Buddhism In England
Buddhism in England has growing support. 238,626 people in England declared themselves to be Buddhist at the 2011 Census and 34% of them lived in London. History Early Buddhist presence could be seen in the 1810s. Adam Sri Munni Ratna, a Buddhist monk from Ceylon (Sri Lanka), travelled to England with his cousin (also a Buddhist monk) while accompanying Sir Alexander Johnston in 1818. They were keen to learn Christianity as they were travelling to England. During their brief stay, the two monks were baptised and returned to Ceylon where they entered government service. Theravada influences grew in England during the early 20th century. A few of the significant events were the foundation of London’s Buddhist Society in 1924 and the Theravada London Buddhist Vihara in Chiswick in 1926. Anagarika Dharmapala (1864-1933), the founder of the Mahā Bodhi Society in 1891, was instrumental in presenting Buddhism as a living monastic tradition to the UK. The return of Ananda M ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Buddhist
Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or 5th century Before the Common Era, BCE. It is the Major religious groups, world's fourth-largest religion, with about 500 million followers, known as Buddhists, who comprise four percent of the global population. It arose in the eastern Gangetic plain as a movement in the 5th century BCE, and gradually spread throughout much of Asia. Buddhism has subsequently played a major role in Asian culture and spirituality, eventually spreading to Western world, the West in the 20th century. According to tradition, the Buddha instructed his followers in a path of bhavana, development which leads to Enlightenment in Buddhism, awakening and moksha, full liberation from ''Duḥkha, dukkha'' (). He regarded this path as a Middle Way between extremes su ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Dhammakaya Movement UK
The Dhammakaya Tradition is one distinctive tradition of Thai Buddhism that has had a pioneering role in establishing Buddhist practice in England since 1954. Origins The Dhammakaya Tradition has been known as a specific lineage of Thai Buddhism in Britain since Ţhitavedo visited in October 1953. His protégé William Purfurst (a.k.a. Kapilavaḍḍho Bhikkhu, Richard Randall, 1906–71) travelled to Thailand with Ṭhitavedo as a novice in March 1954 and took higher ordination at Wat Paknam Bhasicharoen, the first European to ordain in Thailand. As the result of subsequent training with Luang Pu Sodh Candasaro, he said to have attained the Dhammakaya and returning to England on 12 November 1954, visiting London and Manchester and founding the English Sangha Trust in July 1955. Three disciples travelled with Kapilavaḍḍho to Thailand on 30 December 1955 and took higher ordination at Wat Paknam on 27 January 1956. These ordinands were Peter Morgan (a.k.a. Paññavaḍḍho B ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Amaravati Buddhist Monastery
Amaravati is a Theravada Buddhist monastery at the eastern end of the Chiltern Hills in South East England. Established in 1984 by Ajahn Sumedho as an extension of Chithurst Buddhist Monastery, the monastery has its roots in the Thai Forest Tradition. It takes inspiration from the teachings of the community's founder, the late Ajahn Chah. Its chief priorities are the training and support of a resident monastic community, and the facilitation for monastic and lay people alike of the practice of the Buddha's teachings. It is not to be confused with the ancient Amaravati Stupa in India. Community The resident community consists of monks (bhikkhus), nuns ( siladhara), and male and female postulants who live in accordance with strict traditional codes of celibacy, together with a volunteer support staff and visitors. According to the monastery website, regarding the male monastic community, "Usually, there are between 15 and 25 bhikkhus and samaneras in residence, living a con ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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West Sussex
