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Nayaka - Nayaka came to Dhanakosa in 1996 after learning to meditate with the Newcastle Buddhist Centre. Drawn by the mountains, he quickly felt at home here and became increasingly involved in the running of the centre. He became part of the management team in 1999, was ordained into the Western Buddhist Order in 2001 and became centre director in 2006. He has a background in earth and life sciences, has a long standing interest in natural history and a love of the wilderness.
Nayaka lives at Dhanakosa with Dharmavasini and their 2 children.
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Amoghavira - I first encountered Buddhism in 1979 while struggling through a mathematics degree at Glasgow University. I was ordained into the Western Buddhist Order in 1982 and started working at the Glasgow Buddhist Centre. I worked for 2 years at the Sydney Buddhist Centre in Australia from 1988. On my way back to Britain in 1990 I spent 3 months in Kathmandu helping run meditation and buddhism course there. Falling in love with Nepal, I've been a regular visitor there ever since. In 1996 I moved to Dhanakosa to help with retreat leading here which I've been doing ever since. I love being in the mountains and this has led to a passion for landscape photography. I have recently moved to live in the village of Lochearnhead about 7 miles from Dhanakosa. |
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Smritiratna - Smritiratna first took up Buddhist practice in 1977 at the age of 21 while studying Developmental Psychology at Sussex University. At 27 he began training in earnest with the FWBO and entered the Western Buddhist Order in 1991. In 1996 he came to Scotland , joined the Dhanakosa project and spent five years on-site, teaching and house-keeping. In 2001 he gave up house-keeping to concentrate on study, contemplation and teaching. He now spends much of his time in a forest hut near Dhanakosa and three months a year on retreat at Guhyaloka in the Spanish mountains. He still leads Dhanakosa retreats and continues to delight in introducing meditation to newcomers. Meanwhile, he has been developing the 'Stilling and Seeing Through' retreats at Dhanakosa and Vajraloka to introduce insight practices to the more experienced.
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Padmadarshini - "I began to practice yoga in a consistent way when I moved to Manchester in 1990 and started attending Iyengar classes. After a few years I did my initial teacher training at the Iyengar institute and began to teach classes locally. I see yoga very much as a process of enquiry, exploration and creativity and this enquiry has drawn me to study and train with various teachers over the years. In particular I am grateful to have studied with Sarah Powers, Donna Farhi and Paul Grilley who have all inspired me and given me much to play with and explore both in my own practice and in my teaching. I teach both a passive/quiet yin style where we hold poses for a few minutes as well as dynamic sequences moving with fluidity and breath. Yoga is, I think, essentially an awareness practice. It has the potential to help us to reinhabit our bodies, to listen to our bodies` wisdom and to meet ourselves as we are with kindness and sensitivity."
Padmadarshini teaches yoga at the bodywise natural health centre in Manchester. |
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Sudaka - Sudãka's yoga is charaterised by playful movement through precision and alignment. He blends the depth and stillness work of Yin yoga with the flow and dynamic of more Yang styles. Visit my website |
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Alison Inglis - Alison is an accredited tutor of the London Centre of Indian Champissage (head massage) and was personally trained by Narendra Mehta as an Indian Champissage Therapist and Tutor. She is the only LCIC accredited tutor in Scotland and the North of England. Alison is a fully qualified teacher, has been a lecturer for the past 18 years, and specialises in teacher training. She believes that learning should focus on the learner and be informal, relaxing and fun! Over the years, many of her students have commented on her natural gift for teaching and her friendly and inspiring approach.
