Oliver Tanner

I'm a Buddhist scholar and long-term practitioner whose work integrates textual study with lived meditative experience. Originally from the United Kingdom, I now live in Sri Lanka with my wife and son.

I first came into contact with the Dhamma in 2003. Over the following fourteen years, I undertook sustained vipassanā meditation practice, attending many residential retreats primarily within the tradition of S. N. Goenka. This period involved intensive, technique-focused practice, including extended retreats and years of service at meditation centres in the United Kingdom. These formative years established a strong experiential grounding for which I remain deeply grateful. Over time, I recognised the limitations of practice when it is not grounded in a direct understanding of the Buddha’s teachings, prompting me to turn more fully towards the Pāli texts.

I moved to Myanmar to undertake formal academic training and completed a three-year Bachelor’s degree in Buddhist Studies at the International Theravāda Buddhist University in Yangon in 2017, focusing on Abhidhamma, the Pāli language, and the Visuddhimagga. I then moved to Sri Lanka to continue my in-depth study of the Buddha’s teaching, with particular emphasis on the Early Buddhist texts. I completed my Master’s degree in 2019 and PhD in Buddhist Philosophy in 2024 at the Postgraduate Institute of Pāli and Buddhist Studies, University of Kelaniya, Colombo. My doctoral research focused on the canonical Abhidhamma, especially the Paṭṭhāna, its philosophical structure, and its relationship to early Buddhist thought.

I currently lecture at the Postgraduate Institute of Pāli and Buddhist Studies and other universities in Sri Lanka, teaching at BA, MA, and PhD levels. Alongside my university work, I teach Early Buddhist teachings, canonical Abhidhamma, Pāli language, and meditation in Sri Lanka.

Across study, teaching, and practice, I aim to present the Buddha’s teaching with accuracy, clarity, and relevance to daily life, with particular attention to the nature of suffering, its arising, its cessation, and the path leading to its ending—so that textual understanding and lived experience support and clarify one another.