About

My name is Ariyanandā, given by my teacher. It means noble bliss. I am from Planet Earth. I appreciate the diversity and universality of this world. I deeply hope for a world where human goodness can shine forth, truth is over tribe, peace is over profit, compassion is over cruelty.

We are never separate from the rest of all that there is. Universal wellbeing starts with our own wellbeing and our wellbeing is fundamentally connected with the wellbeing of all lives. I do my bit to help humans live well and restore connectedness through sharing what I practise, engaging in community work and social movements, volunteering in different organisations from community gardens to hospice, and simply sharing my full presence.

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I am a disciple of the Buddha, the Dhamma and the Sangha, overwhelmed with gratitude. I grew up near an ancient monastery in a city called Guangzhou where I used to go play as a child and go for consolation and calm as a teenager. During my childhood I was enthralled by my grandma's chanting of the Heart Sutra and watching elders doing Qigong under an ancient Bodhi tree. They took root in my young heart and the tree of practice started to grow in 2010 when I first got in touch with Vipassana (Insight) meditation in Thailand. Since then, I have been trained mainly with master Xu Changde in Wu style Taichi (internal art), Goenka in Vipassana meditation, Ajahn Sucitto, my primary teacher, in Buddhist practice and Qigong, Dr Huang Liang and Dr Feng Liyi in Classical Formulas (Jingfang) in Traditional Chinese Medicine. They have helped me grow and inspired me to share the wisdom of living well with others. They forever have my deepest gratitude, along with other teachers I encountered on this path, including Tenzin Palmo, Lin Liangchuan, Peter Wayne, Jack Kornfield, Jon Kabat-Zinn, Dan Siegel, all the inspiring people associated with the Mind & Life Institute, and those in Ajahn Chah's lineage in the Thai forest tradition. 

In recent years, I have spent a big part of my life living in forest monasteries to deepen my practice and when I was asked to share my practice, I felt perhaps it was time to be more engaged and share what I have learned with the 'world'. As one of the results of that, I co-founded Heart Space, a non-profit organisation with mindfulness at its core, helping people remember our interconnectedness with oneself, others and nature, for the welfare of people, communities, and the natural environment.

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My practice also led me to do a research master's while I was teaching full-time at Swansea University. It was an interdisciplinary research project using an arts-based phenomenological approach, entitled Artistic Anatomy of Pain Experience: An Exploration through Interviews and Image Making with First-person Interpretation, which investigated the multifaceted experience of pain, drawing on neuroscience, psychology, phenomenology, Buddhist psychology, Taoist thinking and Traditional Chinese Medicine. With a focus on the influence of contemplative practices and culture on perception, it aimed to open up the possibility of relations with pain through the insights from lived experience. It concluded that the participants who gained insights through contemplative practices are more likely to be comfortable with discomfort. This inspired me to quit lecturing and directly work with people to cultivate a tool to live with ease.

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I am honoured to serve as a guide or simply a companion to anyone who finds my support helpful on their path. I look forward to learning with you.