Bhikkhu Paññobhāsa

John David Reynolds, later known by his Pali name Paññobhāsa, was born in Seward, Alaska in 1963. He grew up in the Pacific Northwest of the USA and earned a BSc. degree in Marine Biology before renouncing the world and becoming a bhikkhu.

Paññobhāsa was an ordained Theravada Buddhist monk for thirty years, with more than twenty of those years spent living and practicing Dhamma in rural Burma/Myanmar, and with most of that time spent living and meditating alone in forest caves. His emphasis as a bhikkhu was meditation, monastic discipline, investigation of Dhamma, and trying to live up to a very exalted ancient Indian ascetic ideal. With a Buddhist vocation and a background in science (he was a professional biologist before his ordination), he began writing thought-provoking essays on various topics, largely philosophical and cultural, with a strong Western individualist attitude infusing ancient Buddhist themes. The result is a large body of original thought, looking at Buddhism and the world from a philosophical point of view that is rare but very accessible. Some of his writings are controversial, some are quite unorthodox, but all are derived from a sharp, sincere, and original mind attempting to explain the truth with a minimum of dogmatism, derived from personal experience and his own quest for truth.