focus that triggers panic, dissociation or trauma memories (see B4).
  • Over-long or very frequent sitting during distress.
  • Clients using practice to avoid painful material.
  • Signs that it is working: the client reports steadier attention and a calmer relationship to thoughts, without new destabilising symptoms [synthesis].

A2. Metta Bhavana (cultivation of loving-kindness)

• Purpose (as the tradition states it). The second foundational practice. It is described as cultivating positive emotion and compassion, and an "opening of the heart" [source: Brighton Buddhist Centre]. It corresponds to the "positive emotion" stage of the system [source: Wikipedia; uncertain: secondary, unverified].
• Outline. Taught in staged form at Triratna centres, with Vessantara's The Body recommended as a companion book [source: Ipswich Buddhist Centre]. The stage-by-stage content is not given here [uncertain: not verified]. Refer the client to a centre teacher for it.
• Steps (therapist's role). Explore with the client which parts of the practice feel nourishing and which feel difficult, for example directing kindness towards oneself, or towards a person who has harmed them (see B2 and B5).
• Example language (illustrative). "Some people find the kindness practice warm and easy, and others find parts of it painful, especially towards themselves or towards someone who hurt them. What is it like for you?"
• Watch for.
  • Self-criticism or shame triggered when the practice turns towards oneself.
  • Pressure to "feel metta" towards an abuser. This can become self-blame or a reason to stay silent about harm.
  • Clients for whom the abuser was a teacher of this very practice [synthesis].

A3. Later stages of the system of meditation

• Purpose (as the tradition states it).
  • Reflection on impermanence, emptiness and suffering ("spiritual death").
  • Visualisation of Buddhas and bodhisattvas ("spiritual rebirth"). A personal visualisation practice is given at ordination.
  • "Just sitting" (receptivity).
  • [source: Wikipedia; uncertain: secondary, unverified]
• Outline. The practice given at ordination is restricted to the context of ordination. It is not described here, and clients should not be encouraged to obtain it outside that context [synthesis].
• Steps (therapist's role). Respect the privacy of practices given at ordination. Ask only about the client's experience of them, not their content.
• Example language (illustrative). "You don't need to tell me the details of the practice you were given. I'm interested in how it is for you to do it at the moment."
• Watch for.
  • Reflection on death and impermanence feeding depressive rumination or suicidal thinking. Assess risk using current standard practice.
  • Depersonalisation during formless practice (see B4) [synthesis].

A4. Puja (devotional ritual)

• Purpose (as the tradition states it). Communal devotional ritual. Its common form is adapted from Shantideva's Bodhicaryavatara [source: Wikipedia; uncertain: secondary, unverified].
• Outline. Recitation and devotional offerings led at centres and on retreats. The text and order of the ritual are not reproduced here.
• Steps (therapist's role). Ask what the ritual means to the client: belonging, devotion, or discomfort.
• Example language (illustrative). "When you take part in puja, what happens for you?"
• Watch for. Former members for whom devotional practice towards a founder-centred lineage is now painful. Shame about devotional feeling [synthesis].

A5. Going for Refuge, precepts and ordination

• Purpose (as the tradition states it).
  • Going for Refuge to the Three Jewels is regarded as the central act that makes someone a Buddhist.
  • Mitras commit to five precepts. Order members observe ten precepts.
  • Ordination follows a written request and years of preparation.
  • [source: Wikipedia; uncertain: secondary, unverified]
• Steps (therapist's role). Explore what commitments mean to the client and how they shape decisions, such as relationships, work and where they live.
• Example language (illustrative). "How do the precepts you've taken show up in this decision?"
• Watch for.
  • Scrupulous self-monitoring of precepts: repeated checking, confession-seeking, intrusive fear of having broken a precept. If present, see B7.
  • Feeling unable to leave or step back because of the commitment made [synthesis].

