Ajahn Amaro
Encyclopedia
Ajahn Amaro is a Theravadin
teacher and abbot of the Amaravati Buddhist Monastery
in south east England
's eastern end of the Chiltern Hills
. The centre, in practice as much for ordinary people as for monastics, is inspired by the Thai forest tradition
and the teachings of the late Ajahn Chah
. Its chief priorities are the teaching of Buddhist ethics
, together with traditional concentration
and insight meditation
techniques, as an effective way of dissolving stress
.
and Bedford College, University of London. He is a second cousin of I.B. Horner (1896-1981), late President of the Pali Text Society.
Apart from a certain interest in the theories of Rudolf Steiner
, to which he had been introduced by Trevor Ravenscroft, author of The Spear of Destiny, Amaro's principal enthusiasms on leaving university were, by his own admission, pretty much those standard-issue among skeptical students of the day: sex, drugs and rock'n'roll.
In 1977, having completed his honours degree in psychology
and physiology
, he went to Malaysia, Indonesia
and Thailand
on an undefined "open-ended" spiritual search. He somehow found himself in northeast Thailand, at the forest monastery of Wat Pah Nanachat
. Ajahn Chah's charismatic impact and the encouragement of the senior American monk Ajahn Pabhakaro were decisive. It changed his life. Having become a lay renunciate
, four months later he became a novice
and in 1979 he received upasampada
from Ajahn Chah and took profession as a Theravadin bhikkhu
.
Amaro stayed in Thailand for two years, and then went back to England to help Sumedho establish Chithurst Monastery
in West Sussex
.
With the blessing of his abbot
, in 1983 he moved to Harnham Vihara
in Northumberland
. He made the entire 830-mile journey on foot, chronicled in his 1984 volume Tudong: The Long Road North.
In the early 1990s Amaro made several teaching trips to northern California. Many who attended his meditation retreats became enthusiastic about the possibility of establishing a permanent monastic community in the area.
Meanwhile, Amaravati Monastery
, his mother house back in England, received a substantial donation of land in Mendocino County from Chan
Master Hsuan Hua
, founder of the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas
in Talmage
. The land was allocated to establish a forest retreat.
Since for some years Ajahn Sumedho had venerated the Chinese master, both abbots hoped that, among its other virtues, the center would serve as a symbolic bond between the otherwise distinct Theravada and Mahayana
lineages.
Care for what became Abhayagiri was placed in the hands of a group of lay practitioners, the Sanghapala Foundation. Amaro's co-abbot at the monastery is Ajahn Pasanno.
Amaro announced on 8 February 2010 that he would be leaving Abhayagiri and returning to England, having accepted a request from Ajahn Sumedho to succeed him as abbot at Amaravati.
Theravada
Theravada ; literally, "the Teaching of the Elders" or "the Ancient Teaching", is the oldest surviving Buddhist school. It was founded in India...
teacher and abbot of the Amaravati Buddhist Monastery
Amaravati Buddhist Monastery
Amaravati is a Theravadin Buddhist monastery at the eastern end of the Chiltern Hills in south east England. The centre, in practice as much for ordinary people as for monastics, is inspired by the Thai forest tradition and the teachings of the late Ajahn Chah....
in south east England
South East England
South East England is one of the nine official regions of England, designated in 1994 and adopted for statistical purposes in 1999. It consists of Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, East Sussex, Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Kent, Oxfordshire, Surrey and West Sussex...
's eastern end of the Chiltern Hills
Chiltern Hills
The Chiltern Hills form a chalk escarpment in South East England. They are known locally as "the Chilterns". A large portion of the hills was designated officially as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in 1965.-Location:...
. The centre, in practice as much for ordinary people as for monastics, is inspired by the Thai forest tradition
Thai Forest Tradition
The Thai Forest Tradition is a tradition of Buddhist monasticism within Thai Theravada Buddhism. Practitioners inhabit remote wilderness and forest dwellings as spiritual practice training grounds. Maha Nikaya and Dhammayuttika Nikaya are the two major monastic orders in Thailand that have forest...
and the teachings of the late Ajahn Chah
Ajahn Chah
Venerable Ajahn Chah Subhaddo was an influential teacher of the Buddhadhamma and a founder of two major monasteries in the Thai Forest Tradition....
