Urgyen Sangharakshita

The Triratna Buddhist Community was founded as the Friends of the Western Buddhist Order in 1967 by Sangharakshita, an Englishman, who was ordained as a Buddhist monk in India in 1950, at the age of 25. He lived for many years in Kalimpong, north-eastern India, where he studied with teachers from several of the major Buddhist traditions, including leading Tibetan lamas. During this period, Sangharakshita became well known for a non-sectarian approach that drew on the whole Buddhist tradition, especially through his book A Survey of Buddhism, and as editor of the Maha Bodhi.

In 1952 Sangharakshita met Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar, who had been born as what the Hindu caste system termed an “Untouchable” (or ‘Dalit’ in later parlance). Having trained as a lawyer he became independent India’s first Law Minister and the architect of its Constitution. In 1956 Dr Ambedkar converted to Buddhism along with thousands of his followers, escaping the identity allotted by Hinduism. But a few weeks later he died and his followers were left without guidance. Sangharakshita spoke to the grief-stricken crowds in Nagpur, the city where the mass conversions had taken place, explaining what being a Buddhist involved and encouraging them to follow Dr Ambedkar’s wish that they live according to the Buddha’s teachings. For several years he toured the cities and plains of central India each winter, giving talks and helping the new Buddhists to understand and practise the faith they now espoused.

Invited by members of Britain’s small Buddhist community, Sangharakshita returned to the UK in the mid-1960s. Now that he was addressing Westerners, he saw the need for forms of the teaching and practice that would most effectively communicate the teaching of the Buddha to the people he was meeting. That also meant he needed to go back to basics — to look at the principles underlying all forms of Buddhism and work out how best to apply them in this new context. So ours is an ecumenical movement, aligned to no one traditional school, but drawing on the whole stream of Buddhist inspiration.

In 1968 Sangharakshita performed the first ordinations within the Western Buddhist Order which was to be at the heart of his new Buddhist movement. Since then the community and the Order itself have evolved new structures that allow people to live out the Buddha’s teachings as an authentic Buddhist way of life in the 21st century. We now have Buddhist Centres running activities in 27 countries around the world. No longer just a Western movement, the FWBO changed its name in 2010 to the Triratna Buddhist Community. Triratna means the Three Jewels, and Sangharakshita emphasises that the Buddhist tradition is united by the defining act of Going for Refuge to the Three Jewels: the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha. This is the central principle or orientation of the Triratna Buddhist Community, and all our activities are understood in relation to it. At our Buddhist Centres we teach meditation, study the Buddha’s teaching together, engage with the arts, support each other through life, and engage in our local communities. We also promote projects in which Buddhists can live and work together, and explore how to turn our work into a spiritual practice.

Around 2001, Sangharakshita’s eyesight deteriorated considerably and in his later years he suffered periods of debilitating insomnia. Nonetheless, he continued with his literary work and embarked on a final phase of teaching. Subhuti (a senior disciple), wrote a series of papers based on interviews with Sangharakshita in which he clarified the core elements of his approach to Buddhism: an approach grounded in the teachings of the historical Buddha while drawing inspiration from other sources; and offering a coherent approach to meditation and other forms of Dharma practice that was alive to the supra-personal character of Buddhist practice and the role of the imagination.

Those who knew Sangharakshita as students, disciples and friends principally remember him as a man of tremendous presence, kindness and wisdom: a deeply intelligent and sensitive man with a remarkably original and independent mind.

However some aspects of Sangharakshita’s life and behaviour attracted criticism. After founding the FWBO he became sexually involved with some of his adult male students between 1968 and 1985. In later years some of those students felt that he let them down, or that as their teacher it was unethical of him to have had sexual relations with them at all. Much has been done to address these and other concerns, which you can read about here: https://thebuddhistcentre.com/stories/ethical-issues/

In addition, some Buddhists of other traditions questioned the legitimacy of the new Buddhist movement he founded, given that it was not grounded in one single traditional Asian lineage, but drew - selectively - on teachings and practices from all three historical phases in the development of Buddhism.

He died on 30 October 2018 at the age of ninety-three.

The Buddhist movement Sangharakshita founded is growing into a truly distinctive Buddhist school founded upon his particular presentation of the Buddha’s teaching and understanding of Buddhist practice. In India, Sangharakshita is widely seen as a key figure in the revival of Buddhism and the liberation of millions of people from the oppressive caste system. And Sangharakshita’s many books comprise a further legacy. He published over 70 titles and his Complete Works are currently being published in 27 volumes. In addition to its merits in communicating Buddhist teachings, this body of writing has, for its admirers, a literary breadth and depth that is unmatched in other modern writings on Buddhism.

More broadly, in the course of more than 70 years Sangharakshita threw himself into the task of enabling Buddhism’s transition from traditional Asian societies to the very different conditions of the modern world. His aim was to renew Buddhism by focusing on the essential teachings at the heart of the tradition and retaining its profundity as a sacred path. Through his practice, his writing and the community he founded, Sangharakshita revivified Buddhism’s spirit of friendship, commitment and depth.