A6. Retreats, residential communities and team-based work

• Purpose (as the tradition states it).
  • Retreats last from weekends to a week or two.
  • Many residential communities are single-sex, a model the founders considered most stable.
  • Team-based "right livelihood" businesses aimed to fund the movement and provide settings for spiritual growth.
  • [source: Wikipedia; uncertain: secondary, unverified]
• Steps (therapist's role). Map how much of the client's housing, income, friendships and time sit inside the community. Discuss what support exists outside it.
• Example language (illustrative). "If you imagine stepping back for a while, who and what would still be there for you?"
• Watch for.
  • Total overlap of home, work and friendship. This raises the cost of disagreement or leaving.
  • Retreat intensity in a client with trauma, psychosis risk or bipolar history (see B3 and B4).
  • Scholars cited in secondary sources say the single-sex principle marginalised women [source: Wikipedia citing Munt and Smith; uncertain: secondary, unverified].

A7. Spiritual friendship, ethical guidelines and safeguarding

• Purpose (as the organisation states it). Triratna emphasises friendship within the sangha. Its report notes that sexual relations within "spiritual friendship" were later generally discouraged, but that guidelines were not always followed because the culture avoided rules and sanctions [source: Triratna, Sangharakshita's Sexual Activity].
• Triratna's current published measures.
  • A model safeguarding adults policy, a model child protection policy and code of conduct, and model ethical guidelines (all 2020).
  • A College of Public Preceptors statement on sex between preceptors and those they ordain.
  • A panel process for misconduct.
  • [source: Triratna, Documents and Resources]
  • A safeguarding officer, first appointed in 2016 [source: Triratna, Sangharakshita's Sexual Activity].
• Steps (therapist's role). If the client wants to raise a concern, help them find the centre's safeguarding contact and the published policies. Decide together whether to use them.
• Example language (illustrative). "Triratna has published safeguarding policies and a way of raising concerns. Would it help to look at what that would involve, so you can decide whether you want to use it?"
• Watch for. The client feeling pressured to use, or not to use, internal processes. Make sure they know that external routes, such as police and statutory adult or child safeguarding services, exist independently [synthesis].

A8. Restorative process

• Purpose (as the organisation states it). A Triratna system for addressing difficulties and conflicts, past and present. The Kula's contact with people affected by the founder's conduct led to three restorative conversations, whose details are confidential [source: Triratna, Addressing Ethical Issues; Sangharakshita's Sexual Activity].
• Steps (therapist's role). If the client is considering it, explore their hopes, their fears and their readiness. Prepare them for possible outcomes, including disappointment, and plan support afterwards.
• Example language (illustrative). "What would you most want to happen in that conversation, and what would you need if it didn't go that way?"
• Watch for. Re-traumatisation, or pressure to forgive. Restorative work is voluntary and should not replace therapy or legal routes [synthesis].

Part B: The psychotherapist's interventions (all [synthesis] unless cited)

B1. Religious and involvement assessment

• Purpose. Understand what Triratna means in the client's life, and identify any risk or harm. Use this at intake with any client who mentions Triratna or the FWBO.
• Steps.
  1. Ask about their level of involvement and its history: when they started, which centre, and whether they are a mitra, an Order member or a former member.
  2. Ask about their current practice: which meditations, how often, how long, and recent retreats.
  3. Ask about living, work and friendship arrangements inside the community.
  4. Ask about meaning: what drew them in and what it gives them.
  5. Screen gently for distressing meditation experiences and for any experience of sexual or other misconduct, without assuming either.
  6. Use a structured cultural assessment, such as the DSM-5-TR Cultural Formulation Interview and its supplementary module on spirituality, religion and moral traditions [uncertain: not verified].
• Example language (illustrative). "Tell me about your connection with Triratna: what it has given you, and anything about it that has been hard."
• Watch for. Idealisation or wholesale rejection, either of which can hide a mixed reality. A good sign: the client can describe both the benefits and the difficulties.

B2. Client-led integration of practice into therapy

• Purpose. Use a client's existing practice as a resource, at their request.
• Steps.
  1. Get explicit consent to bring practice into sessions.
  2. Ask the client to describe the practice as they were taught it. Do not add to or correct the teaching.
  3. Agree a small, specific use. For example, the client does their usual practice briefly before a difficult conversation and notices the effect.
  4. Review the effect at the next session.
  5. Send technique questions back to their teacher.
• Example language (illustrative). "You know this practice far better than I do. How might it fit with what we're working on, if at all?"
• Watch for.
  • Practice used for avoidance ("I'll just meditate it away").
  • The therapist drifting into the teacher role.
  • A good sign: the client reports that practice and therapy feel complementary.

