Buddha Dhamma Hands

Previous Talks



Below is an archive of some of the more recent speakers as given on the web page at the time.


Year 2013

To 2012
To 2011
To 2010
To 2009
To 2008
To 2007
To 2006
To 2005


Friday 24 May 2013,  at 7-30pm at the Friends Meeting House, 12 Jesus Lane.

Bhante Bodhidhamma

Bhikkhu Bodhidhamma is English and has been an ordained Theravada monk for over 20 years. In 1976 Bhante began meditation in the Soto Zen Tradition, and after three years, he began to practice in the Theravada tradition. His main teachers have been Sayadaws U Janaka and U Pandita. In 1986, he ordained and subsequently spent eight years as a solitary at Kanduboda, the main Mahasi Centre in Sri Lanka. In the spring of 1998 he returned to Britain and since then he has been teaching in England, as well as Ireland, Italy and Switzerland. Between 2000 and 2005 he was a teacher-in-residence at Gaia House and he is now the spiritual director of the Satipanya Buddhist Trust at Powys, Wales.  Satipanya

He will also lead a one day course of meditation on Saturday 25 May at the Friends Meeting House.




Tuesday 23 July 2013,  at 7-30pm in the Hall at the back of the Unitarian Church, on the corner of Victoria Street and Emmanuel Road (near Drummer Street Bus Station).

A talk about the Buddhist Nuns of Bhutan

by Dr Tashi Zangmo and a Bhutanese Buddhist Nun

The director of the Bhutan Nuns Foundation, Dr. Tashi Zangmo and a Bhutanese Buddhist nun have been invited to the UK for a week. They will be giving presentations on Bhutan, their culture and the Bhutanese Buddhist nuns.

Also see web pages:




A talk and meditation led by Ajahn Amaro, Abbot of Amaravati on Wednesday 13 November 2013 at 7pm.

Organised by the Cambridge University Buddhist Society but open to all, be they town or gown.





Year 2012

To 2013
To 2011
To 2010
To 2009
To 2008
To 2007
To 2006
To 2005


Friday 26th October 2012,  at 7-30pm at the Friends Meeting House, 12 Jesus Lane.

Sister Kovida

A Talk

Sister Kovida is a senior western Theravada nun in the Forest Sangha tradition of Ajahn Chah. Before she became a nun she trained as a psychiatric nurse at Fulbourn Hospital, Cambridge. In the early eighties during her years of nursing training, she joined the Cambridge Buddhist Society through which she heard Teachings from Ajahn Sumedho and Ajahn Sucitto. In 1989 she participated in a retreat lead by Ajahn Sundara at Amaravati. The experience of the Teachings and the quality of the contact at the monastery drew her more and more. After caring for her mother through terminal illness she decided to experiment with a year as an anagarika, and never left! Her early years as a nun were spent at Amaravati but in 2001 she moved to Cittaviveka (Chithurst). She has recently spent periods of time in Thailand and Burma to contemplate the roots of the Forest Tradition and experience practice there. Sister Kovida now lives outside of the monastic setting, walking on tudong (wandering), practising meditation, studying and teaching. She teaches Vipassana meditation emphasising an openness to feelings and being with what is.

She will also lead a afternoon retreat on Saturday 10th November at the Harting Grove Friends Meeting House, see  Reflective Awareness - Meditation Practice


Friday 9th March 2012,  at 7-30pm at the Friends Meeting House, 12 Jesus Lane, Cambridge.

Rev. Leoma Hague

The End of Suffering - A Soto Zen Perspective

The talk will use one of the basic teachings of Buddhism to explore the fundamental role played by zazen, or meditation, in Soto Zen practice.

Rev. Leoma Hague is a senior monk and priest of the Order of Buddhist Contemplatives. She is a member of the monastic community at Throssel Hole Buddhist Abbey in Northumberland. The abbey was founded in 1972 by Rev. Master Jiyu-Kennett, who trained at Sojiji, one of the two head temples of Soto Zen in Japan. For the past 30 years, the abbot of Throssel Hole Buddhist Abbey has been Rev. Master Daishin Morgan, a Dharma heir of Rev. Master Jiyu. Rev. Leoma was ordained as a monk by Rev. Master Daishin in 1998 and received Dharma transmission from him in 2006. Since then she has been teaching and has led retreats at Throssel, in the Netherlands and in East Anglia.




Friday 20th April 2012 ,   at 7.30pm at the Friends Meeting House, 12 Jesus Lane, Cambridge.

Venerable Tsuiltrim Tenzin Choesang and Wendy Barzetovic

Sakyadhita, Daughters of the Buddha a talk about the work of Sakyadhita ("The Daughters of the Buddha") , an International Association of Buddhist Women.

A Buddhist since the 60s, ordained by His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet and a Bikshuni, Ani- Choesang qualified to teach buddhism in the mid 90’s. With both the UK and Nepal being home, Ani-la helped develop Kopan Ani Gompa (KGL), her home nunnery in Nepal where they now have 375 Tibetan nuns following a sound educational programme. In the UK Ani Choesang is responsible for Buddhist education in schools, within the 3 Counties area and on the National SACRE board. With chaplaincy duties and following her interests in Buddhist art, Ani Choesang leads a fully engaged life within her community as well as fulfilling international engagements.

Ani Choesang is currently joint Chair of Sakyadhita UK and with support from the committee they plan to develop the UK branch to include University lecture days, Women’s support links and general ‘Friends’ days. Sakyadhita encompasses all women and girls who practice Buddhism around the world as well as buddhist men and non buddhists who are in accord with their aims.

Wendy Barzetovic became a Buddhist in 1979 in Darjeeling, India. She took refuge with Kalu Rinpoche (Karma Kagyu Lineage of Tibetan Buddhism) and received meditation instruction from Bokar Rinpoche. She then studied with the Gelugpa monastics in Dharamsala, India from 1979-1982, receiving teachings via a translator from such masters as H.H. the Dalai Lama, Geshe Ngawang Dhargyey and Geshe Soman Rinchen.

Following on from the first ever conference on Buddhist Nuns held in Bodhgaya, India in 1987, where Sakyadhita (The International Association of Buddhist Women) was founded, Wendy became the National Representative and founding member of the UK branch of (Sakyadhita) and remained in this post until 1995. Currently she is Secretary of Sakyadhita UK.

Sakyadhita is not affiliated to any particular tradition and offers support to women from all Buddhist backgrounds.




