Ajahn Lee Dhammadharo

Ajahn Lee Dhammadharo (1907–1961) was born in Ubon Ratchathani province and ordained as a monk in 1925. After two rains retreats he heard a sermon by one of Ajahn Mun’s students and sought out Ajahn Mun himself, who gave him the meditation word Buddho. He trained with Ajahn Mun in two periods, first in the Ubon forests and again, some years later, at Wat Chedi Luang in Chiang Mai. He then wandered widely, through Thailand and into Burma, Cambodia and India.

In 1955 he founded Wat Asokaram on the outskirts of Bangkok. The Access to Insight biography credits him as the first to bring the forest tradition out of the Mekong basin and into the mainstream of central Thai society. In 1957 he received the ecclesiastical rank of Chao Khun. He died in 1961.

His teaching is practical and detailed. He is best known in English for his instructions on breath meditation (ānāpānasati) and for his account of how concentration deepens into the stages of jhāna. Keeping the Breath in Mind, the book usually recommended first, is described by its translator as a guidebook for breath meditation and the jhānas. His talks to beginners are collected in Starting Out Small.

Almost everything of his available in English was translated from the Thai by Thanissaro Bhikkhu. Thanissaro Bhikkhu’s own teacher was Ajahn Fuang Jotiko (1915–1986), who spent some 24 rains retreats with Ajahn Lee, stayed on at Wat Asokaram for a few years after his death, and later became abbot of Wat Dhammasathit in Rayong province.