Amoghavira first encountered Buddhism in 1979 while struggling through a mathematics degree at Glasgow University. Ordained into the Western Buddhist Order in 1982 he then started working at the Glasgow Buddhist Centre. 

He worked for 2 years at the Sydney Buddhist Centre in Australia from 1988, and on his way back to Britain in 1990, spent 3 months in Kathmandu helping run meditation and Buddhism course there. Falling in love with Nepal, he’s been a regular visitor there ever since.

In 1996, he moved to Dhanakosa to help with retreat leading here, which he’s been doing ever since. He loves being in the mountains and this has led to a passion for landscape photography and he now lives in the village of Callander, about 15 miles from Dhanakosa.

Clare Stephen - I first encountered yoga while backpacking around Sri Lanka and India aged 19 and instantly fell in love with this most profound and beautiful practice. Yoga has been a constant refuge throughout my life since.

I trained to become a yoga teacher within the Iyengar tradition and qualified at introductory level in 1989. In 1991, after visiting  the Iyengar Yoga Ashram in Pune India, I went on to do further training with senior Iyengar teachers and gained my junior intermediate level 3 certificate in 2005. This allowed me to specialise in teaching antenatal yoga which, being a practising midwife , was an area of particular interest.

In 1986 on a year’s trip to Asia, I visited McLeod Ganj, a Tibetan refugee village in the foothills of the Himalayas and the residence of the Dalai Lama in exile. Whilst on retreat there, we were lucky to have an audience  with His Holiness on two occasions. This experience and indeed the whole journey round Asia, affected me profoundly and deepened my faith in the Three Jewels: the Buddha , Dharma and Sangha. I subsequently took refuge as a Buddhist.

I started coming to Dhanakosa in 2000 and have been teaching on yoga retreats here since 2008. I find the practice of yoga and meditation mutually supportive. Both nurture ease and deep embodiment and create the conditions for insight, wisdom and compassion to arise.

An ideal first regulars retreat. These retreats take themes from our introductory programme and introduce a stronger Buddhist context through meditation, teachings, up to 3 days of silence, ritual and chanting.

Open to anyone who has done an introductory retreat or has been attending a local Buddhist centre, is familiar with Buddhist practice and is looking to take it a bit deeper.