AudioDharma Speakers
| Jill Hyman | Jill Hyman has practiced yoga since 1974, Vipassana meditation with ISC since 2000. Her practice is influenced by the Thai Forest tradition (Ajahns Sumedho, Succito, & Amaro), Dzogchen (Tsoknyi Rinpoche & Anam Thubten), the many teachers of Spirit Rock & IMS, and especially Shinzen Young (Vipassana Support Institute). She has served as a volunteer chaplain at Salinas Valley State Prison since 2001, heading the program with Bruce since 2003.... | |
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Jill Shepherd | Jill Shepherd has been practicing since 1999 living and working in meditation centers and monasteries in the USA, England and Thailand. She is a graduate of the IMS/Spirit Rokc teacher training program, under the guidance of Joseph Goldstein and Gil Fronsdal. She divides her time teaching in the USA, Australia and New Zealand. |
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Jim Bronson | Jim Bronson began working with the inner life and spiritual traditions as a student of Krishnamurti through a meditation course in 1968; he began Vipassana Meditation in 1990. Jim focuses on expressing his practice in the world with community outreach and education through Kara for those dealing with tragedy and loss. In addition to talks and meditation instruction in the Bay Area, he officiates at weddings and memorial services, and has... |
| Jim Podolske | Jim Podolske is a scientist who has been a Vipassana student of Gil Fronsdal since 1998. He serves the Insight Meditation Center sangha both as a volunteer and introductory meditation instructor, and is a former IMC board member. He has sat Vipassana, Samadhi, and Brahmavihara retreats over the last 10 years, including a six week retreat with Joseph Goldstein in 2003. Jim enjoys sailing on the San Francisco Bay. | |
| Joah McGee | <div>Joah first arrived in Myanmar in 2003 to practice meditation. He realized right from the start that it was a place he wanted to spend more time. He worked there for nearly 20 years, first at the US Embassy, then a private school, and finally started his own business. Joah also spent several years leading various Buddhist-oriented multimedia projects, including writing a meditator’s guidebook which examined the country’s diverse meditation... | |
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JoAnna Hardy | |
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Johnathan Woodside | Johnathan Woodside is an Insight Meditation teacher offering Dharma instruction rooted in the Theravada tradition of ethics, concentration, and wisdom. Johnathan has been teaching since 2011 and is the guiding teacher of Mindfulness Outreach Initiative (MOI) in Omaha Nebraska and Dallas Insight Sangha (DIS) in Dallas Texas. Visit johnathanwoodside.com for his online and in-person engagements and retreat schedule. |
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John Martin | John Martin teaches Vipassana, Metta, and LGBTQI themed meditation retreats. He leads an on-going weekly meditation group in San Francisco and is the guiding teacher for the LGBTQueer Sangha at IMC. He has had a dedicated practice while being engaged in the working world and emphasizes practice for daily life. He also completed the SRMC/IMS/IRC 4-year teacher training in 2016. |
| John O'Connor | ||
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John Peacock | John Peacock has been both an academic scholar as well as a Buddhist practitioner/teacher for more than thirty years. Initially trained in the Tibetan Gelugpa tradition in monasteries in South India, he subsequently spent time in Sri Lanka studying Theravada and has taught at Peradiniya University on the outskirts of Kandy. He currently teaches Buddhist studies and Indian religions at the University of Bristol in the UK, is the Guiding Teacher... |
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John Travis | JOHN TRAVIS has been a student of Vipassana since 1970. In the eight years he lived in Asia, he studied intensively with senior teachers of the Vipassana and Tibetan traditions. John Is the founder of the Mountain Stream Meditation Center in the Sacramento/Auburn area, where he leads classes and retreats. He is a member of the Spirit Rock Teacher's Council. |
| José Luis Reissig | ||
| Joseph Bobrow | <b>Joseph Bobrow</b> is a Zen master, author, and retired psychoanalyst. Thich Nhat Hanh said of Joseph’s first book, Zen and Psychotherapy: Partners in Liberation, “Please read with a feeling of gratitude.” His Holiness The Dalai Lama wrote the foreword for Joseph’s latest book, Waking Up From War: A Better Way Home For Veterans and Nations. In it, Joseph illuminates trauma in an original and integrative way as he presents the work of Coming... | |
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Joseph Goldstein | Joseph Goldstein is a co-founder of the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, where he is one of the resident guiding teachers. Since 1967 he has been studying and practicing different forms of Buddhist meditation under eminent teachers from India, Burma, and Tibet. He has been leading meditation retreats worldwide since 1974. He is a co-founder of the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies, and more recently, the Forest Refuge, a... |
