RED LADDER STUDIO

Buddhism and meditation for creatives

Does your practice feel dry? Stuck in a rut?

Red Ladder Studio weaves the Dharma into everyday life — through retreats, online teachings, and community — so life feels meaningful, creative, and alive again.

Red Ladder Studio is where you’ll find most of what I’m creating — from writings and online workshops to in-person retreats.

I also send out a newsletter every two weeks, focused on creative Dharma. You can sign up below.

You can learn more about me on the about page, and see what I’m currently exploring on the now page.

I’m always happy to connect with people around the Dharma. Feel free to get in touch by email.

BRINGING BUDDHISM TO LIFE

Workshops and retreats

Featured

Sept 26

Moving meditation - An online qigong class

Online qigong class - Join Dhammasiri for a live, guided qigong session — gentle movement to relax and reconnect body, heart, and mind. As we relax and let go, we open up space — and where there is space, energy can flow and we start to feel more alive.

Sept 29

Moving meditation - An online qigong class

Oct 17

The story of me - A weekend on the first three fetters

Online retreat Frustratingly, Buddhism doesn’t offer many answers to the obvious question, why are we not already enlightened?
How did we come to be so painfully separated from reality? The teachings on the 3 fetters offer us one answer to that question.

Oct 30

Beauty and Insight

Rivendell Retreat Centre, UK - This retreat is an invitation to look closely at how experience takes shape—how we see, feel, and make meaning of the world around us. When we begin to see the extent to which we are creating our world, we can begin to choose—consciously and creatively—to shape a world of beauty and meaning.

Nov 7

Mirror-Like Wisdom - A Day Retreat

Brighton Buddhist Centre, UK - A day retreat exploring mirror-like wisdom: how the mind reflects everything with perfect clarity, without holding on to what it shows. Morning meditation and teaching on perception and emptiness; afternoon out with cameras exploring mirrors and reflections in the world.

Nov 13

The Here and Now Mountain

Dhanakosa Retreat Centre, UK - Enlightenment is the state of being awake. And the Ten Fetters are ten illusions or beliefs that keep us from waking up. The Buddha showed us how—like him—we can see through these illusions, breaking the fetters one by one.

Dec 29

The Winter Bardo - An online retreat

Online Retreat - 5 days to review and reset your life for the coming year - Every year, in that bardo-like week between Christmas and New Year, I feel torn — part of me wants to be on retreat, part of me wants to spend the time looking back over the year that's been and start dreaming about the one ahead. This year we are combining both to create The Winter Bardo, an online retreat, and we'd love you to join us.

Jan 23

The Winter Bardo

The Guesthouse, Southern Sweden In the farming world, January is when the fields lie fallow — rest and recuperation, as essential as planting and harvesting. This retreat offers that same pause: a chance to turn inwards and sit with where your life — and your practice — is heading.

May 5

Offering the Mandala

The Guesthouse, Southern Sweden We can see our lives as a mandala: a pattern arranged around a central value. Over these days, we'll each ask — what is at the heart of my life now? What do I want to place there? What needs to move to the outer edges? Our lives are an ever-changing pattern. It's time to build a life we love, while holding it all lightly.

May 29

Beauty and Insight

The Guesthouse, Southern Sweden Artists and meditators are both feeling their way into the hidden truths of the world. Each day of this retreat, we take one artist and draw out the Dharma at work beneath the surface — letting it feed both our inspiration and our practice.

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Writing

Featured

qigong, qi, chinesemedicine, energy, flow, movement, meditation

Can kindness be a cure for pain?

qigong, qi, chinesemedicine, energy, flow, movement, meditation

I had two wisdom teeth out this week, something I'd been dreading. But I have the kindest dentist, and what a difference kindness makes.

qigong, qi, chinesemedicine, energy, flow, movement, meditation

What is qigong?

qigong, qi, chinesemedicine, energy, flow, movement, meditation

The basic thing about qi is that it wants to flow. When qi flows well, the nervous system settles, stress begins to loosen its grip and we feel more alive.

qigong, qi, chinesemedicine, energy, flow, movement, meditation

red, rite, fascination, inspiration, ladder

Why Red Ladder Studio?

red, rite, fascination, inspiration, ladder

The red ladder is an image of ascent — Dharma can take us to the heights. But a ladder also descends, into the depths. At first these seem like opposite directions. Later, we see they meet.

red, rite, fascination, inspiration, ladder