Title: Blue Tangle

Gender: Male

Age: 48

Location: Manchester, England

I have been a child Care Officer in a residential Children's Home. I was trained as an Occupational Therapist and worked for a couple of years in the National Health Service in the UK.

Following depression, doubt and disillusionment I dropped out and became a juggler and hung out around a Circus School in Bristol.

I came across the Friends of the Western Buddhist Order (FWBO) around 1987. I joined the Western Buddhist Order (WBO) in 1991.

At the beginning of 1994 I moved to Spain to live a monastic life in a Retreat Centre called Guhyaloka in the mountains of the Valencia region. I stayed at the retreat centre for three and 
a half years. It was a hard time where I learnt a lot about the 
limitations of my youthful idealism. 

I was deliberately celibate for over ten years from 1988-1998 (including a formal period of celibacy within the WBO for five and a half years.)

Since leaving Spain my process has been one of backing off from old outmoded ways of practicing a spiritual path and trying to find a more sustainable and integrated way forward.

I have written a book 'Verses of Inspiration: from the Buddha's Udana' (Windhorse publications 2003) and had poems published in magazines and several poems in the Buddhist inspired anthology 'The Heart as Origami' (Rising Fire 2005).
I have exhibited photographs in the North of England and Scotland.

See my photos for sale on the Clearvision website.

I currently live with my partner who is a yoga teacher here on the edge of the Peak District in the north of England. I am preoccupied with restoring the house, and work as a part-time volunteer running a digital archive project for Clearvision Trust. I'm scanning over 3,500 images concerning the history of the Friends of the Western Buddhist order (Our particular Buddhist movement has its roots back into the 1950s). I also own some property and derive my income from that.

I'm in an amateur rock band called 'Assassin' (we do covers and or own songs).

My names:
I use two names, depending on context.
My Buddhist name 'Padmakara' means 'Lotus Ray'. Let's see if more petals can open and more light can shine!
Otherwise I'm Roger which is of Germanic origin and means 'famous with the spear'.
So between my two names I have a receptive, open, feminine dimension and a dynamic, concentrated, masculine one!


My primary concern is to make some positive and creative shift in consciousness and culture.

Member Since: Wednesday, January 10 2007

Last Visit: 198 days ago.

Profile Viewed: 2857 times (last viewed less than a minute ago)