Irish 1st Westerner to become Buddhist monk

First Western Buddhist monk: Irish U Dhammaloka (Wisdom Quarterly)

Methinks me should be a monk

The Dharma Bum was the first Westerner to be ordained as a Buddhist monk. He chose Theravada Buddhism in Burma (Myanmar), where he was given the name Venerable U Dhammaloka. ("U," pronounced "ooh," is not a name but an honorific title used for monks and mature or men in senior positions in Burma). He was from Dublin, Ireland but -- wandering like a Dharma Bum, he first traveled to California then onto Asia, landing in faraway Mandalay, where he took robe and bowl and made a lot of trouble for the Christian colonial British exploiting India.

Irish documentary about pioneer U Dhammaloka

The Dharma Bum is a feature-length, partially animated documentary film that tells the tantalizing true story of Dubliner Laurence Carroll, who became Venerable U Dhammaloka.

• Any relation to Lewis Carroll, author of Alice in Wonderland? Of course not, because "Lewis Carroll" is the nom de plume (pen name) for Irish-connected Oxford don Dodgson, the author of classic literature for little Alice Liddell.

Dharma Bum Temple, San Diego

Laurence Carroll was born in Dublin in 1856 and spent his early life as an alcoholic hobo drifter bumming his way across the United States of America.
 

This freethinking, un-Catholic, un-Christian, atheist activist worked the shipping route from San Francisco, California, to Japan.

• Dharma Bum Buddhist Temple, Southern California
• The Dharma Bums by Irish American Buddhist and Beat Generation author Jack Kerouac:

Irish American Buddhist J. Kerouac

Irish American Zen Buddhist and Beat Generation writer Jack Kerouac's literary prestige has been growing since 1969. Several previously unseen works of his have been published posthumously. He is recognized for his spontaneous stream of consciousness style of prose. The themes his work covers are mysticism, religion, Buddhism, childhood, poetry and literature, the San Francisco Bay Area (where Irish Dharma Bum U Dhammaloka and British Buddhist Alan Watts came for inspiration) and the New York City of the 1940s and '50s, and life. Kerouac became an underground celebrity and, with other Beats, a progenitor of the hippie movement, although he was not a hippie and mostly remained uninterested in politics [8]. His legacy has lasted generations, greatly influencing many of the cultural icons of the 1960s, including Bob Dylan, the Beatles, Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead, and the Doors.

• Buddhism in the United Kingdom (Northern Ireland)

Dharma Bum Temple Main Hall with guest speaker Ven. Robina Courtin

How Buddhism came to Britain

In Britain, the earliest Buddhist influences came from the Theravada Buddhist traditions of Burma, Thailand, and Sri Lanka. Interest in them was primarily scholarly to begin with; a Western tradition of study grew up that resulted in the foundation of the Pali Text Society in 1881 founded by T. W. Rhys Davids, which undertook the significant task of translating the Pāli language canon of the Theravada tradition into English. The start of interest in Buddhism as a path-of-practice had been pioneered by the founders of the new syncretic religion Theosophy, namely, the Russian Madame Blavatsky and the American Colonel Olcott. In 1880, they became the first Westerner Buddhists in that they asked to receive the Three Refuges (the Going for Guidance to the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha) and the Five Precepts as a formal act of conversion in an ancient ceremony by which one traditionally accepts and becomes a nominal "Buddhist." Burma (now called Myanmar) and Ceylon (now called Sri Lanka) were well established Theravada Buddhist countries and colonies of the British Empire. Both colonies were majority Theravada Buddhist. Immigration from the two colonies to the UK would have happened. During the 19th to early 20th centuries, lascar sailors (people from Asia who worked in British ships) came and settled in the UK. Some of the lascars came from the seafaring communities of Burma and Sri Lanka [17]. More

The Dharma Bum found himself on the beach, hungover and homeless, after being kicked off the vessel for drunk and disorderly conduct.

He eventually made his way to Theravada Buddhist Burma, where he was helped by compassionate local Buddhist monks.

After five years as a monastic apprentice, he became the first Western man to ever don the saffron robes of a Theravada Buddhist monk.

