He was born in London in 1925, and lived in India for some twenty years, before returning to London in the mid 1960s. Here, seeing the need for Buddhist values and practices to be made more readily accessible to modern westerners, he founded the Friends of the Western Buddhist Order in 1967, and the Western Buddhist Order itself, the following year. From then, until he handed on his final responsibilities in 2000, he guided the growth of a diverse and lively spiritual community. The FWBO continues his work and now has centres and groups in many countries throughout the world. All dedicated to trying to realizing the true individual potential of all people regardless of sex, race, sexual orientation or creed through the teachings of the Buddha.

If you wish to know more about the Friends of the Western Buddhist Order and Sangharakshita, we can recommend the web pages at www.fwbo.org