Viryadeva (Dr Matthew Drage)

Viryadeva (Dr Matthew Drage) works full-time for the Croydon Buddhist Centre teaching Buddhism and meditation. He’s the Centre’s programme manager, and is one of our two “Mitra Convenors”, jointly responsible for the spiritual welfare of those who attend the Buddhist Centre. Viryadeva lives at Aryatara, a semi-monastic Buddhist Community.

Teaching Experience

Viryadeva had been teaching meditation for over a decade. He has also taught and lectured on Buddhism, philosophy and mindfulness at the University of Cambridge, Oxford University, King’s College London and the Royal Academy of Art. 

Qualifications

• Ordination into the Triratna Buddhist Order (2021)

• PhD in Mindfulness Teacher-Training (Darwin College, University of Cambridge, 2017)

• Completed teacher training in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction & Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (Centre for Mindfulness Research and Practice, University of Bangor, 2014-2015)

Links to selected work

• Mind and Cosmos: Towards a New Buddhist Cosmology

• YouTube: Is Materialism a Fantasy?| Bernardo Kastrup in conversation with Viryadeva 

• Of mountains, lakes and essences: John Teasdale and the transmission of mindfulness. (2018)

• Truth and Transformation: Foucault, Urgyen Sangharakshita, and Buddhism as Technology of the Self (2019)

Interests

Outside of teaching, Viryadeva loves reading utopian sci-fi and skateboarding.