Buddhadasa

Now a septuagenarian Buddhadasa was ordained into the Western Buddhist Order, as the Triratna Buddhist Order was formally known, in 1972 and is a personal disciple of Sangharakshita. That same year he was responsible for establishing the Movement’s first public centre in North London.

Following a six month solitary retreat in Scotland in 1974 he went to Brighton where he founded the Brighton Buddhist Centre. In 1976 he spent 12 months in Finland helping to establish FWBO activities in Helsinki and it was there that he received a letter from Sangharakshita asking him to help develop Padmaloka; the recently acquired men’s retreat centre in Norfolk, UK. As well as becoming the Chair of Padmaloka he also functioned for a time as Sangharakshita’s personal secretary.

In 1980 Buddhadasa left the UK for Australia but unforeseen visa difficulties required him to spend the next seven years in New Zealand where he worked for both the Auckland and Wellington Buddhist Centres. In 1983 he was granted New Zealand citizenship. In 1987 he left NZ for Melbourne where he worked in the building industry and founded the Melbourne Buddhist Centre in 1993.

Buddhadasa has spent the past twenty years or so helping the men in the Australasian region train for ordination. In 1995 he became an Anagarika and today he’s a member of the College of Public Preceptors. He lives in Gandhakuti, a residential men’s community in Melbourne.