Monday 30 April 2012,  at 7-30pm at the UNITARIAN CHURCH, on the corner of Victoria Street and Emmanuel Road (near Drummer Street Bus Station).
PLEASE NOTICE the change of venue for this evening ONLY.

Ven Ngawang Sonam

The Wisdom of Forgiveness

Ven Ngawang Sonam is one of the religious translators of HH Dalai Lama and is here in Cambridge until he joins HH Dalai Lama for his UK visit in June. Sonam was born in 1978 in the Tibetan foothills of Mount Everest and was later secretly smuggled into India to study in a Tibetan Children's Village School within a free exile community. He then went to Southern India as a monk to study at the largest Gelug monastic university and he is about to be awarded the highest degree of Geshe Lharampa.




Friday 25 May 2012,  at 7-30pm at the Friends Meeting House, 12 Jesus Lane.

Bhante Bodhidhamma

Bhikkhu Bodhidhamma is English and has been an ordained Theravada monk for over 20 years. In 1976 Bhante began meditation in the Soto Zen Tradition, and after three years, he began to practice in the Theravada tradition. His main teachers have been Sayadaws U Janaka and U Pandita. In 1986, he ordained and subsequently spent eight years as a solitary at Kanduboda, the main Mahasi Centre in Sri Lanka. In the spring of 1998 he returned to Britain and since then he has been teaching in England, as well as Ireland, Italy and Switzerland. Between 2000 and 2005 he was a teacher-in-residence at Gaia House and he is now the spiritual director of the Satipanya Buddhist Trust at Powys, Wales.  Satipanya

He will also lead a one day course of meditation on Saturday 26th May 2012 at the Friends Meeting House.





Year 2011

To 2013
To 2012
To 2010
To 2009
To 2008
To 2007
To 2006
To 2005


Friday 28 January 2011, at 7-30pm at the Friends Meeting House, 12 Jesus Lane.

Richard Lang

Seeing Who You Really Are

An evening taking a fresh look into who we really are - be prepared to discover something wonderful about yourself!

Richard Lang first discovered who he really was in 1970 when he attended a workshop with the philosopher Douglas Harding, author of 'On Having No Head'. Since then Richard has been involved in the work - and pleasure! - of giving workshops, using the practical awareness exercises that Harding invented. He has two books published, a CD and a DVD, and is co-ordinator of the Shollond Trust, a charity set up to share this method of awakening. Richard also practises as a psychotherapist, and teaches Tai Chi and Five Rhythms Dance.

Richard last visited the Society in 2004. He may well ask us to take part in some of the exercises; but don't worry, it will be a relaxed and fun evening.

Douglas Harding was a regular visitor to the Cambridge University Buddhist Society during the '60s and '70s and his work has influenced many western Buddhist writers.

See information at http://www.headless.org/english-welcome.htm




Friday 18th March 2011,  at 7-30pm at the UNITARIAN CHURCH, on the corner of Victoria Street and Emmanuel Road (near Drummer Street Bus Station), Cambridge.

Martine Batchelor

The Spirit of the Buddha

Martine Batchelor was born in France in 1953. She was ordained as a Buddhist nun in Korea in 1975. She studied Zen Buddhism under the guidance of the late Master Kusan at Songgwang Sa monastery until 1984. Her Zen training also took her to nunneries in Taiwan and Japan. In 1981 she served as Kusan Sunim's interpreter and accompanied him on lecture tours throughout the United States and Europe. She translated his book 'The Way of Korean Zen'. Following Master Kusan's death she returned her nun's vows and left Korea. She now teaches meditation retreats worldwide. She is the author of Meditation for Life: The Path of Compassion, Women in Korean Zen: Lives and Practices and Let Go: A Buddhist Guide to Breaking Free of Habits. Her latest book is is 'The Spirit of the Buddha'. She lives in France. Martine Batchelor

She will also be leading a one day insight meditation retreat on the Saturday (19th March).




Friday 1st April 2011,  at 7-30pm at the Friends Meeting House, 12 Jesus Lane.

Ajahn Kovida,  a nun from the Forest Sangha tradition.

Sister Kovida's lay name was Laura Bridgman. She is English and developed an interest in Buddhism and meditation during her teenage years. In the early eighties during her years of nursing training, she joined the Cambridge Buddhist Society through which she heard Teachings from Ajahn Sumedho and Ajahn Sucitto. In 1989 she participated in a retreat lead by Ajahn Sundara at Amaravati. The experience of the Teachings and the quality of the contact at the monastery drew her more and more. After caring for her mother through terminal illness she decided to experiment with a year as an anagarika, and never left! Her early years as a nun were spent at Amaravati but she has lived at Cittaviveka (Chithurst) since 2001. She has recently spent periods of time in Thailand and Burma to contemplate the roots of the Forest Tradition and experience practice there.

She will also lead a day's retreat on Saturday 2 April at the Friends Meeting House.




Friday 29 April 2011,  at 7-30pm at the Friends Meeting House, 12 Jesus Lane.

Andy Ferguson

Towards a New Understanding of Bodhidharma

Andy Ferguson graduated in Chinese studies from the University of Oregon in 1973.  That year he moved to Kyoto, and then to Taipei where he studied first Japanese and then Chinese.  He travelled in mainland China in 1978, before the economic reforms, and subsequently lived in Singapore and Hong Kong where he worked as the East Asia Manager for a USA company. At that time he began locating and studying a wide variety of Chinese historic cultural sites, especially temples related to the Chinese Chan tradition. He is the author of “Zen’s Chinese Heritage: The Masters and their Teachings,” in which he translated the core writings of more than 150 ancient Chinese Zen masters.  Andy organizes a company called “South Mountain China Tours” that offers itineraries and perspectives on East Asian Culture. With his long-time friend Red Pine, Andy has photographed sites for most of the early masters of the Chinese Chan tradition, from Bodhidharma and down the many generations of teachers. Recently he was the first American to attend the annual ceremony honoring Bodhidharma at his burial temple, Empty Form, in North China.




Friday 27 May 2011,  at 7-30pm at the Friends Meeting House, 12 Jesus Lane.

