This introduces the selected writings and places them within the timeline of Allan Bennett/Ananda Metteyya’’s life.

This contains two rituals, transcribed from Bennett’s magical/esoteric notebooks, both written in the late 1890s, when he was a member of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. The first ritual is incomplete and was composed to create a Talisman of Jupiter, which would allow Bennett to obtain higher knowledge and wisdom. The second is part of a ritual to consecrate a talisman of protection for a fellow Golden Dawn member, Frater Finem Respice (Frater F.R.), or Dr Robert William Felkin (1853–1926). Felkin requested Bennett to create a talisman for him so that he could sleep and not be awakened by night terrors.

This represents the most famous of the rituals that Bennett wrote when he was a member of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and the most republished. It was originally performed with three other Golden Dawn members: Florence Farr (Soror S.S.D.D.) (1860–1917), Frederick Leigh Gardner (Frater D.P.A.L.) (1857–1930), and Charles Rosher (Frater A.A.). The goal of the ceremony was to bind the mercurial spirit, Taphthartharath, to a talisman so that they might use it to obtain hidden knowledge. The structure of the ceremony was based on the Golden Dawn Neophyte initiation, namely the first initiation a person took when entering the Golden Dawn. The version in this collection includes a comparison of four versions if this ritual.

This is an essay written in the late 1890s on the first line of the Book of Genesis in the Bible. It was first published by Aleister Crowley in 1909, within his magical journal, The Equinox. The essay claims to expound the deeper meanings of the first seven words of Genesis, written in Hebrew, using various methods of Kabbalistic analysis.

This is the first lecture Allan Bennett gave as a Buddhist. He had been in colonial Ceylon for approximately eighteen months and had explored life in a Buddhist monastery in the south of the island and worked under a Śaivite guru and politician, Ponnambalam Ramanathan (1851-1930). The lecture was given in Colombo at the Hope Lodge of the Theosophical Society. The lecture demonstrates that, by this time, Bennett could use the Pali Canon, probably in translation. Although traces of his theosophical past are present, this shows Bennett as a committed Buddhist who saw the Buddha as giver of truth to the world.

Allan Bennett wrote this article in Akyab (now Sittwe) in colonial Burma after his novice ordination as a Buddhist monk (bhikkhu) in December 1901. He sent it to friends in Ceylon for publication. Aleister Crowley later published an edited version. It draws on Metteyya’s understanding of the sixth century CE Buddhist commentary, the Visuddhimagga (Path of Purification) and key parts of the Pali Canon concerning mental culture. It seek to fill a lacuna that Metteyya saw in the practice of Buddhism in Ceylon, namely transformation of the mind, through giving practical advice about how to meditate and the objects that could be used in meditation.

Allan Bennett wrote this article in Akyab (now Sittwe) in colonial Burma after his novice ordination as a Buddhist monk (bhikkhu) in December 1901. He sent it to friends in Ceylon for publication. At the time, he was learning Pali and following the traditional Burmese training for novices. The article entered the debates in Ceylon between Buddhists and Christian missionaries. It argued that the belief that events were caused by gods or demons, as in Christianity, was a form of animism. He contrasted this with one of the facets of Buddhism that attracted him most, namely that the principle of karma (action) made Buddhism a religion of ‘law’, which nurtured compassion rather than anger.

This is the talk given by Allan Bennett, now Ananda Maitriya, when he received upasampadā (higher ordination) in Akyab in May 1902. After words of thanks to all who had helped him reach his ordination ceremony, he outlined the main ‘ambition’ of his life – to give Buddhism to the west. He explains that he will start by founding an international Buddhist society (Buddhasāsana Samāgama) and a monthly subsidised journal, Buddhism, both of which would attract westerners to come to Burma to train as Buddhist monks. This presentation expresses his early idealism, hope and determination.

This prospectus represents the re-organisation of the Buddhasāsana Samāgama that occurred in March 1903, after Ananda M had moved from Mandalay to Rangoon. It was issued as a ‘Supplement’ to the first issue of the journal, Buddhism: An Illustrated Review, and later as a fully-developed ‘Prospectus’. It shows that the membership was intended to be ‘eclectic’; all who were interested in the society’s work could join. Significant also is the insistence that the Samāgama would not abuse or ridicule other forms of religious belief.

