Born in London in 1954, Ratnaprabha (Robin Cooper) developed an early fascination for natural history.  After obtaining a first in physics from Sussex University, he went on to study the history and sociology of science, and then joined the Physics department of the Open University.

He was already becoming increasingly drawn to Buddhism and its practices, which he encountered as an undergraduate through the teaching of Vessantara, then the chair of the Brighton Buddhist Centre. Vessantara taught him meditation at Sussex University in 1976, and he became a lifelong mentor and spiritual friend. Ratnaprabha moved to Padmaloka, a Buddhist retreat centre in Norfolk, in 1981 to train for ordination, and he was accepted into the Triratna Buddhist Order on a 3 month retreat in Tuscany in 1982. He went on to attend 5 long retreats, and led the ordination course at Guhyaloka in Spain in 2001.

His teacher and preceptor is the late Venerable Sangharakshita, who gave him the ordination name Ratnaprabha, ‘The Shining of the Jewel’ in Sanskrit.

Since ordination he has been teaching and writing on Buddhism and meditation. He has lectured on Buddhism and related topics in Scandinavia, Spain and Singapore as well as in Britain. He helped found the Cambridge Buddhist Centre, and was its Chairman from 1990 to 1996. After seven years teaching at Padmaloka, he joined Windhorse:Evolution to explore Right Livelihood and ethical trading with the teams working for Buddhist companies.  After 10 years teaching at the West London Buddhist Centre he was the chair of the North London Buddhist Centre until the end of 2023. He is still based there.

His publications include The Evolving Mind (1996),  a book on Buddhist and scientific views of the evolution of human consciousness, and Finding the Mind, a Buddhist View (2012). He wrote the Buddhism material for the Science and Religion in Schools Project. He was president of Padmaloka for a while, and president of the Brighton Buddhist Centre from September 2008 until 2024.

Three aspirations: to encourage Buddhism and science to inform each other; to help Buddhists understand science; to help scientists understand and practise Buddhism.