Ajahn Brahm

There is a tradition in Buddhism of honoring the teachers who have helped us see life in a new way. I have been blessed with many great teachers in my life. They continue to be beacons to me as I navigate the waters of living a more awakened life. Some of these teachers I’ve worked with intimately and some only in large halls. But, however close the relationship, all have changed me for the better. The love of going back to the basics coupled with an overwhelming appreciation for these many wonderful teachers has inspired me to share some of these teachers and their teachings with you throughout 2020. What a great way to start the New Year! The sharing will not be chronological but random as each teacher bubbles up to the surface. I hope this opens up new possibilities for you and encourages you to share your personal heroes and heroines with me and with the rest of our group.

The first teacher I’d like to introduce you to is Ajahn Brahm. I became aware of Ajahn Brahm in 2009. At the time I was Vice President of the Alliance for Bhikkhunis. For those of you unfamiliar with Theravadin organizations, Alliance for Bhikkhunis (AFB) was founded by Susan Pembroke and designed to support women monastics. As in many other religious organizations, Buddhist women are delegated to second-class positions. The Thai Theravadin line that Ajahn Brahm hails from has been particularly vehement against women becoming ordained as full monks, or Bhikunnis. Ajahn Brahm has been a staunch defending of a women’s right to full religious freedom as well as a protector of the four-fold sangha, which include male monastics, female monastics, laymen and laywomen.  

Ajahn Brahm was born Peter Betts in 1951 to a working class family in London England. He studied theoretical physics at Cambridge and then became a monk in Thailand training under Ajahn Chah. He was ordained at the age of twenty-three and went on to spend 9 years in a forest meditation tradition. He was then sent to Perth Australia to assist Ajahn Jagaro in teaching. Eventually they moved to a ninety-seven acre rural forest and started the Bodhinyana Monastery. Initially there were no buildings on the land and only a few Buddhists to fund the building process in Perth. To save money Ajahn Brahn learnt plumbing and bricklaying, helping build many of the structures with his own two hands. In 1994 Ajahn Jagaro left Western Australia and disrobed a year later. Ajhan Brahm was left in charge of the Perth sangha and continued to give talks, write, and build the sangha.

In 2009 Ajahn Brahm, along with Bhante Sujato, facilitated the ordination ceremony for Bhikkhunis in Australia against the wishes of the Thai Buddhist hierarchy. As the VP of Alliance for Bhikunnis at the time I had a front row seat to this courageous action. Women in the Thai lineage have been basically relegated to acting as support staff for the male monks. A female monastic, regardless of how many years she has been a monastic or her age or level of wisdom, must bow to even the newest and youngest male monks. Women with deep spiritual aspirations in Thailand pray to be reborn as a male so that they may achieve full enlightenment as the teaching there is that enlightenment cannot happen in a female body. There are many other ramifications of this inequality, but suffice it to say the powers that be in the Thai Buddhist hierarchy were not too pleased with Ajahn Brahm ordaining females to full Bhikkhuni status. After refusing to resend the ordinations Ajahn Brahm was removed from the Ajahn Chah Forest Sangha lineage. He wrote: 

“When I was a young monk in Thailand I thought that the problem of Bhikunni ordination was a legal problem, that the bhikkhuni order couldn’t be revived. But having investigated and studied, I’ve found out that many of the obstacles we thought were there aren’t there at all. Someone like Bhikku Bodhi (a respected Theravada scholar-monk) has researched the Pali Vinaya and his paper is one of the most eloquent I’ve seen – fair, balanced, comes out on the side of “It’s possible, why don’t we do this?”

It saddened Ajahn Brahm to be excommunicated by his fellow brothers but he did not become angry or bitter. He kept love in his heart for his fellow monks while holding firm to his conviction that women are just as capable as men of becoming monks and just as capable of full awakening. He continued on to help establish a monastery in the UK and establish the Anukampa Bhikkhuni Project. Anukampa Bhikkhuni Project aims to promote the teachings and practices of Early Buddhism through establishing a Bhikkhuni presence in the UK. Its long-term aspiration is to develop a monastery with a harmonious and meditative atmosphere for women who wish to train towards full ordination.

