Bhante Buddharakkhita

Bhante Buddharakkhita is a Theravada Buddhist monk from Uganda, often described as the country's first native-born monk. He grew up in a Christian family in Kampala and came across the Buddha's teachings in 1990 while he was a student in India. In 2002 he took full ordination with the late Sayadaw U Silananda in San Jose, California, then spent eight years as a student of Bhante Henepola Gunaratana, living at his West Virginia monastery, the Bhavana Society. In 2005 he founded the Uganda Buddhist Centre near Entebbe, which he still leads as abbot and which has grown to include schools, a nunnery and village projects alongside its meditation programme.

He has taught mindfulness and insight meditation across Africa, North America, Asia, Europe and South America, and teaches Theravada Buddhism at Union Theological Seminary in New York. His dhamma talks are plain-spoken and often funny, drawing on his own unusual path to look at fear, happiness, emptiness and the freedom of a settled heart. He is the author of four short books, among them Planting Dhamma Seeds, an account of bringing the dhamma to Africa, and Sowing Seeds of Peace, a practical meditation guide for daily life; the centre makes all four free to read online.