My name is Frits Koster (1957), I came into contact with the practice of Vipassana or insight meditation in 1979. Inspired by this, I made a trip to Asia at the end of 1982; during this trip i entered as a buddhist monk and meditated and studied for five years in thailand, myanmar, sri lanka and malaysia. In 1988 I returned to the Netherlands and has guided meditation activities at home and abroad ever since. I have now retired and live in a small village in North Groningen. I work as a mindfulness and compassion trainer in mental health care – at the Center for Integrative Psychiatry in Groningen – and I am affiliated with training institutes as a mindfulness trainer in the Netherlands and other countries in Europe.

Together with my wife Jetty Heynekamp I organize meditation retreats and I am connected with the collective of retreat counselors Vipassana.nu, we facilitate the practice of vipassana meditation in the Netherlands and Flanders. See www.vipassana.nu.

I have written several books on Vipassana Meditation and Buddhist Psychology (Asoka Publishers), see www.fritskoster.nl. Together with a psychiatrist Erik van den Brink I have the eight-week training Mindfulness Based Compassionate Living (MBCL), as a follow-up for people who have followed a mindfulness training – for example MBSR or MBCT – and are looking for a greater degree of (self) compassion in their lives. we have together Compassionate living (2016) in Compassion in your life (2019) written; these books have been published by Boom Publishers and have been translated into German, English and Spanish. See www.compassiontraining.nl.