In 1994 I took the Bodhicari precepts with Venerable Balangoda Ananda Maitreya Mahanayaka Thera Aggamaha Pandita Abhidhaja Maharatthaguru DLitt DLitt (24th August 1896 -18th July 1998) as Preceptor. These Precepts were developed partly for Chaplains.
Please see the page Bodhicari Precepts on our website:
www.communigate.co.uk/lakes/buddhistgroupofkendal/ or search for Buddhist Group of Kendal
The Bodhicari Precepts were discussed in NIBWA Newsletter 33 (1992) and 34 (1993), in articles about Bodhicari Vajira. (Venerable Ananda Maitreya gave her the Panca Sila at Dharma Vijaya Buddhist Vihara in Los Angeles in 1986 (Numrich (1996) page 114).) Sakyadhita Newsletter 4 (1) (Summer, 1993) has an article by Bodhicari Vajira “The Support of Precepts”. (
www.sakyadhita.org/NewsLetters/4-1.htm) or (
www.sakyadhita.org Click on Newsletters)
This explains “Just two years ago, on Vesak in 1991, a new ministerial ordination was developed by Dharma Vijaya Buddhist Vihara in Los Angeles…the ministerial ordination of “Bodhicari”…as a paradigm to be used by other temple congregations in America and abroad. So far monks, nuns, laypeople, and scholars around the world have expressed great interest in this new ordination. The general response has been overwhelmingly positive.” NIBWA Newsletter 34 explains “Venerable Ananda Maitreya was in Sri Lanka in 1991, when [Upasika] Vajira was one of the first two people to take the Bodhicari Precepts, and conveyed his approval from there.”
A photgraph of the Bodhicaris is available at
www.dharmavijaya.org/insidepages/publications.htmFurther information is available by searching for Bodhicari Precepts on the web.
Jacquetta Gomes (Bodhicarini Upasika Jayasili)
