I became interested in Buddhism in the 1950’s, while working for local government in London, U.K., after service in the Royal Air Force during World War II. I read a book on Buddhism, which told me that I was responsible for my own mental, spiritual, and psychological health. It also pointed out that I was in a dependent relationship with others and shared in the responsibility for our mutual well-being. I was ordained a sāmanera (novice monk) at a Sinhalese centre in London in 1955 and received the full ordination as a bhikkhu at a monastery in Bangkok, Thailand, in 1956. The next several years in my questing life, on leaving the order, included undergraduate and graduate studies in psychology at the University of Edinburgh, with a break for professional training in clinical psychology at the University of Glasgow. I came to Ontario in 1966 and worked as a psychologist at Whitby Psychiatric Hospital for a number of years and then at Oshawa General Hospital until my retirement. This period also included an arrangement to teach in the Department of Psychology at York University, Toronto.
I reunited with my Buddhist studies and practice after my retirement and now speak on Buddhism on invitation. Also, on invitation, I teach courses on Buddhist meditation.
During my Buddhist years in London I detected a trend among some converts to glow with a sense of superiority for the Buddhist way over there now abandoned Western religious traditions. One way in which it expressed itself was to boast that there had never been a war in the name of Buddhism. With this trend, while not overlooking conflicts between co-religionists in the Western traditions, I concluded that there was a risk of throwing out the baby with the bath water, so to speak, for there was much to cherish in Western thought and ethics. I chose to study psychology, a discipline that emerged from philosophy, as a way of expanding my knowledge of our Western psyche and, in a pragmatic way, contribute to a balanced attitude in the emerging Buddhist movement.
Note: Except for the story on page three, this preamble is the actual introduction to the manual.