FOCUS The Ottawa Buddhist Society serves Theravada Buddhists of all nationalities in and around Ottawa.  All who support the Society and its objectives are welcome to Society events, and to become members.  The OBS focuses primarily on Buddhist teachings in the Theravada tradition as practiced in the forest monasteries of Sri Lanka, Thailand and Burma. Practitioners and the spiritual mentors of the OBS communicate primarily in English. Please see the following websites for information on proper conduct / etiquette with Theravada monastics: - http://www.ratanagiri.org.uk/Book/book3/discipl.htm  - http://www.abhayagiri.org/etiquette.html  SPIRITUAL MENTORS  Bhante Henepola Gunaratana Bhante Gunaratana is a bhikkhu (mendicant monk) of the Theravada (School of Elders) tradition of Buddhism. He was born in Sri Lanka, ordained in 1940, and received a classical Buddhist education. He spent five years working with the Harijans (Children of God - Gandhi’s term for the “Untouchables”) in India on behalf of the Maha Bodhi Society. He then worked ten years as a missionary, teacher, and administrator in Malaysia. Bhante Gunaratana was invited to the United States in 1968 to teach Buddhism and lead meditation retreats. He earned a Ph.D. in Philosophy from the American University and has lectured at many universities in North America, Europe, Australia, and Southeast Asia. He is the author of several books including the popular Mindfulness in Plain English (1994) and Eight Mindful Steps to Happiness: Walking the Buddha’s Path (2001). Bhante Gunaratana is now the abbot of the Bhavana Society monastery and retreat center in the Shenandoah Valley of West Virginia, about 100 miles west of Washington, DC. He continues to teach and conduct meditation retreats worldwide. http://www.bhavana.us Ajahn Viradhammo Ajahn Viradhammo was born at Esslingen in Germany in 1947 to Latvian refugee parents. They moved to Toronto when he was five years old. He studied engineering at the University of Toronto but became disillusioned with academic life, and left in 1969 to go and work in Germany. Later, while living in India, he encountered Buddhism, meeting the late Samanera Bodhesako, who introduced him to the writings of Venerable Nanavira Thera. He eventually travelled to Thailand to become a samanera at Wat Mahathat and ordained in 1974 at Wat Pah Pong. He was one of the first residents at Wat Pah Nanachat, an international forest monastery of Ajahn Chah. Having spent four years in Thailand, he went back to visit his family in Canada and Germany in 1977. Instead of returning to Thailand, he was asked by Ajahn Chah to join Ajahn Sumedho at the Hampstead Vihara in London. In subsequent years, he was involved in the establishment of both Chithurst and Harnham monasteries. In 1985, on invitation by the Wellington Theravada Buddhist Association, he moved to New Zealand, accompanied by Venerable Thanavaro. Ajahn Viradhammo was the abbot of Bodhinyanarama Forest Monastery near Wellington from 1985 to 1994. He then rejoined his teacher Ajahn Sumedho in England and became the abbot of Amaravati. He returned to New Zealand in the summer of 1999.  Ajahn Viradhammo recently returned to Ottawa for a long-term visit to take care of his mother.  He is currently involved in a number of teaching activities with the Ottawa Buddhist Society and other Buddhist groups in Canada.   http://www.bodhinyanarama.net.nz Bhante Yogavacara Rahula  Bhante Rahula was born in 1948 in Southern California. He grew up in the hippie revolution and entered the US Army for three years in 1967, spending ten months in Vietnam. Adopting the lifestyle of a wandering hippie, he began a long odyssey starting in Scandinavia which took him half way around the world to India and Nepal. He encountered his first spiritual teachers, Tibetan Lamas, in Nepal at a month-long meditation course. He was more or less converted to being a Buddhist or at least an earnest seeker after Truth by the end of the course. His search brought him south to Sri Lanka where he ordained as a Buddhist monk in 1975 and subsequently received full ordination in Los Angeles in 1979. He remained in Sri Lanka off and on until 1986 whereafter he returned to the United States. Bhante Rahula tells his tale of spiritual awakening in a candid autobiography entitled One Night’s Shelter: From Home to Homelessness. He has also compiled The Way to Peace and Happiness, an anthology of fundamental Dhamma writings translated from the Pali Canon with his helpful introductions and commentaries.  He has been living at the Bhavana Society, a forest monastery/meditation center, in West Virginia since it opened in 1988. He conducts retreats integrating vipassana meditation with Yogic breathing and exercises primarily in the United States and Germany. The Buddha told his monks to go forth into homelessness and Bhante Rahula’s footloose journey continues to this day. He spent several months of 2000 in India working with the Harijans. He subsequently undertook a four month trek in the Himalayan Mountains. http://www.bhavanasociety.us   Ajahn Sona Born in 1954, Ajahn Sona’s background as a layperson is in classical guitar performance (U. of Toronto). He left behind the worldly life and embarked on a five year spiritual journey as a lay hermit. He ordained as a Theravada monk at Bhavana Society monastery in West Virginia and further trained for three years at monasteries such as Wat Pah Nanachat and Wat Keuhn in Northeast Thailand. Ajahn Sona is a pioneer in introducing the Theravadin forest monastic tradition to Canada. He established the Birken Forest Monastery north of Vancouver upon his return to British Columbia in 1994. He is well experienced in leading meditation retreats and his teachings on Buddhist practice combine tried-and-true Buddhist wisdom with modern common sense. Ajahn Sona is the abbot of Birken Forest Monastery at its new and expanded location near Kamloops, BC. http://www.birken.ca