Bhante Bodhidhamma

Bhikkhu Bodhidhamma is English and has been an ordained Theravada monk for over 20 years. In 1976 Bhante began meditation in the Soto Zen Tradition, and after three years, he began to practice in the Theravada tradition. His main teachers have been Sayadaws U Janaka and U Pandita. In 1986, he ordained and subsequently spent eight years as a solitary at Kanduboda, the main Mahasi Centre in Sri Lanka. In the spring of 1998 he returned to Britain and since then he has been teaching in England, as well as Ireland, Italy and Switzerland. Between 2000 and 2005 he was a teacher-in-residence at Gaia House and he is now the spiritual director of the Satipanya Buddhist Trust at Powys, Wales.  Satipanya

He will also lead a one day course of meditation on Saturday 28 May 2011 at the Friends Meeting House.




Wednesday 8th June 2011,  at 7-30pm at   the UNITARIAN CHURCH, on the corner of Victoria Street and Emmanuel Road (near Drummer Street Bus Station), Cambridge.

Geshe Dorji Damdul

Wisdom and Compassion with Vision

Geshe Dorji Damdul has recently become the Director of Tibet House, the Dalai Lama's cultural centre, in Delhi. Supported by ELST, he was a visiting scholar at Girton College in 2003 and he gave a number of popular talks here in Cambridge.
He will be visiting Cambridge on his way to the Mind and Life Summer Research Institute Conference in New York.  ( www.mindandlife.org   and YouTube carries the seminars from previous years - recommended).
He often acts as the H.H. Dalai Lama's interpretor in the English speaking world.




Friday 30th September 2011,  at 7-30pm at the Friends Meeting House, 12 Jesus Lane

Sister Kovida

Sister Kovida is a senior western Theravada nun in the Forest Sangha tradition of Ajahn Chah. Before she became a nun she trained as a psychiatric nurse at Fulbourn Hospital, Cambridge. In the early eighties during her years of nursing training, she joined the Cambridge Buddhist Society through which she heard Teachings from Ajahn Sumedho and Ajahn Sucitto. In 1989 she participated in a retreat lead by Ajahn Sundara at Amaravati. The experience of the Teachings and the quality of the contact at the monastery drew her more and more. After caring for her mother through terminal illness she decided to experiment with a year as an anagarika, and never left! Her early years as a nun were spent at Amaravati but in 2001 she moved to Cittaviveka (Chithurst). She has recently spent periods of time in Thailand and Burma to contemplate the roots of the Forest Tradition and experience practice there. Sister Kovida now lives outside of the monastic setting, walking on tudong (wandering), practising meditation, studying and teaching. She teaches Vipassana meditation emphasising an openness to feelings and being with what is.

She will also lead a day's retreat on Saturday 1st October at the Harting Grove Friends Meeting House.




Friday 28th October 2011,  at 7-30pm at the Friends Meeting House, 12 Jesus Lane.

Jamie Cresswell

Jamie is the Director of the Institute of Oriental Philosophy and he will be outlining some of the basic doctrines and history of Nichiren Buddhism. And as part of his talk he will also be discussing the Chinese T’ien T’ai school of Buddhism and the Lotus Sutra. Jamie is the present chairman of the Network of Buddhist Organisations.




Friday 25th November 2011,  at 7-30pm at the Friends Meeting House, 12 Jesus Lane, Cambridge.

Professor Richard Gombrich

In what sense did the Buddha preach the Middle Way?

Richard Gombrich is the founder and President of the Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies,   www.ocbs.org   , and Chairman of the UK Association for Buddhist Studies. Before his retirement in 2004, he held the Boden Chair of Sanskrit at Oxford University and a Professorial Fellowship at Balliol College for 28 years. He continues to lecture and teach at universities round the world. His interests include Pali, early Buddhism, and the anthropology of Buddhism, especially in South Asia, and he is the author of 200 publications including How Buddhism Began: the conditioned genesis of the early teachings, and What the Buddha Thought (OCBS Monograph).



Year 2010

To 2013
To 2012
To 2011
To 2009
To 2008
To 2007
To 2006
To 2005


Friday 22 January 2010,  at 7-30pm at the Friends Meeting House, 12 Jesus Lane.

Martine Batchelor

Spirit of the Buddha for Modern Times

Martine Batchelor was a Zen Buddhist nun in Korea for ten years and now teaches meditation retreats worldwide.  She is the author of Meditation for Life:The Path of Compassion,  and also Women in Korean Zen: Lives and Practices.  Her latest book is Let Go: A Buddhist Guide to Breaking Free of Habits.  She lives in France. Martine Batchelor

She will also be leading a one day insight meditation retreat on the Saturday.




Friday 26 February 2010,  at 7-30pm at the Friends Meeting House, 12 Jesus Lane.

Murray Corke

Thich Nhat Hanh and Vietnamese Zen

Murray Corke is a veterinary surgeon, conservationist and advocate for animal welfare. He learned to meditate with the Friends of the Western Buddhist Order in 1984 and studied with the FWBO for several years, before encountering the teaching and practice of Thich Nhat Hanh on a retreat in south Devon in 1992. Spending time on a number of retreats at Plum Village, Thich Nhat Hanh's monastery in south west France proved a liberating and joyful experience. As Thich Nhat Hanh says 'If your practice is not bringing you peace and joy, then you are not really practising'. The Cambridge Interbeing Sangha,  Contacts and links , which started in 1993, has been his major support and source of learning over the years. He has been active in the Community of Interbeing since it was formed to promote the teaching of Thich Nhat Hanh and the practice of mindfulness in Britain. He has visited local Sanghas throughout Britain to promote Sangha building. Murray received the 14 Mindfulness Trainings from Thay in 1994, and received Lamp Transmission from Thich Nhat Hanh in November 2004 becoming a Dharma teachers in this tradition.




THURSDAY  11 March, at 7-30pm, UNITARIAN CHURCH, on the corner of Victoria Street and Emmanuel Road (near Drummer Street Bus Station), Cambridge.

James Low

Buddhism and Psychotherapy

James Low  is a psychotherapist, student of Tibetan Buddhism and a meditation teacher.

After reading anthropology at Edinburgh at the end of the sixties, he went to India to continue his studies, living at first in the company of sadhus.  Later he encountered the world of Tibetan Buddhism and he studied the Tibetan language, literature and philosophy at Vishva-Bharati University, Shantiniketan under the guidance of Chhimed Rigdzin Rinpoche, who also became his meditation teacher.  Then for ten years James worked with Rinpoche translating many important Nyingma texts as well as doing extensive meditation retreats in the Himalayas. His main interest lies in the Dzogchen view and practise.  He combines the philosophy of east and west, as well as the view and meditation of Dzogchen, with his experience of modern psychotherapy.

