Ajahn Brahm (born Peter Betts, 1951) is a British-Australian Theravada monk and abbot of Bodhinyana Monastery near Perth, Western Australia.
A Cambridge graduate in theoretical physics, he ordained in Bangkok in 1974 and then trained for nine years under Ajahn Chah in the Thai Forest Tradition. In 1983 he was sent to Perth to help teach for the Buddhist Society of Western Australia, and that year the society founded Bodhinyana Monastery at Serpentine. He is now spiritual director of the society and abbot of Bodhinyana.
His books are published by Wisdom Publications, and the Buddhist Society of Western Australia runs Friday-night talks at its Dhammaloka centre and posts its teachings on YouTube. He also advocates the full ordination of women (bhikkhuni) in Theravada Buddhism. After he took part in a bhikkhuni ordination near Perth in October 2009, a meeting of senior monks of the Ajahn Chah lineage at Wat Nong Pah Pong on 1 November 2009 removed Bodhinyana Monastery from its list of branch monasteries.
Lineage
teacher to student
Ajahn Brahm
Thai Forest (Kammaṭṭhāna) · b. 1951
Fellow students: also studied with Ajahn Chah · 8
| Name | Tradition | Dates |
|---|---|---|
 | Thai Forest (Kammaṭṭhāna) | b. 1956 |
Ajahn Anan AkiñcanoThai Forest (Kammaṭṭhāna) | Thai Forest (Kammaṭṭhāna) | b. 1954 |
Ajahn Dtun ThiracittoThai Forest (Kammaṭṭhāna), Ajahn Chah lineage | Thai Forest (Kammaṭṭhāna), Ajahn Chah lineage | b. 1955 |
 | Thai Forest (Kammaṭṭhāna) | b. 1958 |
 | Thai Forest (Kammaṭṭhāna) | |
 | Thai Forest (Kammaṭṭhāna) | b. 1934 |
Jack KornfieldInsight meditation (Thai Forest and Burmese traditions) | Insight meditation (Thai Forest and Burmese traditions) | b. 1945 |
Luang Por Liem ṬhitadhammoThai Forest (Kammaṭṭhāna) | Thai Forest (Kammaṭṭhāna) | b. 1941 |
Talks
2
Read more
Books
Mindfulness, Bliss, and Beyond: A Meditator's Handbook
Wisdom Publications · 2006
Opening the Door of Your Heart (also published as Who Ordered This Truckload of Dung?)
Wisdom Publications · 2005
The Art of Disappearing: Buddha's Path to Lasting Joy
Wisdom Publications · 2011
Sources and verification
4
Written from published sources by the volunteer editors. Not yet reviewed by an outside advisor.
- OrganisationBuddhist Society of Western Australia (bswa.org): official biographical material
- OrganisationBodhinyana Monastery: institutional materials
- ReferenceWikipedia: Ajahn Brahm and Bodhinyana Monastery (1974 ordination, 1983 founding)
- OrganisationForest Sangha news, November 2009: the Western abbots' gathering and the delisting of Bodhinyana Monastery from the Ajahn Chah Sangha after the 1 November decision (archived)
Portrait by Goh (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0)
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