Sangharakshita
Sangharakshita is one of the founding fathers of Western Buddhism. He is a prolific writer on Buddhism, as well as a poet and yogi-meditator. He is a widely-read, extensively-travelled and deeply experienced student of both Eastern Buddhism and the Western cultural tradition. He is also the founder of The Friends of the Western Buddhist Order - the FWBO - known as Trailokya Bauddha Mahasangha Sahayaka Gana (TBMSG) in India. It is a large and dynamic Buddhist movement with Centres in nearly twenty countries, and is dedicated to encouraging people to live the Buddhist Life to the fullest possible extent in the modern world.
Sangharakshita was born in 1925 in Tooting, South London, and grew up as Denis Lingwood. He read voraciously as a child, especially during a long period when he was confined to bed, having being diagnosed (incorrectly) as suffering from heart disease. Largely self-educated, he developed an interest in the cultures and philosophies of the East early on and realized, reading at the age of sixteen the Diamond Sutra and the Platform Sutra of Hui Neng, that he was a Buddhist and had always been one. The Second World War took him to India, where he stayed on to become the Buddhist bhikshu Sangharakshita ('Protected by the Spiritual Community'). His first ordination was in the Theravadin tradition, but Sangharakshita also studied and practiced intensively under leading teachers from the Tibetan Vajrayana traditions and Chinese Ch'an. He went on to teach and write extensively on Buddhism and is the author of over forty books, translating the Buddhist tradition into terms relevant and inspiring to Westerners and Easterners alike. He is an accomplished poet and a commentator on literature and the arts.
While he was in India Sangharakshita played a key role in the revival of Buddhism there, particularly through his work with the ex-Untouchables. He was a friend of Dr Ambedkar, the first Law Minister of independent India and the great leader of the Untouchables. After Ambedkar's death he was one of the few able to act effectively to keep alive the movement of conversion to Buddhism which Ambedkar had started. Today Sangharakshita remains a legendary figure among the millions of Indian people who have become Buddhists.
In the mid-1960s Sangharakshita returned to England and in 1967 established the Friends of the Western Buddhist Order. His life since 1967 has been inseparable from the new Buddhist Movement he founded - inspiring and encouraging his disciples, nurturing friendships between them, and making sure that obstacles to their spiritual progress were removed. His depth of experience and clear thinking have been appreciated throughout the world. Recently he has handed on his responsibilities as Head of the Order to a small number of his senior disciples. He now lives in Birmingham, meeting people individually, continuing with his reflections on Buddhism and the modern world and with his writing, occasionally visiting Centres of the Movement or travelling abroad.
Recommended Reading
Sangharakshita: A New Voice in The Buddhist Tradition [by Dharmachari Subhuti]. A History of My Going For Refuge ; A Guide to the Buddhist Path; A Survey of Buddhism; [all by Sangharakshita]. Complete Poems 1941 - 1994 [by Sangharakshita]. All are available from Windhorse Publications. The Pali Canon and Commentaries (The Pali Text Society, Oxford, UK. The Buddhist Publication Society, Kandy, Sri Lanka). The Mahayana Sutras (there are too many publishers to list here). Tibetan Buddhist Texts (Dharma Publishing, USA)
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This page was updated on Monday 14 March 2005