This was the lead article in the first issue of Buddhism and the first that Ananda Metteyya wrote with an international audience in mind. It laid out Ananda M’s stall, as he sought to attract westerners to train as Buddhist monks. Western society is denounced for its lack of compassion and its violence, and Buddhism is presented as the antidote, holding out the possibility of harmony. Misconceptions of Buddhism in the west are then corrected – that it is idolatrous, that it is mysterious and ‘miracle-mongering’, and that it is apathetic and pessimistic. It was re-printed both in Ananda M’s lifetime and after his death.

‘In the Shadow of Shwe Dagon’ was serialised in Buddhism and focusses on Buddhist monastic practice in colonial Burma. It begins with a description of an evening visit by Metteyya, with an unnamed friend, to the Shwe Dagon Pagoda in Rangoon (now Yangon). The atmosphere is described in a vivid and poetic style, demonstrating Metteyya’s sensitivity to Burmese lived religion. The second instalment focuses on the novice ordination of a twelve year old boy, son of a rich paddy merchant. The third describes novitiate training at the Shwe Dagon Pagoda under an experienced, meditating monk, whom Ananda M calls U Paññajoti. The fourth moves to Paññajoti himself and his journey back to his home monastery in Sagaing, a monastic centre near Mandalay.

This was written for what became the last issue of Buddhism, published just before Metteyya’s mission to Britain in 1908. It expresses Metteyya’s optimism, as he prepared to sail, presenting Buddhism as ‘the first of the great missionary Religions’. The west is pictured as ready for Buddhism and Metteyya lays out what he believes will encourage converts, namely the spiritual attainment of higher states of consciousness and forms of ‘Understanding’ that move beyond discredited faith in God to a realistic appreciation of why suffering exists and how it can be alleviated. At the end, he indicts the west because of its selfishness, its moral degradation and its misplaced sense of superiority over the east.

Metteyya’s obituary for Colonel Olcott, co-founder of the Theosophical Society, voices Metteyya’s understanding of the relationship between Theosophy and Buddhism. He praises Olcott’s work, particularly his contribution to the Buddhist Revival in Ceylon but also mentions the key difference between Theosophy and Buddhism as he saw it – the concept of non-self or anattā in Buddhism. Metteyya, therefore, argues that Theosophy prepared the way for Buddhism in the west. Theosophy’s insistence that there was a true ‘Self’ cushioned Buddhism’s impact, making it easier for people to take the next step, namely the acceptance of anattā.

This is one of the few poems written by Metteyya. Published at the end of the last issue of Buddhism, it offers an invitation to enter the Buddhist path and anticipates Metteyya’s mission to Britain.

This is an address given by Metteyya in Rangoon to the Buddhasāsana Samāgama (the International Buddhist Society) in December 1908, after his mission to Britain. It contains a passionate appeal to his Burmese supporters that they should donate to the cause of Buddhism in the west, as a moral duty. In the disempowering context of British colonialism, he offers his listeners agency in supporting what was happening in Britain.

This was one of the last addresses that Metteyya gave to the Rangoon College Buddhist Association, before he returned to Britain in 1914. He argues that Buddhism is not only a philosophy, as some western orientalists claimed, but also a vibrant, lived religion with higher and lower forms of devotion to the Buddha. He links the lower form with the kind of generous living that, according to Burmese Buddhist cosmology, could lead to rebirth in the heavens. The higher form, on the other hand, could inspire the whole of the Buddhist path towards nibbāna (Pali: liberation, enlightenment), by reminding the devotee of the selflessness of the Buddha and his teaching.

Written for the prestigious Lloyd’s publication, Twentieth Century Impressions of Burma, this article is directed towards the west. Metteyya draws on his previous writings to stress that ‘the law of karma’ was in harmony with science, and that Buddhism did not ask for faith in a divinity or assent to dogmas but an openness to understanding reality. He stresses Buddhism’s emphasis on charity, generosity, the eradication of selfishness and empathy for all life, qualities he believed to be essential for the liberation of Britain from its cruelty and materialism.

