Dharmachari Subhuti

Part of a series on
Buddhism
Glossary Index Outline
History Timeline The Buddha Pre-sectarian Buddhism Councils Silk Road transmission of Buddhism Decline in the Indian subcontinent Later Buddhists Buddhist modernism
Dharma Concepts Four Noble Truths Noble Eightfold Path Dharma wheel Five Aggregates Impermanence Suffering Not-self Dependent Origination Middle Way Emptiness Morality Karma Rebirth Saṃsāra Cosmology
Buddhist texts Buddhavacana Early Texts Tripiṭaka Mahayana Sutras Pāli Canon Sanskrit literature Tibetan canon Chinese canon Post-canon
Practices Three Jewels Buddhist Paths to liberation Five precepts Perfections Meditation Philosophical reasoning Devotional practices Merit making Recollections Mindfulness Wisdom Sublime abidings Aids to Enlightenment Monasticism Lay life Buddhist chant Pilgrimage Vegetarianism
Nirvāṇa Awakening Four Stages Arhat Pratyekabuddha Bodhisattva Buddha
Traditions Theravāda Pāli Mahāyāna Hinayana Chinese Vajrayāna Tibetan Navayana Newar
Buddhism by country Bhutan Brazil Cambodia China India Indonesia Japan Korea Laos Malaysia Mongolia Myanmar Russia Singapore US Sri Lanka Taiwan Thailand Tibet Vietnam
Religion portal
v t e

Dharmachari Subhuti, born Alex Kennedy, is a senior associate at the Triratna Buddhist Community (formerly the Friends of the Western Buddhist Order),^[1] founded by Sangharakshita, and president of the London Buddhist Centre. He has held various positions of leadership and been instrumental in many developments in the community.^[2][3]

Subhuti was influential in the building of the London Buddhist Centre, which opened in 1978, and he helped raise funds from the Greater London Council for its completion. He developed training for men preparing to be ordained into the Triratna Buddhist Order at the Padmaloka retreat centre, near Norwich, in England. He also helped found Guhyaloka, a retreat centre in Spain, where men make final preparations to become members of the order.^[2]

As well as being involved in the spread of the Dharma in the West, particularly in Britain, Subhuti spends six months each year working with the community's Indian wing, the Triratna Bauddha Mahāsaṅgha (TBM).^[2][4]

Most of TBM's members are drawn from the poorest people in India, sometimes referred to as Dalits, or so-called "untouchables". The late Dalit leader B. R. Ambedkar converted to Buddhism, saying it was necessary to escape the caste oppression and discrimination that this group experienced. Hundreds of thousands of Ambedkar's followers subsequently converted to Buddhism.^{[citation needed]}

Following the turn of the millennium, Subhuti raised concerns over the circumstances of some of Sangharakshita's past sexual relationships, and around the same time, his chairmanship of Triratna's Preceptors College was handed on to Dharmachari Dhammarati.^[5] In the years leading up to Sangarakshita's death in 2018, Subhuti and Sangharakshita collaborated closely to produce a series of new articles clarifying and reemphasizing Triratna's core approach and principles.^{[citation needed]}