Originally from London , Acharn Helen Jandamit has been living in Thailand for over 30 years.
She has a BA. In Graphic Design and after one year of an MA in Film and Television production at the Royal College of Art, Kensington, London , she left to learn more about Vipassana meditation in Thailand .
Counted among the jobs she has done while in Thailand are Director of Studies at the British English School and Editor of Bangkok Post Student Weekly. She is also an accomplished artist and author.
Dhamma work
Acharn Helen Jandamit has studied and practiced with Theravadan. Korean Zen and Vajrayana masters including the Dalai Lama, but her base practice remains Vipassana (Insight) meditation in the tradition of Mahasri Sayadaw of Burma .
In 1997 she received the third level of ordination as Field Reverend (Abbess) at the Hwa-Om Sa Temple in Kwang Ju, South Korea with the ordained name Myo Bup (Sanskrit : Rev. Saddharma .) She left the robes in 2006.
She works alongside the venerable monks at Mahachulalongkorn Buddhist University and Section 5(the Vipassana meditation section) of Wat Mahadhatu, to provide meditation instruction and information about Buddhism in English.
She co-founded and was elected Vice-president of the International Buddhist Meditation Centre, IBMC, which is part of Mahachulalong Buddhist University . She is an instructor on courses designed to prepare Buddhist Dhammaduta monks to give meditation instruction to Westerners. The monks will be working in Thai temples abroad.
She is also an instructor for the international programme of the Young Buddhists Association of Thailand and runs several retreats with YBAT each year.
Acharn Helen has run retreats and lectured in Austria , Los Angeles and Arizona in the USA , New Zealand and Britain in addition to her Dhamma work in Thailand .
On March 8, 2002, on the occasion of international Women's Day, Acharn Helen was honoured as the Foremost Western Woman Meditation Master in South-east Asia . |