• Carroll was not the only amazing Irish-American Buddhist monastic: There was also Zen Buddhist "saint" (bodhisattva) Maura Soshin O'Halloran
• American Buddhist Journal: POEM: "Finnegan's Awake"

Irish Zen Bodhisattva Soshin O'Halloran

Irish-American female Zen Buddhist saint (bodhisattva) in Japan: Soshin O'Halloran

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Pure Heart, Enlightened Mind

*Maura "Soshin" O'Halloran (May 24, 1955–Oct. 22, 1982) was an Irish Zen Buddhist nun [1]. She is known for her book Pure Heart, Enlightened Mind, which was posthumously published by her family.

She is also famous for being one of the "first of few Western women allowed to practice in a traditional Japanese Zen monastery" [2].

BIOGRAPHY

Hojo Takatoki Harakiri-Yagura, Tōshō-ji Temple

Soshin (Maura O'Halloran) was born in Boston, the capital of Massachusetts, USA in 1955. Her parents moved her to Ireland when she was four years old [3, 4]. Her father was originally from County Kerry, whereas her mother was a native of Maine [4]. In Ireland, young O'Halloran was educated in Loreto College, Foxrock in Dublin and later attended Trinity College Dublin, where she graduated with a joint degree in mathematical economics/statistics and sociology [3]. Shortly after her graduation, [karma and the pull of past lives being what they are] O'Halloran ventured to Japan, where she studied to become a Zen monastic at Tōshō-ji in Tokyo and at Kannon-ji in Iwate Prefecture [3] ("Kannon" being a name for the Virgin Mary of Buddhism, the Goddess of Compassion Kwan Yin). More

An Irish Girl

Irish Zen Buddhist nun Soshin

The snow begins across the mountains

Covers the rice fields

Down below a woman awakens

Her breath is frozen in the early morning

Out on the freezing streets

With bell and bowl she goes

People come to see the face

People come to feel the light

Of an Irish Girl

Everything in the world is new

Everybody I tell wants to know you

Soshin… Soshin…

She washes noodles by the open window

Wet and soft between her fingers

The air of spring blows on her face

And the moment is eternal

Maura sits in the dark womb-like stillness

She’s thinking ‘How can I die or cease to be?

I am eternal, I am Roshi!’

Everything in the world is new

Everybody I tell wants to know you

Soshin… Soshin…

She may not change a blade of grass

Nor light the flame for souls to see

But in this silent Easter morning

She has found a friend in me

Adapted from the expanded edition of Pure Heart, Enlightened Mind, Wisdom Publications, with permission (Lion’s Roar)

• Remembering "Irish Zen Saint" Maura O'Halloran | Lion’s Roar

Ven. U Dhammaloka: First Westerner to ordain as a Buddhist monk

I'm glad I became a Buddhist and did so much to spread freethinking against the British Empire.

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The Dharma Bum (documentary)

(Belfast Buddhist, 4/1/16) Venerable Dhammaloka was ordained in Theravada Buddhist Burma (Myanmar) prior to 1900, making him one of the very earliest attested Western Buddhist monks. He was a celebrity preacher, vigorous polemicist, free thinker, and prolific editor in Burma and Singapore between 1900 and his conviction for sedition and appeal in 1910–1911. Drawing on Western atheist writings, he publicly challenged the role of imperial Christian missionaries and by implication the British Empire. His Irish name was Laurence Carroll or Larry O'Rourke or Willam Colvin from Cork and Munster.

UK-occupied Northern Ireland

They gave him the new Buddhist name U Dhammaloka,** and that is just the beginning of the story!

• [**In Burmese U (pronounced "oo") is an honorific that signifies "sir," Dhamma is the Pali spelling of "Dharma," loka means "world." Interestingly, aloka means "light" or "bright whiteness" -- so his name, if pronounced with a long a, signifies suggests "Dharma Light or even White Dharma."]

U Dhammaloka was erased from history. His existence lay dormant for over 100 years. Why? The reasons are explored in the film.

Teach those Brits not to mess with the Celts

This Irishman caused quite a stir in his life, as he singlehandedly took on the might of the Christian British Empire in colonial Burma.