This is a lengthy and passionate article, written for Buddhists and published in Britain and Asia just before Metteyya returned to Britain in 1914. It argues that a better name for a Buddhist would be a Sammādiṭṭhi, one who rightly understands and has fullest insight. It seems to anticipate World War I in its insistence that belief in selfhood nurtures the patriotism that leads to war and the production of death-dealing implements. Metteyya appeals to Buddhists to live their understanding, not only to theorise it, with their eyes on the goal – ‘the great, ancient, holy stream of deathless light’ (nibbāna).

This book was published shortly before Allan Bennett/Metteyya’s death in 1923 and brings together the lectures he gave in the studio of the writer and broadcaster, Clifford Bax (1886-1962) in the winter of 1919-1920, plus an extra lecture that he gave to the Buddhist Society on rebirth. As a lay person again, Allan Bennett or Ananda M as he continued to call himself, carefully sequenced his lectures in line with the needs of his audience, which probably included Theosophists, freethinkers, artists and those interested in but not committed to Buddhism. At the beginning, he attempts to convey the emotive impact of the Buddha’s teaching, again stressing that it was not a dry philosophy but something that lived and breathed in the lives of Buddhists. Doctrine and practice follow. The third lecture explains non-self (anattā) in depth. The fourth outlines the Four Noble Truths and the fifth examines mental culture. The lectures show Bennett, in a western context, continuing to engage with theism, Theosophy, science and Buddhist modernism.

This is one of Allan Bennett’s shortest articles and was published through his Ceylonese friends, in The Buddhist Annual of Ceylon 1921. It shows his thought coming full circle. In his lecture on the Four Noble Truths in 1901, he had summed up Buddhism through the word, ‘pity’. In this article, he argues that the greatest spiritual achievement of Buddhism could be summed up in one word, compassion. His implication is that World War I might not have happened, if this quality had been developed in the west.

This is one of Allan Bennett’s last writings. Aware that many in the west resisted Buddhism, he attempts here to combine two aspects of Buddhism in order to draw in westerners, namely its compatibility with science and its concern for inner experience, the attaining of states of consciousness beyond those of ordinary, waking life.

Published at the same time as ‘Buddhism and the Western World’, Bennett revisits here his ‘Aryan’ theory. This now discredited racial theory appears in a number of Metteyya’s writings. According to Metteyya, there were two branches of the ‘Aryan race’, those in India (Indo-Aryans) and those in the west. Here, he negatively contrasts western ‘Aryans’ with those of India. The former had chosen the external world and materialism. The latter had chosen the interior world and inner consciousness, particularly the giving up of selfhood and selfishness.

Ananda Metteyya, ‘An Open Letter to the Buddhists of London by the late Bhikkhu Ananda Metteyya, Rangoon, 28 December 1908’ (published 1930) Ananda Metteyya, ‘Extracts from Letters to a Friend in England by Ananda Metteyya, April 25 1909’ (published 1931). This consists of correspondence published posthumously in The Buddhist Annual of Ceylon. First is ‘An Open Letter to the Buddhists of London written on 28 December 1908’, a few months after the end of his 1908 mission, published in 1930. In it, Metteyya speaks autobiographically of his conversion to Buddhism, significantly omitting his link with Theosophy and the Order of the Golden Dawn, and his decision to become a Buddhist monk in order to bring Buddhism to the west. He also makes an impassioned plea that his readers should offer continued financial and moral support to what his mission had begun in the west. Second is a collection of extracts from letters to an unnamed friend in England, written from Burma in 1909 and 1910, published in 1931. The topics are wide-ranging. For instance, in the third extract, Metteyya argues that the term ‘Buddhism’ was frightening westerners away from engaging with the Buddha’s teaching, because they saw it as linked with the esoteric. He, therefore, suggests that Buddhism could be communicated in the west, without using the term ‘Buddhism’ at all and that the best environment for this was not the public meeting but more intimate one-to-one conversations.