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Sīlācāra
Sīlācāra Bhikkhu (22 October 1871 – 27 January 1951), born and died as John Frederick S. McKechnie. He became a Buddhist monk in 1906 and was one of the earliest westerners in modern times to do so. Life There are two main sources about Sīlācāra's life. The first is the biography in a Sri Lankan edition of ''A Young People's Life of the Buddha'', by an anonymous author, whose information about McKechnie's early life needs verification; the second is the autobiography of Nyanatiloka Thera, who mentions him several times. According to the biography, McKechnie's father was the baritone singer Sir Charles Santley and his mother was Caroline Mavis, however, Charles Santley's two wives were called Gertrude Kemble and Elizabeth Mary Rose-Innes, and being a child of Charles Santley would have given him the surname Santley not McKechnie. So, unless he was an extramarital child, this information is incorrect. According to the same biography, he worked as apprentice stock-cutter i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nyanatiloka
Ven. Nyanatiloka (Ñāṇatiloka) Mahathera (19 February 1878, Wiesbaden, Germany – 28 May 1957, Colombo, Ceylon), born as Anton Walther Florus Gueth, was one of the earliest Westerners in modern times to become a Bhikkhu, a fully ordained Buddhist monk. Early life and education Nyanatiloka was born on 19 February 1878 in Wiesbaden, Germany, as Anton Walther Florus Gueth. His father was Anton Gueth, a professor and principal of the municipal Gymnasium of Wiesbaden, as well as a private councillor. His mother's name was Paula Auffahrt. She had studied piano and singing at the Royal Court Theatre in Kassel. He studied at the Königliche Realgymnasium (Royal Gymnasium) in Wiesbaden from 1888 to 1896. From 1896 to 1898 he received private tuition in music theory and composition, and in playing the violin, piano, viola and clarinet. From 1889 to 1900 he studied theory and composition of music as well as the playing of the violin and piano at Hoch’sches Conservatorium (Hoch Co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles Henry Allan Bennett
Charles Henry Allan Bennett (8 December 1872 – 9 March 1923) was an English Buddhist and former member of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. He was an early friend and influential teacher of occultist Aleister Crowley. Bennett received the name Bhikkhu Ananda Metteyya at his ordination as a Buddhist monk and spent years studying and practising Buddhism in the East. He was the second Englishman to be ordained as a Buddhist monk (Bhikkhu) of the Theravāda tradition and was instrumental in introducing Buddhism in England. He established the first Buddhist Mission in the United Kingdom and sought to spread the light of Dhamma to the West. Co-founder of international Buddhist organisations and publications, he was an influential Buddhist advocate of the early 20th century. Early life Allan Bennett was born in London on 8 December 1872; his full name at birth was Charles Henry Allan Bennett. His only sister, Charlotte Louise, was born in Brighton about a year before. His chi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Buddhist Society
The Buddhist Society is a UK registered charity which aims to encourage the study and practice of Buddhist principles. The Buddhist Society is an inter-denominational and non-sectarian lay organisation. It offers talks and classes on the teachings of all the different major mainstream Buddhist schools and traditions, as well as a structured programme of courses on general Buddhism, for both the public and members. It has a publishing programme and in its premises houses one of the main libraries in Britain on Buddhism. It is managed by an elected council and its patron is the 14th Dalai Lama. Among other publications, it produces ''The Buddhist Directory'', a reference book which lists the vast majority of Buddhist groups, centres and other related organisations in the United Kingdom and Ireland, and ''The Middle Way'', a quarterly journal (referring to the Buddhist concept of a Middle Way). History The Society was originally created in 1924 in London as an offshoot of a The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alexandra David-Néel
Alexandra David-Néel (born Louise Eugénie Alexandrine Marie David; 24 October 1868 – 8 September 1969) was a Belgian–French explorer, spiritualist, Buddhist, anarchist, opera singer, and writer. She is most known for her 1924 visit to Lhasa, Tibet, when it was forbidden to foreigners. David-Néel wrote over 30 books about Eastern religion, philosophy, and her travels, including ''Magic and Mystery in Tibet'', which was published in 1929. Her teachings influenced the beat writers Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, the popularisers of Eastern philosophy Alan Watts and Ram Dass, and the esotericist Benjamin Creme. Biography Early life and background In 1871, when David-Néel was two years old, her father Louis David, appalled by the execution of the last Communards, took her to see the Communards' Wall at the ''Père-Lachaise'' cemetery in Paris; she never forgot this early encounter with the face of death, from which she first learned of the ferocity of humans. Two yea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Buddhist Publication Society
