Ajahn Sumedho

Ajahn Sumedho’s Talk in Vancouver:

DATE & TIME: Saturday, 26 June, 2010. 6:30 to 8:00 PM

LOCATION: Newberry Hall, room A130, Langara College, 100 W. 49th Ave., Vancouver V5Y 2Z6

TITLE: “Buddhism in the West”

ADMISSION: Free of charge ( Donations accepted to defray Ajahn’s travel costs )

CONTACT: Jim at [masked] or Tip : [masked]

Ajahn Sumedho is abbot of Amaravati Buddhist Centre in England, and the most senior Western disciple of the late Thai meditation master Ajahn Chah. Amaravati is affiliated with the Forest Sangha: a world-wide community following Ajahn Chah's Thai Forest tradition. See www.forestsangha.org and www.abm.ndirect.co.uk/fsn/. Ajahn Sumedho has worked closely with lay organisations, notably the English Sangha Trust and with his disciples to set up a British Theravadin monastic order. This order now numbers 60 monks and nuns over several monasteries. The lineage has also spread to other European countries, Australia, New Zealand, and in recent years to the US and Canada.

Biography: Born Robert Jackman, Seattle, Washington 1934. Studied Chinese and history at university. Spent 4 years as a navy medic during the Korean war. After the war completed a BA in Far Eastern studies. Worked for a year as a red cross social worker. In 1963 completed a Masters degree in South Asian studies. From 1964 to 1966 taught English in Sabali, Borneo for the Peace Corps. In June 1966 ordained as a samanera at Wat Sri Saket, Nong Khai province, Thailand. Fully ordained May 1967. 1967-77 sought out and practiced under Ajahn Chah, the famous Thai meditation master at Wat Pa Pong. 1973 undertook a dhutanga pilgrimage to India.

1975 established the forest monastery Wat Pah Nanachat, the international forest monastery, in Ubon province, Thailand. 1977 visited England with Ajahn Chah. Seeing an interest in Buddhism there, Chah decided Sumedho should stay in England to set up an English order. The English Sangha Trust invited Ajahn Sumedho to run their Hampstead vihara. In 1979 the Trust sold the vihara and bought Chithurst House (now Wat Pa Cittaviveka) in West Sussex. Cittaviveka grew, especially after a sima (boundary) was established in 1981 and Ajahn Sumedho was given ordination authority by the Thai national Buddhist Council. It now includes a nuns' vihara, since Ajahn Sumedho established a nun’s ten-precept ordination (called Siladara) with approval from Thai religious authorities. In August 1984 Amaravati Buddhist centre opened in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire. Ajahn Sumedho resides there as abbot.

Ajahn Sumedho has visited his family in the Seattle area several times over the years, sometimes stopping in Vancouver. This trip may be his last, since he is relinquishing his many duties in England and will probably retire to Thailand. If you would like to hear him again, you will probably have to go there.

Major Publications:
Gratitude to Parents The Four Noble Truths

Cittaviveka Now is the Knowing

The Way It Is Mindfulness: The Path to the Deathless

Intuitive Awareness

www.theravada.ca