Sumedha is deeply moved by questions of how we as humans live responsibly, with care, reciprocity and humility in the world we are part of, and how we help ourselves to grow into our deepest potentials of both awakeness and embodiment. She sees reconnecting with deeper senses and visions of being as integral to this journey and the transformations it carries. She met the teachings of Ajahn Chah as a teenager, which had a profound effect. She went on to study Comparative Religion at Manchester University, before moving to Amaravati Monastery and ordaining in the forest lineage of Ajahn Chah in the UK in her early twenties. She spent 12 years at Amaravati, Chithurst and later Aloka Vihara in the US and is profoundly grateful for that journey. Alongside loving the teachings and the community, this was also a period of recognising how much the liberatory potential of the teachings asks for radical reflection on both an individual and systemic level – and how challenging that can be. After disrobing in 2010, she spent a year co managing Dharmagiri Hermitage in South Africa, and then co founded a small eco retreat place in France. She currently teaches in the UK, Europe and online and is a core teacher and member of the admin team at SMS. She is grateful to have encountered the teachings and presence of Thanissara and Kittisaro with the explicit emphasis on both depth and engagement in our world. She loves devotional practice, and living and practicing close to nature and the more than human world.