She has lived in Balquhidder, a place she calls ‘heaven on earth’, since 1993 and is a practising Buddhist. Visit my website |
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Locana -
"I have been a practising Buddhist within the FWBO for 25 years, having met the Dharma when I was 20. After doing a Masters and Doctorate in the field of the Buddhist Tantras in Oxford, and publishing a work on the meditations and practices of Vajrayogini, I decided to leave academia and university life. I became an internationally certified trainer in Nonviolent Communication™, and founded Life at Work, to provide professional and personal development in the field of communication. I am now fortunate to be able to bring my Buddhist values into the world as I act as a consultant and trainer for resolving conflicts and grievances, in a wide range of environments - working with businesses, doctors, the police and many others. I also work with Focusing, and am currently in the process of becoming qualified as a Focusing teacher." Visit my website |
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Manjudeva - Manjudeva is fully qualified with the British Focusing Teachers Association (BFTA) and the Focusing Institute in New York to teach Focusing to individuals and groups. He has trained with Ann Weiser Cornell in "Inner Relationship Focusing" in the USA and Peter Afford in the UK. He has over 10 years experience of teaching awareness and meditation skills to groups and individuals and has been practicing them for over 13 years himself. Visit my website |
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Ananda - Ananda has been writing fiction and poetry for twenty years, and has written ten collections of poetry, a number of short stories and a novel. His poetry has appeared in many publications, including The Times Literary Supplement, Foolscap, The Poetry Business , and Bloodaxe's major anthology The Long Pale Corridor. His first full-length poetry collection, North of the Future , was published in 1999. Visit my website |
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Manjusvara -
Manjusvara, originally a composer, now edits Weatherlight Press, publishing contemporary American poetry in Britain, in particular the work of Robert Bly and William Stafford. His essays and poetry have appeared in Stand, Sphinx, The Harvard Review, Connecticut Poetry Review, and The Prose Poem: An International Journal. He is currently working on a series of books about Buddhist practice and writing. Visit my website |
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Tejananda - Tejananda has been practising Buddhism and meditation for over 30 years and a member of the WBO since 1980. Since becoming an Order member, he has worked in a vegetarian café in Croydon, helped establish the Bristol Buddhist Centre, worked for the Karuna Trust, written a book introducing the fundamentals of Buddhism ' The Buddhist Path to Awakening ' and taught meditation and Dharma in many parts of the UK, Europe and the USA.
He has been part of the resident / teaching team at Vajraloka retreat centre in Wales since 1995 and became chairman of the centre in 2001. In meditation and Dharma practice he is particularly inspired by the formless meditations of the Tibetan Mahamudra and Dzogchen traditions, and devotion to Padmasambhava and Vajrayogini, which all finds reflection in his
Formless meditation - Opening to awareness' retreats. Visit my website
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Parami -
Parami has been a member of the WBO since 1980. In that time she has led retreats and workshops in many parts of the world. Her particular interest in the Bodhisattva Ideal has shown itself in many ways, most recently in her exploration of socially engaged Buddhism, on retreat and in training with Joanna Macy. Currently she lives about half of the year at Taraloka retreat centre in Shropshire and the rest of the time visits FWBO Centres in the UK and elsewhere. She is involved with FWBO activities around the world, especially in Spanish-speaking Centres. She has been a private preceptor for some years and became a public preceptor in 2005. |
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Suryacitta -
Suryacitta has been meditating since 1990 and was ordained into the Western Buddhist Order in 1999. He moved to Vajraloka meditation centre in 2001 where he discovered formless meditation. This has been his practice ever since. In the spring of 2008 he moved to Stanton-Under-Bardon in the midlands where he continues to lead workshops and courses on happiness and meditation. Visit my website
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Ratnadevi -
Together with Larry Butler, Ratnadevi is one of the founders of the Bodhi Eco-Project. She has been teaching Yoga and Meditation for over 20 years, both in ongoing classes in Glasgow and on retreats. She has a special interest in MBCT (mindfulness based cognitive therapy), using mindfulness for dealing with stress, pain and depression. She is also a trained musician, a visual artist, a deviser of contemporary rituals and an ecologist. Her work is motivated by a desire to contribute to the re-emergence of a way of life that honours the inter-connectedness of all life. Visit my website |
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Larry Butler -
Larry was born in Illinois and has been living in Glasgow since 1981. His day job is teaching tai-chi in healthcare settings, and he leads a life-story group at the Maggie Cancer Care Centre. His passion is poetry & dance. Together with Ratnadevi, Larry is one of the founders of the Bodhi Eco-Project.
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Paramananda -
Paramananda was ordained in 1985. He was chairman of the West London Buddhist Centre from 1988 to 1993 and chairman of the San Francisco Buddhist Centre from 1994 to 2002. He is the author of the best-selling ‘ Change Your Mind ' and ‘ A Deeper Beauty '. He currently teaches meditation at the West London Buddhist Centre |
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Dhiramati -
I have been practising yoga and meditation for over 20 years and have been coming on retreats and leading events at Dhanakosa for many years; I love the place, it's a second home to me. I teach yoga based deeply on the influence of my teacher Donna Farhi and dwelling with the natural breath. I am also inspired by work with Paul grilley and Sarah powers (yin yoga).
I have also been working with Paramananda on the Total immersion meditation retreats at Buddhafield and Dhanakosa, where I teach yoga, lead puja and do some storytelling. I live in the heart of Devon, close to the Buddhafield tribe with whom I work and play throughout the year.
