Taraloka

Saddhanandi is the chairwoman of Taraloka. She first came across Buddhism and the FWBO in 1983 in Glasgow. She helped set up women's communities there and worked with other women Buddhists running Windhorse Publications, a Buddhist printing house. In 1994 she moved to Taraloka to be our support team manager. The following year, she was ordained into the Western Buddhist Order (WBO). She took over as chairwoman in 2000. She sees her practice mainly in terms of developing loving-kindness and mindfulness, describing herself as following a path of "becoming more deeply human".

Kulaprabha is one of our retreat leaders. She has led many retreats here - and also in USA and Australasia - developing particular meditation themes such as the Brahma Viharas practices and reflection themes on conditioned co-production. She also co-ordinates retreats for women study leaders in the FWBO, helps develop Order meditation retreats, and has co-led long ordination retreats several times. Her first contact with Buddhism was in 1978 whilst working as a research chemist in Glasgow. She was ordained in 1988. Once her daughter left home, Kulaprabha decided to do the same and moved to Taraloka in 2002. In 2005 she became a private preceptor and in 2006 she ordained two women into the WBO. She ordained a further two women in 2007.
You can look at Kulaprabha's website from here.

Sanghajivani contacted the FWBO in Norwich in 1994 when she owned and ran a car paint-spraying garage and workshop. Before long, she had sold up and started working in Evolution, a UK-wide Buddhist run wholesale and retail gift shop business. She has worked in Buddhist practice-based teams ever since and teamwork remains one of her main sources of inspiration as a Buddhist. Sanghajivani places a lot of faith in honest, open-hearted communication. She was ordained in 2003 and moved to Taraloka in 2004. As well as managing our support team here and looking after the gardens and maintenance work, she leads our introductory weekends. In her spare time from all of this she loves to create beautiful surroundings in our meditation and shrine-room.

Maitrimala was based in Brighton before moving to Taraloka in 2004. She has worked as a nurse, health promotion manager, trainer and facilitator.
Maitrimala is a very good cook and is our main chef and menu creator at Taraloka. She loves meditation and is dedicated to making that available to all women. It shows in her enthusiasm when supporting our introductory retreats.

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 and rest of the time visits FWBO Centres in the UK and elsewhere. She is involved with FWBO activities around the world, especially in our Spanish-speaking Centres. She has been a private preceptor for some years and became a public preceptor in 2005.
You can look at Parami's blog from here.

Suchitta is the newest community member, having arrived in September 2007. She first contacted the Dharma whilst studying music at University and was ordained in 1990 whilst working as a music therapist. Suchitta worked for two years at the Wellington Buddhist Centre in New Zealand, followed by five years at the FWBO Centre in Brighton. She is particularly interested in Dharma study and the place/space of mantra in spiritual practice.

Ratnasuri was ordained in 1983 and is a founder member of Taraloka, having moved here in 1985 at the start of the project.
She was one of the first Order Members whom Sangharakshita asked to take on responsibility for ordaining women into the WBO and her first ordinations were in India in 1987. Since then she has ordained 37 women privately and 24 women publicly. Now in her eighties, she is retired from public activities but remains a pivotal member of the community. She spends her time reading poetry, listening to music and growing miniature orange trees.

Lindsay Hannah joined the community in January 2007 as 'bookings secretary', with all the on-going coordination with retreat leaders and retreatants which that requires. So, if you ring us, it will probably be Lindsay that you talk to. She loves her work, helping people to come on retreat, and is happy to answer any questions you have.
Before living here Lindsay worked as a physiotherapist, then travelled in India and Thailand and finally was part of a Karuna team: fund-raising in the UK for Ex-Untouchable social projects in India.

Vidyamala was born and raised in New Zealand and first became interested in meditation in 1985 when receiving hospital treatment for a spinal injury. She intuited that meditation and mindfulness could offer a unique means of easing the mental suffering associated with the physical pain she was experiencing, which has turned out to be the case. For the subsequent twenty years she continued to follow this thread, moving to the UK in 1990 to live at Taraloka where she stayed for five years. She was ordained into the Western Buddhist Order in 1995.
In 2001 she started teaching mindfulness-based approaches to others living with physical pain and illness with funding from the Millennium Commission. In 2004 she founded Breathworks with her good friends Sona and Ratnaguna, both very experienced meditators and teachers. Breathworks is a Community Interest Company that is dedicated to easing the suffering of people living with chronic pain, illness and stress using mindfulness and meditation. She is deeply committed to the project, finds it extremely satisfying and is writing a book about it.
Vidyamala loves visiting and contributing to the programme at Taraloka. She leads mindfulness retreats several times a year, for both newcomers and those preparing for ordination.

