Urgyen Sangharakshita.

Sangharakshita was a singular figure in the Buddhist world after the Second World War. For 20 years he lived in India, where he was ordained as a bhikkhu and studied with a range of Buddhist teachers of different lineages.

He wrote and lectured prolifically both in Europe and in Asia. In the light of modern scholarship and his own spiritual experience, he brought out and emphasized what he saw as core teachings that underlie and unify the diversity of Buddhist traditions as a whole.

In founding the Friends of the Western Buddhist Order (now known as the Triratna Buddhist Community) in 1967, he sought to clarify what he saw as essential and to outline ways of practice that are alive and relevant to our times

Read a more detailed account of his life and legacy here.