Chandasara (Louise)  grew up in Johannesburg and Pretoria and spent her early adult life in political exile in Europe and America.  She later worked as a political analyst at the Centre for Policy Studies in Johannesburg for 14 years. During this period her childhood interest in spirituality re-emerged. Wishing to deepen her meditation practice, she undertook a 6-week self-retreat at the Buddhist Retreat Centre in Ixopo in 1998. Having discovered the revelatory power of sustained and focused meditation, she decided to enter monastic life. She resided at Amaravati and Chithurst Buddhist monasteries as a Buddhist nun in the UK from 2002 to 2010 and left monastic life in 2011. Since then she has resided at Emoyeni Retreat Centre in the Magaliesberg and Dharmagiri Retreat Centre in the Drakensberg where she also taught mindfulness at Riverview Manor Clinic in Underberg.  Louise now lives in Howick and holds degrees in Politics, Linguistics and Psychology.