Ajahn Nyanarato (Shigehito Nakao) was born in 1958, in Nara, Japan. His sincere interest in the meaning of the life began when he was being trained as a medical doctor in Kyoto University.

After graduation, he decided to go to India for spiritual pursuit, instead of becoming a doctor. He spent one year there, then moved on to Thailand, where he visited various monasteries, such as Wat Pak Nam, Wat Suan Mokkh, etc.

After another year of exploring in Thailand, he came to Wat Pah Nanachat. Being impressed by the serene presence of the Sangha, he finally found a place to settle down. In 1986, he became ordained as a Samanera and received Upasampada the following year.

Later, he started to live under the guidance of Ajahn Gavesako, a senior Japanese disciple of Luang Por Chah. In 1989, both of them walked from Tokyo International Airport to Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park (around 1,000 kilometers) as pilgrimage. It took 72 days and was supported by the word of Ajahn Gavesako, “every single step of ours is a peace march.”

When Ajahn Gavesako set up Wat Sunandavanaram in Kanchanaburi in 1990, he joined in and lived there for 10 years. He worked for Maya Gotami Foundation, a charity for the poor youth in Thailand, established by Ajahn Gavesako, as well.

In 2000, he went to Nepal and intended to spend a few years in Sri Lanka. But the political situation at that time did not allow him to do so. As he also had an interest in learning how to live in the Sangha in the West, he came to England instead and spent the Vassa at Chithurst. He moved to Amaravati in 2001. Deeply inspired by Luang Por Sumedho and his teaching, he has resided here ever since.

Bhikkhu Sukhacitto was born in Germany in 1963. He first came into contact with Buddhism in 1986 in Thailand by attending a meditation retreat, offered through Wat Suan Mokkh. He ordained there as a novice in 1989 and as a Bhikkhu in 1990. He moved to the West in 1993. Since then he has lived at various monasteries in the West, including Dhammapala Monastery in Switzerland for six years. He first visited Amaravati as a monk several times in the 1990s. He stayed at Amaravati for the 2007 and 2008 winter retreats and came to live at Amaravati in April 2009.

Ajahn Vimalo (Paul Hendrick) was born in 1946 in Luton Bedfordshire. Left school at 15 and worked in a magazine company. Married at 21 he has two sons and a daughter. In his mid 20s he became very keen on Hatha Yoga . Then at the beginning of the 1970s he met Kapilavaddho, a Buddhist teacher who had formerly been a Bhikkhu. On hearing the teachings of the Buddha Paul started to meditate daily. In 1976 he met Ajahn Sumedho who was on a visit to England with his teacher Luang por Chah. Paul remained a supporter of the Bhikkhus until he was in a position to ordain himself. He finally took upasampada (bhikkhu ordination) as Vimalo Bhikkhu in Thailand in 1991, spending 3 years in the forest monasteries there before leaving to spend firstly 2 years in Australia followed by 5 years in Sri Lanka . Vimalo Bhikkhu returned to England in 2001 and is now resident at Amaravati . For more on him and his art work, go to Perfect Wisdom.

Sister Jotika was born in Spain in 1945 and was educated during her teenage years at a progressive convent school run by nuns. It was this experience that influenced so much of the way she approaches her training today with new monks and nuns.
She took novice ordination at Chithurst Monastery in England with Ajahn Sumedho in 1983, and there she began to get involved with monastic training. Later in 2004, she took full ordination with His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Taiwan.
Sister Jotika has lived in monasteries for the last 18 years in England, Taiwan, Burma and Spain and has led and co-lead Pre-Ordination Courses at Tushita since 2001. You can read an interview with Sister Jotika, on the theme of "Training for Community Life".

Ajahn Sundara was born in France in 1946. She studied dance in England and in France. In her early thirties, after working for a few years as a dancer and teacher of contemporary dance, she had the opportunity whilst living and studying in England to attend a talk and later, a retreat led by Ajahn Sumedho.

His teachings and experiences of the monastic way of life in the Forest tradition resonated deeply. Before long, this led to a visit to Chithurst Monastery in England where in 1979 she asked to join the monastic community as one of the first four women novices. In 1983 she was given the Going Forth as a Sīladhāra (10 precept nun) by Ajahn Sumedho. After spending 5 years at Chithurst Monastery she went to live at Amaravati Monastery where she participated in the establishment of the nuns’ community. From 1995 until 1998 she spent 3 years deepening her practice, mostly in Thai Forest Monasteries. In 2000 after spending a year as the senior incumbent of the nuns community at the Devon vihara, she came to the States where she was based at Abhayagiri Monastery. She lives at present at Amaravati Monastery.
She is interested in exploring ways of practicing, sustaining and integrating Buddhist teachings in Western culture. Since the late eighties,  she has taught and led meditation retreats worldwide. 

