michael chaskalson

I am a Buddhist, a teacher, a trainer and author. With more than thirty years of practise of Buddhism and meditation, these days I earn my living teaching mindfulness in corporate and healthcare contexts. 

Mindfulness has been called a way of paying attention - on purpose, in the present moment and non-judgementally - to whatever arises in the field of your experience. People who are mindful are particularly aware of themselves, of others and of the world around them. They also have greater choice around where their attention lies. These qualities have significant pay-offs in the world of work and well-being in general. 

how it all began

I was born in Johannesburg in 1954 and, unwilling to accommodate myself to the apartheid regime, I emigrated to Britain in 1972 where I have lived happily ever since. My wife Annette and I live in Cambridge.  

My journey as a mindfulness trainer began in 1975, when I was studying philosophy as an undergraduate at the University of East Anglia in Norwich. Profoundly bothered by existential questions, I eventually met an extraordinary man Sangharakshita, an Englishman who had lived for many years as a Buddhist monk in India. In 1977 I joined the Western Buddhist Order that he had founded, and spent many years after that centrally involved in the activities of the Friends of the Western Buddhist Order. At my ordination I was given the name Kulananda - "One Who Derives Happiness from Spiritual Fellowship". This is the name I've so far published under and I continue to use it in Buddhist contexts.

getting involved in business

For much of the time since joining the Order I lived in retreat centres or residential spiritual communities, getting on pretty much full-time with my practise of Buddhism and meditation. But when you try and do that in the West  these days you soon come upon the economic issue. How are you going to support yourself? In 1979 a friend approached me. He was off to India to work with people from the Dalit community who had converted to Buddhism to escape the oppression of the caste system. This was a group of extremely disadvantaged people and he asked me if I could help. His plan was to buy handicrafts in India, send them to me in the UK and I would sell them and send a portion of the profits back to India. I borrowed some money, set up a company - Windhorse Trading - and waited for the first consignment. The goods that eventually arrived were unsellable. But I was now committed, with some of my friends, to establishing a fair trade importing and wholesaling company and this we did. Starting out by trading from market stalls around London, we grew the company very vigorously. These days Windhorse, and the Evolution gift shop chain associated with it, enjoys a turnover of around £9 million a year. The company gives its profits to the Windhorse Trust which distributes them to Buddhist and other charitable causes.

In the eight years I worked at Windhorse I had considerable firsthand experience of the kind of stresses leaders can experience and the kind of dysfunctional mental states that can so easily follow. Many more years were to pass, however, before I learned some of the techniques that I teach leaders today. 

becoming a teacher and author

I left the company in 1989 and for many years afterwards the Windhorse Trust supported me on a small stipend that left me free to pursue other interests. Along with others I helped to establish Buddhist centres and retreat centres. I began to write books and articles, took many personal retreats, travelled in the Buddhist world and met teachers from many walks of life. In particular, I had the good fortune to participate in three rich and fascinating meetings between His Holiness the Dali Lama and the Network of Western Buddhist Teachers, of which I was a founding member. For many years I was also a trustee of The Karuna Trust, keeping up my early link with the work in India.

learning more about mindfulness

In time, however, I began to feel the need to extend the scope of my engagement beyond the tightly woven network of Buddhist groups I'd so far moved in. Wanting to reduce my dependence on the small stipend I was receiving from the Windhorse Trust and to find other ways of interacting creatively with the wider world, I came upon a masters degree at the University of Wales, Bangor, that taught the clinical applications of mindfulness meditation. Realising how effective this might be in building on my existing experience, I joined the course and in 2005 graduated with distinction.

In 2006 I joined the teaching team of the Centre For Mindfulness Research and Practice which is located within the School of Psychology at the University in Bangor. I now teach courses for the Centre as well as a module on Buddhist Psychology in the Masters Programme there.

My learning on the MA programme, together with my personal subsequent research, has added an edge of scientific rigour to the teaching I offer these days. Through its clinical applications mindfulness meditation has over the past decade been subject to a great deal of scientific research and much has been done to refine and develop the approach.

and now

As a mindfulness trainer I have two main areas of concern and these are reflected in the other websites that I run. 

www.mindfulness-works.com focuses on my work in the corporate, financial services, and professional services sector, where I have worked with some of the largest firms in the UK, training senior people in mindfulness skills. In this field I have been strongly influenced by the work of Richard Boyatzis, and his correlation between Resonant Leadership and competencies in mindfulness, hope and compassion.

www.mbsr.co.uk focuses on the healthcare work that I do, especially the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction courses open to the general public.