The character arc of Ajahn Brahm
A life drawn by Character Arc from the public record
Born Peter Betts on 7 August 1951 in London, from a working class background. Between then and now sit a scholarship to read theoretical physics at Cambridge, a year teaching mathematics in Devon, ordination in Bangkok at twenty three, nine years of forest training under Ajahn Chah, a posting to Perth in 1983, ninety seven acres of bush bought with no buildings on it, plumbing and bricklaying learned so the monks could build it themselves, the largest community of Buddhist monks in Australia, and the ordination of four women on 22 October 2009. The line below draws the story so far, in order.
Drag along the line to move, pinch or use the buttons to look closer. Tap the line to pluck it, or any mark for its card. Drawn from the public record of his life; the sources are at the foot of the page.
Who is Ajahn Brahm?
He ordained four women. Ten days later he lost his lineage.
He was born Peter Betts in London, in a working class family, and won a scholarship to read theoretical physics at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, in the late 1960s. That is already an unusual distance travelled. After graduating he taught mathematics at a high school in Devon for a year, and then went to Thailand to become a monk. He was ordained in Bangkok at twenty three and spent nine years studying and training in the forest meditation tradition under Ajahn Chah.
In 1983 his teacher sent him to Perth to help with teaching. He and another monk lived in an old house in North Perth, and late that year they bought ninety seven acres of rural and forested land in the hills at Serpentine. There was nothing on it. There were very few Buddhists in Perth and almost no money, so the monks built the place themselves. He learned plumbing and bricklaying, and put up many of the buildings with his own hands.
What they built became the first dedicated Buddhist monastery of the Thai Theravada lineage in the southern hemisphere, and today it holds the largest community of Buddhist monks in Australia. He is its abbot, and an adviser or patron to Buddhist organisations in Australia, Singapore and the United Kingdom.
On 22 October 2009 he and another monk facilitated an ordination ceremony for four women. He has explained his reasoning plainly: he had assumed as a young monk in Thailand that the obstacle was a legal one, and having investigated and studied he found that many of the obstacles people thought existed were not there. On 1 November 2009, at a meeting of senior members of the Thai forest monastic community in his own teacher's lineage, he was removed from it. He kept going. In October 2015 he asked a nun to take the first steps towards establishing a monastery for women in the United Kingdom.
The moments
Ajahn Brahm's timeline.
The 1960s
A scholarship to Cambridge
Milestone, and it changed everything. A working class London boy, reading theoretical physics at Cambridge.
The 1970s
A year teaching maths
Everyday. One year at the front of a classroom, and then he left the country.
Ordained in Bangkok
Milestone, and it changed everything. Twenty three years old, in another country, in robes.
Nine years in the forest
Everyday, and it changed everything. Nine years in a forest, with a teacher who spoke no English at first.
The 1980s
Sent to Perth
Milestone, and it changed his direction. A teacher pointed at Australia, and he went.
Ninety seven empty acres
Milestone, and it changed everything. A hundred acres of bush with nothing standing on it.
He learns bricklaying
Milestone, and it changed everything. A Cambridge physicist teaching himself to lay bricks, to save money.
The 1990s
The biggest community in Australia
Milestone, and it changed his direction. The first of its kind south of the equator, and the largest.
The 2000s
Hold the ceremony
Crossroads, decided.
The paths laid out: ordain them, taken, or wait for agreement. He was removed from the lineage ten days later, and started work on a monastery for women in Britain six years after that.
He ordains four women
Milestone, and it changed everything. Four women ordained, because he went and checked the rule himself.
Removed from the lineage
Setback, and it changed everything. Ten days later, thirty five years of lineage were withdrawn.
The 2010s
A monastery for women
Milestone, and it changed his direction. Six years on, and he was starting another one, in England.
The monastery he laid the bricks for is still full, and there are ordained women in it. What he set moving is the door he opened at the cost of his own standing, held open ever since by a former physicist who decided that a rule nobody could find in writing was not a rule.
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Ajahn Brahm: frequently asked questions
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Where does this timeline of Ajahn Brahm's life come from?
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Sources
- Ajahn Brahm, English Wikipedia biography, filed under living people.
- His own stated reasoning on the ordination question, as quoted there.
- Bodhinyana Monastery records for the 1983 land purchase at Serpentine.
- The monastic law argument itself is deliberately left unsettled on this page.