Ajahn Cittapala born in Germany in 1949 and he worked for nearly 20 years as a teacher and artist in Hamburg. In 1990/91 she went to Indonesia to study awareness movement (Amerta Movement - The River of Life) with Suprapto Suryodharmo - a practice which connected her more and more with Buddhism. After meeting Luang Por Sumedho in 1994, she felt so supported by his teachings that she came to Amaravati, where she has been living since 1996. In 1999, she asked for Sīladhāra ordination.

Here she is supporting the community and is involved in family activties, especially exploring ways of practice and teaching which use formal meditation as well as painting and movement - for liberation. Ajahn Cittapala leads the Sunyata Family Camp in the summers.

Bart Gruzalski, Ph.D.,taught courses in Western philosophy and Eastern religions at Northeastern University, Boston. He voluntarily left his tenured position to help found a centre for sustainable living that would focus on the ecological, social and psychological needs of people to live more sustainably, in community, and with a shared inner practice. Bart has written a book on Buddhism, a book on the philosophy of Gandhi, and is completing the biography of Luang Por Sumedho. He has over 35 years of meditation practice, has focused for the past 25 years on mindfulness mediation, has taught meditation in a number of venues, teaches mindfulness based stress reduction (MBSR), and was co-manager and resident teacher at Sunyata Retreat Centre from 2008 until 2011.. Bart is available for talks on Buddhism, Buddhist ethics, Mindfulness, Advaita Vedanta, as well as numerous topics in these and other areas in philosophy and public policy.

Camilla O'Callaghan began teaching yoga in 1990.  Camilla began her training in yoga in Berlin under Dr. Martin Soder and Dr. Imolgen Dalman, and continues to study with Paul Harvey in the Centre for Yogic Studies in Bristol--following the teachings of the great innovative teacher Krisha Macharya.  Krisha Macharya's teachings are renowned for yoga therapy and for one-to-one teaching.  Camilla has been teaching in County Clare and County Limerick for the past fifteen years.

Hugh Byrne, Ph.D., was born and raised in London, England. He has a law degree from London University and a Ph.D. in political science from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). He has worked on issues of human rights, mainly in Latin America and Africa, for the last two decades.
Hugh has studied and practiced Buddhism and meditation in the United States, Europe and Asia. He teaches with the Insight Meditation Community of Washington, leads retreats with Jack Kornfield and Pat Coffey, leads courses on meditation for the Smithsonian Associates Program, and teaches mindfulness classes, workshops and retreats around the Washington area. He is a co-founder of the Washington Buddhist Peace Fellowship, an organization that supports peace and human rights worldwide. 

Marjö Oosterhoff has been practicing and teaching insight and loving-kindness meditation for many years. She trained and continues to train in monasteries in Burma, where she ordains for the duration of her stays. She works and teaches at a small meditation centre - Passaddhi - in the southwest of Ireland.

Noirin Sheehan has practiced mindfulness within the Buddhist tradition for over 20 years and deeply appreciates this source of wisdom in life. About five years ago she started teaching mindfulness with Bhante Bodhidhamma (a Theravada Buddhist monk) and to study MBSR teaching at University of Bangor (Wales). She now teaches MBSR to staff and patients at St. James's Hospital, Dublin as well as at Satipanya Buddhist Retreat in Wales.

Peter Rocca is a monk in the Soto School of Zen Buddhism in Japan.  He grew up in the west of Ireland and studied in NUIG.  He left Ireland after graduation, and worked and travelled for several years.  He arrived in Japan in 1991 and began to study Buddhism with a Japanese monk named Gudo Nishijima.  He received dharma transmission (approval to teach Buddhism) from Gudo Nishijima in 2001.  Peter lives in Japan with his wife and two children, and teaches Buddhism at the Young Buddhist Association of Tokyo University and at Tokei-in Temple in Shizuoka.

Simon Thomas has studied with some of the leading masters in Qigong ranging from the Shaolin Temple to the International Institute of Qigong, USA . He is qualified in all 4 branches of Chinese Medicine as well as Astrology and Feng Shui.