meeting at madhyamaloka, with dhammadinna, ratnadharini and maitreyi, to discuss the training of private preceptors.
this came out of a discussion in august at the preceptors college meeting. as the group of private preceptors grows, we're recognising what an influential group it is, probably the single most influential group in the shape of the next generation of the order. till recently, private preceptors were usually members of a specialist ordination team, and very experienced at helping people to prepare for ordination.

there is an advantage as the pool of preceptors broadens: it makes for much closer personal relationships between the preceptor and the person being ordained. but there's a disadvantage. we can no longer assume that the preceptors have the same depth of experience in preparing people for ordination. so we're giving more thought to preceptor training.

we're proposing a series of retreats that each new preceptor would have access to:
the retreats would cover practical responsibilities, like how to orchestrate the discussion between all order members who have a say in the decision to ordain someone. but we'd also intend to cover the threefold path, aiming for short but intensive retreats, deepening the practice of ethics, meditation and wisdom, particularly from the point of view of the preceptors' responsibility for the training of new order memebers.