Charles Henry Allan Bennett

Charles Henry Allan Bennett
Ananda Metteyya, First Buddhist Mission to England, 1908
Ordained as a Bhikkhu Ananda Metteyya
Personal
Born(1872-12-08)8 December 1872
London, United Kingdom
Died9 March 1923(1923-03-09) (aged 50)
Resting placeUnmarked grave buried in Morden Cemetery, South London, England
ReligionBuddhism
SchoolTheravada
Notable work(s)The Religion of Burma and Other Papers,[1] & The Wisdom of the Aryas.[2]
Monastic nameAnanda Metteyya (also early version: Ananda Maitreya)
Occupation
  • early life: analytical chemist & occultist.
  • later life: buddhist monk & buddhist; writer, teacher, advocate.

Charles Henry Allan Bennett (8 December 1872 – 9 March 1923) was an English Buddhist and former member of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. He was an early friend and influential teacher of occultist Aleister Crowley.[3][4][5]

Bennett received the name Bhikkhu Ananda Metteyya at his ordination as a Buddhist monk and spent years studying and practising Buddhism in the East. He was the second Englishman to be ordained as a Buddhist monk (Bhikkhu) of the Theravāda tradition[6] and was instrumental in introducing Buddhism in England. He established the first Buddhist Mission in the United Kingdom and sought to spread the light of Dhamma to the West. Co-founder of international Buddhist organisations and publications, he was an influential Buddhist advocate of the early 20th century.

  1. ^ Bennett 1929.
  2. ^ Bennett 1923.
  3. ^ Melton 2000, p. 169.
  4. ^ Kaczynski & Wasserman 2009, Chp. 6 Crowley credited... "his focus on concentration and awareness practices to the influence of his two early mentors, Oscar Eckenstein and Allan Bennett.".
  5. ^ Crow 2008c, p. 1.
  6. ^ Batchelor 1994, p. 40.