Ajahn Viradhammo or Luang Por Viradhammo (born Vitauts Akers, April 27, 1947) is a Canadian

monk A monk (; from , ''monachos'', "single, solitary" via Latin ) is a man who is a member of a religious order and lives in a monastery. A monk usually lives his life in prayer and contemplation. The concept is ancient and can be seen in many reli ...

in the

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 Traditi ...

Theravada ''Theravāda'' (; 'School of the Elders'; ) is Buddhism's oldest existing school. The school's adherents, termed ''Theravādins'' (anglicized from Pali ''theravādī''), have preserved their version of the Buddha's teaching or ''Dharma (Buddhi ...

Buddhism 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 ...

. He was ordained as a

in 1974 by

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 g ...

Wat Nong Pah Pong Wat Nong Pah Pong (; generally shortened to Wat Pah Pong) is a Theravāda Buddhist monastery in Warin Chamrap, Ubon Ratchathani, Thailand. It was established by the late Ajahn Chah as the main monastery of the Thai Forest Tradition. Internati ...

monastery and became one of the first residents at

Wat Pah Nanachat Wat Pah Nanachat () is a Theravāda Buddhist monastery in Isan, northeast Thailand, about 15 kilometres from the city of Ubon Rachathani. It was established in 1975 by Ajahn Chah as a training community for non-Thais according to the norms of th ...

, the international monastery in north-east Thailand.Biography of Ajahn Viradhammo on Amaravati Web Site
/ref> Luang Por Viradhammo is the most senior Thai Forest monk in Canada and currently the Abbot of Tisarana Buddhist Monastery in Perth, Ontario. '' Luang Por'' means ''Venerable Father'' (หลวงพ่อ), an

honorific An honorific is a title that conveys esteem, courtesy, or respect for position or rank when used in addressing or referring to a person. Sometimes, the term "honorific" is used in a more specific sense to refer to an Honorary title (academic), h ...

and term of affection in keeping with Thai custom; '' ajahn'' means ''teacher''.

Biography

Ajahn Viradhammo was born Vitauts Akers in a

displaced persons camp A refugee camp is a temporary settlement built to receive refugees and people in refugee-like situations. Refugee camps usually accommodate displaced people who have fled their home country, but camps are also made for internally displace ...

in Esslingen,

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

where his parents had become refugees after fleeing from the

Soviet re-occupation of Latvia in 1944 The Soviet re-occupation of Latvia in 1944 refers to the military occupation of Latvia by the Soviet Union in 1944. During World War II Latvia was first Soviet occupation of Latvia in 1940, occupied by the Soviet Union in June 1940, then was occ ...

. He, his parents and two year older brother immigrated to Toronto, Canada in 1951. Ajahn Viradhammo's parents were both Lutheran and he himself was confirmed in the Lutheran Church. His early experiences of silence and pure awareness

Chaitanya (consciousness) Chaitanya () refers variously to 'awareness', 'consciousness', 'Conscious Self', 'intelligence' or 'Pure Consciousness'. It can also mean energy or enthusiasm. The meaning of name Chaitanya also stands for "State of Conscious Energy". Etymolog ...

came at around the age of five but it was not until much later that he was able to explain them. He started in an Engineering program at the University of Toronto at the age of sixteen but quickly discovered that this was not his vocation and, in 1969, decided to travel to satisfy his continued search for meaning, first in North Africa and then in Europe and finally in Almora, India, near the Nepalese border. It was while reading a book by J. Krishnamurti that Ajahn Viradhammo re-lived his experiences of pure,

Nondualist Nondualism includes a number of philosophical and spiritual traditions that emphasize the absence of fundamental duality or separation in existence. This viewpoint questions the boundaries conventionally imposed between self and other, min ...

awareness In philosophy and psychology, awareness is the perception or knowledge of something. The concept is often synonymous with consciousness. However, one can be aware of something without being explicitly conscious of it, such as in the case of bli ...

that he had had as a child. While living in India in 1969 he met the late Sāmanera Bodhesako, who introduced him to the teachings of the Buddha, which led him to travel to Thailand and become a novice at Wat Mahathat in 1973.

Monasteries in the UK, New Zealand and Canada

In 1977

asked him to join

Ajahn Sumedho Ajahn Sumedho (born Robert Karr Jackman on July 27, 1934) is an American Buddhist monk. He was ordained in 1967, and was instrumental in establishing Wat Pa Nanachat in Thailand and the Cittaviveka and Amaravati monasteries in England. One of ...

at the Hampstead Vihāra in London and later helped establish both the

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 ...

and

Aruna Ratanagiri Aruna Ratanagiri Buddhist Monastery (Harnham Buddhist Monastery) is a Theravada Buddhist monastery of the Thai Forest Tradition in Northumberland, England. The community consists of monks, novices and postulants from a wide range of nationali ...

monastery in the UK, where he was abbot. In 1985 he was invited by the Wellington Theravāda Buddhist Association to move to New Zealand where he lived for 10 years, helping build Bodhinyānārāma monastery. In 1995 he came to the UK to assist

the then

Abbot Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the head of an independent monastery for men in various Western Christian traditions. The name is derived from ''abba'', the Aramaic form of the Hebrew ''ab'', and means "father". The female equivale ...

of Amarāvati.Amaravati Newsletter, January 1995
/ref> He stayed in the UK for four years before returning to New Zealand, where he lived until 2002. Starting in 2002, Ajahn Viradhammo lived in Ottawa, caring for his mother until her death in 2011. In 2006, with the support of the Ottawa Buddhist Society, affiliated Buddhist groups in Ontario, Canada and abroad, Ajahn Viradhammo founded the Tisarana Buddhist Monastery, of which he is the abbot.Community page of the Tisarana Monastery Web Site
/ref> The monastery is located in Perth, Ontario about one hundred kilometers southwest of Ottawa.

Publications

* *

Audio Recordings

*
Dhamma talks on iTunes
' *
Dhamma talks on Amaravati Web Site
'

References

External links

Bodhinyānārāma monasteryAmaravati monasteryTisarana monastery
{{DEFAULTSORT:Viradhammo, Ajahn 1947 births Latvian expatriates in Germany Latvian emigrants to Canada Former Lutherans Converts to Buddhism from Protestantism Canadian Buddhist monks Thai Forest Tradition monks Theravada Buddhism writers Living people