‘It is partly because I am a rather complex person that I am a mystery to myself, even if not to others. But though I am a mystery to myself I am not, I think, so much of a mystery to myself as to cherish many illusions about myself. One of the illusions about myself that I do not cherish is that I was the most suitable person to be the founder of a new Buddhist movement in Britain – in the world, as it turned out.

‘I possessed so few of the necessary qualifications; I laboured under so many disadvantages. When I look back on those early days... I cannot but feel that the coming into existence of the Western Buddhist Order was little short of a miracle.

‘…When I see what a great and glorious achievement the Order represents, despite its manifest imperfections, I find it difficult to believe that I could have been its founder.

‘…I spoke of my having taken upon myself the onerous responsibility of founding the Western Buddhist Order. I indeed took the responsibility upon myself and it was indeed an onerous one.

‘Nonetheless, there are times when, far from feeling that it was I who took on the responsibility, I feel it was the responsibility that took on me. There are times when I am dimly aware of a vast, overshadowing Consciousness that has, through me, founded the Order and set in motion our whole Movement.’

Sangharakshita, My Relation to the Order, (CW23), pp.530-1

Sangharakshita portrait by Terry Delamare

Quotations from Sangharakshita’s writings are taken from his memoirs and other books, all of which are included in The Complete Works of Sangharakshita. The volume number is given in the reference thus: CW2. All volumes are available from Windhorse Publications in hardback, softback, and as eBooks.