Rivendell is one of a number of urban and retreat centres across the world run by members of the Triratna Buddhist Order, which was founded by Sangharakshita.
Sangharakshita was an Englishman born in London in 1925, and who lived as a Buddhist monk in India for some twenty years, before returning to London in the mid 1960s. Here, seeing the need for Buddhist values and practices to be made more readily accessible to modern westerners, he founded the Western Buddhist Order in 1968, which later became the Triratna Buddhist Order.
There are now Triratna Buddhist Community centres and groups in many parts of the world all dedicated to bringing to life Sangharakshita’s vision of a Buddhism applicable to the modern world.
The Triratna Buddhist Community draws on the whole of the Buddhist tradition and does not identify itself with any one school. Central to its approach is making the Buddha’s teachings (Dharma) available to everyone regardless of age, sex, race, cultural background or sexual orientation. All people are seen as being able to gain benefit from the Dharma and to live happier, more meaningful lives, through living ethically, meditation and the development of understanding and wisdom.