GREAT BUDDHIST's

by Urgyen Sangharakshita

Urgyen Sangharkshita is an Englishman, who spent 20 years in India. For fourteen of those years he was editor of the Maha Bodhi, journal of the Maha Bodhi Society of India founded by Anagarika Dharmapala. After return to the U.K. he founded the Friends of Western Buddhist Order, which now has centres throughout the world. He gave a talk on the above subject under the general title 'Religious Relevance' at the London Buddhist Vihara on 14th October 1995. It was a most interesting talk and was extremely well attended.


Ven. Sangharakshita defined the qualities of a "Great Buddhist" as a person who should have a sound grasp of the Dhamma, and should have gone for refuge in the Three Jewels of Buddha, Dhamma and Sangha. A Great Buddhist should possess some characteristically Buddhist qualities to a high degree, especially metta, viriya and panna. His work should have had a widespread influence on other people and he should have set a personal example for others to follow, both during his lifetime and after his death, acting as a source of permanent inspiration and guidance. Using these criteria, Ven. Sangharakshita chose to speak about five people: Anagarika Dharmapala, Alexandra David-Neel, B. R. Ambedkar, Lama Govinda, and Edward Conze.



The future Anagarika Dharmapala was born as David Hewavitarana in 1864, and received his education largely at Christian schools. At that time in Sri Lanka all higher education was in the hands of Christian missionaries. Buddhism and Buddhist culture were at a low ebb, in fact it was not officially possible to be a Buddhist at all. Parents had to register the birth of their children in a church, where they were given a Christian name. Otherwise, the child would be regarded in law as illegitimate and unable to inherit any property. This law was not repealed until 1884.


David Hewavitarana received a thoroughly Christian education, and even learned the four Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles by heart. Nevertheless, his home environment was strongly Buddhist and he remained a devout Buddhist despite the efforts of the Christian missionaries. For three consecutive years he took the festival of Vesak as a holiday, despite being forbidden to do so by his headmaster and was punished accordingly.


The fortunes of Buddhism in Sri Lanka began to change in 1880 with the arrival of the Theosophical movement, a society which had been founded in New York in 1875 by Madame Blavatsky and Colonel Olcott. They created a great sensation by being the first Europeans publicly to embrace the Buddhist faith. The youthful Dharmapala helped Colonel Olcott in much of his work, and it was Madame Blavatsky who recommended that he should study Pali. In 1889 he accompanied Colonel Olcott on a visit to Japan, which marked the first contact between the Theravada Buddhists of Sri Lanka with the Mahayana Buddhists of Japan. Two years later, at the age of 29, he visited the Buddhist holy places in North-East India and was shocked to find their dilapidated condition. He was so moved by this discovery that he resolved to devote himself to their repair and restoration.


In 1891 he founded the Maha Bodhi Society to help him in his work, initially with the restoration of Buddhagaya and also with the spreading of Buddhism throughout the world. In 1893 he was invited to attend the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago, travelling via England en route to the meeting, and via Japan, China, Thailand, and Honolulu on his way back. He made a very great impression on his audiences in Chicago. He spent the remaining 40 years of his life devoted unceasingly to the spreading of the Dhamma. In India he built temples, viharas and rest-houses, in Sri Lanka he established schools and hospitals; he even spent three years living in America, giving hundreds of talks and lectures. In 1926 he established a vihara here in London, first in Ealing, and later in the Regent's Park area. In 1931 in Sarnath he became a samanera and in 1933 a bhikkhu. He died in December 1933 aged 69.


Dharmapala lived a very active and full life, but he was also a meditator and invariably starting his day with a two-hour period of meditation, particularly metta bhavana, learned from a Burmese lay yogi when he was in his twenties.


His background was distinguished by two great features - the revival of Buddhism in India after it had been extinct there for several centuries, and the introduction of Buddhism to the West. He was the first Buddhist in modern times to preach the dhamma in the three continents of Asia, Europe and America. He was the first Anagarika of modern times to take the brahmacariya vow at the age of nine, although he did not observe all the vinaya rules during this life as he felt this might get in the way of his missionary activities. He realised the importance of Going for Refuge; at the top of every alternate page of his diary he wrote the reminder that "The only refuge for him who aspires to true perfection is the Buddha." He was also a pioneer of the arts and crafts of Sri Lanka, discouraging the use of imported fashions and encouraging Sinhalese women to wear the sari.



