Biography of

Bhante Rahula

Bhavana Society, West Virginia

 

Bhante Yogavacara Rahula was born to Scott Joseph DuPrez in Southern California in 1948. He grew up during the hippie revolution and entered the U.S. Army for three years in 1967,spending ten months in Vietnam. After serving, he led the lifestyle of a wandering hippie, beginning a long odyssey in Scandinavia which eventually took him halfway across the world to India and Nepal. In Nepal he encountered his first spiritual teachers, Tibetan Lamas, at a month long meditation course, by the end of which he set foot on the Buddhist path. His search brought him south to Sri Lanka where he ordained as a Buddhist monk in 1975.

 

In 1987 he moved to Bhavana Society, a forest monastery/meditation center in West Virginia, where he is still living today as Vice Abbot. In addition, he conducts retreats integrating with Yoga breathing exercise and Vipassana meditation in the U.S.A., Germany, and elsewhere. He had written his autobiography -" One Night Shelter "and another book  on the Buddha's teachings entitled-" The Way to Peace and Happiness". He also had written a photo documentary book entitled- "Traversing the Great Himalaya", a foot pilgrimage over the Himalaya in India.