Martin has been practicing meditation intensively for 30 years and has been teaching dharma and guiding people in their practice since 1999
Aged 19, Martin left for India with a one-way ticket and no luggage. He spent most of the next four years in Asian monasteries, retreat centres and Ashrams where he developed a formal meditation practice based on Vipassana / Insight Meditation, while also exploring many different teachings and practice forms
He spent several months with Ajahn Buddhadasa at Wat Suan Mokkh in Thailand and sat annual month-long retreats all through the 1990s at the Thai Monastery in Bodh Gaya with Christopher Titmuss. After ten years of practice, Christopher encouraged him to begin teaching. He has also studied and practiced with various Buddhist teachers and traditions, including the Vajrayana practices of Mahamudra and Dzogchen.
Since 1995, Martin has lived with his family in Southwest France. With his wife Gail and their associate Ian Davidson, Martin co-founded Moulin de Chaves in 2005, a residential retreat centre where he lives and teaches, and where their children grew up.
They also co-founded the Dharma Yatra pilgrimages through France, with more than 200 people walking in silence for several weeks, sharing teachings and practices and camping together along the way.
Martin is co-founder, with Mark Coleman, of the Mindfulness Training Institute They run year-long professional Mindfulness teacher trainings in Europe and the US, and the Institute now has more than 200 certified teachers around the world. He is also visiting faculty on the MSc in Mindfulness-Based Interventions at UCD, Ireland.