Biography

But Little Dust
Life Among the ‘Ex-Untouchable’ Buddhists of India

Padmasuri

An English nurse and midwife tells the story of the harsh realities of life in an Indian shanty town and how it led her to give up nursing in favour of Buddhist teaching, helping her new-found friends to discover the path of individual and social transformation.

ISBN 0 904766 85 3

Jai Bhim! Dispatches from a Peaceful Revolution

Terry Pilchick

Hundreds of people were waiting as the train drew in from Bombay. Waving garlands, banners and lamps they roared as a smiling, orange-robed figure stepped down. The crowds came from the poorest section of Indian society, but the monk they were greeting hailed from Tooting, London.

Terry Pilchick (Nagabodhi) was a witness to this crazy reversal of the guru syndrome and other extraordinary results of a revolution begun by Dr. B.R. Ambedkar thirty years earlier. It was then that Dr Ambedkar — champion of India’s 60 million ‘Untouchables’ — had led a peaceful revolt. Leaving behind the oppression of the caste system, he and his followers had converted to Buddhism.

Jai Bhim! is a colourful, humorous yet moving meeting with these new Buddhists and the unique revolution they are building in the city slums and remote villages of modern India.

The complete text is available for free download from <www.sangharakshita.org>.

ISBN 0 904766 36 5

Dhardo Rimpoche

Sara Hagel (Editor)

This book is a celebration of the work of the Tibetan lama, Dhardo Rimpoche, revered in his lifetime as a Bodhisattva, a Buddhist word meaning ‘great being’. These reminiscences from his disciples in the East and his adopted disciples in the West reveal again and again his perfection of the qualities of selflessness, generosity, kindness, and mindfulness. Reflecting on these qualities we can open ourselves to the gentle influence of this greatly precious one.

Dhardo Rimpoche spent most of his life in exile in India, dedicating it to keeping alive Tibetan culture, education and religion amongst the refugee children.

ISBN 1 899579 26 5

The Wheel and the Diamond
The Life of Dhardo Tulku

Suvajra

A vivid account of the life of Dhardo Rimpoche, the tulku (incarnation) of the abbot of the influential Drepung monastery of Tibet. Rimpoche’s life spanned two worlds, the medieval agricultural life of old Tibet and the struggle to save Tibetan culture and Buddhism in the uncertain world of exile. With sensitivity and clarity, Suvajra traces his path from Tantric college to a pioneer monastery at Bodhgaya, from Yi Ga Choling gompa at Ghoom — made famous by Lama Govinda in The Way of the White Clouds — to an orphanage and school for refugee children.

Dhardo Rimpoche never flaunted his spiritual credentials; instead he lived them out, unpretentiously doing whatever seemed necessary for the welfare of all. This is a moving testament to the life of a remarkable man and a fascinating glimpse of the world that shaped him and that he fought so hard to preserve.

ISBN 0 904766 48 9

Ambedkar and Buddhism

Sangharakshita

This is the remarkable and stirring story of India's first Law Minister, Dr B.R. Ambedkar. In 1956, Dr Ambedkar started the most important social revolution occurring in India today: the conversion from Hinduism to Buddhism of millions of Indians wishing to escape the degradation of the caste system. Born into the community formerly known as ‘Untouchable’, his entire career was to become an outright challenge to the beliefs and conventions of his society.

Sangharakshita knew Ambedkar personally, and himself played an important part in the mass conversion movement that Ambedkar set in motion.

ISBN 0 904766 28 4

Breaking Free

Srimala

The remarkably honest and often very funny story of a woman’s journey to spiritual freedom.

Srimala was ordained into the Western Buddhist Order in the mid-1970s while pregnant with her second child. The challenges of combining motherhood with a spiritual path are laid bare here, as is the author’s struggle to transform her sexual relationship.

In this powerful piece of writing, Srimala presents her experience as a series of snapshots, showing how so-called mundane events can help us to realize the true significance of our lives. Sometimes deceptively gentle, she pulls no punches.

This book will make you smile. It may also make you feel uncomfortable. Yet many women and men will identify with the everyday struggles and joys described here — and learn much from them.

ISBN 1 899579 03 6

Noble Friendship

Khantipalo

Before The Beatles popularized ‘eastern mysticism’, a Western Buddhist was an unusual sight in India. So when Laurence Mills, later ordained as Buddhist monk Khantipalo, arrived in 1960, he was one of the pioneers in search of the Buddha’s teachings in its ancient homeland.

Khantipalo invites us to share in his reflections on the truth of the Buddha’s message for our time. Travelling with him, we meet his ‘noble friend’ and teacher, Sangharakshita, and other inspiring characters he encountered. These included the Tibetan lama Dhardo Rimpoche, defender of Tibetan culture, the incomparable Yogi Chen, meditation master, and the followers of the late Dr B.R. Ambedkar, champion of those discriminated against on the grounds of caste, who turned to Buddhism.

ISBN 1 899579 46 X