Silacara

Vorlage:Infobox religious biography Sīlācāra Bhikkhu, October 22, 1871, Hull, Yorkshire, UK — January 22, 1952, Bury, Sussex, UK), born and died as J.F. McKechnie, was one of the earliest westerners in modern times to become a Buddhist monk.

His father was a baritone singer, Sir Charles Santley. His mother was Caroline Mavis. Until the age of 21 he worked as apprentice stock-cutter in a clothing factory, then he emigrated to America to work for four years on a fruit and dairy farm. Whilst back in Glasgow, he had read about Buddhism in a copy of the magazine Buddhism: An Illustrated Review, which he had found in the public library, and answered the advertisement of the magazine's editor Bhikkhu Ānanda Metteyya (Charles Henry Allan Bennett) who asked for an editorial assistant in Rangoon. After going to Burma, he first taught for a year in the Buddhist boys' school of Mme Hlā Oung, a rich Burmese Buddhist philanthropist.

In 1906 Nyanatiloka accepted McKechnie as novice (samanera)with the name Sāsanavaṃsa. He then stayed with Nyanatiloka and Ānanda Metteya at Kyundaw Kyaung, Kemmendine, Rangoon--a monastic residence in a quiet area that Mrs Hlā Oung had built for Ānanda Metteya and Nyanatiloka.

In 1906 or 1907, he was admitted as bhikkhu into the Sangha by the Sayadaw U Kumāra, who had also ordained Nyanatiloka, and was given the new name Sīlācāra. While a novice, he translated Bhikkhu Ñāṇatiloka’s The Word of the Buddha, from German into English. It was published in Rangoon in 1907.

In 1910 Sīlācāra intended to come to the Buddhist monastery Nyanatiloka planned to found near Novaggio, Lugano, Switzerland, but that monastery did not realize and he did not come.

In 1914 Sīlācāra stayed in Tumlong, Sikkim, near the Tibetan border. Alexandra David-Néel was also staying there when Nyanatiloka visited Tumlong. One report states that Sīlācāra was there on the invitation of the Maharaja to teach Buddhism.

During WWI he probably stayed in Burma. Nyanatiloka wrote a letter to him there.

When Sīlācāra's health broke down due to asthma complicated with heart trouble, he disrobed on the advice of the German Buddhist Dr. Paul Dahlkeand returned England late in 1925. He assisted Anagarika Dharmapala at the Mahabodhi Society's British branch, lecturing and editing the British Buddhist. Due to health problems, he had to leave London in 1932 for Surrey. He continued to write to Buddhist Magazines in the UK, Sri Lanka, Burma, Germany, etc. During World War II his house at Wisborough Green was sold and he entered an old persons' Home at Bury, Sussex, where he stayed until his death in 1952.

Work

Among Sīlācāra's books are The Four Noble Truths, The Eightfold Path, Kamma, Panchasila: The Five Precepts and Young People's Life of the Buddha. He translated in an abridged form the first group of discourses of the Majjhima Nikaya as The First Fifty Discourses of Gotama the Buddha and also made a translation of the Dhammapada, The Way of Truth. His articles were published in the Buddhism: An Illustrated Quarterly Review, The British Buddhist, Buddhist Annual of Ceylon,Maha-Bodhi and the United Buddhist World. He also translated from German works by Paul Dahlke and Nyanatiloka.

Works

• The Word of the Buddha. An outline of the ethic-philosophical system of Buddha in words of Pali canon by Nyanatiloka. Translated from the German by Sāsanavaṃsa (= Sīlācāra). Rangoon: International Buddhist Society, 1907
• The First Fifty Discourses of Gotama the Buddha, Walter Markgraf, Breslau-London 1912-13, Munich 1924, Delhi 2005
• Panchasila: The Five Precepts, Adyar, Madras: Theosophical Publishing House, 1913
• Buddhism and Science, Author Paul Dahlke. Translation from the German by Bhikkhu Silacara. 1913
• Lotus Blossoms, Adyar, Madras: Theosophical Publishing House, 1914, 1968. (Essays on the Four Noble Truths illustrated from Sutta Pitaka)
• The Way of Truth, London: The Buddhist Society of Great Britain and Ireland, 1915
• The Fruit of Homelessness: The Samannaphala Sutta, London: Buddhist Society of Great Britain and Ireland, 1917
• The Four Noble Truths, Adyar, Madras: Theosophical Publishing House, 1922. [1]
• Buddhist View of Religion, Bauddha Sahitya Sabha, Colombo, 1946.
• Right understanding, Kandy: Buddhist Publication Society, Sri Lanka, 1968, 1979. Reprinted from the Maha Bodhi, Oct.-Nov. 1967.
• An Actual Religion, Kandy: Buddhist Publication Society, Sri Lanka, 1971
• Kamma, Calcutta : Maha-Bodhi Society of India, 1950
• Buddhism for the Beginner, Calcutta : Mahabodhi Society of India, 1952. Reprinted in The Path of Buddhism”, Colombo 1955.
• A Young People's Life of the Buddha, Colombo, 1953. [2]
• Noble Eightfold Path, ??

Sources

• Anonymous, A Biography, in Bhikkhu Silacara, A Young People's Life of the Buddha, Colombo 1953.
• Bhikkhu Nyanatusita and Hellmuth Hecker, The Life of Nyanatiloka: The Biography of a Western Buddhist Pioneer Kandy, 2009.