. Its chief priorities are the teaching of Buddhist ethics
Sila
Śīla or sīla in Buddhism and its non-sectarian offshoots, is a code of conduct that embraces self-restraint with a value on non-harming. It has been variously described as virtue, good conduct, morality, moral discipline and precept. It is an action that is an intentional effort...
, together with traditional concentration
Anapanasati
Ānāpānasati , meaning 'mindfulness of breathing' , is a form of Buddhist meditation now common to the Tibetan, Zen, Tiantai, and Theravada schools of Buddhism, as well as western-based mindfulness programs.According to tradition, Anapanasati was...
and insight meditation
Vipassana
Vipassanā or vipaśyanā in the Buddhist tradition means insight into the true nature of reality. A regular practitioner of Vipassana is known as a Vipassi . Vipassana is one of the world's most ancient techniques of meditation, the inception of which is attributed to Gautama Buddha...
techniques, as an effective way of dissolving stress
Dukkha
Dukkha is a Pali term roughly corresponding to a number of terms in English including suffering, pain, discontent, unsatisfactoriness, unhappiness, sorrow, affliction, social alienation, anxiety,...
.
Biography
Amaro was born Jeremy Charles Julian Horner in Kent, England. He was educated at Sutton Valence SchoolSutton Valence School
Sutton Valence School is an English independent school near Maidstone in southeast England. It has about 520 pupils. It is a co-educational school with a boarding option . The three boarding houses are Westminster, St Margaret's and Sutton and, for those in the first and second form, Beresford...
and Bedford College, University of London. He is a second cousin of I.B. Horner (1896-1981), late President of the Pali Text Society.
Apart from a certain interest in the theories of Rudolf Steiner
Rudolf Steiner
Rudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner was an Austrian philosopher, social reformer, architect, and esotericist. He gained initial recognition as a literary critic and cultural philosopher...
, to which he had been introduced by Trevor Ravenscroft, author of The Spear of Destiny, Amaro's principal enthusiasms on leaving university were, by his own admission, pretty much those standard-issue among skeptical students of the day: sex, drugs and rock'n'roll.
In 1977, having completed his honours degree in psychology
Psychology
Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...
and physiology
Physiology
Physiology is the science of the function of living systems. This includes how organisms, organ systems, organs, cells, and bio-molecules carry out the chemical or physical functions that exist in a living system. The highest honor awarded in physiology is the Nobel Prize in Physiology or...
, he went to Malaysia, Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
and Thailand
Thailand
Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...
on an undefined "open-ended" spiritual search. He somehow found himself in northeast Thailand, at the forest monastery of Wat Pah Nanachat
Wat Pah Nanachat
Wat Pah Nanachat is situated in a small forest in north-east Thailand about fifteen kilometres from the city of Ubon Rachathani. The late Ajahn Chah established the monastery in 1975 to serve as a training community for non-Thais along traditional monastic lines. Its monks, novices and postulants...
. Ajahn Chah's charismatic impact and the encouragement of the senior American monk Ajahn Pabhakaro were decisive. It changed his life. Having become a lay renunciate
Anagarika
In Theravada Buddhism, an anagarika is a person who has given up most or all of his worldly possessions and responsibilities to commit fulltime to Buddhist practice. It is a midway status between monk and layperson where one takes on the Eight Precepts for the entire anagarika period, which could...
