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Meditation and Celebration for Ven. Acharya Buddharakkhita's 80th Birthday
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| Ven. Acharya Buddharakkita's history is most remarkable. Born into a wealthy, orthodox Bengali Brahmin family in Manipur, he graduated as an engineer, joined the Government of India Defence Ordinance and saw various fronts during the Second World War. The experience of war led him to become a wandering ascetic, and he sought truth and freedom, traveling the whole of India and studying under various sages. At last he decided to become a follower of Buddha and took ordination in 1948 under the most Venerable U Chandramani, Abbot of Kushinara. He pursued Buddhist studies in India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka and practiced meditation under Mahasi Sayadaw in Burma. He served on the editorial board of the Sixth Buddhist Synod in Rangoon, which brought out a complete edition of the Pali Canon, and taught at Nalanda Institute, before establishing the MahaBodhi Society of Bangalore in 1956, which has flourished to affect so many lives for the good.
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The meditation group in Tumkur, mostly Swiss and Germans.
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Ven. Sanghasena, a monk from Ladakh, and Acharya at the site of a new monastery, a mango grove in Tumkur.
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Secretary of MahaBodhi Society, Colombo, Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi, and a Sri Lankan monk at the celebration in Mysore. |
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