Ajahn Sumedho

Born Robert Karr Jackman in Seattle in 1934, Ajahn Sumedho trained under Ajahn Chah in Northeast Thailand from 1966 before being asked to establish a forest monastery for Western students. That request became Cittaviveka (Chithurst) in 1979 and later Amaravati Buddhist Monastery in Hertfordshire, which he led as abbot until 2010. He remains the most senior Western-born teacher in the Ajahn Chah lineage.

Now in his nineties, he continues to reside at Amaravati and occasionally offers a Dhamma talk there, but no longer travels or keeps a public teaching schedule. His many recorded talks and writings, built around themes of presence, silence and "the way it is," remain widely available through the monastery's own archive.