Selected Writings of Allan Bennett, Bhikkhu Ananda Metteyya

Forthcoming, Late Summer, 2025

This is the first edited, annotated collection of the writings of Allan Bennett, 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.

Bennett’s view of Buddhism reflects the intellectual history of his day and the debates that were happening between different religious groups in late-Victorian and early-Edwardian imperial Britain. His work represents some of the first writings by English converts to Buddhism and mobilised both British Buddhists and sympathisers. Controversy has surrounded his life, particularly in Western Buddhist circles, because of his early involvement with occultism.

His writings include two published volumes. The first, The Wisdom of the Aryas, which recorded a series of talks he gave in London in 1919–1920, was published just two months before he died. The second, The Religion of Burma and Other Papers, was published posthumously. The first is included in this volume in its entirety, along with excerpts from his esoteric notebooks, essays published in Buddhism – An Illustrated Quarterly Review, the journal he established, the prospectus of the International Buddhist Society (Buddhasāsana Samāgama), which he founded, excerpts from his letters and lectures, as well as other publications.