Sunday online meeting with Ajahn Brahm.
We warmly invite you to a unique, first-ever online meeting in Poland with Ajahn Brahm – one of the most respected meditation and Dhamma teachers in the world.
Ajahn Brahm (full Pāli name: Brahmavaṃso; born Peter Betts, 7 August 1951) is a British-born Buddhist monk who has practiced meditation for over 50 years and is a meditation teacher. Peter Betts was born in London into a working-class family and attended Latymer Upper School. He received a scholarship to study theoretical physics at Emmanuel College, University of Cambridge, in the late 1960s. While at Cambridge, he joined the university Buddhist Society, where at the age of 18 he met a monk for the first time. He already knew then that this was what he wanted to become.
After completing his degree, he taught mathematics at a secondary school in Devon for a year before traveling to Thailand to fulfill his aspiration of becoming a monk (bhikkhu). Brahmavaṃso was ordained in Bangkok at the age of 23 by Somdet Kiaw, abbot of Wat Saket. He then spent nine years studying and practicing in the forest meditation tradition under the guidance of Ajahn Chah.
After those nine years, in 1983, Ajahn Brahm was sent by Ajahn Chah to Perth to assist Ajahn Jagaro with teaching duties. At first, they lived in an old house on Magnolia Street in northern Perth, but by the end of 1983 they had purchased 97 acres (393,000 m²) of rural bushland in the Serpentine hills south of Perth. This land was to become Bodhinyana Monastery (named in honor of their teacher, Ajahn Chah Bodhinyana). Bodhinyana became the first Thai Theravāda forest monastery in the Southern Hemisphere and is now the largest community of Buddhist monks in Australia. Initially there were no buildings on the land, and since there were few Buddhists in Perth at the time—and thus little financial support—the monks began building the monastery themselves to save money. Ajahn Brahm learned plumbing and bricklaying and personally constructed many of the buildings that still stand today.
In 1994, Ajahn Jagaro stepped down from his duties, and a year later he disrobed. The responsibility for leading the monastery unexpectedly fell to Ajahn Brahm who, after some hesitation, took up the task with great enthusiasm. Soon invitations began arriving from other parts of Australia and Southeast Asia. Ajahn Brahm became well known for his excellent teachings and his sense of humor. He spoke at the International Buddhist Summit in Phnom Penh in 2002 and at many global Buddhist conferences.
Despite public recognition, Ajahn Brahm continued to devote time and attention to the seriously ill and dying, to prisoners, and to anyone wishing to learn meditation; he also continued to care for his community of bhikkhus at Bodhinyana.
On 22 October 2009, Ajahn Brahm, together with Bhante Sujato and other monks, conducted a bhikkhunī ordination ceremony in which four candidates—Venerable Vāyāmā and Venerables Nirodhā, Serī, and Hāsapaññā—were fully ordained as bhikkhunīs. The preceptor (pavattinī) was Venerable Tathaloka, and the ordinations took place at Bodhinyana Monastery in Serpentine, Australia. Although there had been previous attempts to re-establish bhikkhunī ordination in places such as California and Sri Lanka, this was the first such ordination within the Thai Forest Tradition and proved highly controversial in Thailand. Within the broader Theravāda tradition, there is no consensus regarding the validity of bhikkhunī ordination; however, Ajahn Brahm maintains that there are no clear historical grounds for refusing to re-establish the Bhikkhunī Saṅgha.
As a result of his actions on 22 October 2009, Ajahn Brahm was formally removed on 1 November 2009 from the lineage of Ajahn Chah during a meeting of senior monks held at Wat Pah Pong in Ubon. He is no longer affiliated with the main monastery in Thailand nor with any other Western monastery of the Thai Forest Tradition. Consequently, the Australian Saṅgha under Ajahn Brahm’s leadership became an independent branch of Theravāda Buddhism, honoring its heritage while dynamically developing and looking toward the future.
Since 2006, Ajahn Brahm has overseen the construction and management of Jhana Grove Retreat Centre, a high-quality meditation retreat center with 60 guest rooms, used year-round both by the Buddhist Society of Western Australia (BSWA) and by other meditation groups. In 2012 alone, Jhana Grove served 1,300 people attending various retreats. In 2013, work began on the Hermit’s Hill project, an extension of Bodhinyana Monastery. The waiting list of men wishing to receive ordination at Bodhinyana is very long; they cannot be accepted due to limited accommodation and insufficient infrastructure. Ajahn Brahm took the first step toward increasing opportunities for monastic ordination and practice by purchasing an additional 100 acres of adjoining land, where huts are now being built to accommodate future monks.
For many years, Ajahn Brahm has served both the local and global community, offering wise counsel and compassion to anyone who approaches him, regardless of race, gender, religious beliefs, or social status. For him, the meaning of life lies in helping people and teaching them how to be happy and how to overcome suffering. He has come a long way—from humble beginnings to teaching hundreds of thousands of people each month, whether in person or online. The popularity of his talks today testifies to the effectiveness of the practical advice he offers, delivered with kindness and humor. He is distinguished not only by his deep understanding of the tradition, but also by his remarkable ability to present complex concepts in a way that is clear to everyone, often interwoven with numerous characteristically English jokes.
Ajahn Brahm is the lifelong spiritual advisor to the Polish Early Buddhism Society (PEBS) and supports initiatives aimed at establishing Buddhist monasteries in Poland for both women and men.
This gathering is an invitation to:
deepen your practice
ask questions to an experienced teacher
reflect together on how to live wisely and happily
We welcome everyone – both those who have been practicing for years and those just beginning their journey in the spirit of the Dhamma.
May this be a space for genuine connection, inspiration, and shared growth.
MEETING:
Sunday // 05.07.2026
Time: 10:30 AM (Polish time)
If there is any topic or issue you would like to raise, please be sure to let us know by email or via the contact form.
Please install the Zoom application in advance: (https://zoom.us/)
The meeting is free of charge and will be interpreted into Polish.
If possible, we kindly ask you to turn on your camera (to support a sense of community) and to mute your microphones during the session.
A “waiting room” will be active — no password is required.
SEE YOU ON SUNDAY!