Lokanatha

Who was Lokanatha?

Lokanatha was an Italian Buddhist missionary.

Lokanatha was born near Naples, Italy in 1897 in the celebrated family of Cioffi and given the name of Salvatore, meaning the Savior. Brought up in an atmosphere of culture, he was a talented violinist. He studied chemistry and received his B.Sc. at The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, in 1922. He then worked as a chemical analyst for the Crucible Steel Co. and Procter & Gamble before briefly attending Columbia University Medical School. It was the scientific impulse in him which led him to Buddhism, which he embraced not long after graduation. Shortly he was on pilgrimage to the places sacred to Buddhism and was ordained a Buddhist monk in Burma in 1925. Thereafter, he resolved to propagate the teachings of the Buddha all over the world.

Returning home after mastering the precepts and practices of Buddhism in six months, he found the general atmosphere not favorable to his new religion in Italy. He returned to India on foot walking across Southern Europe and Asia Minor, reaching back Burma in 1928. The five years that followed were spent in deep study and meditations, his time being divided between monasteries and the Himalayan caves and forests. Strictly observing the 13 dhutangas, he emerged towards the end of 1932 with a spiritual radiance around him. From the year 1928 throughout his life he observed the self-imposed rule of sleeping in the sitting posture: only in his death he lay on his back.