West Sussex is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Surrey to the north, East Sussex to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Hampshire to the west. The largest settlement is Crawley, and the county town is the city of Chichester. The county has a land area of and a population of . Along the south coast is a near-continuous urban area which includes the towns of Bognor Regis (63,855), Littlehampton (55,706), and Worthing (111,338); the latter two are part of the Brighton and Hove built-up area, which extends into East Sussex and has a total population of 474,485. The interior of the county is generally rural; the largest towns are Crawley (118,493) and Horsham (50,934), both located in the north-east; Chichester is in the south-west and has a population of 26,795. West Sussex contains seven local government Non-metropolitan district, districts, which are part of a two-tier non-metropolitan county administered by ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Chithurst Buddhist Monastery
''Cittaviveka'' (Pali: ' discerning mind'), commonly known as Chithurst Buddhist Monastery, is an English Theravada Buddhist monastery in the Thai Forest Tradition. It is situated in West Sussex, England in the hamlet of Chithurst between Midhurst and Petersfield. It was established in 1979 in accordance with the aims of the English Sangha Trust, a charity founded in 1956 to support the ordination and training of Buddhist monks (bhikkhus) in the West. The current abbot, since 2019, is Ajahn Ahimsako. The monastery was established by Ajahn Sumedho under the auspices of his teacher, Ajahn Chah of Wat Pah Pong, Ubon, Thailand. Ajahn Chah visited the monastery at its inception as the first branch monastery of Wat Pah Pong to be established outside of Thailand. Although the style of the monastery has been modified to accommodate Western social and cultural mores, it retains close links with Thailand especially monasteries of the Thai Forest Tradition and is supported by an ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Ajahn Chah
Ajahn Chah (17 June 191816 January 1992) was a Thai Buddhist monk. He was an influential teacher of the ''Buddhadhamma'' and a founder of two major monasteries in the Thai Forest Tradition. Respected and loved in his own country as a man of great wisdom, he was also instrumental in establishing Theravada Buddhism in the West. Beginning in 1979 with the founding of ''Cittaviveka'' (commonly known as Chithurst Buddhist Monastery) in the United Kingdom, the Forest Tradition of Ajahn Chah has spread throughout Europe, the United States and the British Commonwealth. The dhamma talks of Ajahn Chah have been recorded, transcribed and translated into several languages. More than one million people, including the Thai royal family, attended Ajahn Chah's funeral in January 1993 held a year after his death due to the "hundreds of thousands of people expected to attend". He left behind a legacy of dhamma talks, students, and monasteries. Name Ajahn Chah () was also commonly known as ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Thai Forest Tradition
The Kammaṭṭhāna Forest Tradition of Thailand (from meaning Kammaṭṭhāna, "place of work"), commonly known in the West as the Thai Forest Tradition, is a Parampara, lineage of Theravada Buddhist monasticism. The Thai Forest Tradition started around 1900 with Ajahn Mun Bhuridatto, who wanted to practice Buddhist monasticism and its meditative practices, according to the normative standards of pre-sectarian Buddhism. After studying with Ajahn Sao Kantasīlo and wandering through the northeast of Thailand, Ajahn Mun reportedly became a Anāgāmi, non-returner and started to teach in Northeast Thailand. He strove for a revival of the Pre-sectarian Buddhism, Early Buddhism, insisting on a strict observance of the Buddhist monastic code known as the Vinaya and teaching the practice of ''jhāna'' and the realization of ''nibbāna''. Initially, Ajahn Mun's teachings were met with fierce opposition, but in the 1930s his group was acknowledged as a formal faction of Thai Budd ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Kelsang Gyatso
Geshe Kelsang Gyatso (; 4 June 1931 – 17 September 2022) was a Buddhism, Buddhist Bhikkhu, monk, Lama, meditation teacher, scholar, and author. He was the founder and spiritual director of the New Kadampa Tradition, New Kadampa Tradition-International Kadampa Buddhist Union (Function), a registered non-profit, modern Buddhist organization that came out of the Gelugpa school/lineage. They have 1,300 centres around the world, including temples, city temples and retreat centres that offer an accessible approach to ancient wisdom. Life and education in Tibet Geshe Kelsang Gyatso was born on July 19th, 1931, in Yangcho Tang, Western Tibet and named Lobsang Chuponpa. At eight years old, he joined Ngamring Jampa Ling Monastery where he was ordained as a novice monk and given the monastic name "Kelsang Gyatso" meaning "Ocean of Good Fortune". He "went on to study at Sera, one of the great monasteries of Tibet’s dominant Gelug school. He was trained in the traditional method of intens ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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New Religious Movement
