19 Facts About Sangharakshita

Dennis Philip Edward Lingwood, known more commonly as Sangharakshita, was a British spiritual teacher and writer.

Sangharakshita was born Dennis Philip Edward Lingwood on 26 August 1925 in Tooting, London.

Sangharakshita was conscripted into the army in 1943, and served in India, Ceylon, now known as Sri Lanka, and Singapore as a radio engineer in the Royal Corps of Signals.

Sangharakshita studied Pali, Abhidhamma, and Logic with Jagdish Kashyap at Benares University.

In 1950, at Kashyap's suggestion, Sangharakshita moved to the hill town of Kalimpong close to the borders of India, Bhutan, Nepal.

Sangharakshita edited the Maha Bodhi Journal and established a magazine, Stepping Stones.

Sangharakshita was ordained in the Theravada school, but said he became disillusioned by what he felt was the dogmatism, formalism, and nationalism of many of the Theravadin bhikkhus he met and became increasingly influenced by Tibetan Buddhist teachers who had fled Tibet after the Chinese invasion in the 1950s.

Sangharakshita received initiations and teachings from teachers who included Jamyang Khyentse, Dudjom Rinpoche, as well as Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche.

Later, Sangharakshita studied with a Ch'an teacher, Yogi Chen, along with another English monk, Bhikkhu Khantipalo.

In 1952, Sangharakshita met Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, the chief architect of the Indian constitution and India's first law minister.

Ambedkar and Sangharakshita had been in correspondence since 1950, and the Indian politician had encouraged the young monk to expand his Buddhist activities.

Ambedkar initially invited Sangharakshita to perform his conversion ceremony, but the latter refused, arguing that U Chandramani should preside.

Ambedkar died six weeks later, leaving his conversion movement leaderless, and Sangharakshita, who had just arrived in Nagpur to visit dalit Buddhists, continued what he felt was Ambedkar's work by lecturing to former Untouchables, and presiding over a ceremony in which a further 200,000 Untouchables converted.

In 1964, Sangharakshita was invited to help with a dispute at the Hampstead Buddhist Vihara in north London, where he proved to be a popular teacher.

Sangharakshita returned to England and in April 1967 founded the Friends of the Western Buddhist Order.

Sangharakshita gave lectures drawing on what he felt were the essential teachings of all the major Buddhist schools.

Sangharakshita led major retreats twice a year and frequent day and weekend events.

Sangharakshita died of pneumonia and sepsis on 30 October 2018, at the age of 93.

Sangharakshita has been described as "among the first Westerners who devoted their life to the practice as well as the spreading of Buddhism" and as a "prolific writer, translator, and practitioner of Buddhism".