James is a consultant psychotherapist in a London NHS teaching hospital and also has a private psychotherapy practice.  He has taught on many psychotherapy trainings in Britain and is the current chair of the Training Committee of the Philadelphia Association..

He is the author of a number of books including
Being Right Here:   The Mirror of Clear Meaning, Simply Being: Texts in the Dzogchen Tradition
and with John Crook, The Yogins of Ladakh: A Pilgrimage among the Hermits of the Buddhist Himalayas.




Friday May 7th 2010,  at 7-30pm at the Friends Meeting House, 12 Jesus Lane.

Michael Chaskalson

Mindfulness:  Today’s Fad?  And is it Being Denatured?

Michael joined the Western Buddhist Order in 1977 and was given the name Kulananda, under which name he has published several books on Buddhism and related subjects.  In 1979 Michael founded Windhorse: Evolution, an entrepreneurial fair-trade company that today has sales of around £10 million and gives its profits to charity.  Upon leaving the company in 1988 he helped to found the Cambridge Buddhist Centre and subsequently devoted much of his time to Buddhism – studying, meditating, teaching and writing.  For several years he was a member of the Network of Western Buddhist Teachers who met regularly with the Dalai Lama to discuss matters of common concern.

In 2004 Michael took up a masters course in the clinical applications of mindfulness that is now run in the Department of Psychology at Bangor University.  He now teaches a module entitled  'The Buddhist Background to Mindfulness-Based Courses'  on the Bangor masters programme.

Michael is currently working on a book – The Mindful Workplace – for Wiley-Blackwell.

See web sites:-

Michael Chaskalson
Trainings in Mindfulness
Mindfulness Works




 Friday 28th May 2010,  at 7-30pm at the Friends Meeting House, 12 Jesus Lane.

Bhante Bodhidhamma

Kamma and Liberation from Suffering

Bhikkhu Bodhidhamma is English and has been an ordained Theravada monk for over 20 years. In 1976 Bhante began meditation in the Soto Zen Tradition, After three years, he began to practice in the Theravada tradition. His main teachers have been Sayadaws U Janaka and U Pandita. In 1986, he ordained and subsequently spent eight years as a solitary at Kanduboda, the main Mahasi Centre in Sri Lanka. In the spring of 1998 he returned to Britain and has since been teaching in England elsewhere including Ireland, Italy and Switzerland. Between 2000 and 2005 he was a teacher-in-residence at Gaia House and is now the spiritual director of the Satipanya Buddhist Trust at Powys, Wales. Satipanya

Bhante will also be leading a one day insight meditation retreat Saturday 29th May at Hartington Grove Meeting House




Friday 10 September 2010,  at 7-30pm at the Friends Meeting House, 12 Jesus Lane.

Stephen Batchelor

Confession of a Buddhist Atheist

Stephen Batchelor is a contemporary Buddhist teacher and writer, best known for his secular or agnostic approach to Buddhism. Stephen considers Buddhism to be a constantly evolving culture of awakening rather than a religious system based on immutable dogmas and beliefs. Through his writings, translations and teaching, Stephen engages in a critical exploration of Buddhism's role in the modern world, which has earned him both condemnation as a heretic and praise as a reformer.

He was ordained as a novice Buddhist monk in 1974. He left India in 1975 in order to study Buddhist philosophy and doctrine under the guidance of Ven. Geshe Rabten, and the following year he received full ordination as a Buddhist monk. In 1981 he travelled to Songgwangsa Monastery in South Korea to train in Zen Buddhism under the guidance of Ven. Kusan Sunim. He disrobed in February 1985 and married Martine Fages before returning to England and joining the Sharpham North Community in Totnes, Devon. During the fifteen years he lived at Sharpham, he became co-ordinator of the Sharpham Trust (1992) and co-founder of the Sharpham College for Buddhist Studies and Contemporary Enquiry (1996). From 1990 he has been a Guiding Teacher at Gaia House meditation centre in Devon.  Stephen Batchelor

In September 2008 Stephen Batchelor  spoke about The Buddha: Man or Myth  and these ideas have been expanded in his new book Confessions of a Buddhist Atheist.  You may be interested in looking at http://www.outlookindia. com/article.aspx?264459

On Saturday 11th Stephen will lead a one day course of meditation at the Friends Meeting House.




Friday 8 October 2010,  at 7-30pm at the Friends Meeting House, 12 Jesus Lane.

Lama Shenpen Hookham

Openness, Clarity and Sensitivity

After a gap of 20 years we are delighted to welcome Lama Shenpen back to the Cambridge Buddhist Society

Lama Shenpen Hookham is the Principal Teacher of Discovering the Heart of Buddhism.  In the 1970s, on the advice of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, she went to India where she lived among the Tibetans as a nun for six years. There she studied and meditated in retreat under the guidance of Tibetan teachers such as Karma Thinley Rinpoche, Bokar Rinpoche and Kalu Rinpoche.  In 1978 His Holiness, the 16th Karmapa, head of the Kagyu tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, instructed her to return to the West to teach Mahamudra.

There she met Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche, who became her main teacher. She also met her husband, Lama Rigdzin Shikpo, whom she taught alongside for twenty years.  In all she has spent nine years in retreat, and Khenpo Rinpoche has encouraged her, as lama, to teach and transmit Mahamudra, the innermost teachings of the Kagyu tradition. Lama Shenpen is fluent in Tibetan and has translated a number of Tibetan texts into English for her students.  Her Oxford University doctoral thesis on the profound Buddha Nature doctrines of Mahayana Buddhism, has been published as The Buddha Within.  She is also the author of There's More to Dying than Death.

Since then, Khenpo Rinpoche and Lama Rigdzin Shikpo have encouraged Shenpen to develop her teaching activities and in response to this she has developed a training called Discovering the Heart of Buddhism, and her students have formed the Awakened Heart Sangha, a spiritual community under her direction. Lama Shenpen now spends most of her time in semi-retreat at the Hermitage of the Awakened Heart, in North Wales.

See  Buddhism Connect the online home of the Awakened Heart Sangha.




Monday 22 November 2010,   at 7-30pm at the Friends Meeting House, 12 Jesus Lane.

Lama Gelongma Zangmo,  Director of Kagyu Samye Dzong London (a branch of Kagyu Samye Ling Monastery).

The Rollercoaster of the Negative Emotions
Speaking about the emotions and how to deal with them through meditation.

