Akashadevi learnt to meditate 25 years ago, and was ordained into the Triratna Buddhist Order in 2011. Originally from a small village in southern Germany, she has lived, worked and travelled in many places over the years, first as a Primary Teacher and later as a child psychotherapist. She is about to retire from her paid work and very much looking forward to the freeing of her time and energy this will bring. Whilst volunteering as a teacher trainer in rural Nepal in the early 1990s, she became inspired by seeing Buddhism lived out in simple and profound ways and decided that she too wanted to actively apply the Buddhist teachings to the way she lived her life. Alongside this, Akashadevi has had a lifelong passion for the ancient wisdom of animist beliefs and practices in different traditional cultures – including our own old pagan heritage. The heart of her practice now takes place on that fertile and creative edge where animism meets the dharma. In her dharma teaching she would like to share her sense of the urgent importance for us humans of re-discovering imaginative ways to overcome our alienation from the rest of nature.