Vajradarshini: teaching creative, contemporary Buddhism
Finding magic in the everyday
What can I tell you about me? This is an ‘about’ page, after all. But the truth is, you’re probably more interested in you. No offence intended—it’s just the way we’re wired. Each of us in under the illusion that the world revolves around us. How could it feel otherwise?
So what do I care about that might be relevant to you?
Bringing the Dharma alive - In an ideal world, we’d each have an awakened guide at our side. When people met the Buddha, they were encountering the teachings in human form—alive, embodied, and real. When we meet the teachings as words on a page (or a screen), the challenge is to bring them alive for ourselves. The mission of Red Ladder Studio is to help each person make the Dharma their own. The truth is universal, but the way we express it is unique.
Applying the Dharma to everyday life - My nan used to ask me, “How’s your Buddhism?” as if it were just one part of my life. But I see it differently: all of life is an opportunity to practice. Someone once asked Sangharakshita, the founding teacher of my order, “How do I get a mind like yours?” His reply was unexpected. He didn’t say “study harder” or “meditate longer,” but simply: “Reflect on everything that happens to you.” When we look at our daily lives through the lens of the Dharma, insight begins to grow.
Finding opportunities to practice - Awakening takes intensity, but that doesn’t mean abandoning everyday life to live on a mountaintop retreat. That idea can make awakening feel out of reach. The truth is, every life—yours, mine, anyone’s—is full of opportunities for wholehearted practice. Red Ladder Studio is here to help you discover yours.
Taking a creative approach to the Dharma - Creativity is what brings the Dharma alive for me. Taking my understanding beyond words and concepts by making connections between Dharma, art, and culture. A melancholic film might bring alive the teaching on compassion, while having a meditation practice helps us be more deeply moved by the film. Art and Dharma can shine a light on one another, each amplifying the truth and beauty in the other.
Red Ladder Studio sits at the junction between the Dharma, contemporary art and culture, and everyday life.
Fall in love with life again!
Falling in love with the Dharma, means falling in love with life again. At the same time, I hold lightly to the label of ‘being a Buddhist’. For now it’s the best way I’ve found to explore this mystery we call ‘life’.
I was 20 when I decided I wanted a life of meaning. I left ‘ordinary’ life behind and spent more than twenty years living in Buddhist retreat centres, working in city centres to share the Dharma, and living in communities with other Buddhists.
Over the years, I discovered that life itself is not an obstacle to practice. Quite the opposite. Ordinary life is where the magic unfolds. Today, that magic is rooted in the countryside of southern Sweden, where my wife and I have made our home. Here, we run small retreats from our garden and house, offering space for reflection, creativity, and connection to the Dharma in everyday life.
I began practising in 1988, and I’ve been teaching and leading retreats since 1997.