The Buddhist Publication Society (BPS) is a publishing house with charitable status, whose objective is to disseminate the teachings of Gautama Buddha. It was founded in Kandy, Sri Lanka, in 1958 by two Sri Lankan lay Buddhists, A.S. Karunaratna and Richard Abeyasekera, and a European-born Buddhist monk, Nyanaponika Thera. Originally conceived as a limited effort to publish small, affordable books on fundamental Buddhist topics, the Society expanded in scope in response to the reception of their early publishing efforts. The Buddhist Publication Society's publications reflect the perspective of the Theravada denomination of Buddhism, drawing heavily from the Pāli Canon for source material. The BPS supplies Buddhist literature to over 3,000 subscriber members in 80 countries. Its titles have been translated into many languages, including German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Hindi, and Chinese. Publications The Buddhist Publication Society publishes a variety o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Noble Eightfold Path
The Noble Eightfold Path () or Eight Right Paths () is an early summary of the path of Buddhist practices leading to liberation from samsara, the painful cycle of rebirth, in the form of nirvana. The Eightfold Path consists of eight practices: right view, right resolve, right speech, right conduct, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right ('meditative absorption or union'; alternatively, equanimous meditative awareness). In early Buddhism, these practices started with understanding that the body-mind works in a corrupted way (right view), followed by entering the Buddhist path of self-observance, self-restraint, and cultivating kindness and compassion; and culminating in or , which reinforces these practices for the development of the body-mind. In later Buddhism, insight () became the central soteriological instrument, leading to a different concept and structure of the path, in which the "goal" of the Buddhist path came to be specified as ending ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Four Noble Truths
In Buddhism, the Four Noble Truths (; ; "The Four Arya (Buddhism), arya satya") are "the truths of the noble one (the Buddha)," a statement of how things really are (Three marks of existence, the three marks of existence) when they are seen correctly (Noble Eightfold Path#Right view, right view). The four truths are * ''dukkha'' (not being at ease, 'suffering', from ''dush-stha'', standing unstable). ''Dukkha'' is an innate characteristic of samsara, transient existence;Four Noble Truths: BUDDHIST PHILOSOPHY Encyclopaedia Britannica, Quote: "The first truth, suffering (Pali: dukkha; Sanskrit: duhkha), is characteristic of existence in the realm of rebirth, called samsara ()." nothing is forever, this is painful; * ''samudaya'' (origin, arising, combination; 'cause'): together with this tran ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dhammapada
The ''Dhammapada'' (; ) is a collection of sayings of the Buddha in verse form and one of the most widely read and best known Buddhist scriptures.See, for instance, Buswell (2003): "rank among the best known Buddhist texts" (p. 11); and, "one of the most popular texts with Buddhist monks and laypersons" (p. 627). Harvey (2007), p. 322, writes: "Its popularity is reflected in the many times it has been translated into Western languages"; Brough (2001), p. xvii, writes: "The collection of Pali ethical verses entitled "Dhammapada" is one of the most widely known of early Buddhist texts." The original version of the Dhammapada is in the Khuddaka Nikaya, a division of the Pali Canon of Theravada Buddhism. The Buddhist scholar and commentator Buddhaghosa explains that each saying recorded in the collection was made on a different occasion in response to a unique situation that had arisen in the life of the Buddha and his monastic community. His translation of the commentary, the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kingston Upon Hull
Kingston upon Hull, usually shortened to Hull, is a historic maritime city and unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It lies upon the River Hull at its confluence with the Humber Estuary, inland from the North Sea. It is a tightly bounded city which excludes the majority of its suburbs, with a population of (), it is the fourth-largest city in the Yorkshire and the Humber region. The built-up area has a population of 436,300. Hull has more than 800 years of seafaring history and is known as Yorkshire's maritime city. The town of Wyke on Hull was founded late in the 12th century by the monks of Meaux Abbey as a port from which to export their wool. Renamed ''Kings-town upon Hull'' in 1299, Hull had been a market town, military supply port, trading centre, fishing and whaling centre and industrial metropolis. Hull was an early theatre of battle in the First English Civil War, English Civil Wars. Its 18th-century ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pali Canon
The Pāḷi Canon is the standard collection of scriptures in the Theravada Buddhism, Buddhist tradition, as preserved in the Pāli language. It is the most complete extant Early Buddhist texts, early Buddhist canon. It derives mainly from the Tamrashatiya school. According to Buddhist tradition, during the First Buddhist Council, three months after the parinibbana of Gautama Buddha in Rajgir, Ananda recited the Sutta Piṭaka, Sutta Pitaka, and Upali recited the Vinaya Piṭaka, Vinaya Pitaka. The Arhats present accepted the recitations, and henceforth, the teachings were preserved orally by the Sangha. The Tipitaka that was transmitted to Sri Lanka during the reign of King Asoka was initially preserved orally and later written down on palm leaves during the Fourth Buddhist Council in 29 BC, approximately 454 years after the death of Gautama Buddha. The claim that the texts were "spoken by the Buddha" is meant in this non-literal sense. The existence of the Bhāṇaka tradi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
