ABOUT THE TEACHERS IN BODH GAYA AND SARNATH

Martin Aylward, co-founder of the Tapovan Dharma Centre in south west France, travelled to India aged 19 to explore meditation. He spent most of the next five years under the guidance of Western and Asian teachers in monasteries, ashrams and meditation centres in India and Thailand as well as attending Bodh Gaya retreats. He often emphasises contact with nature as a resource for awakening.
www.dharmanetwork.org

Jaya Ashmore immersed herself in meditation and in India in 1986 and came to Bodh Gaya in 1987. She studied religion and art at Harvard University. She is based in Lucknow, India, where she spent over six years with Poonja-ji, a teacher of non-duality. She facilitates retreats in different parts of India and elsewhere in the world since 1999.
www.opendharma.org

Christopher Titmuss A former Buddhist monk in Thailand and India, Christopher teaches Awakening and Insight Meditation around the world. He has been teaching annually the Bodh Gaya retreats since 1975. He is the founder and director of the Dharma Facilitators Programme. He gives retreats, participates in Yatras (pilgrimages) and facilitates Dharma gatherings. A senior Dharma teacher in the West, he is the author of numerous books books including Light on Enlightenment and Transforming Our Terror and also editor of the quarterly Dharma e-Newsletter. Christopher is the co-founder of Gaia House, Devon, and lives in Totnes, Devon, England.
www.insightmeditation.org

Radha Nicholson teaches the cultivation of wisdom and compassion through insight. Her teachings focus on inquiry and non-duality. Radha first met Christopher in India in 1975 where she participated in extended retreats. She was one of the founding members of the Australian community, Bodhi Farm. She is a guiding teacher for Bay Insight, Byron Bay and is a member of the Insight Teachers Circle Australia. She is a Registered Psychologist with a private practice in Bangalow, Australia. Radha teaches retreats in Australia. She also teaches with Christopher in Australia and in Sarnath, India. She is the mother of four children and three grandchildren. www.dharma.org.au

Gemma Polo Pujol, was born in Barcelona, Spain in 1976. Inspired by St. Francis of Assisi, she started meditating on her own, at the age of 11. Then starting in 1992, she practiced Zen intensively for ten years. During this time, she was also a contemplative nun for two years and a Catholic activist in Latin America. While working as an organic beekeeper, she studied Agriculture, International Development and Religious Sciences. Based in India since 2002, she has been offering retreats there and around the world mainly with Open Dharma.


Ajay Pal Singh was born in a small village near Lucknow, India in 1957. After finishing degrees in Sanskrit, Law, Economics and Social Work, as well as a diploma in Yoga, he gave himself to spiritual practice at the age of 29. Four years later, he quietly began to be a spiritual friend to many. Beginning in Lucknow, where Ajay and Jaya first became friends, they started to offer the retreats that evolved into Open Dharma.

Kali (Franciska von Koch) from Sweden offers workshops, meditation retreats and individual consultations. She teaches the Dharma and Insight meditation more frequently since 2002. She also teaches Living Essence, (a dharma psychology tool), and Voice Dialogue, transformational psychology. She has been teaching in India with Christopher, Jaya and others. From 2005, she gives retreats together with Leela Sarti and they offer a dharma summer camp in the Swedish woods. Apart from a life long love-relationship with the Dharma and the spiritual quest, Kali is a fully certified spiritual counsellor and minister with the Living Essence Foundation. She has more then 15 years of experience in private clinic, using Voice Dialogue and Inquiry, and she has been practising Insight Meditation since more then 20 years. www.dharmanow.com

Also other teachers participate in the Sarnath programme every year.

Dharmateachers in Sarnath 2007
From left to right: Nathan from England, Kailash from Singapore, Zohar from Israel, Nicole from Germany, Radha from Australia, Christopher from England, Jaya from US/India