‘Come Back, Sīladhamma. Please Come Back!’
New Year 2016 message by Ven. Luang Por Sumedho
Recorded on 20th December, 2015

To realize the real cause of nowadays turbulent situations and help preserve World Peace, the words by Buddhadāsa translated as “Come back, sīladhamma, please come back!” are the theme of practice at the Buddhadāsa Indapanno Archives (BiA) for the whole year of 2016. When Ajahn came to teach at the center, Ajahn kindly agreed to BiA’s request and generously offered some reflections about the theme.

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About Luang Por Sumedho:

After ordaining at the age of 30, Ajahn Sumedho was to be the first western disciple of Luang Por Chah in Wat Nong Pah Pong, Ubon, in North Eastern Thailand. In 1975 Luang Por Chah sent him to a nearby village, Bahn Bung Wai, to establish Wat Pah Nanachat, a monastery that english speaking people could go to in order to study Buddhism and ordain. Two years later, upon the invitation of George Sharp and the English Sangha Trust, Luang Por Chah asked Ajahn Sumedho to go to London. A small but growing community was to spend two years in the Hampstead Vihāra, before moving to West Sussex, to found Chithurst Monastery. Under Ajahn Sumedho’s guidance, the community grew steadily. Ajahn Sumedho helped found a number of branch monasteries over the years, both in England and abroad, in countries such as Italy, Switzerland, New-Zealand, U.S.A, Canada,… A few years after living in Chithurst Monastery, he himself moved to establish Amaravati Buddhist Monastery, in Hertfordshire. He lived altogether 34 years in England, travelling regularly back to Thailand to keep in touch with the Sangha there, and all over the world, spreading the Buddha’s Teaching.

Having retired from his position as the abbot of Amaravati Buddhist Monastery, Luang Por Sumedho has been living for the last four years in Wat Pah Ratanawan, in Central Thailand. He is now 80 years old, and still makes himself available according to his ability for teaching and encouraging people’s interest in the Dhamma.