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Manjunaga - My yoga practice began in 1998 when, after a suggestion of a friend, I started attending yoga classes at Bodywise in Manchester. After many years of exploration in my own yoga practice, I started my teacher training with Simon Low and the Yoga Academy in 2006, qualifying in 2008. In recent years I have been particularly inspired by the work of Donna Farhi and have taken the opportunity of studying with her. For me, yoga is an awareness practice, offering us an opportunity to become more fully embodied in our experience; this allows for a greater sensitivity to our emotional and physical well being. I teach dynamic flowing movement combined with stilling postures to experience yoga as a deepening awareness of breath, cultivating peace of mind. I have also spent several years teaching meditation and buddhism courses and I am particularly interested in exploring qualities of stillness and spaciousness through my yoga teaching. Find out more about Manjunaga's yoga classes in manchester
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Vajrasara - Has worked in communication for 20 years, spending the first decade as a writer and editor in the UK national press. She worked in team-based Right Livelihood at the Wild Cherry restaurant for 5 years then was director of the FWBO Communications Office for another 5 years; she also co-edited Dharma Life magazine, alongside teaching and leading study at the London Buddhist Centre. She joined the Western Buddhist Order in 1999. Now an internationally certified trainer in Nonviolent Communication, Vajrasara makes a living teaching NVC and conflict resolution. She lives in Somerset, where she spends the rest of her time writing, teaching meditation and Dharma locally, leading Buddhist retreats and walking her dog. |
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Ginny Stuart - Ginny will be teaching yoga at Dhanakosa in February and August 2010 |
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Vajradarshini -
"As of this year I am spending my time as a Dharma teacher on the move, communicating Sangharakshita's teachings in different venues around the FWBO. I'll be doing retreats, urban retreats, weekends and talks in various places around the UK and Europe concentrating on some of my favorite Dharma themes . When not on the road I'll be living in a very simple life in Spain where my cost of living will be low and I hope that this will enable me to have some quiet time to do my own study and reflection".
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Vajradevi - I have been a member of the Western Buddhist Order since 1995, and meditating since 1985. For the past 7 years I hve been interested in meditation based on the Satipatthana Sutta. This interest led me onto retreats with various vipassana teachers including the Burmese teacher U Pandita and Joseph Goldstein in the US. Most recently I spent 3 months in 2007 in Burma practicing under Sayadaw U Tejaniya whose emphasis is on observing the mind and it's objects directly while maintaining a continuity of awareness in daily life. During the last 3 years I have co-led an annual intensive meditation retreat at Taraloka retreat centre introducing the main areas of the Satipatthana Sutta. |
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Sue Garner - As a child, Sue was interested in the connection between body and mind and was often to be found hanging upside down or holding her breath. She started to practice yoga in India in 1991 and qualified as a teacher with the British Wheel of Yoga in 1999. She has since trained with respected teachers in various styles (including Iyengar, Astanga, Scaravelli and Yin). She is currently training with osteopath and yoga teacher Pete Blackaby and is interested in an organic, fluid, playful approach to yoga that encourages a deepening awareness of body and mind, recognition of habits and patterns of holding and working gently to promote greater freedom and well-being.
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Ruth Antoli - I have now been practising yoga for 10 years. I qualified as a teacher in 2004, after two years of intense study at The Edinburgh Iyengar Yoga Centre. I have also participated in many courses and retreats with international senior teachers and in 2007 I studied at the Iyengar Institute in Pune, India. I have recently studied the approach to yoga taught by Vanda Scaravelli, attending classes with some of her main pupils, like Sophy Hoare and Diane Long. This has opened a new dimension to the practise of yoga, bringing more ease and joy to my practise and teaching. Visit my website, Yoga Loka |
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Claire Stephen -
Clare has been practicing yoga for over twenty-five years and qualified as an Iyengar yoga teacher at introductory level in 1989. She has visited India to be taught by the Iyengars, and completed the intermediate level training in 2005. Her commitment to her Buddhist studies and meditation practice also influences the way that she teaches yoga. Visit my website |
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Jayachitta has been a Buddhist since 1981 and has lived and worked with other Buddhists for a lot of that time. She has a deep love of performance and the infinity of human expression. 2002-4 she trained in physical theatre at Kiklos Scuola in Italy. Improvisation, movement and especially exploring the clown have become more and more important since then as additional approaches to the spiritual life. She sees them as an interactive way of entering and exploring the space that one discovers in meditation. It's in that spirit of play that we can discover what is important in life! Visit my website |
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