Lama Gelongma Zangmo first became a practising Buddhist when she arrived at Kagyu Samye Ling in 1977 and took refuge with his Holiness the 16th Karmapa. Having received teachings from many highly respected lamas who visited Kagyu Samye Ling, she was inspired to enter the four year closed retreat in 1984, during which time she became ordained as a Buddhist nun.

When the next long retreat started in 1989 Lama Zangmo wished to further her retreat experience and she was asked to help and advise the new retreatants. Having completed that retreat in 1993, Lama Zangmo then entered a third long retreat and became the resident retreat teacher to the other women retreatants. That retreat ended in 1997, bringing the total number of years Lama Zangmo spent in retreat to eleven and a half.

Choje Akong Tulku Rinpoche and Lama Yeshe Losal then asked Lama Zangmo to put her experience to good use by helping to run the Kagyu Samye Dzong Centre in London, which was officially opened in 1998.

In 1998 Lama Zangmo was one of a group of nuns who accompanied Lama Yeshe Losal to India, where she became fully ordained as a Gelongma (Bhikkuni) at a historic ceremony in Bodhgaya.

See  Kagyu Samye Dzong Centre London



Year 2009

To 2013
To 2012
To 2011
To 2010
To 2008
To 2007
To 2006
To 2005


Friday 23rd January 2009, at 7-30pm at the Friends Meeting House, 12 Jesus Lane.

Martine Batchelor

Breaking Free of Habits

Martine Batchelor was a Zen Buddhist nun in Korea for ten years and now teaches meditation retreats worldwide.  She is the author of Meditation for Life:The Path of Compassion, and also Women in Korean Zen: Lives and Practices.  Her latest book is Let Go: A Buddhist Guide to Breaking Free of Habits.  She lives in France. Martine Batchelor




Friday 13 March 2009,  7-30pm at the Friends Meeting House, 12 Jesus Lane.

Bhante Kovida

Understanding Self and Non-Self

Bhante Kovida is of Chinese descent and grew up in Jamaica. He emigrated to Canada, studied for a science degree, and then travelled extensively in Europe and India during the early 1970s.  In January 1991 Bhante Kovida took ordination with Ven Anandamaitreya, a noted Singhalese scholar, teacher and meditation practitioner. Bhante Kovida left Sri Lanka towards the end of 1993 and now teaches the Dhamma in Canada.  Every two years or so, he returns to SE Asia to teach the Dhamma (as well as Hatha Yoga and Chi Gong exercises) at several Buddhist Associations and Dharma centers in Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan and Hong Kong. Bhante Kovida




Friday 24 April 2009, at 7-30pm at the Friends Meeting House, 12 Jesus Lane.

Sister Kovida

A short Dhamma talk followed by answering questions on Buddhist practice from her experience as a Theravadin nun.

Sister Kovida's lay name was Laura Bridgman.  She is English, and grew up in the country, the youngest of six raucous children. She developed an interest in Buddhism and meditation during her teenage years, and in the early eighties during her years of nursing training, she joined the Cambridge Buddhist Society through which she heard Teachings from Ajahn Sumedho and Ajahn Sucitto.

In 1989 she participated in a retreat lead by Ajahn Sundara at Amaravati. The experience of the Teachings and the quality of the contact at the monastery drew her more and more.  After caring for her mother through terminal illness she decided to experiment with a year as an anagarika, and never left! The continuing challenges that monastic life brings, keep her learning and growing. Her early years as a nun were spent at Amaravati but she has lived at Cittaviveka (Chithurst) since 2001.  She recently spent a period of time in Thailand and Burma to contemplate the roots of the Forest Tradition  and experience practice there.




Friday 5 June 2009, at 7-40pm is now at the Unitarian Church, 5 Emmanuel Road, Cambridge.
PLEASE NOTICE the change of venue (also start 10 mins later) for this evening ONLY.
The Unitarian Church, 5 Emmanuel Road, Cambridge, CB1 1JW is on the corner of Victoria St , near Drummer St bus station, opposite   Christ's Pieces.

Bhante Bodhidhamma

Bhikkhu Bodhidhamma is English and has been an ordained Theravada monk for over 20 years. In 1976 Bhante began meditation in the Soto Zen Tradition, After three years, he began to practice in the Theravada tradition. His main teachers have been Sayadaws U Janaka and U Pandita. In 1986, he ordained and subsequently spent eight years as a solitary at Kanduboda, the main Mahasi Centre in Sri Lanka. In the spring of 1998 he returned to Britain and has since been teaching in England elsewhere including Ireland, Italy and Switzerland. Between 2000 and 2005 he was a teacher-in-residence at Gaia House and is now the spiritual director of the Satipanya Buddhist Trust at Powys, Wales. Satipanya




Friday 11 September 2009,  7-30pm at the Friends Meeting House, 12 Jesus Lane.

Lama Samten

What is Enlightenment?

Venerable Lama Karma Samten is a monk in the Karma Kagyu tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. He was born in Tibet and escaped to India when he was ten, losing all his family on the journey. After studying in India, at the age of 21, he took full ordination from Khyabje Kalu Rinpoche.  He completed two successive traditional three year, three month and three day retreats and on completion of the second retreat, he then spent another three years in solitary retreat. His teachers over these 10 years were H.E. Beru Khyentse Rinpoche and Ven Kalu Rinpoche.  In 1981 he went to New Zealand to establish Karma Choeling Buddhist Monastery in Auckland. He has taught extensively in New Zealand, Australia, the United States, Great Britain and Asia, and is known for his earthy, pragmatic manner and sense of humour, making the teachings accessible to all. He is the author of several books, including ‘Living with Death and Dying’.
Web site




Friday 27 November 2009,  7-30pm at the Friends Meeting House, 12 Jesus Lane.

Tenzin Dechen Rochard

Buddhist Teachings on Happiness

We all have the potential to be profoundly happy, joyful and at peace within ourselves, whatever may be happening in our world. Any suffering or discontent is only ever caused by the negative emotions, perceptions, and conceptions that are present, either manifestly or latently, within each individual's own stream of consciousness. By recognising, understanding and transforming these unskilful states of mind, we can give rise to more compassion and wisdom in our own hearts, improve our relationships with others, and make a real contribution world peace.

