Propaganda (1908)
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 was written for what became the last issue of Buddhism, published just before Metteyya’s mission to Britain in 1908. It expresses Metteyya’s optimism, as he prepared to sail, presenting Buddhism as ‘the first of the great missionary Religions’. The west is pictured as ready for Buddhism and Metteyya lays out what he believes will encourage converts, namely the spiritual attainment of higher states of consciousness and forms of ‘Understanding’ that move beyond discredited faith in God to a realistic appreciation of why suffering exists and how it can be alleviated. At the end, he indicts the west because of its selfishness, its moral degradation and its misplaced sense of superiority over the east.