The Journey To The International Buddhist Youth Organization (IBYO)

The International Buddhist Youth Organization was founded by Shaku Bodhidhamma and some of his friends, at Nagpur in 1994, under The Indian Societies Registration Act of 1860 to promote Buddhism among the masses. The organization began by shouldering the task of medical care for poor Dalit people around Nagpur City.

Sickle-cell anemia or drepanocytosis is a hereditary disease among the Dalit people since they originate from tropical and sub-tropical regions where malaria is or was common. In addition to the genetic propensity toward sickle-cell anemia; due to their social position in Indian society, the Dalit people are marginalized into livelihood out of the mainstream  society, where they are often exposed to incredibly unsanitary conditions. Dalit people have been forced to eat dead cows and carrion for countless centuries just to survive. The Dalit people are relegated to being considered sub-human by the Hindu religion and they were labeled “untouchable”.  These disadvantages along with being held in poverty and forcibly suppressed by the Brahmin class have left the community susceptible to many diseases and maladies.

Venerable Bodhidhamma organized a campaign with the help of volunteer Buddhist doctors and conducted a series of ten medical camps to offer free care to the Dalit people in the neighborhoods where they live.  The Venerable and his associates were shocked to experience directly, the degree of suffering endured on a daily basis by the Dalit people. It became painfully obvious to Bhante and his associates just how brutal the yoke of the caste system propagated by the powerful Brahmin class was on the lives of the Dalits.  Realizing that the Dalit people are descendents of the original Indian Buddhists who were suppressed by the Brahmins provided some small consolation to the medical workers. From the time of the Buddha, these people worked to create a society based on equality and brotherhood in hopes of constructing a lasting enlightened, free and egalitarian society based on the teaching of the Buddha.

Bhante Bodhidhamma felt it was essential to provide zazen (seated Zen meditation) instruction to the people as a prerequisite to bringing about change in their communities.  Bhante began by conducting many zazen shibirs (camps) at the Bijjargi Village, some forty kilometers distant from Bijapur City. Venerable Bodhidhamma’s talks, seminars and day-to-day interaction with the people over time brought many folks to change by way of abandoning archaic dogma and superstitious rituals, thereby enabling them to embrace Buddhism. Bhante thus took up the mantle first shouldered by Dr. Ambedkar to realize the beginnings of a New Buddhist Movement in India.

Venerable Bodhidhamma founded a village-to-village movement geared toward bringing social, philosophical, religious and educational awareness called “Creating an Enlightened Human Society”.  The Venerable traveled from one village to another, remaining only three days at a time in each village in accord with the rules of the vinaya. His efforts were directed toward bringing about a complete revamping of thinking in the minds of the villagers by demonstrating to them the degenerate nature of their ancestral orthodox Hindu perspectives and then introducing a new and vibrant “Ambedkar Buddhist mind” that finally offered them genuine emancipation.

The Venerable, without exception, found that the villagers took keen interest in his teaching and consequently endeavored to change themselves.  In a very short time villagers grasped the importance of Ven. Bodhidhamma’s visitation and teachings about Dr. Ambedkar and its significance to their daily lives. Bhante continuously emphasized the tremendous importance of Dr. Ambedkar’s work and the huge sacrifices he made to uplift and emancipate his people throughout his life.

Venerable Bodhidhamma taught about how Dr. Ambedkar considered and went about embracing Buddhism and the significance of his very public action for all Dalits across India.  Babasaheb Ambedkar offered the Dalit people a new, bright future in Buddhism and a legacy that could be passed down from generation to generation thus breaking forever the brutal tyranny of  Brahmanist oppression. For the first time, the Dalit people were offered a new social order based on equality, justice, liberty and fraternity – a casteless society. Bhante continuously emphasized the vital importance of  the nurturing of the movement to bring about a New India with the face of Prabuddha Bharat i.e. an Enlightened Buddhist India.

Bhante Bodhidhamma’s emphasis on the actual practice of The Buddha, seated zazen practice, attracted many youngsters in the villages who came forward to take part in the zazen seminars. One of the youngsters who took part in Bhante’s zazen seminars was of tremendous help to the Venerable when he initiated his South India Dhamma pilgrimages. This young man fully embraced Dr. Ambedkar’s message and became single-mindedly focused on taking action to enable the betterment of his Dalit brothers and sisters.

Bhante and his supporters began a forty-day program in Bijapur. During their forty-day sojourn they covered four States, Tamilnadu State, Kerala State, Andrapradesh and Karnataka State.

Branches of The IBYO formed by Bhante in each of the States along with many unaffiliated Dalit people assisted in the program enabling the group to visit six or seven villages each day.  Their visits brought about a deeper understanding in the participants of the manifold differences in each village with respect to language, food, customs and micro-culture in each locale. Bhante commented that despite the diversity found in the villages, the underlying problem of oppression was all-pervasive.

Venerable Shaku Bodhidamma’s pilgrimages raised the level of awareness in every village he and his followers visited.  In each venue, Dalit people were educated in the egalitarian nature of  the teachings of The Buddha and developed an appreciation for Buddhism and Dr. Ambedkar’s approach to emancipation, the destiny declared by Dr. Ambedkar at Nagpur on October 14, 1956.

IBYO Buddhist upasikas in the Aland District.

Each year Ven. Bodhidhamma conducts his “Creating an Enlightened Human Society” pilgrimage in all four States and one union territory.  His endeavors are now yielding fruit as the younger generation is firmly convinced that their emancipation from oppression is through the path of the awakened state of mind taught by The Buddha.  Each year this Dhamma-Diksha program goes on the road and thousands of Dalit people convert to Buddhism.

Bhante Bodhidhamma has for years undertaken his missionary efforts while spending most of his time in Zen training at Sogen-Ji Monastery in Okayama, Japan. The International Buddhist Youth Organization has organized a conference and presented many seminars concerning the contribution of religion to world peace and the education of the international community concerning the plight of the Dalit People of India.