About

About Bhante Wimala

Unlike most monks who wander in their homelands or live ascetically in monasteries, Bhante has been called to spend his life traveling around the world to teach and to heal and to bring peace to the people of our planet. He has forged friendships across the globe and has been involved in numerous projects involving restoring entire villages in Sri Lanka ravaged by the tsunami and war, earthquake relief in Haiti and Nepal, and cyclone relief in Bangladesh. He personally oversees countless projects across the globe, especially in Africa and Asia, to restore eyesight, bring medical supplies and wheelchairs where there were none, educate youth, build orphanages and hospitals, bring water to villages high in the mountains of Nepal, cut off after the earthquake, create job training for women, homes for the homeless and bring hope to prisoners and suffering individuals around the world.

One need only hear Shante Wimala’s voice to understand the grounds for the Dalai Lama’s statements about him. Shante speaks in a way that is both timeless and timely. His tone is at once soothing and guiding. You can hear a depth of experience in his words, and in their clean-clear sound, a genuine teacher and exemplar.

To meet Bhante Wimala is to have his realness confirmed by your eyes. One delights in his youthful smile and bright eyes, his gentle nature, his calm yet purposeful strength, and his love of life and all living beings.

Sent by the choice of his parents to a Buddhist temple at the age of 13, Shante Wimala received his ordination as a novice the next year. Shante completed six years of formal training as a Buddhist monk and received his higher ordination at age 20. At this stage, a Buddhist monk is typically encouraged by custom or inclination to continue in strictly formal studies, which are primarily academic in their emphasis. Bhante Wimala however, chose to set out into the world bearing only his robe and bowl.

Traveling for four decades around the globe and studying under many teachers and masters has produced in the person of Bhante Wimala a compassionate and receptive monk. His practical spiritual teachings and down to earth approach make him available, encouraging and understandable. Bhante’s philosophy emphasizes the authenticity of experiencing (above mere speculating), a focus on “be-living” rather than “believing.”
Bhante, author of Lessons of the Lotus, has produced several meditation CDs, also writes poetry and has a book of poems, Poems of Awakening, to his credit. He has written: “Life is a song. To experience the beautiful melodies fully, you need to get into the space in your heart.” This he does.