East West Team and Faculty
RESIDENTIAL TEAM
Dr Bronwen Rees (Dh Sinhagupta)
Bronwen is the founder and director of the East West Sanctuary. She has been studying and practising Buddhism for over 17 years and is an ordained member of the Western Buddhist Order. She has trained in Kum Nye Tibetan yoga with Maura Sills at the Karuna Institute in Devon, England. She is a UKCP-accredited psychotherapist and runs practices in Cambridge and Nagykovacsi. She regularly runs workshops, retreats and seminars in the UK, Hungary and Thailand.
She is also Director of the Centre for Communication and Ethics in International Business at Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge, England, where she leads a team of researchers inquiring into radical new ways of research and practice in organisations. She is the editor of Interconnections, a journal dedicated to exploring alternative ways of business, and has published widely internationally.
Kati Richter: Resident Yoga teacher
Kati has been teaching yoga for 12 years in Hungary. At the yoga studio, she leads yoga preparation, children’s yoga and classical yoga courses. She has developed and is also leading the first course in Yoga Teaching for Children at the yoga studio, run in assocation with teachers of the Hungarian Yoga Assocation
Gergely Csutoros: Manager and medical massager
For 17 years, Gergely worked as an independent journalist and investigative reporter, on fundamental issues of ethics. In 1992 he was
awarded the title of ‘best investigative journalist’ from the Soros Foundation. He now works at the East West Sanctuary as manager, having designed and built the Yoga Studio, and transformed the East West Sanctuary. He runs a vibrant practice in health and healing massage.
FACULTY
We have great depth of experience and practice on our faculty and with our guest faciliators – combining spiritual practitioners, organisational and economic experts, philosophers, healers from different traditions and different walks of life, different cultures. Together, we are working on finding new, shared concepts and articulations for experiences in this period of unfolding change.
Dr Tamas Agocs: Director of Buddhist Studies
Tamas is Rector of the Budapest Buddhist University, and also Director of the East West Research Institute. He regularly translates texts from Tibetan into either Hungarian or English, and from English to Hungarian, and written commentaries on Tibetan texts and healing. At the East-West Research Institute, he is leading research for the advancement of Buddhist studies and the promotion of a constructive East-West dialogue in science and society. He regularly leads meditation and study courses in Hungary and in the U.K.
Anna Magee: Holonomics and Hellinger
Anna Magee has had 19 years involvement supporting individuals with drug and alcohol dependency including 10 years work in residential and custodial settings. Currently working with groups of long-term unemployed with physical or mental health issues to raise levels of awareness and skill for personal empowerment, communication and assertiveness and stress management.
László Mireisz: Spiritual Advisor
Laszlo is a teacher and writer and founder of the Atama Buddhist Sahajiya Order. He is also one of the co-founders of the ‘Gate of Dharma’ Buddhist ‘Church’ (Ecumenical Foundation) and the Budapest Buddhist University. He has developed a path called 'Javas' (meaning: prophetic healer), which integrates eastern doctrines with Hungarian spiritual traditions, and more recently the 'Goncol' University. He is president of the 'Dharma Gate' Buddhist Foundation which oversees the Budapest Buddhist University.
He has published widely. Books include: Buddhist trends of the Middle Ages; Ayurvedic medicine; Taoism (Yi-Ching, Chi-Kung, Chinese medicine); the hermetic tradition (astrology, cabbala and alchemy); the oracle-systems in general; Eastern and Western philosophy and psychology; the pre-Christian religion of the Hungarian people; Hungarian tradition in general; and the interface between modern science and ancient wisdom.
Zoltán Csörgő: Symbologist and Javas
Zoltán works as a process manager at the East West Research Institute, Budapest Buddhist University. He also works as a journalist and researcher. In addition, he teaches archetypology and the history of consciousness studies at the ‘Mantra’ College of Alternative Natural Sciences. His interest is in the sacred content and intellectual background of symbols as they manifest in different texts and rituals. He has in-depth knowledge of Hungarian traditions. He has been an member of Javas for many years.
GUEST TEACHERS AND FACILITATORS
Collette Green
works as a trainer and supervisor, she has a psychotherapy practice in Cork and has been working with groups and individuals for over 25 years in England, New Zealand, Ireland and India. She is an integrative psychotherapist specializing in psychodynamic and systemic work. She is a registered family systems practitioner UK and a trainer with the Irish Group for Systemic Solutions. She has taught on the H Dip in Psychodynamic Studies, the Masters in Integrative Psychotherapy and the Masters in Social work at University College Cork, Ireland.
Professor Sebastien Green
Sebastien is Professor of Management at University College Cork (UCC). He specialises in Leadership and Organisation Change particularly in relation to the areas of Strategic Management, Project Management and Family Business. He is interested in applying insights from Psychoanalysis, Systemic Theory and Anthropology to this work. He is Head of the Department of Management and Marketing at UCC and was formerly Executive Dean of the Faculty of Commerce. Before coming to UCC he worked in Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand and at the London Business School .
Dr Joel Magnuson
Joel is the author of Mindful Economics: How the US Economy Works, Why it Matters, and How it Could Be Different, which predicted the credit crunch through an in-depth analysis of the pathology of the institutions and institutional relationships in American capitalism. He has been invited to speak on his work throughout the States, Europe and in the East. He is Professor of Economics in Portland, Oregon, where is setting up the Centre for Mindful Economics, and he has won many teaching awards. He is a practising Buddhist and also contributor to many alternative social publications.
John Wilson (Paramananda)
John has spent 30 years teaching meditation with the Western Buddhist order. He was formerly Chairman of the San Francisco Buddhist Centre, and also the West London Buddhist Centre. He is the author of 3 seminal books on meditation. Currently he is completing a Ph.d on ontological inquiry, making connections between the evolution of the Western mind, alchemy and Buddhism, with profound implications for the orientation of Western research.
Dr Greg O’Shea
Greg is a consultant and author specialising in chaos, complexity and self-emergent organisations. He leads teams on leadership throughout Europe in Finland, Eastern Europe, Russia, Sweden and UK. He is Visiting Fellow at Anglia Ruskin University, where he also teaches research methods and leadership. His doctorate focussed on issues of power, justice and equality for organisations, and how these may be developed through reflexive practice.
Dr John Nirenberg
John Nirenberg has been an active interdisciplinary student of human behavior and leadership his entire life. He has served as a dean, professor, consultant, and writer applying his education and experience to uncover the principles that result in eupsychian organizations – psychologically healthy, creative, productive and satisfying places.He has lived in Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia and Thailand for almost ten years where he was an educator and consultant. John is the author of Global Leadership (Capstone/Wiley 2002). Power Tools: A Leader’s Guide to the Latest Management Thinking (Prentice Hall, 1997) and The Living Organization: Transforming Teams Into Workplace Communities. In addition, his articles have appeared in professional and academic journals on five continents.