Ajahn Sumedho | 

Ajahn Sumedho was born in Seattle, Washington, in 1934. She grew up in an Anglican family with an older sister. Between 1951 and 1953, he studied Chinese and History at the University of Washington. After serving four years as a medical assistant in the U.S. Navy, he returns to the University and completes the Bachelor of Arts degree in Far Eastern Studies.

The studies introduce him to Buddhism through reading, while the period of service in the Navy leads him to contact the “Buddhist Society of Japan”. In 1961, he re-registered for the Master of Arts degree in South Asian Studies at the University of California, Bekerley, where he graduated in 1963.

Disillusioned and dissatisfied with the dogmatism of the Western religion, he decided in 1966 to travel to Thailand to practice meditation in Wat Mahathat, Bangkok. Not long after, he took ordination as a novice monk in a remote part of the country, Nong Khai, until he received full ordination in 1967.

A year of solitary practice follows. Although fruitful, this period showed him the need for a teacher who could guide him more actively. A furtuitous encounter with a visiting monk led him to search for his meditation master in Ubon Province at the Forest Monastery in Wat Pah Pong, the monastery of Ajahn Chah. He accepts Ajahn Chah as his preceptor, thus becoming his disciple and remaining under his intimate guidance for ten years.

In 1975, Ajahn Chah allowed him to lead a small community of monks not far from Wat Pah Pong, thus founding a “Monastery of Forest Tradition” for Western monks, Wat Pah Nanachat, “International Forest Monastery”, where Westerners could come and train in English. In 1976, Ajahn Sumedho made a trip to America to visit his parents, but not without a stopover in England, and was invited to stay in a small Buddhist Monastery in Hampstead, London. A second visit to this monastery in 1977, accompanied by Ajahn Chah, became the beginning of his residence in England, precisely in the Hampstead Vihāra (Vihāra - residence or small Monastery), along with three other monks.

Since then, with great initial efforts and much will, four large establishments have been founded as Monasteries of this Tradition in England: “Cittaviveka Buddhist Monastery” in Chithurst, West Sussex; “Amarāvatī Buddhist Monastery” in Great Gaddesden, Hertfordshire; “Aruna Ratanagiri Buddhist Monastery” in Harnam, Northumberland and “Hartridge Buddhist Monastery” in Upottery, Devon.

Ajahn Sumedho is currently the Abbot of “Amarāvatī Buddhist Monastery” (Amarāvatī – abode of the Immortals) and has since sponsored the birth of seven more monasteries in the Western world, namely: “Kloster Dhammapala” in Waldrand, Kandersteg, Switzerland; “Santacittarama” in Localita “Le Brulla”, Italy; “Bodhinyana Monastery” in Serpentine, Australia; “Bodhivana Monastery” in East Warburton, Australia; “Auckland Buddhist Vihara” in Mt. Wellington, New Zealand; “Bodhinyanarama Monastery” in Stokes Valley, New Zealand; and “Abhayagiri Buddhist Monastery” in Redwood Valley – California, USA.

In 1981 he was awarded the degree of Upajjhaya (Upajjhāya: preceptor) this is a monk over ten years of age, who has the authority to confer complete monastic ordination. Since then he has ordained hundreds of aspirants of various nationalities. In 1992 he was conferred the title of Phra Sumedhācariya, then the first time such an honor was bestowed on a Western monk.

However, on 14 August 2004, Her Royal Highness, the Queen of Thailand, gave her the honorific title of Phra Rāja Sumedhācariya.

In addition to all the pioneering impetus in sponsoring the spread and early rooting of the Forest Tradition in the West, Ajahn Sumedho also promoted another fundamental reinstitution, which was the possibility of admitting and ordaining nuns, thus promoting the creation of a female wing (the Siladharā) in the Monastic Community (Sangha). This measure thus approximates the custom of the order of Bhikkhunis (monks) that was lost in the eleventh century and that already since the time of Siddhārta Gautama had existed, doing justice to what the Buddha himself admitted and defended in his time. As can be seen in the Pali Canon, there is the recognition of equal rights for man and woman and that at the same level, these can also become Arhats and attain both Nirvāna and Enlightenment by the path of renunciation.