Ven. Manuñño (Didier Linares) grew up in the South of France. As a teenager, a brief description of Buddhism in a book led to a Eureka moment and an ongoing fascination with Buddhism. He went on study chemistry, but just before completing his engineer’s degree, he moved to London in the late 90s, where he ended up working as a night editor in a media monitoring company. In 2004, the obsessive reading of Dhamma books resumed and the search for ‘the perfect teacher’ began. The journey started with Tibetan Buddhism before discovering the teaching of Dogen Zenji and Soto Zen. In 2006, while looking online for longer meditation retreats near London, he found Amaravati. Numerous retreats at Amaravati Retreat Centre led to a growing appreciation for the teaching of Luang Por Chah and the Thai Forest Tradition, and culminated in Ven. Manuñño joining the community as the Retreat Centre Household Manager, a role he remained in for three years. In 2016, Ven. Manuñño finally decided to jump in the deep end by requesting the Anagārika training. On 27 July 2018, he received full acceptance as a Bhikkhu with Ajahn Amaro as preceptor. He has been spending a year and half in Norway before joining the Dhammapala sangha in May 2023.