• [George Orwell was also decrying British colonial crimes against humanity in Burma and England for which he wrote Nineteen-Eighty-Four, and he wrote about the city monks of Burma -- eviscerating the layabouts -- in an essay "Shooting an Elephant"].

In the film we discover why he was under constant police surveillance and ultimately had to fake his own death as he transformed himself from an alcoholic bum to the original Dharma Bum. More

• The Dharma Bum - a documentary - Home | Facebook
• Goodbye Columbus, hello St. Brendan | Irish America

The Legend of the 6th Century Irish monk who may have sailed so America (grunge.com)

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Happy St. Paddy's Day?

Wisdom Quarterly Wikipedia edit

The Patrician Roman Patriarch Patty?

As we celebrate Saint Paddy's Day today, one has to wonder why British Protestant Patrick gets so much credit from the Imperial Catholic Church.

• Is it Druid Genocide Day or St. Patrick's Day?

Saint Patrick (Gaelic Pádraig, Latin Patricius, "father of the people") was a 5th-century Romano-British anti-pagan, Christian missionary, and patriarch named bishop of Ireland by an outside entity.

Known as the "Apostle of Ireland," he is the primary patron saint of Ireland, the other patron saints being Brigid of Kildare and Columba. Patrick was never formally canonized [2], having lived before the current laws of the Catholic Church on these matters.

• Is St Patrick's Day a celebration of genocide? (Quora)
• Why pagans don’t celebrate St. Paddy’s Day
• Druid Genocide (Ireland's Folklore and Traditions)
• The 6th century Irish monk who sailed to America (grunge.com)
• Study: “Woke” attitudes linked to anxiety, depression, and a lack of happiness

We may have been better off as pagans.

Nevertheless, he is venerated as a "saint" in the Catholic Church, which also venerates the Buddha as a Catholic saint (St. Josaphat), the Lutheran Church, the Church of Ireland (part of the Anglican Communion), and in the Eastern Orthodox Church, where he is regarded as equal-to-the-apostles and Enlightener of Ireland [3, 4].

He was a slave in Ireland for years, escaped back to England then seems to have returned to extract his revenge as a patriarch to impose Roman church law on the Emerald Isle.

Patrick is credited with forcing Christianity on Ireland, converting a pagan society in the process, despite evidence of an earlier Christian presence [7].

We defend Catholicism b/c the British don't like it

In Patrick's autobiography, Confessio, when he was 16, he was captured at home in Britain by Irish pirates and taken as a slave to Ireland. He writes that he lived here for six years herding animals before escaping and returning to his England.

After becoming a cleric, he returned to spread Christianity in northern and western Ireland. In later life, he served as a bishop, but little is known about where he worked.

By the 7th century, he had already become the "patron saint of Ireland." His feast day is observed on March 17th, the date of his death not his birth. It is celebrated in Ireland and among the worldwide Irish diaspora as a cultural holiday celebrating all things Irish.

It is hardly as a religious observance nowadays, but in the dioceses of Ireland, it is both a solemnity and a holy day of obligation, even if pagans mourn the genocide he wrought upon the island.

Good John Riley's flag of the Mexican regiment

The Irish are so much like the Mexicans in this regard, taken over and thoroughly saturated by the Holy Roman Empire, as if the Church liberated the people when it enslaved them and still tries to rule every aspect of their lives and exact tribute for Rome.

So much is this connection felt that there are Los Patricios ("The Patricks" not Patricians), who were US mercenaries ordered to fight Mexico, but when they understood the fight, led by John Riley, they took the side of Mexico and fought against the US, as anyone who champions the underdog might well have done. More

• Who wrote the Vulgate?
• TheDharmaBum.eu, Dana.IO/thedharmabum; Irishman U Dhammaloka (aka Laurence Carroll); Lion's Roar; Dhr. Seven, Pat Macpherson, Amber Larson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly Wiki edit originally published March 17, 2024
  

Buddhist monk left Science: Matthieu Ricard

(Study Buddhism) The Western Nepalese Vajrayana Buddhist monk (lama) who left Western science behind: Dr. Matthieu "Happiest Person in the World" Ricard on finding human perfection

Buddhism explained with an Irish accent

Well, don't that beat all? Tuatha Dé Danann, I tink that's brilliant, always been partial to Booda.

