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Elizabeth English

Elizabeth English

Dr Elizabeth English was appointed as Cambridge University’s first ever Mindfulness Practitioner. Her courses are the subject of research published in The Lancet showing significant benefit to students. Elizabeth draws on four decades of personal meditation practice and her ordination within a Western Buddhist tradition, as well as her doctoral research at Oxford, where she studied Buddhist meditation texts. She is also a certified teacher of Focusing, Somatic Experiencing and Nonviolent Communication. She lives in Cambridge with her cocker spaniel, Cherub.

Brian Nishii

Brian Nishii

Born and raised in Tokyo, Brian Nishii brings his multicultural and multilingual sensibilities to all of his theatrical endeavors. As a narrator, Brian has been involved in over a hundred twenty titles, including a handful with themes of Zen, Buddhism, Dalai Lama, and Budō. Other notable works include classics like The Tale of Genji, and Musashi, for which he earned an Audie Award nomination. This is his second book by Dōgen. He is fluent in English, Japanese, Mandarin and is confident in Spanish! His other skills include playing the shakuhachi, the Japanese classical flute.

Vishvantara

Vishvantara

Vishvantara-26Vishvantara lives in a Buddhist women’s residential community, works as a piano teacher and has called herself a poet since 1993 though she generally writes little and publishes less (through laziness, mostly). A collection of her poems were published in September 2015 by Happenstance. In the noughties she won first prize in the Poetry London competition and has twice been commended in the National.

Vessantara

Vessantara

Vessantara was born in London in 1950. Interested in Buddhism since his teens he first had direct contact with Buddhists in 1971. In 1974 he became a member of the Triratna Buddhist Order (formerly the Western Buddhist Order) and was given his Buddhist name which means ‘universe within’. He has a particular interest in Tibetan Buddhism and has had several Tibetan teachers. He holds an MA in English from Cambridge University and a professional social work qualification. He is the author of eight books including The Breath, The Heart, Meeting the Buddhas and Tales of Freedom and has led retreats and workshops in Europe the USA India and Australasia. He is currently based in Cambridge England and divides his time between periods of intensive meditation writing and teaching.

Patience Tomlinson

Patience Tomlinson

patiencetomlinsonPatience Tomlinson has appeared extensively in theatre and radio in the UK. She has worked for the Royal National Theatre and the Young Vic, and was twice a member of the BBC Radio Drama Company. She has made over 1,500 broadcasts, including stories, books and radio plays as well as poetry.

Tejasvini

Tejasvini

Tejasvini (Rosie Bell) worked in Buddhist contexts for twenty years after a career in nursing and having a family.  She joined the Triratna Buddhist Order in 2000 and is active at the Cambridge Buddhist Centre.

Taradasa

Taradasa

Taradasa has been an ordained member of Triratna Buddhist Order, and teacher, for many years. He has managed Padmaloka, the retreat centre in Norfolk and is now manager of the Cambridge Buddhist Centre. Previously, as Tom Morgan, he played a key role in British contemporary music for many years as the manager of the British Music Information Centre, London

Sangharakshita

Sangharakshita

Sangharakshita teaching during his early years in IndiaSangharakshita is a unique figure in the Buddhist world. For 20 years he lived in India, where he was ordained and studied with a range of Buddhist teachers. He became inspired by all major aspects of Buddhism, and has since written and lectured prolifically both in the West and the East. In the light of modern scholarship and his own spiritual experience, he has brought out and emphasised the core teachings that underlie and unify the Buddhist tradition as a whole. In founding the Friends of the Western Buddhist Order (now known as the Triratna Buddhist Community) in 1967, he sought to clarify the essentials and outline ways of practice that are spiritually alive and relevant to the 21st century. He has written numerous books on Buddhism and Dharma, and his talks and seminars are widely available in various forms. He is one of the leading Buddhist figures in the 20th/21st centuries.

Nicolette McKenzie

Nicolette McKenzie

Nicolette McKenzieNicolette McKenzie was born in New Zealand but established herself in London appearing in classical theatre. She continues to be in great demand reading audiobooks with over 80 titles to her credit covering a wide range of genres and is a prolific voice artist in the world of cartoons, video games and voice-over. Magic & Mystery in Tibet was a particular challenge because of the numerous Tibetan references. She also reads the chapter on the women disciples on Great Disciples of the Buddha.

Vicki Mackenzie

Vicki Mackenzie

Vicki MackenzieVicki Mackenzie (born 1947), an author and journalist, was born in England and spent much of her early life in Australia. The daughter of a naval officer, she graduated from Queensland University and became a reporter at the Sun newspaper in Sydney.

Later she moved on to London where she worked as a features writer on the Daily Sketch and the Daily Mail. She went on to write for the Sunday Times, The Observer, the Daily Telegraph, the Sunday Telegraph, the Daily Express, the Mail on Sunday and many national magazines.

Since taking a month-long meditation course in Nepal in 1976, her primary interest has been to make the profundity of Buddhist philosophy accessible to the general public.[2] Her books on Buddhism and reincarnation include:
• Reincarnation: The Boy Lama
• Reborn in the West: The Reincarnation Masters
• A Young Man of The Lama: A Tale Of Drugs, Hot Sex, and Violence in The Fall Of Tibet
• Cave in the Snow: A Western Woman’s Quest for Enlightenment, 1999, ISBN 1-58234-045-5
• Why Buddhism?: Westerners in Search of Wisdom
Child of Tibet (Co-authored with Soname Yangchen).