Dharmachari Subhuti, originally Alex Kennedy, is a senior associate of Sangharakshita, founder of the Triratna Buddhist Community, and President of the London Buddhist Centre. He has held various positions of leadership and has been instrumental in many developments in the community. Subhuti was influential in the building of the London Buddhist Centre, which opened in 1978, and he helped to raisefunds from the Greater London Council for its completion. He developed training for men preparing to be ordained into the Triratna Buddhist Order at Padmaloka retreat centre, near Norwich in England. He also helped to found Guhyaloka, a retreat centre in Spain, where men make final preparations to become members of the order. 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. 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, Dr. Ambedkar, converted to Buddhism, saying it was necessary to escape the caste oppression and discrimination which this group experienced. Hundreds of thousands of Dr Ambedkar's followers subsequently converted to Buddhism. 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. In recent years Subhuti and Sangharakshita have been collaborating closely to producea series of new articles clarifying and reemphasizing Triratna's core approach and principles.
Published works
Subhuti's books include Sangharakshita: A New Voice in the Buddhist Tradition, which explores what Sangharakshita has contributed to the practice of Buddhism and the spread of Buddhism in the West. He has also published: "The Buddhist Vision", "Bringing Buddhism to the West", "Buddhism for Today", "Women, men, and angels", and "Buddhism and Friendship". Alex Kennedy argues that "sexual interest on the part of a male order member for a male mitra can create a connection which may allow kalyana mitrata to develop". He goes on to claim that while "some, of course, are predisposed to this attraction, others have deliberately chosen to change their sexual preferences in order to use sex as a medium of kalyana mitrata." Kennedy also suggests that "male-female relationships … are probably not particularly spiritually productive" and he speaks "of the dangers of male-female relationships". Those who cannot follow such ideas he suggests to be blocked by "taboo" or a "reluctance to give up a conditioned predisposition."
