Bernat Font met the dharma at a very young age and has practiced in Europe, India and Myanmar, gradually putting aside his artistic career. He completed his dharma teacher training with Bodhi College in 2022, mentored by Stephen Batchelor, and has a PhD in Buddhist Studies. He founded the dharma organisation 'Espai Sati' in Barcelona, serves the LGBTQIA+ community, and teaches in English, Catalan and Spanish.
Björn Natthiko Lindeblad (1961-2022) was a Swedish economist, Buddhist monk, and inspirational speaker. He earned a degree in economics from the Stockholm School of Economics and worked in finance and other fields before embarking on a spiritual journey that led him to Thailand where he ordained as a forest monk in the Thai forest tradition of Ajahn Chah, spending 17 years in monastic life. After returning to Sweden, Lindeblad became a popular public speaker, sharing his insights on mindfulness, compassion, and the importance of living authentically. He authored the bestselling memoir "I May Be Wrong," which reflects on his life experiences and philosophical teachings. He was diagnosed with ALS in 2018, and died by assisted suicide in 2022.
Bonnie met the Dharma in 1982 at Kopan Monastery and in Bodh Gaya India. Since then she has practiced long and short retreats with Joseph Goldstein and other eastern and western monastics and lay teachers. She is a graduate of the IMS/SRMC teacher training programs and is also involved with Indigenous ceremonies and practices. She is currently a core teacher of the IMS teacher training program and the SRMC Dedicated Practitioners Program. Dr. Duran is a Professor of Social Work and Public Health at the University of Washington in Seattle.
Brad Richecoeur has been practising Insight Meditation and Qigong since 1985. He is a senior student of Master Zhixing Wang, and brings a meditative inquiry into the nature of health, healing and embodied awakening. He is the co-founder of Qigong Southwest and offers retreats, workshops and classes online and in Devon.
What I most love in my teaching practice is seeing students become dedicated to their own liberation. As their spiritual practice matures, people light up from within when they begin to understand that personal freedom is possible. This commitment to freedom on the part of the student inspires me to find ways to express my deepest understanding and enthusiasm for liberation.
The mindfulness teachings of the Buddha are among the more direct, practical meditation techiques that we can cultivate. My focus is on sharing these practices in an accessable, down-to-earth way. How can we disengage from our habits of responding to the world through veils of confusion, greed, and hatred?
Mindfulness practice helps us recognize when we are responding to the world from the mental and emotional habits that obscure our true home, our radiant nature, which manifests as compassion and love. The Buddha's teachings show us that we are not isolated individuals who need to live defensive lives. Rather, we can learn to trust and live from our full potential as compassionate members of a connected planet.
Caroline Jones, a member of the Gaia House Teacher Council, has been practicing meditation for 25 years and teaching since 2009. In teaching, she encourages students to discover and deepen ways of engaging with the Dharma to bring healing and liberation.
Charles Genoud a pratiqué le bouddhisme de la tradition théravada en Birmanie en Inde et aux États-Unis.
Il a également étudié et pratiqué le bouddhisme tibétain depuis 1970. Tout d’abord avec le vénérable Géshé Rabten pendant plusieurs années, puis le maîte Dilgo Khyentsé Rimpoché. Il a suivit les cours de l’école de dialectique à Dharamsala pendant l’année 1975.
Exposés en français and in English
Chris Cullen has practised and studied the Buddha's teachings since 1994 and has been teaching Insight Meditation retreats since 2010. He also teaches for Oxford University’s Mindfulness Centre and has a psychotherapy practice in Oxford.
What I teach is a reflection of the constantly changing nature of my own practice. When I give a talk it is not a set agenda, but something that I've been reflecting about. The talks tend to be in rhythm with my own practice.
At the moment, I'm reflecting on the interplay of the personal and the non-personal, on aloneness and intimacy, on emptiness and embodiment. This process of reflection is a slow one. I hold a question in the background of my consciousness and then prepare to be surprised, to see what actually arises.
I enjoy the dharma a great deal. I try to convey that meditation practice is not a pathway of endlessly overcoming obstacles, but also a path of tremendous joy. It brings a great deal of profound truth to people's ability to find happiness. I have great faith in the Dharma, and a bottomless faith in people's capacity to be wise.
The ancient traditions of Buddhism are as relevant today as they were 2,500 years ago because people's capacity for getting themselves into trouble, for confusion, alienation and separation is not so different from Buddha's time. Vipassana, then and now, offers people an opportunity to transform themselves, and in so doing, transform the world around them.
