EVERYONE WELCOME - FROM BEGINNERS TO EXPERIENCED!
Meet The Team
We have three leaders who rotate on a weekly basis. The general format and flow of the class generally remains consistent every week to facilitate building a steady practice, but each leader brings their own unique style and perspective to the cushion.
Each leader is a personal member of The Western Chan Fellowship, (https://westernchanfellowship.org/) and has formally taken refuge with them.
Session Leaders
Mark Dixon
A dedicated practitioner of Buddhist meditation since 2006, I am a member of the Western Chan Fellowship (WCF) and founded the Welwyn Hatfield Chan Group in 2022. This independent local sangha was established to maintain a space for practice in Hertfordshire following the departure of my primary teacher; while we operate independently, we are privileged to use WCF liturgical wordings with their kind permission.
My experience is grounded through years of sitting at home, integration with daily activities, and from attending intensive retreats, including those with the WCF and solitary periods in the dedicated retreat wing at Marpa House (Essex) and the shepherd’s hut at the Maenllwyd Retreat Centre (Wales).
Beyond personal practice, I am committed to community engagement. For over a decade, I have taught meditation and mindfulness techniques to students, parents, and staff at local schools and business. I also serve as the Buddhist representative for the Welwyn Hatfield Interfaith Group, contributing to core meetings and panel discussions. Professionally, I transitioned from a career in Medical Devices Procurement in 2013 to focus on my family and writing. My work has been featured in the anthology Essex Belongs To Us (2019), and I am currently developing my first novel.
I have had a deep draw to spirituality and the deeper philosophical questions of life since my teenage years. Whilst at University I enrolled in catholic confirmation classes through the chaplaincy blessed to have one-to-ones with the two sisters and the priest. But it was the discussions on spiritual practice with sister Joan that captivated me as she communicated through her unified state of ‘being’ rather than anything she said.
Over the subsequent years in the Church, I found myself drawn to the contemplative traditions, finding the more orthodox pathways lacking in what I was later to come to realise as non-duality. With monastic orders closing, and a lack of foundational support at the local level for contemplative pathways, I entered a period of wandering the spiritual desert, filling this void with humanism and science.
It was on reading books by the contemplative Franciscan priest Richard Rohr that led me to a deep reverence of both the contemplative monk and saint, Thomas Merton, and the contemplative Trappist priest Thomas Keating. I returned to the local church and led a centering prayer group.
But it was Merton’s friendship with the great Zen master Thich Nhat Hahn and later interest in Buddhism that was the trigger I needed to embrace Chan, in particular Bodhidharma’s call to ‘no reliance on words or letters’ and ‘seeing into one’s own nature’. Now an ardent meditator and a regular retreatant, in April 2025 I took refuge with the WCF, having found my spiritual home!
I first became interested in meditation in my mid-twenties. It seemed a very natural and rewarding thing to do. But it was not until much later that I developed a regular practice, where I looked to meditation as a method to mature my wayward mind.
After meditating at home for some years and needing the support of someone more experienced, I came into contact with the Cambridge Chan group. One of the many Western Chan Fellowship groups around the UK. A year later, in 2007, I went on my first residential retreat. I found the Western Chan Fellowship to be built on a solid understanding of Buddhism, with experienced teachers who offered skilful support. Regular retreats have followed ever since.
I took refuge with the Western Chan fellowship in 2014 and along the way have had the privilege of various roles such as holding a local group, assisting with retreats and sharing responsibility as a trustee and committee member. My appreciation of Buddhism continues to grow, together with everyone I have the opportunity to practice with.