The Thought of Sangharakshita; A Critical Assessment; Ellis

Robert M. Ellis [+–]

Middle Way Society

Robert M. Ellis is author of a range of interdisciplinary books on Middle Way Philosophy, both within and beyond Buddhism. These have included The Buddha’s Middle Way: Experiential Judgement in His Life and Teaching (Equinox Publishing, 2019) and Archetypes in Religion and Beyond: A Practical Theory of Human Integration and Inspiration (Equinox Publishing, 2022). He is also founder of the Middle Way Society and of Tirylan House Retreat Centre in Wales.

This book surveys Sangharakshita’s most important and original ideas with an eye that combines appreciation and critical awareness in equal measure. It celebrates Sangharakshita’s pioneering syntheses of Buddhist and Western ideas, but warns against the inconsistencies and dogmas that are also found in Sangharakshita’s work – dogmas whose negative practical effects can also be traced.

Chapter 1

Introduction [+–] 1-17

This section gives the book context in the author’s experience, outlines Sangharakshita’s life, and explains the overall critical approach. Sangharakshita’s achievements were substantial: the founding of a successful Buddhist movement and the first major moves in adapting Buddhism to Western conditions. He was a highly creative figure and in some ways open to critical discussion, but weaker on adapting his ideas in response to feedback. The approach taken to critical assessment in the book is entirely practical – which in many ways means judging Sangharakshita’s thinking in terms of its own best features.

Chapter 2

Making Buddhism Universal [+–] 18-71

This section focuses on the positive ways that Sangharakshita tried to relate Buddhism to key Western concepts: those of creativity, provisionality, integration, and individuality. These all connect aspects of Buddhism to Western practices in the arts, science, psychology and democracy. They can be connected together particularly through the concept of the Middle Way. Sangharakshita’s treatment of these themes helped Westerners to engage with Buddhism, but they also contain various limitations, inconsistencies and dogmatic assumptions.

Chapter 3

Practice [+–] 72-122

One of the core strengths of the movement that Sangharakshita founded is its emphasis on practice, and its emphasis on the interconnections between elements of the Eightfold Path. Apart from meditation, Sangharakshita emphasised ethics, friendship, the development of social institutions, and the arts. He also insisted on the value of Buddhist ritual. All of these areas of practice have been of substantial practical help to Western Buddhists, but there are also various unnecessary dogmatic assumptions in his framing of them. Controversy has been particularly created by his ideas on ‘vertical friendship’ as a re-presentation of the guru-disciple relationship, and his limited emphasis on accountability in social institutions.

Chapter 4

Interpreting Buddhist Tradition [+–] 123-166

Although Sangharakshita was always ready to interpret Buddhist teachings in ways that would he helpful to his audience, he also had a core commitment to it from an early age. This seems to have created a strong confirmation bias in which he was unwilling to entirely let go of Buddhist teachings regardless of the practical conflict they created. His doctrinal interpretations were also influenced by idealism and Platonism from Western philosophy. His interpretations of enlightenment, conditionality, karma and rebirth, the Buddha, the unity of Buddhism, faith and going for refuge are all examined here in an attempt to separate helpful from unhelpful assumptions.

Chapter 5

Controversies [+–] 167-221

The aspects of Sangharakshita’s ideas that have caused most controversy are those that relate to his personal authority in the Order he founded, the use of his image, and his attitudes to feminism, single sex practice, families and sexual activity. In all of these areas this section tries to focus on Sangharakshita’s underlying assumptions, and assess how far they were responsible for unhelpful outcomes. The sexual abuse allegations are put in the context of his thought rather than judged on an individual basis. In many of these areas his odd mixture of traditionalism, Platonism, and bias towards promiscuity seem to have created serious conflict, although there are also a few genuine practical achievements.

Chapter 6

Conclusion [+–] 222-241

This section briefly reviews the argument of the whole book in practical assessment of Sangharakshita’s thought, and anticipates a range of likely objections. The overall legacy of Sangharakshita is profoundly mixed, though also one of substantial achievement. It is one that is badly in need of continual but balanced critical analysis.

End Matter

Bibliography [+–] 242-246

Sangharakshita (1925-2018) was a Buddhist writer and teacher, founder of the Triratna Buddhist Order and Community (previously FWBO). Apart from his practical achievements, Sangharakshita was an original thinker on the adaptation of Buddhism to modern conditions, an autodidact whose intellectual creativity was stimulated by both cross-cultural experience and practical contingency. His thinking is little known or appreciated outside the movement he founded, but over-dominant within it. This means that there is a shortage of balanced critical discussion of his work that finds any middle way between hagiography and dismissal. Sangharakshita has also been an object of controversy in recent years, but his more controversial views and actions need to be seen in proportion to the whole of his thinking. This book surveys Sangharakshita’s most important and original ideas with an eye that combines appreciation and critical awareness in equal measure. It celebrates Sangharakshita’s pioneering syntheses of Buddhist and Western ideas, but warns against the inconsistencies and dogmas that are also found in Sangharakshita’s work – dogmas whose negative practical effects can also be traced.

Reference List of Sangharakshita’s Lectures and Seminars [+–] 247-248

Index [+–] 249-259

Reviews

Very stimulating and thought provoking. There hasn't been anything like it so far, and I think it will contribute to the process of clarifying and re-evaluating some of Sangharakshita's ideas and teachings. In my view, that process is necessary and could be very helpful to practitioners in Triratna.
Vajrapushpa (Ulla Brown), member of the Triratna Buddhist Order

A significant and very useful book, something that will be in the background for years to come in the interesting new era of post-Sangharakshita studies.
Kamalashila (Anthony Matthews), author of Meditation: The Buddhist Way of Tranquility and Insight

A very valuable contribution to the discussion of Sangharakshita’s ideas. This book should be interesting to those who study new religious movements as well as the introduction of Buddhism to the West.
Michael Chaskalson, Founder and CEO of Mindfulness Works and author of The Mindful Workplace and Mindfulness in Eight Weeks

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The Thought of Sangharakshita

A Critical Assessment

Robert M. Ellis [+–]

Middle Way Society

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