Reimagining Buddhism

Understanding Sangharakshita and His Teachings

Vishvapani Blomfield

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English

Windhorse Publications
12 August 2025

Biography: religious & spiritual; Philosophy of religion; Buddhism

Reimagining Buddhism is a sparkling, deeply felt and penetrating account of the English Buddhist teacher, Sangharakshita - one of the most complex and brilliant figures in modern Buddhism. A key figure in Buddhism's arrival in western countries and its revival in India, for many years, Sangharakshita's sexual activity attracted controversy and coloured his reputation beyond Triratna

The book offers a comprehensive account of Sangharakshita's understanding of Buddhism and perhaps the fullest account of any modern Buddhist teacher. Drawing on the whole of his vast output, it sets out to trace the contours of Sangharakshita's imagination, recognise the inner dimensions of his spiritual life and show how these forces shaped his life and his teachings. The book covers Sangharakshita's

life as a poetically inclined scholar-monk in India, his equivocal embrace of the counter-culture in 1960s England, his inspired teachings in the West, his careful development of a Buddhist community and his continuing reflections in old age.

Vishvapani presents Sangharakshita as a subtle and far reaching thinker and a creative prodigy with an intuitive understanding of the spirit or current of energy at Buddhism's centre. In the course of a long life he founded the Triratna Buddhist Community which grew into a worldwide movement, and wrote many volumes of Buddhist teaching and commentary as well as memoirs and poetry. Unlike most of his contemporaries, he drew on the whole Buddhist tradition rather than adapting one of its Asian forms, and developed modern expressions without embracing secularism. He insisted he was remaining faithful to the tradition, even as he recast it in fundamental ways.

His supporters said he was revitalising Buddhist teachings while his critics said he distorted them.

The learning, sensitivity and resonant prose of the

acclaimed Gautama Buddha: the Life and Teachings of the Awakened One

has been brought to this remarkable account of a unique Buddhist teacher. For those new to Sangharakshita's life and work, this is a wide-ranging introduction; for more experienced readers it presents his teachings as a whole and in their full depth.

By: Vishvapani Blomfield
Imprint: Windhorse Publications
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 231mm, Width: 155mm,
ISBN: 9781915342454
ISBN 10: 1915342457
Pages: 280
Publication Date: 12 August 2025
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Vishvapani is the author of Gautama Buddha: The Life and Teachings of the Awakened One (Quercus, 2011) and the editor of Challenging Times: Stories of Buddhist Practice When Things Get Tough (Windhorse Publications, 2006). Since 2006 he has been the Buddhist contributor to BBC Radio 4's 'Thought for the Day'. He lives in Cardiff with his wife and son and his work over the years has included mindfulness teaching, writing, broadcasting, leading pilgrimages to the Buddhist holy places and holding central positions within the Triratna Buddhist Community. He became a Buddhist as a teenager and was ordained into the Triratna Buddhist Order in 1992.