The Four Noble Truths (1901)
Selected Essays of Allan Bennett, Bhikkhu Ananda Metteyya - (Volume 2 of Allan Bennett, Bhikkhu Ananda Metteyya: Biography and Collected Writings) - Elizabeth J. Harris
Allan Bennett [+]
Allan Bennett (1872-1923) was one of the first British men to gain higher ordination as a Buddhist monk and one of the seminal figures in the development of Buddhism in the UK.
Description
This is the first lecture Allan Bennett gave as a Buddhist. He had been in colonial Ceylon for approximately eighteen months and had explored life in a Buddhist monastery in the south of the island and worked under a Śaivite guru and politician, Ponnambalam Ramanathan (1851-1930). The lecture was given in Colombo at the Hope Lodge of the Theosophical Society. The lecture demonstrates that, by this time, Bennett could use the Pali Canon, probably in translation. Although traces of his theosophical past are present, this shows Bennett as a committed Buddhist who saw the Buddha as giver of truth to the world.