Ajahn Sucitto

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Ajahn Sucitto (Bhikkhu Sucitto) is a British Theravada Buddhist monk. He was born in London on 4 November 1949 and later became abbot of Cittaviveka, Chithurst Buddhist Monastery in West Sussex, a role he held from 1992 to 2014. Since then he has continued teaching.

Education and early life: Sucitto earned a degree in English and American Literature from the University of Warwick in 1971. After trying different ways of life, he traveled to India in 1974 and Thailand in 1975, where he joined a meditation group led by an English monk. He began monastic life, taking novice precepts on 25 September and being ordained as a bhikkhu on 22 March 1976 in Nakhon Sawan.

Monastic career: He met Ajahn Sumedho in Chiang Mai in 1976 and soon moved to the Hampstead Buddhist Vihara in England to train under Sumedho. In 1979 he helped establish Cittaviveka, Chithurst Buddhist Monastery. In 1981 he went to Northumberland to help found what would become Aruna Ratanagiri, and in 1984 he assisted in founding Amaravati Buddhist Monastery in Hertfordshire. In 1992 he was appointed abbot of Cittaviveka and led the monastery until his resignation in 2014, while continuing to teach.

Contributions: Sucitto is known for teaching, writing, and editing. He helped develop the training guidelines for the nuns of the Siladhara order and edited many of Ajahn Sumedho’s talks. He co-authored a two-volume account of a walking pilgrimage in India and Nepal with Nick Scott (Rude Awakenings and Great Patient One). He also co-supervises the Dhamma Moon poetry website and makes his books freely available for download. He began teaching retreats for laypeople in 1981 and has continued teaching around Britain and abroad. He completed a Kailas pilgrimage in 2004.