B3. Screening before intensive retreats

• Purpose. Reduce the risk of destabilisation on longer or silent retreats.
• Steps.
  1. Ask about any history of psychosis, mania, recent trauma, dissociation, severe depression or prior meditation-related crises.
  2. Discuss with the client whether to tell the retreat leaders, and what support exists on site.
  3. Agree warning signs and a plan: whom to contact, and when to stop or leave.
  4. Do not advise on medication. Route medical questions to the prescriber.
• Example language (illustrative). "Before you go, could we agree what you'd do if things got very intense, and who you would tell?"
• Watch for. Reluctance to disclose to retreat leaders because of a belief that difficulty is a spiritual failure. The published research on challenging meditation experiences (Lindahl et al. 2017; Farias et al. 2020; Cheetah House resources) is relevant.

B4. Responding to adverse or unusual meditation experiences

• Purpose. Help clients who have panic, dissociation, intrusive memories, perceptual changes, insomnia or depersonalisation linked to practice.
• Steps.
  1. Normalise without minimising: such experiences are reported in the research literature [uncertain: not verified].
  2. Reduce the dose: shorter sessions, eyes open, fewer sessions, or a pause.
  3. Shift attention to an external or anchoring focus, such as sounds, feet on the floor, or walking.
  4. Offer grounding and trauma-sensitive adaptations: choice, permission to stop, and moving the anchor away from the breath if breath focus is distressing. Treleaven's Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness (2018) is the usual published adaptation [uncertain: not verified].
  5. Assess for psychosis, mania, severe depression or a dissociative disorder. Refer for psychiatric assessment if indicated.
  6. Where the clinical picture is a religious or spiritual problem rather than a mental disorder, DSM-5-TR provides a code for "religious or spiritual problem" (Z65.8).
  7. With the client's consent, coordinate with their meditation teacher.
• Example language (illustrative). "Let's try keeping your eyes open and feeling your feet on the floor. You can stop at any point. Nothing needs to be pushed through."
• Watch for.
  • Escalating sleep loss, grandiosity, paranoia or functional decline. These need urgent medical review.
  • Signs it is working: symptoms ease as the dose is reduced and grounding is used.

B5. Assessing coercive or high-control dynamics

• Purpose. Tell healthy commitment apart from coercion, without labelling the group.
• Steps.
  1. Map overlap of life domains (A6).
  2. Ask whether the client can disagree with teachers without being penalised.
  3. Ask about pressure on sexuality, relationships, family contact, money or work.
  4. Ask whether leaving, or stepping back, feels possible.
  5. Note specific behaviours rather than general impressions.
• Example language (illustrative). "When you've disagreed with someone senior, what happened?"
• Watch for.
  • Ideas that devalue the client's partner, family or ordinary life as obstacles to spiritual growth. Triratna's own report identifies past "unhelpful attitudes and ideas" about sex, gender and lifestyle [source: Triratna, Addressing Ethical Issues].
  • Secrecy, or the framing of complaints as a spiritual failing.

B6. Working with teacher-related sexual harm

• Purpose. Help clients affected by sexual relationships with teachers or senior members, whether as participants or witnesses. See the Harm account.
• Steps.
  1. Establish safety and the client's pace.
  2. Assess power and consent explicitly, using Triratna's own framing that status imbalance can compromise a junior person's ability to refuse [source: Triratna, Sangharakshita's Sexual Activity].
  3. Make room for mixed feelings. Some involved describe the experience positively, some as confusing or freezing [source: same].
  4. Address the harms of abandonment and silence afterwards, which Triratna's report identifies as significant [source: same].
  5. Use evidence-based trauma treatment where PTSD is present.
  6. Support the client's choices about reporting, restorative processes, or neither.
• Example language (illustrative). "It makes sense to feel more than one thing about this: gratitude for what you learned, and hurt or anger about what happened."
• Watch for. Self-blame framed in spiritual terms, and protective loyalty to the teacher or community. A good sign: the client can name what happened in their own words and choose what to do about it.