Siddhisambhava grew up in a corner shop (newsagents and sweeties) in south London. After graduating from Sussex in 1979 she worked for 12 years in publishing and politics in London which was my way of trying to help the world be a better place. She learned to meditate at the London Buddhist Centre in 1987 and within two years had completely changed her life and life-style.
In the mid-90's (whilst living with her partner) she worked for Windhorse Publications for three years. In the late-90's (whilst living in the women's community) she helped run the Norwich Buddhist Centre for over four years. She was ordained in 2000 by Dhammadinna. Her name means 'she who is the cause, source, or origin of attainment'. It took her a few years to realise that's not necessarily referring to her attainment...
After ten years in Norwich, Siddhisambhava spent 2002 down under. This included a long solitary at Sudarshanaloka Retreat Centre in New Zealand, the effects of which lasted for about five years. She was itinerant for three years, which wasn't always easy, then lived alone (with kindred spirits as neighbours) near the sea and the mountains in orth Wales. Also, by happy coincidence, near Lama Shenpen Hookham, whose student she has been since 2004.
Meditation, death, and writing are her three principal interests. She leads several retreats a year on death at FWBO and other Centres. Her main source of income at the moment is as a self-employed painter and decorator. She enjoys bouts of physical work, the time it gives her to reflect and the freedom of that life-style.
She is currently doing a creative non-fiction course with the Open College of the Arts and tries to carve out space each year for writing. She says, "I'm happy the vast majority of the time, these days. T'was not always so. Thich Nhat Hanh puts his finger on it when he says 'Buddhism is a clever way to enjoy your life'. Very important that, in the spiritual life: the pleasure principle. Oh yes!"

Nagasuri was ordained in 2000; her name means 'Heroine of the Nagas'. Her private preceptor, Anjali, when giving the new name, spoke about Nagasuri's love of the Dharma and her aspiration to be a Heroine of Wisdom. (The Nagas looked after the Perfection of Wisdom texts until a naga princess gave them to Nagarjuna.)
She spends six months of the year in India, mostly teaching the Dharma, and six months in the West usually in Australia and New Zealand. There she teaches the Dharma and goes on retreat as a participant not a leader.
Nagasuri loves the Dharma: its depth, its clarity and its endless ineffable Truth. The Dharma is her life and she considers herself an extremely fortunate woman that this is so. It is also a great pleasure and privilege for her to be offering a study retreat at Taraloka in late August 2007 on that wonderful, mysterious and witty text the Vimala Kirti Nirdesha.

Vajragupta was ordained in 1998. Since then, for much of the time she has been teaching meditation and leading Buddhist study; first at the Brighton Buddhist Centre and then in Norwich, where she now lives with her partner.
Over the last two years she has withdrawn from teaching to give more time to solitary practice. Her Buddhist heart connections are:

• Texts: the Dhammapada, the Majjhima Nikaya
• Teachers of the present: Sangharakshita, Dilgo Khyentse, Shenpen Hookham, Ayya Khema, James Low
• Teachers of the past: Milarepa, Padmasambhava, Machig Labdron
• Chant: Seven line prayer to Padmasambhava
• Bodhisattva: Avalokitesvara
• Favourite occupations: Meditating, playing the piano.

Satyanandi has been meditating and practising Shiatsu for over 20 years and was ordained in 1998.
She recently trained in Craniosacral Therapy, is interested in the connection between mind (heart/citta) and body (particularly in subtle energy which she sees as the link between them), and looks forward to exploring some of these aspects on the retreat.

Padmasara was ordained into the Western Buddhist Order in 2002 and helps to run the FWBO Llangollen group. She's lived with chronic back pain for several years now and recently trained with Breathworks. She lives with her husband and a major part of her time this last year has been involved with helping to care for her mother.