Whilst Dharmapala was busy bringing contact from the East to the West, the second "Great Buddhist", Alexandra David-Neel was bringing contact from the West to the East. She was born in Paris in 1868, and died in 1969. At a young age she showed a liking for travel, and eventually from 1911 spent 14 years in the East: Sri Lanka, India, Nepal, Sikkim, Japan, China and Tibet, where she met the XIIIth Dalai Lama who was in exile in India. One of her most famous journeys was her visit to Lhasa, which at that time was forbidden to foreigners which meant she had to travel in disguise. In 1925 she returned to France, where she spent the rest of her life - except for a visit to Tibet at the time of the outbreak of the Second World War, which meant she was trapped in Tibet for 6 years. There are three elements of her life which are particularly noteworthy:- she was one of the first Westerners to take Buddhism seriously as a way of life, not just as a subject of academic study. Secondly, there was her readiness to defy convention, at a time when these were particularly strong. Thirdly, she showed what a determined woman can achieve and this must be a source of inspiration to all Buddhists and to Buddhist women in particular.



Unlike both Dharmapala and David-Neel whose origins were middle-class, B. R. Ambedkar came from the very bottom of the social heap. He was born in 1891 into an "untouchable" family at a time when this caste was not allowed to enter Hindu temples, attend Hindu schools, own property or have any economic or political rights. They were not allowed to better themselves in any way. The British Army did, however, recruit "untouchables" and Ambedkar's father had become a school teacher in the army. He helped his son to gain an education and eventually to become one of the most highly qualified men in Indian public life. Nevertheless the Hindu community generally continued to regard him as an "untouchable", which only inspired Ambedkar to work for the uplift of his people. He founded newspapers, started schools and colleges, entered politics, fought legal battles, wrote books and articles. From 1932 onwards the story of his life is inseparable from the history of modern India. In 1947 he became law minister in the first government of newly-independent India and was responsible for the drafting of the constitution. He first came into contact with Buddhism at the age of 16, but it was not until 1954 at the age of 63 that he decided to devote the rest of the life to the propagation of the dhamma in India. He was drawn to Buddhism because it did not conflict with reason, it did not condone the caste system and man's inhumanity to man, and it was of Indian origin. In 1956 he became a Buddhist along with 380,000 of his followers on 14th October, coincidentally the day of this lecture. Further conversions of "untouchables" took place elsewhere in India, and this was the most significant event for Buddhism in India for many hundreds of years. Sadly Ambedkar died only 6 weeks later. His main achievement was the uplifting of his fellow "untouchables" socially, economically and educationally, which was done mainly by leading them to change their religion and thereby effecting a transformation of their lives. Ambedkar believed that there should be an ordination for lay people, which he called Dhammadiksha. It consisted of two parts (i) taking the refuges and five precepts, and (ii) taking 22 vows, which included a specific renunciation of Hinduism. Although Ambedkar was initiated into Buddhism by a monk, it was he - a layman - who administered this ordination to his followers. This ordination made it clear that it was not possible to both a Buddhist and a Hindu, and that Buddhism was not just an offshoot of Hinduism.



The fourth "Great Buddhist" is Lama Govinda. He was born in Germany in 1898. After two years in the German army in the First World War, he moved to Capri in Italy and became increasingly interested in Buddhism, including the practice of meditation. In 1928 he moved to Sri Lanka where he studied under the German monk Nyanatiloka, thence he moved to India and met Tomo Geshe Rinpoche who was to become his guru in Tibetan Buddhism. During the Second World War he was interned as a German national, but was allowed to continue his Buddhist studies. In 1948 he made his famous journey to Western Tibet which is so graphically described in his book "The Way of the White Clouds". In the 1960s and 1970s he visited Europe and America, eventually settling in San Francisco. Shortly before his death, in 1985 aged 87, he wrote to Ven. Sangharakshita emphasising two points: first, that we must know the roots of our own culture if we are to absorb the essence of Buddhist culture and, secondly, that it is up to the next generation to take Buddhism out of the merely academic atmosphere and make it a living experience. This was one of Anagarika Govinda's most important contributions to the spread of Buddhism; we must make it a living experience, not just achieve a mere intellectual understanding.



The fifth "Great Buddhist" is Edward Conze. He was born in London in 1904 of mixed German, French and Dutch parentage. He was brought up in Germany as a Protestant, but came into contact with the doctrines of Theosophy and Astrology. He was strongly opposed to the rise of Nazism in Germany which led him to become a communist. In 1933 he moved to England, but by 1935 his world was in tatters. He was disillusioned with communism and his marriage had failed, but he was fortunate in discovering the teachings of the Buddha through the writings of D. T. Suzuki. These had a profound impact on him and gave him a new sense of direction. He devoted much of the rest of his life to translating many of the fundamental Mahayanist scriptures into English. Edward Conze may be characterised as a "Middle European Intellectual" and as a highly skilled translator, but he also tried to practise Buddhism, especially meditation. He was the forerunner of a whole new breed of Western scholars in Buddhism. He died in 1979.

Share