Sunday Sangha – 11th October 2026

Shireen Jilla is a mindfulness meditation teacher, having trained with Mark Coleman and Sangha Live’s founder, Martin Aylward. She is also a long-term dharma student of Martin’s.

Shireen is inspired by the lightly-held wisdom and joyfulness of elders: sitting with Ajahn Sucitto, exploring one-to-one with Leigh Brasington and learning Qigong and much more from a precise, playful group of Chinese septuagenarians in the local park, where her son lives in Beijing.

As an ex journalist and novelist, Shireen is enjoying writing about practice for the first time for a new book focusing on women’s mental health. She finds it rich and humbling to meet people where they are and introduce a path of practice, whether its the homeless or CEO’s, waste collectors or those working in mental health.

Before dawn every morning, Shireen gets outside to practice in nature. In the shadowy silence, she does all her householder chores before sitting. These rituals bring care, loving kindness and equanimity to the heart of her practice and teaching. Other joys are feeding and sharing with friends and family, and swimming out into the open sea.

Shireen lives alongside the river in London with her husband, third child and new kitten.