B7. Scrupulosity around precepts

• Purpose. Address obsessive doubt about ethical purity, such as fear of having broken a precept, compulsive confession or reassurance-seeking.
• Steps.
  1. Distinguish ordinary ethical reflection from obsessive doubt by its intensity, repetition and the relief it brings.
  2. Use exposure and response prevention (ERP) with the client's consent and appropriate safety planning.
  3. With the client's consent, consult a trusted teacher about what the tradition actually requires. Clinical sources such as the IOCDF describe this kind of consultation for religious scrupulosity [uncertain: not verified].
• Example language (illustrative). "Would it help to ask a teacher you trust what the precept actually asks of you, and then practise living with the doubt rather than checking?"
• Watch for. Reassurance-seeking moving to the teacher instead of the therapist.

B8. Leaving, stepping back and religious trauma

• Purpose. Support a client's decision about their relationship with Triratna, whether that is to stay, change their role or leave.
• Steps.
  1. Avoid pushing in any direction.
  2. Explore practical dependencies such as housing, work and friendships.
  3. Plan support outside the community.
  4. Process grief for the community and for lost identity or meaning.
  5. Help the client keep whatever practice they value, if they wish to, in another setting.
• Example language (illustrative). "Whatever you decide, what would you want to keep from these years?"
• Watch for. Isolation after leaving, loss of spiritual meaning, and depression.

B9. Boundaries, self-disclosure and referral

• Purpose. Keep the therapist's role clear.
• Steps.
  1. Avoid dual relationships: do not treat a client from your own sangha, and refer them on if needed.
  2. Disclose your own Buddhist or other commitments only if it serves the client.
  3. Refer to Triratna teachers for practice questions, to a psychiatrist for mental illness, and to specialist trauma services for complex trauma.
  4. Collaborate with clergy, chaplains or teachers only with written consent.
  5. Follow your professional code; for psychologists this is the APA Ethics Code (https://www.apa.org/ethics/code).
  6. Use published spiritual and religious competencies, such as Vieten et al. 2013, for self-assessment [uncertain: not verified].
• Example language (illustrative). "I'm not a meditation teacher, so for questions about the technique itself your teachers are the right people. Here we can look at how it's affecting you."
• Watch for. Your own idealisation of or hostility to Buddhism or Triratna. Take it to supervision.

5. Handling problems

All guidance here is [synthesis] unless a source is cited. The sources consulted do not address therapy problems directly.

• Stuck client: "practice isn't working, so I'm failing spiritually." Separate the clinical problem from spiritual self-evaluation. Agree a modest practice dose. Suggest the client discuss the practice itself with their teacher. Work on the self-critical belief directly.
• Resistance to therapy as "un-Buddhist" or unnecessary. Acknowledge the client's tradition. Frame therapy as working alongside practice, not replacing it. Use the client's own terms for suffering and change where they fit.
• Overwhelm during or after meditation or retreat. Use B4: reduce the dose, ground, and assess for psychosis, mania, severe depression or dissociation. If there is acute risk, arrange urgent medical or psychiatric review. Do not advise on medication.
• Non-adherence to agreed practice changes. Explore loyalty to the teacher or community and fear of falling behind peers. Renegotiate a step the client can accept, or invite the teacher's input with consent.
• Rupture over the therapist's stance on Triratna. This happens when the client experiences the therapist as hostile to Triratna (for example after raising the misconduct history) or as naive about it. Name the rupture and repair it. Make clear that the client's own experience is what matters. Avoid debating the organisation.
• Idealisation of the founder or teachers blocking discussion of harm. Do not confront the belief. Ask about specific experiences and their effects. Triratna's own report acknowledges the founder's failings, so the client may find it easier to discuss when they know the organisation itself has said this [source: Triratna, Sangharakshita's Sexual Activity].
• Client wants the therapist to teach meditation or interpret Buddhist doctrine. Hold the role boundary (B9) and refer to Triratna teachers.
• Disclosure of current abuse, or a risk to children or adults at risk. Follow your jurisdiction's safeguarding and reporting law and your professional code. The client can also use Triratna's own safeguarding policies, but those do not replace statutory routes [source for the policies' existence: Triratna, Documents and Resources].
• Client is an Order member who holds pastoral power over others. Explore their own boundaries and use of authority. Triratna's published ethical guidelines for teachers and ordainers may be a useful shared reference [source: Triratna, Addressing Ethical Issues].
• Dual relationships in small Buddhist communities. If you and the client share a sangha, refer them on. If an overlap emerges later, discuss it and document the discussion.