“The reason I’m going over to the UK is because I have a sense of responsibility to the place of my birth. It was a very wonderful society and inculcated many values in me. One of those values was fairness, where people are given equity. I came from a poor background, it was disadvantaged, but because of the fairness of the system I could, through the means of scholarships, go to a very good high school, and from there to a very good university. I was given a chance, and I see in the UK right now, women in Theravada Buddhism are not given a chance; because of their birth they are not permitted to take full ordination in Theravada Buddhism, which, personally, because of my upbringing, I think is unacceptable. And also because of my upbringing, I always say, ‘Don’t just complain about things, do something!’ And it happens at this time in my monastic life that I am able to do things. I have many disciples and some of those disciples want to give some of their money for a good cause. So the next project is to try and get a nice start for the bhikkhuni sangha in the UK where a good nun like Bhikkhuni Candā has a place to stay and a place to teach. At the moment she has nowhere, really, absolutely nowhere to stay! So the requisite of lodgings is primary.

The bhikkhuni sangha is the fourth leg of the chair of Buddhism, this is what the Buddha kept on saying. After he became enlightened under the banyan tree, Mara came to him and said, ‘Okay, you’re enlightened, I admit it. Now don’t go teaching, it’s just too burdensome. Just enter parinibbana now, just disappear.’ The Buddha said, ‘No, I will not enter parinibbana. I will not leave this life until I have established the bhikkhu sangha, bhikkhuni sangha, laymen, and laywomen Buddhists: the four pillars of Buddhism.’ Forty-five years later, at the Capala Shrine, Mara came again and said, ‘You’ve done it! There are lots and lots of bhikkhunis enlightened, lots of bhikkhus enlightened, great laymen and laywomen Buddhists . . . so keep your promise,’ and the Buddha said, ‘Okay, in three months, I’ll enter parinibbana.’

What those two passages from the suttas demonstrate is that it was the Buddha’s mission; it was why he taught—to establish those four pillars of the sangha. We have lost one, so every Buddhist who has faith in the Buddha should actually help the Buddha re-establish the bhikkhuni sangha. It was his mission, but because of history his mission has been thwarted.”

Another important contribution Ajahn Brahm is making to the Buddhist tradition is his work with kindfulness. In an effort to reclaim the “mindfulness” practice from being overrun by secular industries and a recent claim that mindfulness is not owned by Buddhism, Ajahn Brahm clarifies that mindfulness is a practice within the rest of the supporting factors of Buddhism, the Noble Eightfold Path: right view, right motivation, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right endeavor, right mindfulness, and right stillness. Mindfulness is part of a great training, which is called Buddhism, and to actually take away mindfulness from Buddhism is unhelpful and inaccurate. Mindfulness is a cultural heritage of Buddhism. Practicing mindfulness without wisdom and compassion is not enough. Therefore, drawing from the Pāli Suttas, Ajahn Brahm created the term "Kindfulness", meaning mindfulness combined with wisdom and compassion.

I first learned about kindfulness on a retreat with Ajahn Brahm at Spirit Rock Meditation Center. He not only clarifies and deepenes our perspective of mindfulness to include wisdom and compassion, he embodies it. Ajahn Brahm is honest, down to Earth, funny and kind in a put your money where your mouth is sort of way. He demonstrates this compassionate form of mindfulness in how he has dealt with the potentially contentious situation with his fellow monks who have excommunicated him and in his conviction to support women as capable of full ordination and full enlightenment.

I have learned a lot about courage, humor and the strength of kindness from Ajahn Brahm. I hope you are blessed with his teachings, whether through his wonderful and often funny books, such as Who Ordered this Truckload of Dung? or, if you are most fortunate, through his presence.