[32][16][8] Biographer Elizabeth J. Harris states Bennett "was a man of his time, born when the British Empire was at the height of its power and the wish to probe new religious pathways was gripping many young minds."

Shortly before his 21st birthday in November 1893, Bennett wrote a letter to F. L. Gardner stating "I have been ill - had an attack of apoplexy, which laid the body up..." going on to request a set of astrological Ephemerides so he could track back a horoscope of his exact time of birth.

[44][48] Bennett at the age of twenty-three was already working on his own occult formula, which was seen as quite astonishing, one such popularised account was the esoteric ceremony he wrote for Golden Dawn associate and actress Florence Farr.

[54] During this period Bennett was fascinated with the arithmetical subtleties of the literal Qabalah, and via his essay Liber Israfel we can note his poetic musing incorporating Egyptian symbology specifically on the 20th Major Arcana of Tarot, Judgement.

[25] In the preface introduction to Iehi Aour's work "A Note on Genesis" Crowley states "Its venerable author was an adept" with the esoteric system of symbols, accomplished in harmonising them in himself (here referring to what would later be known as Liber 777).

"[25] In a hallowing scene Bennett is described as "calm, majestic, clearly master of it all", Crowley paints in detail the aura of the man, that thunders forth; "instantly a ray of divine brilliance cleaves the black clouds above his head, and his noble countenance flashing in that ecstasy of brightness.

"[89] One of the differences they faced was that Crowley seemed to think that virtuous conduct could be bypassed, where Bennett went as far to insist it was the first founding factor an aspirant required, seeing the deficiencies in the West, namely the blamelessness of keeping the precepts.

[16][32] He traveled to Ceylon as a self-converted Buddhist, staying at Kamburugamuwa in the Matara district for four months, Bennett studied the Pali language and the root Theravadan Teachings under an elder Sinhala monk Venerable Revata Thera.

Having missed two meals in a row, Crowley out of concern checked on Bennett finding him not seated on the central mat, but at the end of the room still in the Padmasana yoga posture "in his knotted position, resting on his head and right shoulder, exactly like an image overturned."

"[118] His intellect, spiritual endeavour and faith sees this school as the "pure and simple" ... "practically unchanged after twenty-five centuries", that its inheritance is not mythical but rather "the actual words" the Buddha employed on his "religious mission" that are still rolling down to the present.

[17] Half a year later, on Vesak Day the Full Moon May 1902, a long line of seventy-four Buddhist monks proceed from Kyarook Kyoung towards the wharf edge for the new Samanera's Higher Ordination.

[134] Harris holds a letter from 10 February 1905, were Metteyya is commending Ñāṇatiloka asking Cassius Perera if he would help him further stating "he is an easily-contented mortal, with a very gentle and considerate nature".

Two and three set to encourage wholehearted humanitarian activities and to further those interested in ever growing numbers to unite under common brotherly bonds of all mankind in alignment with True Buddhist ideals.

[169][170] With the help of Ernest Reinhold Rost[171] the three of them set up a bookshop at 14 Bury Street, Bloomsbury, close to the British Museum, and would promote the Societies cause by placing Buddhist literature for sale in store front window to encourage interest.

[187][188] With the recent dawn of "The Buddhist Society of Great Britain and Ireland" Ananda Metteyya arrived on the steamship Ava with three devoted lay supporters at Albert Dock on the shores of England, in the United Kingdom, on 22 April 1908.

[189][190][178][191] Soon after stepping off the ship, Metteyya was questioned as to his purpose for coming to England, he replied "in order to set forward the principles of Buddha in this country" also elucidating that Buddhism blends harmoniously with other creeds, giving one clear example: "its position as regards Christianity is that it supplements.

[100] Christmas Humphreys also recounts his meeting of Metteyya on this inaugural Mission, in London 1908: with head shaven, the "then thirty-six years of age" Bhikkhu was "tall, slim, graceful, and dignified."

[27][195] One magazine printed part of Metteyya's writing in May 1908, "Buddhism, ... with its central tenet of non-individualisation, is capable of offering to the West, to England, an escape from this curse of Individualism", recounting this a root to suffering.

[201] Metteyya would give a range of teachings during this time encouraging others to see the benefit of virtue in precepts, with its opposing suffering,[202] establishing faith in the Buddha as a foundation and even to develop the ability to recall past lives.

At this time the Society had already swollen to one hundred and fifty members, and with all the graceful eloquence and inspiration he could muster, he posed the glory of the Buddha's message as the answer to the immediate needs of the West.

First painting the surreal graphic details of ceremonial magic then going on to state "How wonderful must then be the inmost shrine of Buddhism, when we find this same Allan Bennett discarding as childish folly the power of healing the sick, or raising the dead, of the attainment of the Philosopger's Stone, the Red Tincture, the Elixir of Life!".

[219][220][221] One news article said of Metteyya: "the rascally sham Buddhist monk Allan Bennett, whose imposture was shown up in Truth some years ago" is likely one of the worst examples of the accusations thrown about.

[217][73][222] Metteyya had the full support of his close friends in Buddhist circles, Harris remarks that its worthy of attention several articles were run in his lifetime to help state he had given up his past and "was not a man of 'mystery'".

[224] Metteyya in his early teachings and throughout his life prompted those he knew and taught to invoke a meditation practice that would enable the aspirant, firstly to remember backwards and ultimately to recall their past lives.

[225][page needed][2][226] Being one of the psychic powers used for realisation in Buddhism, he taught it as a tool to see that the continuation of rebirth in saṃsāra is suffering, enabling the aspirant to sharpen ones insight to perfect right view.

"[244] That we have learnt the "fundamental movements" necessary to follow what is "Right and Truth" superseding our "mental baby-hood" becoming "self-reliant", endowed with "personal responsibility" taking up the mantle of the "great pilgrimage of Life".

[263] Clifford Bax recounts his meeting of Bennett in 1918: "His face was the most significant that I had ever seen" that one could both sense the twisting and scoring from years of physical suffering, and a "lifetime of meditation upon universal love" these gave rise to the most remarkable impression.

[31]Tilak S. Fernando on 'United Kingdom Buddhist Day' in 1997 ends his speech paying homage to Venerable Ananda Metteyya's legacy: And so, there passed from sight a man whose memory would honour for bringing to England, as a living faith, the message of the All-Enlightened One[268][269]Allan Bennett was a pioneer, and without him, Buddhism would not have entered the Western world as it did.

[278] Reiterated in the posthumous release 'The Religion of Burma'[1] the introduction states: For the whole of the powers of this remarkable man were devoted to one single object - to the exposition of the Dhamma in such a manner that it could be assimilated by the peoples of the West.Metteyya was also noted "by virtue of the literary skill" to engage and share Buddhist thought through "vivid expression ... the knowledge" he had realised.

His life work in summary was to share with the West the Noble Eightfold Path, the Majjhima-Pātipadā: that place of practice that avoids both extremes and leads to enlightenment, the total extinguishment of all suffering.