Ajahn Brahm
Born Peter Betts in Great Britain on August 7, 1951, Venerable Ajahn Brahmavamso Mahathera is now the Abbot of Bodhinyana Monastery in Australia and known most often as Ajahn Brahm. He came from a working-class background in London, and won a scholarship to study physics at Cambridge University in the late sixties.
Ajahn Brahm considered himself a Buddhist from the age of 17, and early on began educating himself about the religion through books and the practice of meditation, which continued through his Cambridge years. After graduation, he taught high school for one year and then traveled to Thailand. “When I was 23, I decided I’d had enough of the world and became a monk,” Ajahn Brahm says. “I used to be a schoolteacher before, and that’s enough to make anyone leave the world and become a monk.” He was ordained in Bangkok by the Abbot of Wat Saket, and then spent nine years studying and training in the forest meditation tradition under Venerable Ajahn Chah.
While still a junior monk, Ajahn Brahm undertook the compilation of an English-language guide to the Buddhist monastic code, called the vinaya. His translation became the basis for monastic discipline in many Theravadan monasteries in the West. In 1983, Ajahn Brahm went to Perth, Australia at the invitation of the Buddhist Society of Western Australia. His job was to assist Ajahn Jagaro in establishing a monastery and also to share teaching duties. In 1983, they purchased 97 acres and established the Bodhinyana Monastery, which was named after their teacher, Ajahn Chah Bodhinyana. This monastery became the first Buddhist monastery in the southern hemisphere.
The early years of the monastery were rough. With few Buddhists in Perth and very little in the way of money, the two monks did much of the early building themselves, with Ajahn Brahm mastering plumbing and brick-laying in order to assist. “It was difficult physically,” Ajahn Brahm says, “but there was always a lot of fun around, and it was done joyfully.” In 1994, when Ajahn Jagaro abruptly left the monastery and subsequently disrobed, Ajahn Brahm became in charge of the monastery.
He is known not only for his humorous and spiritually uplifting teachings, but also for his work with the sick and the dying. “No matter what we’re doing in our world, in our life, it’s always a search for some sort of happiness,” Ajahn Brahm says. “The meaning of happiness is the meaning of life.” He also regularly visits prisons to teach Buddhism and meditation to those who are incarcerated. In 2004, Ajahn Brahm was awarded the John Curtin Medal for vision, leadership, and service to the Australian community. He is the author or two books, Opening the Door of Your Heart: And Other Buddhist Tales of Happiness, and Inspiring Stories for Welcoming Life’s Difficulties. Ajahn Brahm has been instrumental in helping to establish the Dhammasara Nun’s Monastery in Perth, and currently works with nuns and monks of all the various Buddhist traditions to establish the Australian Sangha Association.
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