Dechen is English and has been a practising Buddhist since 1984.  She was ordained as a nun by His Holiness the Dalai Lama in 1986 and remained within the monastic order for twelve years.  She completed several three-month solitary retreats whilst in England  during 1987-8.  Then she went to India where she completed a  traditional 10-year study programme in Buddhist studies at a Tibetan  monastery in Dharamsala.  Since her return to England as a lay-woman she has translated and edited the Insight volume of Geshe Sopa's oral commentary on Tsongkhapa's "Steps on the Path to Enlightenment" (forthcoming, Wisdom Publications).  She is now doing a  PhD in Buddhist philosophy at the University of  Cambridge.  Dechen also teaches meditation, Buddhism, and Tibetan  language, in the UK and abroad.
 Geshe Sopa



Year 2008

To 2013
To 2012
To 2011
To 2010
To 2009
To 2007
To 2006
To 2005


Friday 29 February 2008, at 7-30pm at the Friends Meeting House, 12 Jesus Lane

Ato Rinpoche

Motivation in Buddhist Practice

Ato Rinpoche was born in 1933 and recognised at a young age by the 11th Tai Situ as the Eighth Tenzin Tulku of Nezang, a Kagyudpa Monastery in Eastern Tibet. Unusually, Rinpoche studied with teachers of all four Buddhist traditions of Tibet. From 1959 he lived and worked in India for the Government-in-Exile until H.H. Dalai Lama placed him in charge of a monastery housing teachers of all four lineages. In 1967 he married and settled in England, where for twelve years he worked as a nursing assistant in a psychiatric hospital. Nowadays he divides his time between teaching Buddhism and meditation in the West, and re-establishing Nezang Monastery, which was utterly destroyed in the Cultural Revolution. After fifteen years of fund-raising and seasonal building-work, the restoration is almost complete.
 Ato Rinpoche




Friday 25 April 2008, at 7-30pm at the Friends Meeting House, 12 Jesus Lane

Tenzin Dechen Rochard

Tenzin Dechen Rochard is English and has been a practising Buddhist since 1984. She was ordained as a nun by His Holiness the Dalai Lama in 1986 and remained within the monastic order for twelve years. She completed several three-month solitary retreats whilst in England during 1987-8. Then she went to India where she completed a traditional 10-year study programme in Buddhist studies at a Tibetan monastery in Dharamsala. Since her return to England as a lay-woman she has translated and edited the Insight volume of Geshe Sopa's oral commentary on Tsongkhapa's "Steps on the Path to Enlightenment" (forthcoming, Wisdom Publications). She is now doing a PhD in Western and Buddhist philosophy at the University of Cambridge. Dechen also teaches meditation, Buddhism, and Tibetan language, in the UK and abroad.
 Geshe Sopa




Friday 6 June 2008, at 7-30pm at the Friends Meeting House, 12 Jesus Lane

Bhante Bodhidhamma

Bhikkhu Bodhidhamma is English and has been an ordained Theravada monk for over 20 years. In 1976 Bhante began meditation in the Soto Zen Tradition, After three years, he began to practice in the Theravada tradition. His main teachers have been Sayadaws U Janaka and U Pandita. In 1986, he ordained and subsequently spent eight years as a solitary at Kanduboda, the main Mahasi Centre in Sri Lanka. In the spring of 1998 he returned to Britain and has since been teaching in England and Ireland. Between 2000 and 2005 he was a teacher-in-residence at Gaia House and is now the spiritual director of the Satipanya Buddhist Trust.  Satipanya

On Saturday Bhante will lead a one day course of meditation at the Friends Meeting House.




Friday 19 September 2008, at 7-30pm at the Friends Meeting House, 12 Jesus Lane.

Stephen Batchelor

The Buddha: Man or Myth

Stephen Batchelor is a contemporary Buddhist teacher and writer, best known for his secular or agnostic approach to Buddhism. Stephen considers Buddhism to be a constantly evolving culture of awakening rather than a religious system based on immutable dogmas and beliefs. Through his writings, translations and teaching, Stephen engages in a critical exploration of Buddhism's role in the modern world, which has earned him both condemnation as a heretic and praise as a reformer.

He was ordained as a novice Buddhist monk in 1974. He left India in 1975 in order to study Buddhist philosophy and doctrine under the guidance of Ven. Geshe Rabten, and the following year he received full ordination as a Buddhist monk. In 1981 he travelled to Songgwangsa Monastery in South Korea to train in Zen Buddhism under the guidance of Ven. Kusan Sunim. He disrobed in February 1985 and married Martine Fages before returning to England and joining the Sharpham North Community in Totnes, Devon. During the fifteen years he lived at Sharpham, he became co-ordinator of the Sharpham Trust (1992) and co-founder of the Sharpham College for Buddhist Studies and Contemporary Enquiry (1996). From 1990 he has been a Guiding Teacher at Gaia House meditation centre in Devon.  Stephen Batchelor

On Saturday Stephen will lead a one day course of meditation at the Friends Meeting House.




Friday 26 September 2008, at 7-30pm at the Friends Meeting House, 12 Jesus Lane.

Karma Phuntsho

Bodhicitta: The Bodhisattva's Selfless Love

Dr) Lopen Karma Phuntsho is Bhutanese scholar teaching Buddhism in Bhutan and the West. He became a monk in 1986 in Bhutan, but moved to India to study in Tibetan monasteries and spent 11 years training to be a Khenpo. Since 1994, he has taught Buddhism and related subjects in both Tibetan and English and has served as an abbot at Shugseb Nunnery and a lecturer at Ngagyur Nyingma Institute.

In 1997, he went to Balliol College, Oxford to study Sanskrit and Classical Indian Religions and in 2003 received a D.Phil. in Buddhist Studies. He is the author of Steps to Logic and Epistemology (text book in Tibetan), and Mipham's Dialectics and the Debates on Emptiness, To be, Not to be or Neither, published by RoutlegdeCurzon. He is currently a Research Associate in the Department of Social Anthropology, Cambridge University.  Loden




Friday 31st October 2008, at 7-30pm at the Friends Meeting House, 12 Jesus Lane

Alex Studholme

The mantra Om Manipadme Hum - its background and uses

Alex Studholme is a member of the Dzogchen Community of the Tibetan lama Chogyal Namkhai Norbu. He lectures on Indian religions in the Divinity Faculty, Cambridge University and is the author of The Origins of Om Manipadme Hum: A Study of the Karandavyuha Sutra.  UK Dzogchen Community




Friday 28th November 2008, at 7-30pm at the Friends Meeting House, 12 Jesus Lane.