Harm account

What was actually done

This account follows Triratna's own published report, "Sangharakshita's Sexual Activity", part of the Adhisthana Kula report of August 2020. Secondary material is marked where used.

• The founder's sexual relations with men in the movement, 1968–1985.
  • Sangharakshita, the founder and head of the Order, had sexual relations with a number of men involved in the FWBO from 1968 to 1985.
  • He had previously been a celibate monk. He became a non-celibate head of a non-celibate Order, and during the transition he sometimes still wore robes, so his status was unclear.
  • He returned to celibacy after 1985.
  • The Kula identified 24 men who it believed might have had sexual relations with him.
  • [source: Triratna, Sangharakshita's Sexual Activity]
• Openness within the movement. The relationships were not secret and were "known to many people" inside and outside the movement. Many at the time did not consider them morally questionable. The culture avoided rules and sanctions, and guidelines discouraging sex within spiritual friendship were not always followed [source: same].
• Padmaloka retreat centre, early 1980s. Concerns were raised that men were allocated to share the founder's bed. Triratna's safeguarding team addressed this separately [source: same].
• A further allegation. An allegation about an incident said to have taken place in 2003 was investigated in 2012, and a report was published [source: same].
• Afterwards. The founder was sometimes unwilling or unable to discuss the relationships with those involved once they ended.
  • He commented on the period in a 1987 interview and a 1992 letter without apologising.
  • He issued a confessional statement in December 2016.
  • He acknowledged the impact on the wider community only very near the end of his life.
  • [source: same; personal statement dated Dec 2016 per Triratna, Documents and Resources]
• Wider culture. Triratna's report identifies past "unhelpful attitudes and ideas" about sex, gender and lifestyle that left "a legacy of pain and distrust" [source: Triratna, Addressing Ethical Issues].
  • Triratna's resource list includes documents cited in critical coverage with titles such as "The single-sex community as assault on existing social setup" and "The couple as the enemy of spiritual community" [source: Triratna, Documents and Resources].
• Secondary reports.
  • Press coverage from the late 1990s onward, as summarised in a secondary source, alleged sexual misconduct, dogmatism and misogyny in the 1970s and 1980s, including men who felt pressured into sexual relations [uncertain: secondary, unverified].
  • The Croydon centre in the 1980s is described in a secondary source as authoritarian under a charismatic leader who was later removed [uncertain: secondary, unverified].
  • [source: Wikipedia, Triratna Buddhist Community; uncertain: secondary, unverified]

How it caused harm

• Mechanisms (Triratna's own conclusions).
  • The founder did not adequately recognise the power imbalance between teacher and student. He did not see how it could compromise a student's ability to refuse, or understand the emotional impact.
  • His unwillingness or inability to hold meaningful dialogue afterwards was a failing in its own right, and it added significantly to people's difficulties.
  • His delayed acknowledgement prolonged the harm.
  • [source: Triratna, Sangharakshita's Sexual Activity]
• Reported effects.
  • Confusion and distress, and in one account a sense of being mentally and emotionally frozen.
  • Painful and long-lasting emotional impact for some.
  • A complicated relationship with the Dharma and with other sangha members.
  • Feeling ignored once the involvement ended.
  • Some people described the experience as positive, and experiences were not uniform.
  • [source: same]
• Who was most at risk. Junior men in a teacher–student relationship with the founder. More broadly, people whose housing, work and friendships sat inside single-sex communities and team businesses, where disagreeing was costly [first point: source same; second: synthesis].
• Community-level harm. Distrust and division within the Order, and a long period in which responses focused on defending the movement's legitimacy rather than the sexual conduct itself [source: same].

