"His life shows what a single
human being can do, given sufficient courage, determination,
and inspired vision."
As the Rolling Stones belted out "Sympathy for
the Devil" at a concert in Hyde Park, Alex Kennedy,
a young philosophy student, caught his first glimpse
of Sangharakshita. "What struck me about him were
the very things I lacked at the time: purposefulness,
confidence, mindfulness, individuality."
Over twenty-five years later, Kennedy now ordained
as Subhuti offers this account of his friend
and teacher's remarkable life.
Born in London, Dennis Lingwood realized he was a Buddhist
at the age of sixteen. Conscripted during the Second
World War, army life took him to India where he stayed
on to become the Buddhist monk, Sangharakshita. By the
mid-fifties he was an increasingly active and forthright
exponent of Buddhism, and had established a uniquely
non-sectarian center in Kalimpong.
As hippies flocked eastwards in the sixties, Sangharakshita
returned to England to establish the Friends of the
Western Buddhist Order. This dynamic movement has been
pioneering a vital form of Buddhism for the modern world.
It is also at the heart of a Buddhist revival in India
the land where Buddhism was born 2,500 years
ago.
A complex and highly gifted man, Sangharakshita is a
poet, scholar, and commentator. Above all, he is a teacher
of great clarity and vision whose presentation of Buddhism
is at once fully traditional and completely fresh. His
story is proof that it is possible to live a truly spiritual
life in the modern world.
Paperback, 544 pages with bibliography
List Price: $18.95
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