, four months later he became a novice
Samanera
A samanera ) may be translated as novice monk in a Buddhist context. The literal meaning is 'small samana', that is, small renunciate where 'small' has the meaning of boy or girl. In the Vinaya monastic discipline, a man under the age of 20 cannot ordain as a bhikkhu, but can ordain as a samanera...
and in 1979 he received upasampada
Upasampada
Upasampadā literally means "approaching or nearing the ascetic tradition." In more common parlance it specifically refers to the rite of ordination by which one undertakes the Buddhist monastic life....
from Ajahn Chah and took profession as a Theravadin bhikkhu
Bhikkhu
A Bhikkhu or Bhikṣu is an ordained male Buddhist monastic. A female monastic is called a Bhikkhuni Nepali: ). The life of Bhikkhus and Bhikkhunis is governed by a set of rules called the patimokkha within the vinaya's framework of monastic discipline...
.
Amaro stayed in Thailand for two years, and then went back to England to help Sumedho establish Chithurst Monastery
Chithurst Buddhist Monastery
Cittaviveka, popularly known as Chithurst Buddhist Monastery, is a Theravada Buddhist Monastery in the Thai Forest Tradition. It is situated in West Sussex, England in the hamlet of Chithurst between Midhurst and Petersfield...
in West Sussex
Sussex
Sussex , from the Old English Sūþsēaxe , is an historic county in South East England corresponding roughly in area to the ancient Kingdom of Sussex. It is bounded on the north by Surrey, east by Kent, south by the English Channel, and west by Hampshire, and is divided for local government into West...
.
With the blessing of his abbot
Abbot
The word abbot, meaning father, is a title given to the head of a monastery in various traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not actually the head of a monastery...
, in 1983 he moved to Harnham Vihara
Aruna Ratanagiri
Aruna Ratanagiri Buddhist Monastery is a Theravadin Buddhist monastery of the Thai Forest Tradition in Northumberland, England...
in Northumberland
Northumberland
Northumberland is the northernmost ceremonial county and a unitary district in North East England. For Eurostat purposes Northumberland is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three boroughs or unitary districts that comprise the "Northumberland and Tyne and Wear" NUTS 2 region...
. He made the entire 830-mile journey on foot, chronicled in his 1984 volume Tudong: The Long Road North.
Origins of Abhayagiri
Meanwhile, Amaravati Monastery
Amaravati Buddhist Monastery
Amaravati is a Theravadin Buddhist monastery at the eastern end of the Chiltern Hills in south east England. The centre, in practice as much for ordinary people as for monastics, is inspired by the Thai forest tradition and the teachings of the late Ajahn Chah....
, his mother house back in England, received a substantial donation of land in Mendocino County from Chan
Zen
Zen is a school of Mahāyāna Buddhism founded by the Buddhist monk Bodhidharma. The word Zen is from the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese word Chán , which in turn is derived from the Sanskrit word dhyāna, which can be approximately translated as "meditation" or "meditative state."Zen...
Master Hsuan Hua
Hsuan Hua
Hsuan Hua , also known as An Tzu and Tu Lun, was a Chan Buddhist monk and a contributing figure in bringing Chinese Buddhism to the United States in the 20th century....
, founder of the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas
City of Ten Thousand Buddhas
The City Of Ten Thousand Buddhas is an international Buddhist community and monastery founded by the Venerable Master Hsuan Hua, an important figure in Western Buddhism...
in Talmage
Talmage, California
Talmage is a census-designated place in Mendocino County, California, United States. Talmage is located east-southeast of Ukiah, at an elevation of 627 feet . The population was 1,130 at the 2010 census, down from 1,141 at the 2000 census...
. The land was allocated to establish a forest retreat.
Since for some years Ajahn Sumedho had venerated the Chinese master, both abbots hoped that, among its other virtues, the center would serve as a symbolic bond between the otherwise distinct Theravada and Mahayana
Mahayana
Mahāyāna is one of the two main existing branches of Buddhism and a term for classification of Buddhist philosophies and practice...
lineages.
Care for what became Abhayagiri was placed in the hands of a group of lay practitioners, the Sanghapala Foundation. Amaro's co-abbot at the monastery is Ajahn Pasanno.
Amaro announced on 8 February 2010 that he would be leaving Abhayagiri and returning to England, having accepted a request from Ajahn Sumedho to succeed him as abbot at Amaravati.