Recognising it today

All points are [synthesis] drawn from the sources above.

• Teacher–student sexual contact presented as part of friendship, mentoring or spiritual development. Also any sexual contact between a preceptor and someone they ordain. Triratna now has a published statement on the latter [source: Triratna, Documents and Resources].
• Sleeping arrangements with a teacher on retreats or in communities.
• Normalisation. "Everyone knows and it's fine", used to stand in for consent and scrutiny.
• A culture that avoids rules and sanctions. Ethical guidelines exist but nothing follows when they are broken.
• Silence after the event. A teacher who will not discuss an ended relationship or its effects.
• Ideas that cast partners, families, couples or women as obstacles to spiritual life, used to steer housing, relationships or work choices.
• Complaints reframed as a spiritual failure, disloyalty or "projection".
• How legitimate settings differ.
  • Published ethical guidelines and safeguarding policies that are actually enforced.
  • Named safeguarding contacts.
  • Clear statements against sex between those with pastoral power and those in their care.
  • Freedom to question teachers and to step back without penalty.
  • [source for Triratna's current policies: Triratna, Documents and Resources]

What to do instead and how to help those harmed

• Safer practice settings. Clients wishing to continue Buddhist practice can be encouraged to check that a centre or group has, and enforces, ethical guidelines, safeguarding policies and a misconduct process. Triratna has published model versions (2020) and a panel process [source: Triratna, Documents and Resources; synthesis].
• Assessment. Assess using B1, B5 and B6:
  • the nature of the involvement, power and consent;
  • PTSD and other trauma symptoms, depression, shame and spiritual injury;
  • current contact with the community;
  • the client's own framing, which may be mixed.
  • [synthesis]
• Treatment.
  • Trauma-focused evidence-based therapy where indicated.
  • Work on self-blame and betrayal.
  • Grief for lost community or meaning.
  • Support to keep or rebuild a spiritual life on the client's terms, including within Triratna if they choose.
  • [synthesis]
• Options the client may choose.
  • Triratna's safeguarding team.
  • Its restorative process, which led to restorative conversations for some of those affected [source: Triratna, Sangharakshita's Sexual Activity].
  • External routes such as the police, statutory safeguarding services and charity regulators [synthesis].
  • Doing nothing formal.
  • Support the client's decision. Never press them towards forgiveness or confrontation.
• Ethical and legal duties.
  • Follow mandatory reporting and safeguarding law where children or adults at risk are involved.
  • Keep the client's confidentiality otherwise.
  • Get written consent before any contact with the organisation.
  • Seek supervision for your own reactions.
  • [synthesis; professional ethics code text uncertain: not verified]

Sources

• Addressing Ethical Issues in Triratna (Adhisthana Kula report, August 2020)
• Sangharakshita's Sexual Activity (Adhisthana Kula report section)
• Documents and Resources (Adhisthana Kula report section)
• The Adhisthana Kula Report: Addressing Ethical Issues in Triratna (Triratna Safeguarding)
• Meditation & Buddhism, Brighton Buddhist Centre (Triratna)
• Review of The Breath, Ipswich Buddhist Centre (Triratna)
• Triratna Buddhist Community, Wikipedia [uncertain: secondary, unverified]
• Books named in Triratna sources: Vessantara, The Breath and The Body (Windhorse Publications) [uncertain: not verified].
• Also referred to [uncertain: not verified]: Lindahl et al. 2017 (PLOS ONE); Farias et al. 2020 (Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica); Cheetah House resources; Treleaven 2018; Vieten et al. 2013; DSM-5-TR Cultural Formulation Interview; IOCDF scrupulosity resources; APA Ethics Code.
• ICD-10-CM Z65.8, Other specified problems related to psychosocial circumstances (includes 'Religious or spiritual problem')