Dear Friends, Students, and Supporters of Sayadaw U Lakkhana,

Lynne Bousfield has been studying and practicing Buddhist meditation for more than 30 years having commenced in BodhGaya, India in the mid 1970’s. Since 1980 she has returned to Burma regularly to undertake intensive practice and develop her understanding of meditation and Buddhist psychology. She helped establish Vipassana Meditation in Australia and was a co-founder of the Blue Mountains Insight Meditation Centre (BMIMC).

Lynne is a clinical psychologist practising in Sydney since 1992. She was responsible for introducing insight meditation into pain management at a major teaching hospital in Sydney where she continues clinical consultation. Lynne actively incorporates meditation into her general clinical work with clients with a range of difficulties. Her emphasis in her clinical work is on the application of meditative practice as a means of understanding and transforming suffering into the foundation for insight.

Lynne is regularly invited to speak and present on her clinical work at national and international psychology conferences. She teaches meditation classes in Sydney as well as annual retreats with Steven Smith in Australia and New Zealand and with Steven and Michele McDonald in Canada.

Upcoming Retreats

Past Retreats

For Jake, connecting with the Theravada tradition has felt like a steady process of rediscovery and of coming home since he first heard the teachings of mindfulness at age fourteen from Steven and Michele. Since then, he has spent many months on silent retreat with teachers such as Sayadaws U Pandita, U Lakkhana, and others. He has lived as a monk for a total of three years under the guidance of Sayadaw U Pandita, engaging in intensive practice as well as studying the Buddhist Pali texts and increasing his skill with the Burmese language. Since 2001, he has interpreted between Burmese and English at retreats in Burma, Hawai'i, and elsewhere.

Jake is dedicated to developing contemporary presentations of mindfulness practice that are rooted with gratitude, humility, and strength in the 2500 years of tradition that preceeds us. He has written on the need for such authentic interpretations of the Theravada teachings in the academic thesis Strong Roots. He continues the search to understand modern and ancient ways of understanding, and interactions between them, in his studies in the Philosophy Department of the University of Hawai'i at Manoa.

He hopes to apply these understandings not only in an academic environment, but also to bring philosophical consideration and clarity into his own training as a practitioner and as a teacher of Insight Meditation, as well as into his role as a member of his family and a citizen of our world.

See also Jake's writings in Strong Roots and his Blog.

Upcoming Retreats

Past Retreats

Sarah Hegarty offers mindful yoga practice, designed to be accessible for a diverse range of individuals, and healing for all. She draws on her biomechanical and therapeutic training as a prosthetist, as well as her years of personal practise in yoga, yoga therapy, and mindfulness meditation.

Sarah focuses on complementing the Vipassana practice by developing wisdom awareness of the breath and the body from within the body, using movement techniques borrowed from yoga. The practice facilitates the opening of the hips, pelvis and lower back which allows the body to sit more comfortably; it develops postures that work to maintain the health and strength of the abdomen, spine and legs, and also the ability to move and breathe with awareness.

See also Klong Long Lake Retreat and Offering the Teachings.

Upcoming Retreats

Past Retreats

See also Offering the Teachings.

Grahame White has been involved in Buddhist meditation practice for 35 years. He began his study in England in 1969 before being ordained as a Buddhist monk for one year in BodhGaya, India in 1971. He took a primary role in the establishment of Vipassana meditation in the tradition of Mahasi Sayadaw in Australia and co-founded the Blue Mountains Insight Meditation Center outside Sydney.

Now, Grahame leads introductory and day long courses in Sydney and regularly teaches longer intensive retreats in the US. Many of these retreats have been in Hawaii under the auspices of Vipassana Hawaii where Grahame has been leading and co teaching retreats with Sayadw U Lakkhana, Steven Smith and Michele McDonald, as well as helping to guide the Hawaii sangha.

With Dr. Thynn Thynn, a Burmese Dhamma teacher, he has also pioneered a workshop format that enhances the transfer of mindfulness from the formal sitting practice into daily life. Grahame returns to Myanmar (Burma) each year in order to deepen his practice and study of the Buddha's teachings and at times assist in the teaching of Vipassana retreats for foreigners. Grahame teaches a classical tradition of insight meditation with an accessible style.

Upcoming Retreats

Past Retreats