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.
