The Padmaloka Community

Dharmadipa was born in 1965 in Germany, got involved with the Triratna Buddhist Community at the age of 20. He was ordained in 1994, from 1997 on he worked 10 years for the Essen Buddhist Centre where he taught Buddhism and Meditation and was also involved with the running of the centre. He joined Padmaloka in March 2007 as a member of the Ordination Team as well as Ordination Team Secretary.

Padmavajra has lived at Padmaloka since August 1990. He came here to join the team of order members that help men to prepare for ordination into the Triratna Buddhist Order. The personnel of the resident community has changed a lot too, only he and Surata in the present community are from those times, but there is a sense of continuity. Padmaloka has gone through and will continue to go through many changes, but there is a spirit that remains constant.

Saddhaloka has been living and working at Padmaloka since 1995. Before that he spent sixteen years just down the road in Norwich, helping to run the Buddhist Centre there. He was ordained 1981 on the first long ordination course in Tuscany. He remained working in Norwich whilst his children were grown up before moving to Padmaloka in 1995.

Satyaraja moved from Sweden in 2002 to join the Padmaloka Ordination Team. He is now a Private and Public Preceptor helping ordain men into the Triratna Buddhist Order. Satyaraja leads very well attended meditation retreats and is known for his time spent in the Triratna meditation centre in Wales – Vajraloka. He brings clarity, friendliness and abundant energy. In his spare time he enjoys running, jazz, film and walking in the country.

Surata has lived at Padmaloka for over twenty years. He has been practising and teaching Yoga for more than 35 years, mainly for the fun of it and to keep his body flexible enough to maintain a regular meditation practice. Although he originally trained and taught in the Iyengar system, he went through a few years of experimenting with other styles of Yoga. For the last 7 years he has been particularly interested in the work of Vanda Scaravelli and is currently doing a teacher training course based upon her ideas.

Sthiramani is part of the Padmaloka office team. You might speak to him if you ring here and will recognize him from his Irish accent. Sthiramani has lived at Padmaloka since mid 2006, and in his first two years continued his training for Ordination. His name means he who is an unwavering, resolute, steadfast jewel and these qualities really show in his level of detail when looking after retreatants.

Lokeshvara is the Padmaloka chairman and has previously been the manager, retreat organiser and originally the gardener back in the late 90’s. After a break of a couple of years he rejoined the community late 2008, stepping into the chairman’s role. He also works with the Buddhafield East team helping run camping retreats in East Anglia.

Sanghanistha – ordained at Guhyaloka in 2011 – comes from Colchester and is the cook at Padmaloka. He manages the kitchen very well especially as most days he needs to organize the retreatants for vegetable preparation and put up with a rowdy community in the kitchen – which is a focal point of the retreat centre.

Jinapalita has the very fortunate job of looking after the garden at Padmaloka. In a past life he worked for over 20 years mainly for the Brighton Buddhist Centre and as a landscape gardener and tree surgeon for four years. He has really taken the Padmaloka garden by the scruff of the neck and transformed parts that hadn’t been touched in a long time.

Taradasa is the Padmaloka retreat organiser. He joined Padmaloka after years working in Rivendell Retreat Centre. He has a love of classical music and a healthy approach to communal living. With his skills as a teacher and Dharma practitioner, Taradasa also facilitates study for the community on a weekly basis.

Aryabandhu joined the community in summer 2010 after coming back from the ordination course in Guhyaloka. Aryabandhu made contact with the movement in Germany. He is inspired by the mythical side of Padmaloka. He loves music, dharma study, yoga, nature and travelling. Aryabandhu is the Padmaloka manager.

Matthieu started to explore the Dharma in the Paris Buddhist Centre back in 2004. Training for ordination and looking forward to live in a full time Dharma environment and community, he moved from Paris to Padmaloka in May 2010. Life is change. After having worked as a scientist in France, and before that as a volunteer in Africa, he is learning at Padmaloka to practice more fully ethics, meditation and wisdom. Matthieu is the cook at Padmaloka.

Dayajina is our housekeeper. He joined Padmaloka after living in Minden (Germany) where he worked as a social worker and supported the small Minden Buddhist Centre. He is very interested in meditation – especially Anapanasati practice. He likes watching DVD`s “a bit too much”. So he is glad that most of the DVD`s at Padmaloka are in english so he is not tempted to spend too much time watching them.

Dave moved to Padmaloka from Leeds in January 2011, after working as a primary school teacher for 6 years. He first got a taste for community life when he spent some time here as a working guest (cook) in 2008. Dave works in the office as our bookkeeper and backup retreat organisor. He enjoys listening to a wide range of musical sounds, particularly experimental electronic music, which he also creates himself in his spare time.

Dharmashalin Dharmashalin has been involved in the movement since July 2000. From day one he threw himself in starting working at Evolution Ipswich within months of his first contact. There he received a lived teaching on what Triratna is about – making some of his closest friends through working together. Dharmashalin worked for Subhuti between 2007-11, including spending extensive time in India – which was sometimes tough but overall very inspiring to see how Buddhism can change peoples lives. He’s joined the Padmaloka community to oversee the pilot One Year Intensive Training project; he’s excited about this as his passion is connecting with people and supporting them in exploring how to live out their Buddhist ideals – this is his dream job!