Ad Brugman

Ad met his first meditation teacher John Garrie Roshi in 1976 under whose guidance he studied and practised Mindfulness Meditation in the Satipatthana/Zen tradition until Roshi’s death in 1998.
A profound deepening of his meditation practice occurred under the late Ven. Namgyal Rinpoche with whom he studied intensively from 1997 – 2003 both in Canada, the UK and New Zealand, participating in retreats ranging from two weeks to six months at a time.

Since the passing of Rinpoche, Ad has been studying with a variety of teachers, amongst those Tenshin Reb Anderson and Tsoknyi Rinpoche. In 2010-2011 Ad participated in a Dharma study course with Stephen and Martina Batchelor, Christina Feldman, John Peacock and Akincano Webber.
In the autumn of 2016 he did an intensive three-month vipassana retreat at the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, MA (US).

Ad started his T’ai-Ji training in 1975 in The Netherlands and has been studying under Chungliang Al Huang since 1991. His approach to T’ai-Ji is a unique blend of mindfulness meditation and T’ai-Ji as evolved over a period of more than 30 years of teaching both in the UK and abroad.

Between 1988 and 1992 he also studied with the Javanese movement teacher, Suprapto Suryodarmo.

Until 1989 he worked for a period of 18 years in Africa. First for 6 years as a hydro-geologist in Tanzania and Kenya and then as a free lance project consultant for rural development with local communities in both east and west Africa. As Ad’s teaching commitments increased he stopped working in Africa to solely focus on developing his teaching skills and The Orchard as a meditation centre.

His deepest gratitude goes to his teachers for their generous sharing from their treasure of wisdom and compassion and their support for his own teaching programme.

To enhance his teaching skills he completed a diploma course in counseling and a one-year training in sensorimotor psychotherapy for trauma recovery.

Ad is a member of the Living Tao Foundation (USA)

What others say about the leadership:
“ ...leads with care and humour..”
“ ...committed, powerful, patient and fun...”
“ ...relaxed, non-dogmatic, experiential approach..”
"..no gimmicks, nothing superficial, or "instant", just a generous sharing of his belief.."