Bhante Mettānanda
Bhante Mettānanda is an Italian Theravāda Buddhist monk who was ordained in Myanmar in 2011 by Sayadaw U Indaka (Chanmyay Myaing Sayadaw), under the guidance of Chanmyay Sayadaw (Mahāsi tradition). His
main meditation teachers are Sayadaw U Vivekananda (Panditarama Lumbini), Sayadaw U Indaka (Chanmyay Myaing, Yangon), and Bhante Pemasiri (Kanduboda, Sri Lanka).
He first began practicing Buddhism in the Plum Village tradition of Thich
Nhat Hanh in 2008. In 2009, he attended his first Vipassanā retreat in the
Goenka tradition, where he realized that Vipassanā was the path he had
been looking for. Towards the end of 2009, he started practicing at the
Panditarama Meditation Centre in Lumbini, Nepal, under the guidance of
Sayadaw U Vivekananda. Following this, he completed a series of long
retreats at various Mahāsi tradition meditation centers across Burma, Nepal,
Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Sri Lanka.
From 2016 to 2019, he served at the Satipatthāna Meditation Centre (SMC) in
Singapore, assisting the abbot, Sayadaw U Rajinda, in guiding cultural
programs for youth and novice monks, as well as leading meditation retreats
for young people.
In 2018, with the authorization of Sayadaw U Rajinda, he began conducting
Vipassanā meditation retreats at the Santisukharama Meditation Centre in
Malaysia, and later at the Pian dei Ciliegi Meditation Centre in Italy. Since
2024, he has been regularly teaching meditation classes in Rome, Italy.
He is also the co-author of a book on the life and teachings of the Venerable
U Lokanātha, the first Italian Buddhist monk
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.
Hannes Huber
Hannes Huber is
an experienced Austrian Dhamma teacher. He started practicing meditation in 1985, first for several years with Godwin Samararatne in Sri Lanka, who encouraged him to teach in 1996.
Later the wish to deepen his practice led him via IMS (USA) in the year 1999 to Myanmar. He became a close student of Sayadaw U Pandita (who later asked him to teach) as well as of Sayadaw U Vivekananda in Nepal. With both teachers he sat many long retreats, each of a duration of up to 6 months.
Hannes has taught more than 200 Vipassana (and several Metta-) Retreats in 10 different countries. His concern is to share the approach of the Ven. Mahasi Sayadaw, yet in a way that is suitable and helpful for people of western culture.
The development and integration of loving kindness (metta), as embodied by his first teacher Godwin takes also an important role in Hannes´ approach to teaching.
His interest in eastern and western approaches of working with the mind led him to take a 3-year training in Pychosynthesis in Switzerland.
Since 2022 he serves as the spiritual guide of Pian dei Ciliegi Vipassana Meditation Centre in Italy.
Besides teaching he still takes time for his own retreat practice between 1 and 3 months every year.
This is my website
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]
Pierre Gallaz
Pierre sat his first meditation retreat in 2004 while travelling in India. He explored various approaches to practice, including Tibetan traditions and S.N. Goenka’s Vipassana, before attending a retreat with Bhante Bodhidhamma in Switzerland in 2009. From then on, he committed to the Mahasi Sayadaw tradition.
A psychologist by training, Pierre became a certified mindfulness teacher in 2010. Since then, he has taught Jon Kabat-Zinn’s 8-week MBSR (Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction) course to many newcomers to meditation, and regularly leads silent mindfulness retreats in Switzerland for those wishing to deepen their practice.
While his teaching has been rooted in a secular framework, his personal practice continues within the Buddhist tradition. He attends regular retreats with Bhante Bodhidhamma and with other teachers, including Uffe Damborg, Carol Wilson, and Shaila Catherine."
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.
Tisara
Tisārā became interested in spirituality as a teenager, but did not discover the teachings of the Buddha until she was in her thirties.
She quickly devoted herself wholeheartedly to these teachings and undertook intensive retreats in Europe and Asia, notably under the guidance of Bhante Bodhidhamma.
Between 2005 and 2020, she was part of the community of nuns at Amaravati and Chithurst, in the lineage of the forest monks of Ajahn Chah. Now based in Brussels, she continues on her path of practice and teaches in Switzerland, France and elsewhere.