Shua Hahm, Contributing Photographer

Buddhist monk Bhante Uttama spoke to the Yale community in William Harkness Hall on Sunday about his journey from founder and CEO of a successful telecommunications business to Buddhism.

The talk commenced with a meditation led by Buddhist Nun and Bhante Uttama’s student, Javanañāṇī. For 25 minutes, with the lights turned off, Bhante Uttama, event organizers and attendees were all led to focus on each part of their body. After the meditation session, Bhante Uttama shared his life story in Chinese, translated to English by Elvis Lin and Averin Wang.

“To have a truly happy life, one must attain enlightenment and break free from what limits us,” Uttama said in Mandarin, as transcribed by a translator.

Uttama, who was born in 1965, divided his life into “stages of 18 years each,” the first one being his education. During primary school, he contracted a serious case of diphtheria which was almost fatal. He recovered and spent much of his childhood reading, later studying telecommunications and engineering in college. In 1996, in his second stage of life, he set out to establish a secular career.

Uttama emphasized how career-oriented he was at this stage stating, “I had an ambition to found China’s Microsoft, and I aimed to make myself famous and wealthy to give back to society.”

Uttama said that he launched a software business in 1996, which later became immensely successful. His software enabled people to access simple services in China like 114 similar to 911 in the United States. After years of steep growth, his company was approved to be publically listed on the Chinese Stock exchange in 2002.

With this success came new shareholders whom he stated “started a series of events that would lead to a turning point in my faith.” He said that two of these new shareholders “designed a series of plots to take control of my company,” going so far as to report him to a government agency, start a rumor that he was having an affair and “turned [his] CFO against” him. The News was unable to independently verify Uttama’s statements.

“At my highest times in life numerous people were willing to charge forward in my name,” Uttama said in Mandarin. “But at my darkest time, only a few people were left around, and some even took advantage of the situation.” 

He said this led him to ask himself, “How could human nature become so despicable?”

He spent the next 18-year stage of his life turning toward charity then buddhism. He fully embraced Buddhism in 2004 and in March of 2006, established the Beijing Ren Ai Charity Foundation. Uttama said he turned to philanthropy to “awaken humanity’s goodness.”

In 2012, Uttama founded China’s first Theravada meditation monastery, the Dhammavihārī Forest Monastery and was ordained in 2013. Following this, he worked with the University of Chicago on Buddhist studies and took a major role in establishing the International Academy of Pali and Tipitaka. 

Today, he has an influential teaching series titled “The Path of Awakening” and a platform “Happy Mindfulness,” which teaches users Buddhist practices online. He states that in this 18-year stage of his life, he plans to focus on giving back to Buddhist society.

While Uttama spoke about his journey leaving the tech industry, he sported a singular airpod in his ear, a large tablet in front of him, and even a walkie-talkie. The Rev. Sumi Kim, a Buddhist chaplain at Yale, joked, “I’ve never seen so much tech at a Buddhist talk — maybe it’s businessman turned ‘modern monk.’”

Following his lecture, audience members submitted questions anonymously through a QR code, and through rounds of translation Bhante Uttamo responded with advice.

“I wish you all can break free from the constraints of life and realize your own values,” Bhante Uttamo concluded.

Attendees could take English copies of the book Knowing and Seeing by the Myanmarese meditation master, the Pa-Auk Tawya Sayadaw. 

“I find it incredibly precious that we have these types of opportunities for monks and other religious leaders to come and share their practice and their learned experience,” said Malachai York ’28, a member of Yale’s Buddhist community. “At a place like Yale, where the focus of being here is learning, I feel we rarely stop and reflect on ourselves and our own mind and what’s going on with it.”

William Harkness Hall is located at 100 Wall St.