Sarah Shaw

Eight Arahats: the Importance of the Buddha's followers.

In order for the requirements of a fully awakened Buddha (a teacher of gods and men) to be fulfilled, the Buddha needed to teach others and explain the way to them. This talk considers the life stories of some of his principal followers, and looks at their paths to enlightenment. Was it always easy? What were their excellences? How did they help others? We will look at eight arahats, enlightened followers of the Buddha, and see how their life stories could help struggling meditators and practitioners today.

Dr Sarah Shaw has written three books on Buddhism: Buddhist Meditation; an anthology of texts from the Pali Canon (Routledge), The Jatakas; the Birth Stories of the Bodhisatta (Penguin) and most recently an Introduction to Buddhist Meditation (Routledge).  She is a teacher, a writer, and has practised with the Samatha Association for a number of years.  She lives in Oxford.



Year 2007

To 2013
To 2012
To 2011
To 2010
To 2009
To 2008
To 2006
To 2005


Friday 16th March 2007, at 7-30pm at the Friends Meeting House, 12 Jesus Lane

Rev. Dr. Sumana Siri

Buddhism and Humanism

Rev. Dr. Sumana Siri has recently been appointed the Chief Sangha Nayaka Thera of the U.K. and Europe by the Sri Lankan Sangha. He is the founder and spiritual director of the Buddhist Realist Viharas in London (1991) and Milan (1997).




Friday 27th April 2007, at 7-30pm at the Friends Meeting House, 12 Jesus Lane, Cambridge

Bhikkhu Bodhidhamma

Bhikkhu Bodhidhamma is English and has been an ordained Theravada monk for 20 years. In 1976 Bhante began meditation in the Soto Zen Tradition, After three years, he began to practice in the Theravada tradition. His main teachers have been Sayadaws U Janaka and U Pandita. In 1986, he ordained and subsequently spent eight years as a solitary at Kanduboda, the main Mahasi Centre in Sri Lanka. In the spring of 1998 he returned to Britain and has since been teaching in England and Ireland. Between 2000 and 2005 he was a teacher-in-residence at Gaia House.
 Satipanya Buddhist Trust




Friday 15 June 2007, at 7-30pm at the Friends Meeting House, 12 Jesus Lane

Rob Burbea

The Nature of Awareness

Rob Burbea has been practising and studying Buddhist Meditation and Dharma since 1985 with a variety of teachers in England and in the USA. He has been teaching since 2004 and is currently Resident Teacher of Gaia House, in Devon, where he is also a member of the Teacher Council. He is a co-founder of Sanghaseva, an organization dedicated to exploring the Dharma through service work around the world. See:-  Gaia House




Friday 29 June 2007, at 7-30pm at the Friends Meeting House, 12 Jesus Lane

Rosamund Oliver

The Practice of Deep Listening

Rosamund Oliver is a Senior Spiritual Care Educator, involved in developing the Spiritual Care Programme in the UK since its inception, offering training for people working in the caring professions. The aim of the Spiritual Care Programmme is to demonstrate practical ways in which the compassion and wisdom of the Buddhist teachings can be of benefit to those facing illness or death and also to their families and medical caregivers. Based on the teachings of Sogyal Rinpoche and his classic bestseller, The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, together with insights drawn from hospice experience, they offer an integrated approach for people from diverse cultural and religious backgrounds. See:-  Spiritual Care Programme




Friday 26 October 2007, at 7-30pm at the Friends Meeting House, 12 Jesus Lane

Gustaaf Houtman

On Samatha and Vipassana:Some case studies from Burma and the socio-political implications of its practice.

Gustaaf Houtman is the editor of Anthropology Today and formally the Deputy Director of the Royal Anthropological Institute. He has been a student of Burmese culture for over 30 years and his PhD at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London was on Burmese Traditions of Buddhist Practice. He has taught at SOAS, Goldsmiths, Manchester, Durham, Tokyo and the London Contemporary Dance School. It is unusual for us to have a talk from someone knowledgeable about both Buddhist practice and the social and political context in which it takes place.
His book, Mental Culture in Burmese Crisis Politics, can be downloaded from:-  Mental Culture in Burmese Crisis Politics




Tuesday 6 November 2007,

Venerable Lama Karma Samten

Venerable Lama Karma Samten is a monk in the Karma Kagyu tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. He was born in Tibet and escaped to India when he was ten, loosing all his family on the journey. After studying in India, at the age of twenty-one he took full ordination from Khyabje Kalu Rinpoche, and completed ten years of solitary retreat. In 1981 he went to New Zealand to establish Karma Choeling Buddhist Monastery in Auckland. He has taught extensively in New Zealand, Australia, the United States, Great Britain and Asia, and is known for his earthy, pragmatic manner and sense of humour, making the teachings accessible to all. He is the author of several books, including ‘Living with Death and Dying’.  Lama Samten




Friday 16 November 2007, at 7-30pm at the Friends Meeting House, 12 Jesus Lane

Lance Cousins

Should Meditation Enthral the Mind ?

Lance Cousins was Senior Lecturer in Comparative Religion at Manchester University for 25 years where he taught mainly Buddhism but also comparative mysticism and various other aspects of Indian religions. A Pali and Abhidhamma scholar he has published mainly on Buddhist meditation and theory and on early Buddhist history. A former President of the  Pali Text Society, he has been a teacher of Buddhist meditation since 1970 and was the first Chairman of the  Samatha Trust..
He was also Chairman of the CU Buddhist Society in the early 1960s.




Friday 30 November 2007, at 7-30pm at the Friends Meeting House, 12 Jesus Lane

Alison Murdoch

The 16 Guidelines for a Happy Life

Alison Murdoch is the International Director of the   Foundation for Developing Compassion and Wisdom

From 1994 to 2004 she was the Director of  Jamyang Buddhist Centre, overseeing the purchase and renovation of a historic Courthouse in South London as an educational, spiritual and community resource. Alison has a lifelong interest in the study and practice of different spiritual traditions. A regular contributor to BBC Radio she is a founder-member of the Women's Interfaith Network, UK, and assisted in the organisation of the Way of Peace, a three-year programme of interfaith collaboration between HH The Dalai Lama and the World Community for Christian Meditation.



