Ali began a meditative life in 1997 whist staying in an Ashram in South India. She attended her first Insight Meditation Retreat in 2008 where her love for the Buddha Dharma opened like a flower. This love led quite naturally into a life of service to support her teacher Will James, Tallowwood Sangha and retreat life for one and all.

Ali has been mentored in the supporting teacher role by Will James since 2017. She is an experienced retreat manager and regularly leads yatras and a weekly sitting group in Bellingen. She is also a member of the Tallowwood Sangha Management Committee and Insight Meditation Institute Management Committee.

Ali has emerged as an insight Dharma Teacher after completing the inaugral Insight Meditation Institute’s four year Dharma Teacher programme

Lisa has practised and studied Buddhist meditation since 2004. She integrates teachings from the Buddhadharma, Contemporary Psychology and Yoga and has collaborated and taught with her teacher, mentor and friend Malcolm Huxter since 2017 on Insight Meditation retreats. 

With  a strong commitment towards cultivating an engaged, embodied Buddhist path of presence, Lisa co-ordinates an Eco-Dharma Sangha in the Coffs Harbour area, supporting a deep remembering of our interconnectedness with the water, land, forests, sky and all beings.

Lisa is grateful to live on Gumbaynggirr lands where she works as a psychologist in private practice and facilitates compassionate, somatic trauma recovery programs.   She studies in the Tibetan Buddhist Mahayana and Theravada traditions and is a Dharma Teacher in the Insight Tradition.

Lisa is an environmental educator who first attended a Dharma gathering in 2009 when she was feeling overwhelmed by the state of the planet. Learning about the Dharma felt like a reawakening of an understanding that she had had but just forgotten. Since that time, Lisa has continued her study of the Dharma with her teacher Will James. She also joined the Insight Meditation Institute teacher training in 2021. Lisa is particularly interested in how the understanding of the interconnectedness of all things can be deepened and applied in everyday life. Lisa has been a part of the Tallowwood Sangha Management Committee since 2015 and helps organise retreats and sangha communications.

Rowan has an innate curiosity about both the material world and the intangible aspects of life. Childhood questions about the physical and mechanical broadened in adulthood into an enquiry about the human struggle for inner peace.

Rowan attended his first retreat with Christopher Titmuss in 1981 and a deep interest in the dharma was kindled. After many years of inner enquiry and attending retreats in the Insight Vipassana tradition, Rowan has been encouraged by Will James and other Insight teachers to explore opportunities through which he can share his dharma understanding.