Western Buddhism Into the 80's Part 2


by Arjanyai - Date: 2009-09-14 - Word Count: 601 Share This!

In another part of England, a new Buddhist movement has also developed. This is the Friends of the Western Buddhist Order (FWBO), which was founded by an English Buddhist, Ven. Sangharakshita. Born in London in 2468/1925, lie became, at the age of sixteen, a Buddhist as a result of reading some Sutras. In 2486/1943 he went to India as soldier. Some three and foul years later he took the Theravada lower and higher ordination respectively. Around 2500/1957, Ven. Sangharakshita founded his Vihara (the Triyana Vardhna Vihara) in Kalimpong, where he worked aiding in the ex-untouchable movement of conversion to Buddhism and as editor of the Maha Bodhi Journal. Meantime, Ven. Sangharakshita received the Bodhisattva Precepts from a Rimpoche as his Mahayana ordination.

Ven. Sangharakshita paid a visit to London in 2507/ 1964 on an in-vitation from the Sangha Trust at the Hampstead Buddhist Vihara and stayed there for three years. After a fire-month revisit to India in 2510/1967, he returned to London and decided to found a new non-sectarian monastic community with a new structure and an amended code of conduct suited to the West. He began his new movement, the FWBO, in April 2510/1967 at Monmouth Street in London and the first twelve men and women were ordained into the Western Buddhist Order in 2511/1968. At the end of the year 2525/1982 its overall membership ran into six figures, from the 187 fully ordained members who make up the Order through the large number of Mitras and regular friends, to those with only occasional and peripheral contact. In addition to the ones in Norwich, Brighton, Surrey, Glasgow and in north, west and east London, permanent centres have also been established in other parts of the world such as in Finland, New Zealand, Australia, America and India.

The FWBO is the Order of Dharmachari (Dharma-facer: Upasakas and Upasikas in a special sense, not as usually understood in the East). It does not believe in purely informal monasticism as generally found in the East. The FWBO is "Sangha" in the meaning of the fellowship of all those who - regardless of lifestyle and background - have dedicated themselves to the attainment of Enlightenment. It is a spiritual com-munity which takes Right Livelihood as the most cooperative way of spreading the Dharma, the development and adaptation of a West-ernized, fully self-sufficient unit. Order members are scarcely laymen yet they are not isolated from the.world in monastic surroundings. Readiness for ordination may take about two years. One who first encounters the FWBO and attends its activities is called a 'Friend'. When he has developed a definite sense of belonging, he may ask to become a 'Mitra', who usually has two senior Order members as his Kalyana Mitras. A period of training may be required of a Mitra before he is ordained a member of the Western Buddhist Order. The ordinee asks for the Three Refuges and the ten Upasaka precepts. He then. is given a new name, usually in Pali or Sanskrit. Thus, Order members are known as Dharmachari Atula, Dharmachari Subhuti, Dharmachari Sridevi, and so on. Some Order members may take additional vows and become known as Anagarika, wearing the traditional yellow robe. However, the FWBO hopes that, in time, the robe will be no longer necessary.

The above developments may represent all the various current Buddhist movements in the West, both Theravada and Mahayana, ranging from the most orthodox to the most liberal, which begin to grow after the planting has been successful. Now only time is needed before we can see which form of Buddhism best suits the West and will thus last and flourish there.


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