Ajahn Canda – Guided Four Elements Practice

In April 2026, London Insight Meditation hosted Ajahn Canda for a retreat day exploring the four great elements of earth, water, fire, and air as a meditation. Through direct experience we come to know the elements as embodied qualities: earth as solidity, weight and texture, water as fluidity and cohesion, fire as temperature and vitality, and air as movement and breath. Careful attention to these natural processes helps ground our awareness in what is real and immediate. We begin to experience the body as just a body, not “my” body - a dynamic field of elements, arising and passing away according to conditions - part of the natural world. With such clear seeing, the understanding of non-self deepens and we discover a peace that is grounded, connected and free. _____________________________ AJAHN CANDA Ajahn Canda encountered the Dhamma in India in 1996 and went on to meditate and serve numerous Vipassana retreats, before ordaining in Myanmar in 2006. In 2014, she moved to Australia where she received full bhikkhunī ordination under the guidance of her teacher Ajahn Brahm. For the past ten years, Ajahn Canda has been leading a UK charity dedicated to establishing a monastery where, for the first time in the nation’s history, women can train as fully ordained members of the Saṅgha. In March 2024, this cherished vision began to take shape with the acquisition of a suitable property in the secluded hamlet of Boars Hill near Oxford. Whilst the monastery, Anukampa Grove, serves primarily as a residence for bhikkhunīs, it also welcomes people of every gender identity, race, sexual orientation, and background, to visit or stay as guests, providing an opportunity to deepen practice within an inclusive, loving community. Alongside this work, Ajahn Canda teaches widely and spends several months each year on silent retreat. Her teachings draw deeply from the Early Buddhist texts and emphasise loving kindness and letting go as essential supports for developing samādhi (stillness) and the liberating wisdom that follows. _____________________________ LONDON INSIGHT MEDITATION London Insight Meditation provides online and in person opportunities to encounter and deepen in the practices of Mindfulness, Compassion and Insight Meditation. For more information about us and our upcoming events: Web: https://www.londoninsight.org IG:   / london_insight   Fb:   / londoninsight   X:   / londoninsight