Year 2006

To 2013
To 2012
To 2011
To 2010
To 2009
To 2008
To 2007
To 2005


Friday 27th January 2006, at 7-30pm at the Friends Meeting House, 12 Jesus Lane. Cambridge

Ven N. RahulaLetchworth Buddhist Community Centre Letchworth Buddhist Community Centre




Friday 24th February 2006, at 7-30pm at the Friends Meeting House, 12 Jesus Lane, Cambridge

Dr Julius Lipner

Radical Emptiness: Madhyamaka and the prospects of Buddhist-Christian dialogue

Dr Julius Lipner is the Professor of Hinduism and the Comparative Study of Religion in the faculty of Divinity at Cambridge University and a Fellow of Clare Hall, Cambridge. Working in the field of the comparative study of religion, he has special interests in Buddhist, Hindu, and Christian traditions. He is the author of several books, including Hindus: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices, and The Face of Truth (on Ramanuja).




Friday 28th April 2006, at 7-30pm at the Friends Meeting House, 12 Jesus Lane, Cambridge

Dr Alex Studholme

Tibetan Buddhism in the West: the life of Chogyal Namkhai Norbu and the Dzogchen Community

Dr Alex Studholme is a member of the UK Dzogchen Community. He lectures and teaches on Indian religion in the Divinity Faculty at Cambridge University. He is the author of "The Origins of Om Manipadme Hum: A Study of the Karandavyuha Sutra" (SUNY Press 2002)."
 UK Dzogchen Community




Friday 26th May 2006, at 7-30pm at the Friends Meeting House, 12 Jesus Lane, Cambridge

Rev. Professor Kemmyo Taira Sato

Asahara Saichi, a Shin Buddhist poet, and His Experience of Emptiness

Rev. K. T. Sato is the head priest of Three Wheels Shin Buddhist House and Director of the London Shogyoji Trust. He is also a Professor of Western and Buddhist Philosophy, Visiting Professor at the School of Oriental and African Studies and gives regular monthly lectures on Pure Land Buddhism at the Buddhist Society, London.  Three Wheels Shin Buddhist House




Friday 30th June 2006, at 7-30pm at the Friends Meeting House, 12 Jesus Lane, Cambridge

Ven. Samitha of the Letchworth Dhamma Nikethanaya See:-  Letchworth Dhamma Nikethanaya




Friday 27th October 2006, at 7-30pm at the Friends Meeting House, 12 Jesus Lane, Cambridge

Sarah Shaw

Reading the Jatakas: can they help Buddhist practice?

Dr Sarah Shaw has written two books on Buddhism: Buddhist Meditation; an anthology of texts from the Pali Canon (RoutledgeCurzon) and The Jatakas; the Birth Stories of the Bodhisatta (Penguin India). She is a teacher, a writer, and has been a meditation teacher for a number of years. She lives in Oxford and is a commmittee member of the Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies.




Friday 24th November 2006, at 7-30pm at the Friends Meeting House, 12 Jesus Lane, Cambridge

Ato Rinpoche

Trying to live a good human life, according to the teachings of the Buddha

Ato Rinpoche was born in 1933 and recognised at a young age as the Eighth Tenzin Tulku of Nezang, a Kagyudpa Monastery in Eastern Tibet. He later studied with teachers of the other three Buddhist traditions of Tibet. From 1959 he lived and worked in India, first with the Government-in-Exile and later as head of a school for young lamas. In 1967 he married and settled in England, where for twelve years he worked at Fulbourn psychiatric hospital. He divides his time between teaching Buddhism and meditation in the West, and re-establishing Nezang Monastery, which was utterly destroyed in the Cultural Revolution. After fifteen years of fund-raising and seasonal building-work, the restoration is almost complete.



Year 2005

To 2013
To 2012
To 2011
To 2010
To 2009
To 2008
To 2007
To 2006


Friday 28th October 2005 at 7-30pm at the Friends Meeting House, 12 Jesus Lane, Cambridge

Dr Karma Phuntsho

Buddhism: Taming the Mind that Never Was

Dr Karma Phuntsho was born in Bhutan. Formerly a Buddhist monk, he completed his Khenpo training in the Ngagyur Nyingma Institute in Mysore and has an M.Sc. and D.Phil from Oxford. Karma Phuntsho taught as lecturer in Ngagyur Nyingma Institute and as acting abbot of Shugseb Nunnery. He is currently the Spalding fellow in Comparative Religion at Clare Hall, Cambridge University. Karma Phuntsho teaches Buddhism both in East and West and is author of two books on Emptiness and Buddhist epistemology.
 Loden Foundation




Friday 18th November 2005, at 7-30pm at the Friends Meeting House, 12 Jesus Lane, Cambridge

John Teasdale

Mindfulness and the 'Third Wave' in Psychological Treatments

John Teasdale is a clinical psychologist who, for more than a decade, has been involved in the development, delivery and evaluation of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT). This approach combines aspects of Jon Kabat-Zinn's mindfulness-based stress reduction programme with aspects of the psychological treatment, cognitive therapy




Friday 25th November 2005, at 7-30pm at the Friends Meeting House, 12 Jesus Lane, Cambridge

Don Cupitt

The Religion of Life

Don Cupitt is a Life Fellow and former Dean of Emmanuel College, Cambridge. He was ordained in the Church of England in 1959 and from 1968 to 1996 he lectured in the Cambridge Faculty of Divinity.
Don Cupitt is best known as a teacher and writer. A frequent broadcaster, mainly for the BBC, he has made three TV Series, one of which, "The Sea of Faith," (1984), also gave rise to a book and to an international network of radical Christians which is still growing. Sea of Faith network.
Outside the Western tradition, Cupitt has looked mainly to Buddhism. Of his recent books, Emptiness and Brightness (2001) is the most Buddhist. "We overcome evil when we do not let it drive us into bitterness or resentment; the true conquest of evil is simply magnanimity".  Don Cupitt




Saturday 17th December 2005, at 9-45am, Godwin Room, Old Court, Clare College

Lama Karma Samten

Coping with Emotions

Venerable Lama Karma Samten is a monk in the Karma Kagyu tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. He was born in Tibet and escaped to India when he was ten, loosing all his family on the journey. After studying in India, at the age of twenty-one he took full ordination from Khyabje Kalu Rinpoche, and completed ten years of solitary retreat. In 1981 he went to New Zealand to establish Karma Choeling Buddhist Monastery in Auckland. He has taught extensively in New Zealand, Australia, the United States, Great Britain and Asia, and is known for his earthy, pragmatic manner and sense of humour, making the teachings accessible to all. He is the author of several books, including ‘Living with Death and Dying’.   Lama Samten