(Cognito) Irish brogue/Gaelic accented "BUDDHISM EXPLAINED"

What's the Irish version of Buddhism?

We are the Tuatha Dé Danann

Buddhism is the THIRD largest religion in the world when we restored the 1 billion Buddhists in China the communist regime refuses to count since communism is officially atheist and insists party member comply.

Nearly all Chinese Buddhists follow three blended traditions (Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism) and now have to mix those with a communist version of capitalism). The country's regime is trying to supplant religion with this new capitalist-friendly communism and a nanny state with mass surveillance, bringing the actual total number of Buddhists to more than 1.5 billion. That makes Buddhism the third largest missionary (universalist) "world religion."

Good thing we in US are not spied on

(The Young Turks) What the FLOCK (AI-driven camera system)?

Catholicism is the biggest religion in the world. Combining its total with Protestantism and Eastern Orthodoxy, and many strange sects and post schismatic traditions, Christianity has the most nominal adherents.

Islam is said to be growing but is already the second biggest world religion, having gone from place to place by the sword, just as Christianity used to do with imperial crusades, ethnic cleansings, and forced conversions.

Buddhism is the original missionary tradition, but neither then nor now is it out to convert anybody away from their faith. Exposing them to the Teachings of the Awakened One capable of curing suffering and making people better at adhering to their beliefs and practices, it has been most welcome.

Why? Just as in the Buddha's time, the Buddha's Dharma ("Doctrine") is not actually a "religion." But the West treats all daily activities and beliefs as "religious" systems when, since the time Sumer, Greater Egypt, and the very advanced Indus Valley Civilization held sway, what we now call "religion" was just the collective daily habits and somewhat superstitious customs of whole societies that made little to no distinction between ordinary life and spirituality.

Buddhism in Celtic Britain and Ireland before Christianity?

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Buddhism in Celtic areas?

Transcultural Buddhism: Celtic Buddhism in pre-Christian Britain

The first Western Buddhist convert to become a monk was Irish

British forces arrival in Mandalay, Burma, in 1885: U Dhammaloka (wiki)

Irish Burmese Theravada Buddhist monk Ven. Dhammaloka in 1902, age approximately 50

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The Irish Buddhist: Forgotten Monk

His name was Venerable (U) Dhammaloka (born Laurence Carroll in the 1850s) from Boostertown, Dublin County, Ireland.

He reportedly gave at least five names for himself, including Laurence O'Rourke and William Colvin [2]. On occasion he used the nom de plume "Captain Daylight."

It is accepted that he was Irish, almost certainly born in Dublin in the 1850s, and emigrated to the United States, possibly via Liverpool. More

Celtic Buddhism, a new lineage

celticbuddhism.org

Welcome to CelticBuddhism.org, a site of benefit and inspiration to those who enter and proceed on the path of Dharma.

The lineage of Celtic Buddhism was suggested in the 1970s during a conversation between the renowned [and abusive, scandal-ridden, Shambhala] Tibetan lama Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche and his student John Perks. The actual development is the result of the mixing of their minds.

What would an Irish Buddhist do?

The lineage was formally incorporated as a non-profit in 1989, when it took on official status. After meeting for years in rented rooms, Venerable Seonaidh Perks established the Anadaire Celtic Buddhist Center on 11 acres in Saxtons River, Vermont, where the sangha ("spiritual community") erected a stone circle that has aided in increasing and focusing energies for transformation.

Sangha members are encouraged to establish a daily meditation practice. Practices range from a host of traditional Tibetan [Vajrayana] Buddhist practices to the more contemporary practices of the Celtic Fire visualization and working with the mandala of the Celtic cross. We also encourage integrating everyday practices in art, music, healing through various modalities -- including animals, and in the world of business.

As a group, some members have gone on yearly retreats to Maine (USA) or to further connect with latent Celtic energies to Ireland and Scotland. One member has delved into thangka painting to explore the emerging Celtic Buddhist mandala.

