Other Teachers

Guus Went

Guus Went (Netherlands, 1952) started practicing Dhamma in 1980 (Mahasi tradition). The immediate effect on his life was immense, seeing fundamental changes in his relationship to study, work, family and friends.

From 1990 to 1994 he lived as a monk in the then flourishing Buddhayana Centre (Ven. Dhammawiranatha) in his home country, and as a staff member until the centre’s closure in 2001.

Societal life afterwards, however, didn’t prove to be too satisfactory to him.

In 2007 Guus discovered on the internet the newly founded Satipanya Buddhist Retreat. After practicing under the guidance of Bhante Bodhidhamma, Bhante referred him to the German monk Sayadaw U Vivekananda, in whose center - Panditarama Lumbini - he met Sayadaw U Pandita in 2011. Since 2012 Guus has spent every Winter at Panditarama Forest Meditation Center Burma on 60 day retreats.

In 2011 Guus started to conduct 5-day retreats in the Netherlands. In 2015 Bhante Bodhidhamma invited him to conduct an annual weeklong retreat at Satipanya. Since 2016 he conducted around ten 10-day retreats in the Netherlands too.

See for more info:  his website (English version).

 

Carl Fooks

Carl has been practising in the Mahāyāna and Theravāda traditions for just over 30 years. He was first introduced to Buddhism in 1989 by a close friend who guided him through a programme of kōan study from the Rinzai school of Zen. He has now settled on the Mahāsi system of vipassanā as his primary practice after meeting Bhante Bodhidhamma at Gaia House in 2010.

Carl started teacher training with Bhante Bodhidhamma in 2011. Since then, he has been leading weekly and fortnightly sitting groups, helps out occasionally at Jamyang in London, and leads weeklong and weekend retreats at Satipanya. He is a member of the Buddhist Teachers in Europe, and a Gaia House visiting teacher, assisting and teaching there since 2014.

Carl has a Master's degree in Buddhist Studies from the University of South Wales.

 

Hui Hui Ng

Hui Hui Ng

Hui (pronounced Way) started meditating in 2003, initially focusing on Metta Bhavana meditation. She met Bhante Bodhidhamma in 2006, with whom she started practising Vipassanā in the Mahasi tradition. Some years later, she also started practising with Sayadaw U Vivekananda and Sayalay Daw Baddamanika at Panditarama Lumbini Meditation Centre, Nepal.

She continues to spend 3-4 months a year on intensive Vipassana retreat either at Satipanya Buddhist Retreat Centre, or in Nepal at the Panditarama Lumbini Meditation Centre. She also attends teachings with Tibetian teacher Yongye Mingyur Rinpoche.

Hui is a Hatha Yoga teacher, and has been teaching since 2006.

Hui can be contacted at [email protected]

 

Mark Arthur

Mark started meditating in 2003 when he sat his first Vipassana retreat at Gaia House. Shortly afterwards he spent two months on a working retreat there and met Bhante Bodhidhamma while he was a resident teacher. For three years afterwards he travelled out to Thailand during the summer attending retreats with Steve and Rosemary Weismann at Wat Kow Tahm. One year he could no longer afford to fly and it happened to be the same year that Satipanya opened in 2007. He has been regularly going to retreats at Satipanya ever since.

Mark works as a children’s mental health worker for CAMHS in the NHS, and took a year’s sabbatical in 2021 to commit to more intensive practice. In that year he spent four months in the winter and two months in the summer at Satipanya, including a remote online retreat with Ven. Sayadaw Vivekenanda and Ven. Sayalay Bhaddamanika from Panditarama, Nepal. He then managed to find a secluded cabin near Findhorn, The Highlands, and spent five weeks alone there.

Mark has been rekindling his love of nature in response to the climate emergency and has recently conducted a wilderness vigil alone in Dartmoor.