The Padmaloka Community
The Residents at Padmaloka Retreat Centre
Padmaloka Ordination Team
Dharmadipa was born in 1965 in Germany, got involved in the FWBO at the age of 20. He was ordained into the WBO 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 07 as 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 Western 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 growing 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 WBO. Satyaraja runs very well attended meditation retreats and is known for his time spent in the FWBO meditation centre in Wales- Vajraloka. He brings a 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 practicing 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.
The Support Team
Sthiramani is the Padmaloka retreat organiser. You will probably speak to him if you ring here and will recognize him from his Irish accent. Sthiramani has lived 3 years at Padmaloka now, two of which he trained for Ordination. His name means resilient, steadfast jewel and these qualitys really show in his level of detail when looking after retreatants here.
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.
Khemin maintains the property of Padmaloka and oversees building projects. Much of the upgrades beginning in 2005 have been down to the expertise of Khemin’s experience in the building profession. If you go to our project pages you can see some of the work he has done over the years. As a local, Khemin is a wealth of information and also produces impressionistic views of East Anglia that can be seen hanging in our communal rooms.
Pramodya means Joy in the Pali language and Pramodya’s preceptor was spot on when he named him. Pramodya currently looks after setting up retreats in terms of cleaning, linen and bedding, leading teams of men in work and covers the chef on his time off. Being German, his work is of course a very high standard and for years, Padmaloka hasn’t had a more thorough housekeeper.
Jonathan from Colchester is the chef here at Padmaloka. He is our youngest and un-Ordained community member, which, along with the pressures of ordering & cooking for large numbers makes for an intense pressure cooker of a time here. Jonathan 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 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.
Aryapala a typical day: up at 7.45am -meditate through to 8.30. Breakfast at 8.45. Team or community meeting next at 9am…work… tea break 11am. Work… lunch at 1.15- where he sometimes exercises or does a bit of reading. Work to 5 (another tea break at 4!) then 6 O’clock dinner. In the evening he might play capoeira, go to the movies, stay in and watch a DVD, read a book or meet up with friends or girlfriend. Aryapala is currently the Padmaloka manager.
Taradasa joined Padmaloka after years working in Rivendell Retreat Centre. He currently looks after the in-house side of bookeeping and cooks lazagne from time to time which is delecious. He has a love of clasical music and a healthy approach to communal living. He also facilitates study for the community on a weekly basis bringing his skills as a teacher and Dharma practitioner which he excells in.
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