Hi, I’m Bodhipaksa, and I set up Wildmind in 2001 with the help of several friends who offered me their time and technical support when I was a grad student with no financial resources at all. I’m a member of the Triratna Buddhist Order, I’ve been a practicing Buddhist since 1982, and I’ve been teaching meditation since the late 1980’s.
I’m the author of Wildmind: A Step-by-Step Guide to Meditation, a book called Living as a River, which explores the Buddhist teaching of not-self though a traditional reflection on interconnectedness called the Six Element Practice, and Vegetarianism: A Buddhist View, which is a book on Buddhism and the practice of vegetarianism. Additionally, I’ve written I Can’t Believe It’s Not Buddha! (a book on fake Buddha quotes), This Difficult Thing of Being Human (on self compassion), and A Year of Buddha’s Wisdom (which is a collection of daily readings, reflections, and meditation suggestions). I’m also the author of ten audiobooks of guided meditations.
In Oct 2012 gave a TEDx talk on compassion.
I was given the name Bodhipakṣa when I joined the Triratna Buddhist Order in 1993 (although at that time it was called the “Western Buddhist Order”). “Bodhi” means enlightenment and “paksha” (there’s a dot under the “s” which gives it a “sh” sound) means “wings.” So my name means “Wings of Enlightenment.”
I was born and brought up in Scotland, although I now live in the US. For three years, I was the director of Dhanakosa retreat center, in the Highlands of Scotland, and after that I ran the Edinburgh Buddhist center. For three years, I taught Buddhist meditation in the Religious Studies department at the University of Montana, before moving to New Hampshire.
I love teaching meditation. It’s had a tremendously positive effect on my own life, and I’ve seen it have an equally large effect on the lives of my students. Over and over again, students have told me how learning to meditate has changed their lives.
For many years I’ve been excited by the potential for bringing the benefits of meditation to millions of people over the Internet. That enthusiasm is what led to me setting up Wildmind.
Wildmind started as a project while I was completing a Masters degree in Montana. Supported by a grant from the American Council of Learned Societies, I worked with Dr. Alan Sponberg to develop an innovative Internet based meditation course for the University of Montana, and that experiment formed the basis of Wildmind.
I hope you find these materials useful, and I’d love to hear from you. Please feel free to drop me a line using the comment form below. If you want to write more privately use the “contact” link above — the message will get to me.
I also have a personal website where you’ll find links to all my publications, YouTube videos, etc., as well as information about the meditation coaching that I do. It’s at Bodhipaksa.com.
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Hi PJM,
I'm really pleased to hear that you're finding meditation to be useful in dealing with depression.
At the moment the only face-to-face teaching I'm doing is in prison and at Aryaloka Buddhist Center in Newmarket, NH. But my friend and colleague Sunada (who teaches our online courses at present) is running classes in Cambridge. I'm sure she'd be delighted to work with you.
See https://www.bostontriratna.org for details.
Hello Bodhipaksa,
I am practising Buddhist, & find your website really amazing & very helpfull to my path. I have been practising sitting & walking mediatation, now after attending a 10day Vipassana Mediatation course here in Nairobi(that is where I am from)as taught by S.N. Goenka it is truly changed my prespective to life & people aroundme, events & issues.
Thank you for the guidance that you have shared in your mediatation sites. The Posture site was helpful as I am difficulty with sitting postures as I need back support & to practice Vipassana one has to sit upright without support.
With Metta
Atula
You're very welcome, Atula.
My only complaint is that you don't have more CDs! I actually started with Kabat Zinn CDs but stumbled across you in a random Amazon search. Now I prefer yours over any I have and listen to one every day. You have the perfect voice for leading meditation. I also like how I feel comfortable even though I am not Buddhist because they seem adaptable whatever your beliefs. More please! I have them all!
Well thank you, "me," for your kind comment. I have a couple of CDs coming out through Sounds True next year, and another through "One Spirit" (although it's just a kind of "selected highlights" from the ST sets). And I've recorded another CD for publication through Wildmind, but just haven't gotten around to getting it pressed yet. So your wish will come through before too long!
Hi,
I have been listening to your guided meditation for stress reduction and your guided meditations for calmness, awareness and love CDs for a while now. I suffer from fairly severe anxiety and I have found your meditations to be immensely helpful particularly at night when things seem to worsen. I just wanted you to know that you are doing a wonderful thing, and for a number of us it has been truly life-changing. Keep it up Bodhipaksa, go well!
Thank you for your kind comment, Rachel. I'm very pleased to hear that the techniques I've been taught are helpful to you as well. I offer gratitude to the practitioners of the past 2,500 years who have passed on these meditations.
Greetings,
I have been studying Buddhism mostly independently with the help of books, cds, and the internet. I recently had the opportunity to attend a retreat on wisdom and lovingkindness at the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, MA. I have great interest in metta meditation and I am looking for a 'sitting group' in my area, which is the Lakes Region of New Hampshire. I see that you live in NH, so perhaps you can help to guide me to a nearby group or give suggestions on how I might 'start' an informal sitting group.
mettta
Hi Beckie,
I don't know of any sitting groups in your area. I guess you've already tried Google and haven't found anything, or presumably you wouldn't be asking. The closest group I know of isn't very conventional -- it's the dharma group that meets in the State Prison for Men in Concord on Thursday afternoons. Getting involved there is a very viable option -- it's a friendly group and at the moment it's mainly run by a couple of women, Lori and Candace. I'll be joining in a few weeks once a study group I lead on Wednesday mornings comes to an end.
Apart from that, the only other place I know of is Aryaloka, in Newmarket. I do some teaching there from time to time and they are excellent folks.
I've never started an informal sitting group from scratch so I'm not sure how useful my opinions would be. If I was going to do that myself, and if I was at your level of experience, I'd probably advertise locally and start by having a group that listened to CDs, rather than trying to teach or lead the practices myself. Once the group was a bit more consolidated and some mutual trust had built up would be the time, I think, to start experimenting with leading meditation.
If you have any questions about the prison group or Aryaloka, feel free to email me. A reply to the notification email should get to me.
just back from a family retreat, which also gave sophie and i a chance to have smritiratna and amodhavira do our mitra ceremony at dhanakhosa - 14 years late as smriti said. we remember one of our early retreats which you lead with fondness and are delighted to see you having fun.
Ah, I remember that retreat. It was a work retreat, wasn't it. With a lot of people from Sheffield in attendance. 1995? It's good to hear your news, and I also heard this morning that Smritiratna was doing the former Dharmapala's (re)ordination. Congratulations all round!
Dear Bodhipaksa
Do you still offer a meditation mentoring service? I have been meditating for quite some time, but am quite isolated in Jersey, Channel Islands. I belong to a Buddhist group here practising with FWBO materials, but we are seld supporting. I subscribed to your service some time ago - I would be grateful if you could confirm how the support service works as I can't remember, and how much the fees would be per month. Thank you, Teresa
Teresa,
I do offer a meditation coaching service -- you can learn more about it here: https://www.wildmind.org/mindworks/med-coaching. I also teach the online courses here at Wildmind and have been doing so for the last 3 years.
Best wishes,
Sunada