Sari Markkanen was already at a young age interested in spiritual and existential questions. She fell in love with Insight meditation in 2005 after years of other meditative practices. Sari has practiced meditation on long retreats in Gaia House, in Finland and in monasteries in Thailand, and has been especially keen on exploring emptiness and jhana practices as taught by her close teacher Rob Burbea. She was invited to a teacher training guided by Rob Burbea, Martine Batchelor and Caroline Jones, which she completed at the end of 2020. Rob’s teachings have greatly informed Sari’s way of teaching dharma.

Sari has been sharing dharma in her sangha called Nirodha in Finland for 10 years now. She has taught meditation evenings, courses, earlier assisted and later taught on retreats and guided people individually in their practice. Apart from emptiness or “ways of looking” and samadhi/jhanas she is inspired to explore and teach brahmaviharas creatively, dialogue practices, dharma parenting, just to name a few aspects of the beautiful dharma, and how the ancient teachings become personally meaningful and transform ourselves and the way we live on this planet.

Earlier Sari has taught secular mindfulness (MBSR), Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC) and she was a pioneer in teaching mindfulness in schools in Finland, and taught it for a big part voluntarily for many years. She has written two books about mindfulness, kindness and compassion practices for children.

Nowadays she is committed to serving dharma.