In March 2010, we celebrated the ordination of Sister Griffin as abbess of Glen Ard Abbey, a newly formed Celtic Buddhist monastery. More: celticbuddhism.org

• Dhr. Seven, Pat Macpherson, Amber Larson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Ajahn Brahm: Community, Trust, Dec. 2025

Community and Trust | Ajahn Brahm | 12 December 2025

I became a Taoist monk for a year

(George Thompson) I lived as monk for year. Here's what happened. Wuhan pandemic lockdown

• 
  Tai chi (moving meditation) and sitting meditation in Taoism, the Way [of harmony with nature], on a holy mountain in China with Master Gu, I had to do it. Then I had to go back for the yin and the yang. For an atheist, what is the Tao?

Dalai Lama in Wisconsin: Kalachakra

14th Dalai Lama praying in pavilion, closing Kalachakra mandala (Verizon Center, D.C.)

The 14th Dalai Lama comes to Wisconsin to perform the ancient Kalachakra ritual.

The Dalai Lama's Gift

Tantric Dakini deity

(Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive) A hidden ritual. A sacred promise. A transmission into a buddha's transcendent compassionate wisdom. A corn field transformed.

In 1980, HH the Dalai Lama received a humble request from a revered Tibetan monk in America: Perform the Kalachakra initiation—a powerful tantric ritual never before held outside of India or Tibet—in the heart of rural Wisconsin.

 

What followed was nothing short of miraculous. In just a few months, the lama's devoted students overcame local resistance, built a temple from the ground up, and transformed a Midwestern cornfield into a site of ancient wisdom and spiritual awakening, attracting over 1,000 spiritual seekers from around the world.

Captured on film then locked away in Smithsonian vaults for over 40 years, this long-lost footage resurfaces to reveal a story of transformation to buddhahood, and a moment when time, space, and a sacred initiation converged in the unlikeliest of places.

This story of the 1981 Kalachakra is told through the voices of distinguished scholars and the initiates who participated in the 1981 Kalachakra and through personal interviews of the Dalai Lama, filmed in 1981, throughout the preparation and the event.

The Dalai Lama’s Gift is a cinematic meditation on faith, legacy, and the power of one sacred encounter to ripple across generations.

For more information, please explore DalaiLamaGift.org. We invite all to support this project at spiritualpaths.net/donate.

2O24 | US | English | 76 minutes. DIRECTOR/PRODUCER Ed Bastian. Co-PRODUCER  Sharpa Tulku, Catherine Wyler, Jennifer Beman. EDITOR/WRITER Jennifer Beman. MUSIC: Nawang Khechog, Three Dog Night, Daniel Moore. ART AND ANIMATION: Pema Namdol Thaye.

ABOUT: Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive. Bringing the teachings of Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche and the "Kalachakra - Wheel of Time" transmission. Visit at LamaYeshe.com.

• Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive, Nov. 29, 2025; CC Liu, Ashley Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Bear Awareness: Wild Mind (Ajahn Brahm)

Seeing sexiness everywhere, even a bear becomes plush and eroticized. Help, Ajahn Brahm!

I didn't tame my wild mind. It led to pregnancy and these two knuckleheads I'd kill to protect.

Bear Awareness: Questions and Answers on Taming Your Wild Mind

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Bear Awareness: Wild Mind

British Theravada Buddhist monk Ajahn Brahm has 4.8 out of 5 stars with 79 ratings.

The bestselling author of Who Ordered This Truckload of Dung? and one of the world’s most beloved Buddhist monks answers meditators’ questions.

In Bear Awareness Englishman monk Ajahn Brahm answers actual questions from his meditation students––questions other sitters may have had as well.

Kindfulness with mindfulness for fullness.

While most mindfulness meditation teachers praise the benefits of "bare awareness," he teaches BEAR awareness. Huh? He helps us make friends with the scary things that come up on the cushion, and he knows how to lift the mood with a well-placed stuffed teddy––or a well-timed pun.

The intimacy of the question-and-answer format provides a fresh experience of learning from a master meditator.

Whether Ajahn Brahm is urging readers to fly Buddha Air (sit back and relax on the way to nirvana), giving tips for dealing with panic attacks or depression, or extolling the bliss of meditation that is better than sex, he gives us permission to enjoy our lives and our kindful and joyful practice. More (Amazon.com)

• Ajahn Brahm (BSWA.org), Nov. 2017; Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly