Sangharakshita.

Sangharakshita was born Dennis Lingwood in South London, in 1925. Largely self-educated, he developed an interest in the cultures and philosophies of the East early on, and realised at the age of 16 that he was a Buddhist, and that he had always been one.

The Second World War took him, as a conscript, to India, where he stayed on afterwards.  He came to live in the Darjeeling area, in North East India, and became the Buddhist monk Sangharakshita. He comprehensively studied the numerous branches of Buddhism for many years, and wrote and taught extensively.  He met, studied under, and received initiations, from Tibetan teachers who settled in that area after the Chinese invasion of Tibet. He also worked for the revival of Buddhism, among followers of Dr B.R. Ambedkar, in the plains of India.

© clearvision

After over twenty years in the East, he returned to England to establish the Friends of the Western Buddhist Order FWBO in 1967, and a year later the Western Buddhist Order.

The complete talks and seminars of Sangharakshita, and other talks from other Order Members.

Sangharakshita's depth of experience and clear thinking have been appreciated throughout the Buddhist world. He is renowned as a translator between East and West, between the traditional world and the modern, between the principles and the practices.  He has always particularly emphasised the significance of commitment over lifestyle in the practise of Buddhim, the paramount value of friendship and community, the link between religion and art, and the need for institutions supportive of Buddhist aspirations and ideals. The FWBO is now an international Buddhist movement with over sixty centres on five continents.

Questions and answers with Bhante Urgyen Sangharakshita [audio]
at the « Centre Bouddhiste de l’Ile de France », Paris,
on Saturday 23rd June 2007.

Here are some poems and other writings by Sangharakshita,
see the selection of the published work of Sangharakshita at Windhorse Publications,
seminars and lectures by Sangharakshita,
Sangharakshita: autor de libros acerca del budismo.

In recent years Sangharakshita has handed over his responsibilities as Head of the Order to his senior disciples. He lives now in Birmingham and focuses his time on personal contact with people and on his writing.

You can read his thoughts and reflections on:
Nietzsche, Milton, Handel and artistic inspiration.
Nietzsche, Goethe and the enemy.
Nietzsche, Zen and Sudden Enlightenment.
Kant, the Buddha and the limits of reason.
The limits of space and time.
Baudelaire and awareness of others.
Spiritual friends.
Giving style to one’s character.
Anarchism.
Schopenhauer and the will to live.
Schopenhauer and aesthetic appreciation.
Mozart and pauses.
Mozart and the unpredictable.
Mozart and the concentrated mind.

Friedrich Nietzsche, Buddhism and the Superman.
The philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche.
The Superman, the Overman or Übermench.
Thus spake Zarathustra.
Man is something to be overcome.
Giving style to one’s character.
The will to power.
The Higher Evolution and the Overman.

© Centre Bouddhiste de l’Ile de France 2003-2008.

[in French] [Introduction] [Buddha] [Buddhism] [Meditation] [Sangharakshita] [FWBO] [the Centre]

25 rue Condorcet 75009  Paris - 01 44 53 07 31 -

Dernière mise à jour:
20 juillet, 2008.