Teachers
In the course of its year-long programme, London Insight Meditation works with a number of leading teachers:
Akincano
Akincano Marc Weber was born in Switzerland, and was ordained into monastic life in the Theravada Forest Tradition in 1985. He trained as a Bhikkhu with Ajahn Sumedho, studied with the scholar monk Bhikkhu Payutto and practised meditation in several of Ajahn Chah’s monasteries in Europe and Thailand. In 1998 he returned to Europe to live in Dhammapala monastery in the Swiss Alps. In early 2005 he left monastic life and now lives in Cologne, Germany, from where he teaches Dhamma and Meditation internationally.
Martin Aylward
Martin began practicing and studying Insight Meditation at the age of 19, living in ashrams and monasteries in India and Thailand and spending two years with Himalayan hermits. Returning to Europe in 1994 he co-founded the Tapovan Dharma Community in South West France, where he lives with his wife and two children. Martin has been teaching Dharma and leading meditation retreats internationally for the last 6 years.
Martine Bachelor
Martine lived in Korea as a Zen nun for ten years. She is the author of ‘Meditation for Life’, ‘The Path of Compassion’, ‘Women In Korean Zen’, and ‘Let Go: A Buddhist Guide to Breaking Free of Habits’. She is a member of the Gaia House Teacher Council. She teaches worldwide and lives in South West France. Martine’s most recent publication is ‘The Spirit of the Buddha’.
Stephen Batchelor
Stephen studied for eight years under the guidance of Tibetan lamas and completed a three-year Zen training in Korea. A former Buddhist monk, he is the author of ‘Alone with Others’, ‘The Faith to Doubt’, ‘The Awakening of the West’, ‘Buddhism without Beliefs’, and ‘Living with the Devil’. His most recent publication is ‘Confession of a Buddhist Atheist’. Stephen is a member of the Gaia House Teacher Council and teaches retreats and seminars worldwide. He lives in Southwest France with his wife Martine.
Bhante Bodhidhamma
Bhante Bodhidhamma began his meditation in the Soto Zen tradition in 1978 and has practised widely in the Theravada tradition, centring on the Mahasi Tradition. In 1986, he ordained. From
June 2001-2005, he was teacher in residence at Gaia House. He founded Satipanya Buddhist Retreat dedicated to the Mahasi Tradition on the borders of Wales in 2007. (http://www.satipanya.org.uk)
Rob Burbea
Rob Burbea has been practising and studying Buddhist meditation and Dharma since 1985 with teachers in England and the USA. He has been teaching since 2004 and is currently Resident Teacher at Gaia House and a Teacher Council member. He is a co-founder of Sanghaseva, an organisation dedicated to exploring the Dharma through service work.
Mark Coleman
Mark Coleman has practiced Buddhist meditation since 1984. He is a Spirit Rock Meditation Teacher and has been teaching Insight meditation retreats since 1997. He also leads wilderness meditation retreats from Alaska to Peru, integrating mindfulness meditation with nature. He is author of Awake in the Wild: Mindfulness in Nature as a Path of Self-Discovery. Mark is a psychotherapist, life-coach and mindfulness consultant to corporations. He is an avid outdoor enthusiast and passionate about combining the forces of meditation, silence and nature.
Chris Cullen
CHRIS CULLEN has been practising Insight Meditation since 1996, and has recently started teaching. He is a graduate of the Community Dharma Leader Program at Spirit Rock Meditation Centre in the US, and trained as a Dharma teacher with Christina Feldman. He teaches and runs the counselling service at a secondary school in London, and is Director of London Insight. He is co-founder of the Mindfulness in Schools Project, and is also involved in Sanghaseva.
Jake Dartington
Jake Dartington has practised Buddhist meditation since 1995 and trained as a Dharma Teacher with Christina Feldman. He has been teaching meditation retreats at Gaia House and around the UK in 2007. Jake also teaches Religious Studies and Philosophy at Bilborough College in Nottingham.
Joseph Goldstein
Having played a central role in bringing meditation to the West, Joseph Goldstein is one of the world’s most respected Buddhist teachers. He has been teaching worldwide for over 35 years and in 1974 he co-founded the Insight Meditation Society in Massachusetts with Jack Kornfield and Sharon Salzberg and remains its guiding teacher. He is the author of One Dharma: The Emerging Western Buddhism, Insight Meditation: The Practice of Freedom, The Experience of Insight, and co-author of Seeking the Heart of Wisdom and Insight Meditation: A Correspondence Course.
Christina Feldman
Christina Feldman is a co-founder of Gaia House and is on the Gaia House Teacher Council. She has been leading Insight Meditation retreats worldwide since 1976. She is a guiding teacher of the Insight Meditation Society, Massachusetts. Her books include ‘Woman Awake’ ,’ The Way of Meditation’, ‘Silence’, ‘Compassion’ and ‘The Buddhist Path to Simplicity’.
