Moving against the stream : the birth of a new Buddhist movement / Sangharakshita.

Includes index.

Chapter one: A cool reception -- Chapter two: The story so far -- Chapter three: The embroidered cushion -- Chapter four: Family reunions and a big disappointment -- Chapter five: At the summer school -- Chapter six: The rustle of autumn -- Chapter seven: Healing the breach -- Chapter eight: 'The world of publishing' -- Chapter nine: London twenty years after -- Chapter ten: A portrait in oil - and a few sketches -- Chapter eleven: Monks and laymen -- Chapter twelve: The penalties of success -- Chapter thirteen: Enter the special branch -- Chapter fourteen: A startling claim -- Chapter fifteen: The history of a depressive -- Chapter sixteen: Strangers here -- Chapter seventeen: Visitors from east and west -- Chapter eighteen: Shadowy figures and a strange experience -- Chapter nineteen: Meditating among the ruins -- Chapter twenty: An important milestone -- Chapter twenty-one: The divine eye and dialectic -- Chapter twenty-two: An inquisitive princess -- Chapter twenty-three: Changes at Vihara -- Chapter twenty-four: North of the border -- Chapter twenty-five: A secret life -- Chapter twenty-six: Restoring the balance -- Chapter twenty-seven: Circles within circles -- Chapter twenty-eight: News from Sikkim -- Chapter twenty-nine: Buddhism and the Bishop of Woolwich -- Chapter thirty: An important anniversary and a typist's nightmare -- Chapter thirty-one: Giving the three jewels a final polish -- Chapter thirty-two: Ordinations on the Easter retreat - and a birthday -- Chapter thirty-three: Preparing for Greece -- Chapter thirty-four: Boyhood haunts -- Chapter thirty-five: Over the alps -- Chapter thirty-six: Reclaiming a heritage -- Chapter thirty-seven: The road to Delphi -- Chapter thirty-eight: Athens and the Peloponnese -- Chapter thirty-nine: Naples, Rome and Florence -- Chapter forty: Picking up the threads -- Chapter forty-one: Back to the Vihara -- Chapter forty-two: Journey to India -- Chapter forty-three: A letter from India -- Chapter forty-four: Among the new Buddhists -- Chapter forty-five: On pilgrimage -- Chapter forty-six: Editorial interlude -- Chapter forty-seven: Friends, teachers and a letter from London -- Chapter forty-eight: The man in the pit -- Chapter forty-nine: Packing and printing -- Chapter fifty: The valediction that failed -- Chapter fifty-one: Agra - Almora - Cairo -- Chapter fifty-two: What the dispute was about -- Chapter fifty-three: A basement in Monmouth Street -- Chapter fifty-four: Cui Bono? -- Epilogue -- Index.

In 1964 Sangharakshita, the seniormost Buddhist monk of British birth, left India for a visit to the UK. After twenty years in the subcontinent--travelling and lecturing, writing, working among the most deprived, and extending and deepening his knowledge of the Dharma--he had been invited by leading British Buddhists to help resolve tensions in the British Buddhist scene. While he was trying to ease conflicts and create harmony, an unexpected turn of events brought Sangharakshita to a crucial decision.

This fourth volume of memoirs, covering the years 1964 to 1967, deals with Sangharakshita's return to Britain and describes the difficulties he encountered in his attempts to unite English Buddhists. We witness the turning point at which he decided to dedicate his life to working 'for the good of Buddhism' in his native land. This culminated in the birth (in a shop basement in central London) of a new Buddhist movement. Thirty-six years later the Friends of the Western Buddhist Order is spreading the Buddha's message in more than twenty-six countries around the globe.