I was ordained in 2016, at Akashavana in Spain. I live in the east end of London in the United Kingdom with my husband, Manjusiha who is also in the Order. We have a little flat that is close to the London Buddhist Centre. Until recently I worked at the London Buddhist Centre, and now I work for FutureDharma Fund as their Finance Director. I really enjoy my job - it’s a context of integration of my Buddhist values and my finance and development background. 

The early part of the pandemic was exciting, challenging and fulfilling. I used to spend a lot of my time at the London Buddhist Centre teaching yoga, meditation and Buddhism, and all that moved online. It was a great opportunity at the London Buddhist Centre as suddenly our reach extended far beyond Bethnal Green, far beyond London. We had people tuning into our classes from around the world. Recently I led the Parinirvana Day festival during which Nina from New York (who re-engaged with the London Buddhist Centre in the pandemic) became a mitra. That was amazing.

At the start of the first lockdown, I did some emergency pandemic specific financial consulting and found that I very much relished it, enjoying using my skills for the benefit of our Buddhist movement. So, when the Finance Director post at FutureDharma came up, I was very happy to get it.

I was very fortunate to be able to go on a month-long solitary at the end of 2020. It gave me space to reflect on the year that was, and acknowledge and release a lot of tension that had built up. I had a chance to fully decompress. I felt positive shame at allowing myself to get so stressed and worn out. In that month I had time to meditate and practice to build up a reservoir of calm positivity and to reconnect with transcendental values, ready for the challenges of 2021.

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