Advayasiddhi
Advayasiddhi is a meditation and Dharma teacher living in Denmark. She loves meditation and loves sharing its deeply transformative powers on retreats. She met the Dharma under the Bodhi Tree i 1997, and has since then dedicated her life to explore how to wake up in the lives we have here and now. For the past 15 years she has been leading retreats in various places around UK and Europe, using a friendly and down-to-earth teaching style. She has a particular link with Vajraloka Retreat Centre, where she teaches regularly and since 2020 also has been involved with a number…
Balajit
Balajit (he/him) has been leading retreats and events across the UK since 2007. For several years he lived and worked at Vajraloka Retreat Centre in North Wales. He is currently based in Birmingham, where he mixes Buddhist teaching responsibilities with work as a trauma therapist. He has studied the newly emerging psycho-biological approaches to trauma work- and is qualified in Somatic Experiencing, NARM therapy and SHEN Therapy. His teaching focuses on the core teachings of the Buddha as outlined in the ancient texts. He particularly emphasises the importance of body awareness and embodiment, both in meditation and in everyday life.…
Jinapalita
I have been living and practicing within Triratna for most of my adult life, and for the latter years very much associated with Vajraloka. I really value living in a friendly community that has the exploration of meditation, both personal and collective at the centre of its vision. (And it’s delightful living in beautiful north Wales as well!)
Kavaradhi
Kavaradhi began practicing meditation in 2007, having been intrigued by mystical texts since early adulthood. This early interest in spiritual experience went on the back burner for a number of years, until she learned meditation and found it transformative. During those years she established a career in the NHS. She first encountered Buddhism at the London Buddhist Centre and lived in an associated community for over a decade, joining the Triratna Buddhist Order in 2021. In 2023 she moved to Vajraloka to become part of the community and Teaching Mandala there. She has a love and appreciation for the wild plants and creatures…
Maitrisiddhi
I first got involved with the Triratna Buddhist Community in 2005, when I was living in Sheffield, working as a physiotherapist and doing a lot of rock climbing and mountaineering. It was when I was on a trip to the Andes when I was 25, that quite by chance I picked up my first book on Buddhism, and thought: ‘This makes so much sense!’ I’ve been practising meditation and the Dharma (the teachings of the Buddha) ever since. I moved to Taraloka Buddhist Retreat Centre in 2009, drawn by a desire to integrate meditation experience more fully into my daily…
Padmasagara
Padmasagara comes from Yorkshire and discovered Buddhism in Leeds in 2011. He was ordained into the Triratna Buddhist Order in 2016 and given the Buddhist name “Padmasagara”, which means “Ocean of Lotuses”. For 6 years (2017-2023) he lived at Padmaloka Retreat Centre and led retreats there as part of the men’s ordination team. He now lives in Berlin and teaches Buddhism and meditation at the Buddhistisches Tor Triratna centre in Kreuzberg. He’s particularly interested in the connection between the body and the imagination, and explores this relationship in his own meditation practice and through his teaching style. He is currently…
Rijumitra
I have been living at Vajraloka for some twenty years years now having moved from working at the Leeds Buddhist Centre for twelve years in 2005. Both meditation and Vajraloka are very important to me. My first longer retreat was a Brahmaviharas Retreat I attended at Vajraloka in 1992, where I realised that I did not have to accept my habitual ways of being and that different possibilities were available to me. Not long after that retreat I left my career job and started a new way of life working for Triratna. I enjoy helping people recognise that they can…
Silabodhi
Silabodhi has been practising Buddhism for more than 20 years. He’s one of our long term retreat attendees at Vajraloka, which he considers his ‘spiritual home’. He was ordained in 2015 and amongst other things he’s been chair of the Manchester Buddhist Centre for 5 years from 2019 to 2024, the CEO of a small manufacturing business for 32 years, a Meditation and Dharma class teacher for over 10 years, also leading study groups. His practice is very clearly based on inquiry, with a keen interest in seeing through delusion that causes suffering. He’s too interested in current affairs, but…
Singhashri
Singhashri (she/her or they/them) is a queer, Latinx-American-British Order member, dharma teacher and writer. They teach mindfulness and compassion as means to awakening to love, beauty and truth and have committed their life to supporting collective liberation for all and the joy and freedom found there. Singhashri has a background in youth work, strategic planning, organisational change management, and diversity, equity and inclusion. They are also an accredited Breathworks Mindfulness teacher, trainer and supervisor and is currently training as a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner (SEP). They work at the intersection of dharma, social justice and somatics, weaving these into her writing,…
Tejananda
Tejananda has been practising meditation and dharma since the mid-70s. He was ordained by Sangharakshita in 1980 after which he participated in the setting-up of the FWBO Bristol centre and was centre chair for six years. After several years working for the Karuna Trust in Oxford, he joined the team at Vajraloka in 1995. His book,’The Buddhist Path to Awakening’ was published by Windhorse around that time. Since then he has been leading and supporting retreats at Vajraloka and at other retreat centres in the UK and worldwide. Although no longer living at Vajraloka, he remains part of the wider…
Vajradevi
Vajradevi started meditating in 1985 and has been ordained for 30 years. She has been practising and teaching mindfulness with a strong insight dimension for over 25 years. To further her practice, she has studied with specialists on Satipatthana on long retreats in Burma and the US. She is the author of ‘Uncontrived Mindfulness: ending suffering though attention, curiosity and wisdom’ published in 2021 by Windhorse Publications. Between 2000-2007 she spearheaded Akashavana, our womens ordination retreat centre in Spain. You can find more information about her approach and read her meditation blog at www.uncontrivedmindfulness.net
Viveka
Viveka (she/they) is co-founder of Triratna’s Total Immersion longer sangha meditation retreats and has led many month-longs. Her practice has been deeply nourished by meditating in the mountainous wilds of Northern California and Wu Tai Mountain in China. Their teaching is healing and trauma-informed, creating a welcoming atmosphere that holds a diversity of peoples. Viveka’s meditation instruction emphasizes curiosity and compassionate fearlessness as she coaches meditators to trust their capacity and the awakening process. She was certified as a somatic coach at the Strozzi Institute for Somatics in 2022 and has since been training groups in embodied transformation. Ordained in…