Sangharakshita

Sangharakshita is the founder and teacher of the FWBO and WBO. He was born in London in 1925. Largely self-educated, he read widely in the classics of philosophy and religion, literature and art, first from Western and then also from Eastern sources. Aged 16, he discovered the Mahayana Buddhist text, The Diamond Sutra and realised he was a Buddhist 'and always had been'.

At 19, he was sent as a conscript to India. He remained there for most of the following twenty years. After the war, he spent two years wandering through India as a Buddhist novice monk, meditating and reflecting, meeting some of the great Hindu spiritual figures of the time, including Ramana Maharshi. His commitment to the teaching of the Buddha, however, never wavered. A vision in a cave of the Buddha Amitabha, the Buddha of the West, and a walk through fire to Sarnath to obtain bhikkhu (or Theravada) monastic ordination are all documented in his Memoirs, as is his Bodhisattva ordination from one of his Tibetan teachers, Dhardo Rimpoche.

From 1952 he was based in Kalimpong in the Himalayan region. There he set about fulfilling the injunction of his Indian teacher, Jagdish Kashyap, to 'stay here and work for the good of Buddhism’. During this time he edited the Maha Bodhi Journal, created his own magazine, Stepping Stones (whose contributors included renowned figures such as Edward Conze and Anagarika Lama Govinda, both subsequently personal friends) and organised Buddhist activities for young people of the region. He became known as a lecturer and public speaker, and a series of lectures held in Bangalore in 1955 were published the following year to considerable acclaim as A Survey of Buddhism, which is still in print and still regarded as a locus classicus for those wishing to obtain a perspective of Buddhism in all its great breadth and spiritual depth.

One of Sangharakshita's greatest contributions during this period was to the movement of mass conversion to Buddhism that was started by the great leader of those born at the very bottom of the Indian caste system, Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar. When, in 1956, Dr Ambedkar died suddenly and unexpectedly only 6 weeks after hundreds of thousands of these, the poorest and most oppressed people of India, had converted with him to Buddhism, thereby leaving 'the hell of caste' behind them, it was Sangharakshita who went tirelessly from village to village, encouraging, exhorting and bringing comfort to the new Buddhists there. He continued these visits thereafter, keeping up his contacts with them.

In 1964, at the request of the English Sangha Trust, he spent a period of time in England, where his lectures were enthusiastically received by the small but growing English Buddhist movement. Although up until then he had imagined spending the rest of his life in India, he now decided to give up his life there and to return to the UK to work for the Dharma. Finding he had some enemies (as well as many friends) in the British Buddhist movement, some of whom did not want him to function among them, he decided to set up an entirely new Buddhist movement. On April 6th 1967 the FWBO was founded and a year later, on April 7th 1968, he ordained the first 12 men and women into the Western Buddhist Order.

Since then Sangharakshita has worked tirelessly to help the growth of this small plant, now a rather large tree whose branches have extended to many countries over six continents. His work in India has continued through visits and through the work of his Western disciples who, together with their Indian Order brothers and sisters, have created a large and vibrant spiritual movement in the sub-continent, as well as developing medical, literacy, educational and other social activities to support the 'Dharma revolution' which Dr. Ambedkar inaugurated.

As well as giving unstintingly of his time, thought and energy to the development of the new Buddhist movement, Sangharakshita continued to teach, giving lectures and seminars, to write poetry, to visit Buddhist centres and to speak out, or, when necessary, to keep quiet. At times a controversial figure, much has been said about him (and no doubt to him!) Those who wish to know more of him are perhaps best directed to his writings, including his poetry - and the Order that he founded.

Now aged 84, he lives at 'Madhyamaloka' in Birmingham alongside senior Order members and continues to take a strong interest in the movement he initiated, as well as meeting up with many people from all walks of life who visit him each year. In 2009 he paid visits and gave talks at many Centres both in the UK and further afield in Europe.

For further information please visit his web-site: www.sangharakshita.org.

More than 280 of his lectures can be found on www.freebuddhistaudio.com

Further Reading:

Sangharakshita's Memoirs:

The Rainbow Road

Facing Mount Kanchenjunga

In the Sign of the Golden Wheel

Moving Against the Stream

Poetry:

Complete Poems 1941-1994

Other:

Ambedkar and Buddhism

A Survey of Buddhism

Who is the Buddha?

What is the Dharma?

What is the Sangha?

All these volumes and many others are published by Windhorse Publications www.windhorsepublications.com