Vessantara & Vijayamala

Vessantara has been an Order member since 1974. He has run Buddhist centres, acted as secretary to Sangharakshita, been overall Order Convenor and spent years living in retreat centres. He is the author of several books, including guides to the buddhas, bodhisattvas and tantric deities and books on breathing meditation and loving kindness meditation. In 2008-2011 he spent over three years in meditation retreat in a wooden circus wagon in France. He has made several very successful visits to Triratna centres in Australasia before giving talks and leading retreats. This will be his first visit to NZ since 2001 and he is very much looking forward to seeing old friends and making new ones. You can visit his website here

Vijayamala has been exploring how to keep meditation alive and relevant for more than 30 years. She was ordained in 1992 and worked to set up and run Buddhist Right Livelihood businesses and communities for many years. For the last 12 years she has been focusing more exclusively on meditation practice. Since coming back from her 3-year retreat 3 years ago she teaches full time within Triratna. She is very much looking forward to connecting up with the sangha in this part of the world and sharing some very useful practice tools that she has been working with.