Bhikkhu Bodhi (born December 10, 1944), born Jeffrey Block, is an American Theravada Buddhist monk, ordained in Sri Lanka and currently teaching in the New York and New Jersey area. He was appointed the second president of the Buddhist Publication Society and has edited and authored several publications grounded in the Theravada Buddhist tradition.
In 1944, Block was born in Brooklyn, New York, from Jewish parents. In 1966, he obtained a B.A. in philosophy from Brooklyn College. In 1972, he obtained a PhD in philosophy from Claremont Graduate University.[2][3]
In 1967, while still a graduate student, Bodhi was ordained as a śrāmaṇera (novitiate) in the Vietnamese Mahayana order. In 1972, after graduation, Bodhi traveled to Sri Lanka where, under Balangoda Ananda Maitreya Thero,[4] he received sāmaṇera ordination in the Theravada school and, in 1973, he received full ordination as a Theravada bhikkhu or monk.
In 1984, succeeding co-founder Nyanaponika Thera, Bodhi was appointed English-language editor of the Buddhist Publication Society (BPS, Sri Lanka) and, in 1988, became its president. In 2002, he retired from the society's editorship while still remaining its president.
In 2000, at the United Nations' first official Vesak celebration, Bodhi gave the keynote address.
In 2002, after retiring as editor of BPS, Bodhi returned to the United States. He currently teaches at Bodhi Monastery (Lafayette Township, New Jersey) and Chuang Yen Monastery (Carmel, New York) and is the chairman of the Yin Shun Foundation.
Bhikkhu Bodhi is founder of the organisation Buddhist Global Relief, which fights hunger across the world.
In the fall of 1979, while living at the Washington Buddhist Vihara, Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi gave a series of lectures on the fundamental teachings of Early Buddhism. Bhante Gunaratana, at the time the President of the Buddhist Vihara Society, suggested he record the lectures so that the Vihara could distribute them as a set of cassette tapes.
In the summer of 1981, Ven. Bodhi recorded his ten lectures in the basement of the Washington Buddhist Vihara, using an ordinary, nonprofessional recorder. An enthusiastic lay supporter had the master copies reproduced in large quantities for expanded distribution. They have continued to be distributed on tape and as CDs for over twenty-five years, and are considered “public domain” for anyone to copy and distribute freely. The one condition is that they must not be sold.
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