About The Author

Venerable Sucitto was born in London in 1949, but moved to the small town of Dunstable in his teens. His first encounter with Buddhism came through an interest in Japanese literature while at grammar school, but he found nothing to follow it up in his local town. The continuing interest in literature carried him through a B.A. in English and American Literature at Warwick University in 1971. After that, the search for meaningful direction in life eventually attracted him to take an overland trip through the East, heading for Australia. Following a period in India, he went to Thailand in 1975, where he happened across a class in Buddhist meditation in Chiang Mai. After a few days" practice, he decided to make a tentative commitment to the Holy Life.

He spent three years in Thailand, mostly at Wat Kiriwong in Nakhon Sawan. During a short sojourn at Chiang Mai, however, he briefly met Ajahn Sumedho, who is the senior Western Disciple of Ajahn Chah—a renowned Thai monk of the forest meditation tradition. When Venerable Sucitto returned to England in 1978 to visit his family, he met Ajahn Sumedho again at Hampstead Vihara, and decided to stay on and train with him. During the following fifteen years he lived for the most part with Ajahn Sumedho, and was responsible for editing and publishing his talks, as well as other Sangha publications.

In 1984, Venerable Sucitto moved to Amaravati Buddhist Monastery where he was involved in establishing a training for ten precept nuns. Since 1992, he has been the Abbot of Chithurst Buddhist Monastery in the south of England.