Hosshin is a yogi and hermit who writes about living life from the Heartmind

I am Hosshin Ananda, a long-term practitioner and teacher of yoga, meditation, qi gong and contemplative traditions from across the world. My life and work has been devoted to understanding the evolution of consciousness and the true nature of the Heartmind: the innate unity of awareness, intuition, and compassion at the core of every being and spiritual path.

As a lifelong student of wisdom from mystical traditions worldwide, I have explored how the ancient teachings illuminate our interconnected nature. My writing flows from one simple truth: we are individual waves arising from one ocean, evolving together.

Heartmind Retreat, nestled in the Scottish highlands of Argyll, is where I live, practise, and welcome those who also feel called to journey in harmony, clarity, and awakening.

Heartmind was recognised in a single moment in Hampi, India. Walking through an ancient temple, I received a tilak blessing on my forehead from one priest, then another. When my friend photographed me sitting outside afterwards, we saw that the two thumb marks had formed a perfect heart shape on my forehead.
Looking at the photograph, I also noticed the sacred carvings behind me; twin serpents rising through the rock, a timeless symbol of spiritual energy ascending through the spine to the centre of the forehead, the seat of enlightenment.
In that one image, everything converged. The heart, the mind, the moment and Heartmind was born.

I have spent most of my working life, beginning at the age of nineteen in 1987, serving others through the NHS and Social Services. I initially trained as a nurse for individuals with learning disabilities (RNMH) and later transitioned to working in mental health and drug services, specialising in relapse prevention through yoga and mindfulness meditation. After dedicating many years to this work, I left the NHS in 2009. Throughout my career, I maintained a deep personal interest in studying spiritual and philosophical traditions, particularly those of the East. This journey began with a personal awakening, just as I was about to begin my nursing training in 1988.

In 2005, while balancing work and family commitments, I seized an opportunity to formalise my personal yoga and meditation practice of seventeen years by training as a yoga teacher at the Sivananda Ashram in Kerala, India. A few years prior, during a month long journey across Southern India in 2003, I experienced a profound realisation about the nature of the heart and the field of consciousness known in yoga as Brahman. This transformative moment ultimately inspired me to establish Heartmind in 2008, a social enterprise dedicated to helping others experience this same grace in their lives.

Following my yoga training and meditation practice, I developed a deeper interest in mindfulness meditation through the study of Buddhist teachings. Recognising its therapeutic potential in healthcare, I pursued a Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy teacher training at Bangor University in 2006, during the early days of mindfulness therapy in the UK. Having completed both yoga and mindfulness training, I began integrating these practices into relapse prevention programs and running combined sessions for individuals recovering from substance misuse within the NHS. While this approach proved highly effective, management changes in the NHS unfortunately brought these sessions to an end, prompting my decision to leave.

After leaving the NHS, I pursued a degree in Sustainable Development at UHI and later studied Buddhist chaplaincy with the Buddhist Society in 2013. I was honoured to be asked to serve as a chaplain to the Mayor of Chesterfield that same year. In 2014, I felt ready to make a more formal commitment to Buddhism and began the process of taking refuge, embracing the dharma name Hosshin Ananda, which continues to inspire my life today.

Although I am no longer affiliated with a specific Buddhist sangha, I remain deeply guided by Buddhist teachings, especially those from the Zen, Chan, and Pure Land traditions. The path I walk today is a universal spirituality, neither bound by nor opposed to any particular religious doctrine. Instead, I aim to honour a dharmic way of living rooted in a good heart, which, to me, is the essence of heartfulness. On my blog, I share articles by various authors that explain heartfulness as a non denominational, or omnist, approach to life.

In September 2019, I set out to fulfil a long held dream of living closer to nature, inspired by the lives of Aldo Leopold and Zen Master Ryokan. I found my new home in a derelict cabin in the woods of a beautiful glen in Argyll, Scotland, and moved there in March 2020, coincidentally, on the very day the UK’s lockdowns began. This marked the start of my journey into spiritual retreat, pursuing the path of the hermit to deepen my meditation practice.

In this new phase of life, I try to write about a heart centred way of living and share my reflections on Instagram and through my website. At its core, my work is about promoting the benefits of a compassionate, heart based approach to life, drawing from centuries of wisdom teachings across spiritual traditions, as well as cutting edge research in mindfulness, neuroscience, and consciousness. Emerging studies highlight the heart’s central role in human happiness, and I believe that caring for the natural world, living in harmony with it, is crucial to fostering both personal wellbeing and collective health and happiness.

The rain has stopped, the clouds have drifted away,
and the weather is clear again.
If your heart is pure, then all things in your world are pure.
Abandon this fleeting world, abandon yourself,
Then the moon and flowers will guide you along the Way.

Zen Master Ryokan