A new religious movement (NRM), also known as a new religion, is a religious or Spirituality, spiritual group that has modern origins and is peripheral to its society's dominant religious culture. NRMs can be novel in origin, or they can be part of a wider religion, in which case they are distinct from pre-existing Religious denomination, denominations. Some NRMs deal with the challenges that the modernizing world poses to them by embracing individualism, while other NRMs deal with them by embracing tightly knit collective means. Scholars have estimated that NRMs number in the tens of thousands worldwide. Most NRMs only have a few members, some of them have thousands of members, and a few of them have more than a million members.Eileen Barker, 1999, "New Religious Movements: their incidence and significance", ''New Religious Movements: challenge and response'', Bryan Wilson and Jamie Cresswell editors, Routledge There is no single, agreed-upon criterion for defining a "new religi ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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New Kadampa Tradition
The New Kadampa Tradition – International Kadampa Buddhist Union (NKT—IKBU) is a global Buddhist new religious movement founded by Kelsang Gyatso in England in 1991. In 2003 the words "International Kadampa Buddhist Union" (IKBU) were added to the original name "New Kadampa Tradition". The NKT-IKBU is an international organisation registered in England as a charitable, or non-profit, company.Cozort, Daniel (2003). ''The Making of the Western Lama''. Quoted in Heine, S., & Prebish, C. S. (2003). ''Buddhism in the modern world: Adaptations of an ancient tradition''. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 230. It currently lists more than 200 centres and around 900 branch classes/study groups in 40 countries.number of centres as of 29 August 2009, retrieved fromap.kadampa.org 3 International Retreat Centres (IRC), 19 Kadampa Meditation Centres (KMC), 196 Kadampa Buddhist Centres (KBC), there may be even some more centres that have not been placed on the map yet, listed hereka ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Thubten Yeshe
Thubten Yeshe (1935–1984) was a Tibetan lama who, while exiled in Nepal, co-founded Kopan Monastery (1969) and the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (1975). He followed the Gelug tradition, and was considered unconventional in his teaching style. Lama Yeshe was born near the Tibetan town of Tolung Dechen, and was sent to Sera Monastery in Lhasa at the age of six. He received full ordination at the age of 28 from Kyabje Ling Rinpoche. Jeffrey Paine reports that Lama Yeshe deliberately refused to complete his geshe degree, despite having studied for it: Teaching Western students With the Chinese invasion in 1959 Lama Yeshe made his way to Bhutan and thence to the Tibetan refugee camp at Buxaduar, India. There his teacher Geshe Rabten entrusted to his care a younger monk, Thubten Zopa Rinpoche. The two would work together throughout Lama Yeshe's life. In 1965 Lama Yeshe began teaching Western students, beginning with Zina Rachevsky, who sought him out ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Gelugpa
240px, The 14th Dalai Lama (center), the most influential figure of the contemporary Gelug tradition, at the 2003 Bodh_Gaya.html" ;"title="Kalachakra ceremony, Bodh Gaya">Bodhgaya (India) The Gelug (, also Geluk; 'virtuous')Kay, David N. (2007). ''Tibetan and Zen Buddhism in Britain: Transplantation, Development and Adaptation,'' p. 39. Routledge. is the newest of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism. It was founded by Je Tsongkhapa (1357–1419), a Tibetan people, Tibetan philosopher, Vajrayana, tantric yogi and lama and further expanded and developed by his disciples (such as Khedrup Je, Gyaltsap Je, Dulzin Drakpa Gyaltsen, and Gendün Drubpa). The Gelug school is alternatively known as Kadam (''bKa’-gdams gsar-pa''), since it sees itself as a continuation of the Kadam tradition of Atisha (c. 11th century). The school of New Kadam, or New Kadampa is an offshoot of the Gelug-tradition. Furthermore, it is also called the Ganden school, after the first monastery ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |