Who We Are

We are a group of committed Buddhists who practice in the tradition of Triratna Buddhism. You can find out more about Triratna by exploring the Buddhist Centre website, which has a wealth of resources and links to Triratna across the world. Triratna is a Western Buddhist Order which makes Buddhism and the Dharma accessible in a modern context without diluting their depth, beauty and potential to transform lives and society.

Currently, we have two Order Members on our core team, Amarapala and Kusaladhi, alongside James and Ren who are training for ordination. We are also supported by a growing number of regular members of our group.

Meet the Team

Not only that, I attended several different Buddhist groups and went on retreat, finally attending a week-long retreat in Dhanakosa. Here I was impressed by the depth of teaching from the retreat leaders and the way that they looked after the retreatants. I felt I had found my spiritual home with Triratna and quickly asked to become a Mitra and then to train for ordination. I was ordained in 2024.

The Dharma has been a great gift to me. Given I have lived in Dunfermline for the most of my adult life, including raising a family here, it makes a lot of sense to me to be part of an initiative to make teaching and spiritual community available in West Fife, and it’s surrounding areas. I have a special interest as a father and a grandfather in how it is possible to live a spiritual life in a family context.

(Kusaladhi is the Safeguarding Officer for the group. – more information can be found here.)

In 2018, I experienced a major change in my life – I got divorced after 27 years of marriage… it was a bit of a big deal for me.   One of the positive effects was that I found The Dharma (Buddhism) and I have been practicing since then.

Four years ago, I was given the opportunity to live and work in a retreat centre – Adhisthana.  I practiced there for a year, and then for the next 3 years I lived and worked in another retreat Centre – Taraloka. Both of these settings allowed me to deepen my practice by living in community and working in a right livelihood business.

I previously identified as a woman and considered myself to be neurotypical.  My practice has allowed me to uncover some previously unseen things about myself, not least of which is that I now identify as non-binary and use the pronouns they and them. Additionally, in the last year, I have been assessed as Autistic and ADHD.

As part of honouring this new self-knowledge, I have chosen to return home to the town of my birth in the hope that the Dharma that has shown me so much about the individual I am, can be of use to others. 

When I was twenty-three, I went along to a class without realising it would end up having a big influence on my life. It was my first experience of meditation, led by a Buddhist teacher. I asked him a lot of questions about how he lived and what he believed, but what stayed with me most wasn’t what he said — it was the way he was. He seemed grounded and at ease in a way that really struck me, and I wanted to understand that for myself.

Finding my way wasn’t simple. I tried out different ideas, made mistakes, and went down a few dead ends. Over time, through Buddhist meditation and with the support of good friends, I started to understand myself a bit better and relate to others more honestly. Occasionally, I caught a glimpse of what a more meaningful way of living might look like.

I’m now training to join the Triratna Buddhist Order and help co-lead the Scottish young Buddhist sangha. I want to keep learning, and to share what I’ve found useful with others — exploring what it really means to be human – right here in my hometown of Dunfermline!