Dharmagiri is a Section 21 Company which operates under South African law. It is a registered Non Profit Organisation and has Public Benefit Organisation status. It has three directors, two managers and sixteen members from South Africa, the UK and the US who support and oversee its guidance.




"As a bee gathering nectar does not harm or disturb

the colour and fragrance of the flower,

so do the wise move through the world"

The Buddha


The Founders of Dharmagiri are Kittisaro and Thanissara

 
Kittisaro from Tennessee USA, was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford before going to Thailand to ordain with Ajahn Chah in 1976. He was a monk for 15 years and during that time helped found Chithurst Monastery and Devon Vihara in the UK. He also taught extensively during this time and was involved in the training of monks. He disrobed in 1991 and since then has taught internationally in the States, Europe, Africa, Canada and Israel. He has studied and practised Chan and Pure Land for 20 years informed by the Chinese school of Master Hua. Kittisaro has completed two one year long silent self retreats and is currently writing in between continuing his teaching engagements.






Thanissara, from an Anglo-Irish background, started Buddhist practice in the Burmese school in 1975. She was inspired to ordain after meeting Ajahn Chah and spent 12 years as a Buddhist nun, being one of the first women to take ordination in the UK. During her monastic life she became interested in the placement of the feminine within Buddhism and helped found dharma retreats for families and children at Amaravati Monastery which later led to the establishment of the Dharma School in Brighton. Thanissara has an MA in Buddhist Psychotherapy from Middlesex University & the Karuna Institute, UK and has written a book of poetry, ‘Garden of the Midnight Rosary'. She is co-facilitator of the Community Dharma Leader Program at Spirit Rock Meditation Centre CA, USA which starts 2010.



Kittisaro and Thanissara spent 7 years as guiding teachers of the Buddhist Retreat Centre, (BRC) KwaZulu Natal, S.Africa and initiated the Woza Moya HIV/Aids Outreach which operates from the Chibini community next door to the BRC. They currently raise funds to support The Khuphuka Project, an HIV/Aids Outreach in Mquatsheni on the border of Lesotho and KwaZulu. They teach internationally in Europe, the US and Israel and regularly host one to three month retreats at Dharmagiri Hermitage.




JP Meyer - is an artist and co-director of Dharmagiri. Shortly after his first meditation retreat in 1994 he swapped the corporate life for that of a full-time art student, graduating with distinction in 1999, since then he has been widely exhibited. JP has travelled and spent many months in the ashrams, meditation centres and monasteries of India, Sri Lanka and the U.S. He currently has a studio in Underberg and facilitates retreats, with a particular focus on supporting those beginning meditation at Dharmagiri





Marlene Matheson – is manager and accountant of Dharmagiri. Marlene has a long experience in book keeping, office management and has worked within the hospitality industry as well as in the NGO sector. Marlene has been manager at the Buddhist Retreat Centre for several years and has been a Buddhist practitioner since the mid 1990’s and spent two years as a novice Theravada nun in the Forest School of Ajahn Chah. She has studied counselling through South African College of Applied Psychology and currently teaches chi kung and meditation at Dharmagiri.