Kevin Griffin
Kevin Griffin is the author of One Breath at a Time: Buddhism and the Twelve Steps and A Burning Desire: Dharma God and the Path of Recovery. He is a leader in the mindful recovery movement and a co-founder of the Buddhist Recovery Network. He teaches at treatment centers, spiritual centers, professional conferences, and colleges internationally. He trained as a Community Dharma Leader at Spirit Rock Meditation Center, in Marin County, California.
Caroline Jones
Caroline Jones has been practicing meditation for 20 years and teaching for the last three. She is especially interested in exploring ways of bringing the Buddha’s teachings into the nitty gritty of our daily lives. She has led retreats at Gaia House and elsewhere. She was recently resident teacher at Gaia House for three months.
Kittisaro
Kittisaro from Tennessee USA, was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford before going to Thailand to ordain with Ajahn Chah in 1976. He was a monk for 15 years and during that time helped found Chithurst Monastery and Devon Vihara in the UK. He also taught extensively during this time and was involved in the training of monks. He disrobed in 1991 and since then has taught internationally, with his wife Thanissara, in the States, Europe, Africa, Canada and Israel. He has studied and practised Chan and Pure Land for 20 years informed by the Chinese school of Master Hua. Kittisaro has completed two one year long retreats and is currently writing in between continuing his teaching engagements.
Gregory Kramer
Gregory is a meditation teacher, author, director of the Metta Foundation and a visiting faculty member of the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies in Massachusetts. He has been teaching Vipassana since 1980, having been trained by Ven. Ananda Maitreya Mahanayaka Thera, Punnaji Maha Thera, and Achan Sobin Namto. He is the co-creator and developer of Insight Dialogue and teaches this practice and Dharma Contemplation worldwide. He holds a PhD in ‘Learning and Change in Human Systems’ and is the author of: INSIGHT DIALOGUE - The Interpersonal Path to Freedom (Shambala). For further
information about Gregory Kramer and Insight Dialogue, see http://www.metta.org.
Catherine McGee
Catherine McGee has practised and studied Buddhist meditation with senior teachers from Asia and the West since 1992. She has been teaching Insight Meditation at Gaia House and internationally since 1997. Her practice is more recently influenced by the Diamond Approach of A H Almas where she is a member of the School and a seminary student.
Yanai Postelnik
Yanai Postelnik has practised and studied Insight Meditation and Buddha-dharma in Asia and the West for many years. He has been teaching since 1992 and leads retreats world-wide. He lives in Devon, England and is the Dharma Director of Gaia House and a Teacher Council member.
John Peacock
John Peacock is both an academic and Buddhist practitioner of over thirty years. He initially trained in the Tibetan Gelugpa tradition. Subsequently, he studied Theravada in Sri Lanka. He has been teaching meditation for nearly twenty years. At present, he lectures in Buddhist thought at the University of Bristol, and is the Guiding Teacher of Sharpham College.
Sharon Salzberg
Sharon Salzberg is one of America’s leading spiritual teachers and authors. A practitioner of Buddhist meditation for over thirty years, she is a co-founder of the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies and the Insight Meditation Society, and she directs meditation retreats throughout the United States and abroad.
Ajahn Sucitto
Ajahn Sucitto was one of the original group of who founded Chithurst Monastery Cittavivekha in 1979. He also helped to establish a vihara in Northumberland, Aruna Ratanagiri on 1981. In 1984 he was part of the community that moved from Chithurst to Hertfordshire to start Amaravati Buddhist Monastery, where had the responsibility of supervising the nuns training, as well as other teaching duties. During this time he also began teaching overseas. In 1992 he was asked to take over the function of senior incumbent at Chithurst Monastery where he now resides.
Thanissara
Thanissara started Buddhist practice in the Burmese school in 1975 and after meeting Ajahn Chah and went on to ordain as Buddhist nun for 12 years. She has facilitated retreats internationally the last 20 years and was a guiding teacher at the Buddhist Retreat Centre, South Africa, for 7 years. With her husband Kittisaro, she established Dharmagiri Hermitage and Outreach, a centre on the border of Lesotho, of which she is currently a director. She is a co-facilitator of Spirit Rock Community Dharma Leader Program in the US and has an MA in Buddhist Psychotherapy Practice from Karuna Institute and Middlesex University.
John Teasdale
John Teasdale has been practising Insight Meditation for more than a decade. Since 1992, he has been involved in the development and teaching of clinical applications of mindfulness meditation. He has trained with Christina Feldman and has run mindfulness workshops nationally and internationally. John is a co-author of a number of books, including Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy for Depression.
Vajraghanta (Jill Broadbent)
Dr Jill Broadbent has been a practising Buddhist within the Friends of the Western Buddhist Order for 20 years; her Buddhist name within the Order is Vajraghanta. She is an internationally certified trainer in Nonviolent Communication™. With her husband, Richard Broadbent she founded ‘The Centre for Compassionate Communication’ which offers courses to support people in developing compassion within relationship.