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Jozen Tamori Gibson | Jozen Tamori Gibson (they, them) began formal meditation practice in 2004 through Sotō Zen while living in Japan joined by a Theravada practice in 2010. Jozen is a participant in the 2017-2021 Insight Meditation Society (IMS) Dharma Teacher Training program and serves on the New York Insight Meditation Center’s teacher council. With certifications and embodiment studies in Yoga, Qigong, Indigenous Focusing Oriented Therapy (IFOT) and Complex... |
| Judith Randall | ||
| Judy Cannon | Judy has been practicing meditation for 9 years and has been part of our IMC sangha for 5 years. As a Catholic nun she is attentive to diversity in spiritual practice. | |
| Judy Long | Judy Cannon began Buddhist meditation practice in 2000 with Tara Brach in Bethesda, Maryland. After moving back to the San Francisco area, she practices at the Insight Meditation Center and has sat several retreats at Spirit Rock and the Insight Retreat Center. As a Catholic nun, she is very interested in diversity in spiritual practice. You can contact Judy at jntlong@gmail.com. | |
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Kamala Masters | Kamala is one of the founders of the Vipassana Metta Foundation on Maui, where she is developing a sanctuary-hermitage for long term practice. She teaches retreats in the worldwide, including being a Core Teacher at the Insight Meditation Society at Barre, MA. Practicing since 1975, her teachers have been the late Anagarika Munindra of India and Sayadaw U Pandita of Burma with whom she continues to practice. She lives on Maui where she... |
| Karen Zelin | ||
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Kate Munding | Kate Munding has been practicing meditation in the Theravada lineage since 2004. She is a graduate of the 2016 Spirit Rock/Insight Meditation Society/Insight Retreat Center teacher training. Kate is a guiding teacher for the Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley (IMCB) and teaches residential retreats and daylongs. Kate is the founder of The Heart-Mind Education Project, providing mindfulness based education programs, trainings, and... |
| Kathy Cheney | Kathy Cheney been practicing meditation since 2001 as a student of Gil Fronsdal. She has done several periods of intensive retreat and spent fall of 2007 on personal retreat at Gaia House, in England, working with Christina Feldman. Kathy is part of Spirit Rock's Family Program and teaches at a preschool in Marin County. Her intention is to offer the dharma in ways that young children can hear and practice while having fun. | |
| Kelly McGonigal | Kelly McGonigal, PhD, is a senior teacher and research collaborator at the Stanford Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education, as well as a psychology lecturer at Stanford University. She is a long-time meditator in the American Zen tradition and aims to integrates modern science with contemplative practices. Her books include The Willpower Instinct, The Neuroscience of Change, and Yoga for Pain Relief. | |
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Kevin Griffin | Kevin Griffin is a Buddhist teacher and author of several books, including “One Breath at a Time: Buddhism and the Twelve Steps.” A co-founder of the Buddhist Recovery Network, he was instrumental in the emergence of a Buddhist approach to recovery. He has practiced Insight meditation for over forty years and been teaching since the late 1990s. His latest book, Living Kindness, explores the metta teachings of the Pali Canon. |
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Kim Allen | Kim Allen began meditating in 2003, seeking both a path out of suffering and the deeper truths of life. She trains mainly under the guidance of Gil Fronsdal at the Insight Meditation Center, and has also practiced in Sri Lanka and, more recently, with a few Mahāyāna teachers. Kim was drawn early on to long retreat practice and has sat cumulative three years of retreat. Engagement with the Pāli Canon, and also texts from other Buddhist... |
| Kim Moore | ||
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Kirsten DeLeo | Kirsten DeLeo is a meditation teacher, end-of-life caregiver, and spiritual care trainer. Based on her experience supporting dying people, she wrote the award-winning book “Present Through The End. A Caring Companion’s Guide For Accompanying The Dying” (Shambhala Publications). Born and raised in Germany, Kirsten lived for many years in San Francisco and served at the Zen hospice and Maitri. |
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Kirsten Rudestam | Kirsten Rudestam has been practicing vipassana meditation in the Theravadan tradition since 2001 and teaching since 2005. She has a PhD in Environmental Sociology from the University of California, Santa Cruz where she studied climate resilience and environmental justice. She has twenty years of experience offering field-based and classroom-based college courses in environmental studies and sociology, and is a facilitator for Joanna Macy’s... |
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Kodo Conlin | Kodo Conlin trains in both the Zen and Theravada traditions, ordaining as a Soto Zen priest in 2015. His practice in Vipassana has included extended residential training in the tradition of S.N. Goenka, as well as long retreats at Spirit Rock and Insight Retreat Center. Kodo's teaching emphasizes the joyful, comprehensive freedom of the heart—liberation—available through the Buddhist path. He is currently the Co-Managing Director of Insight... |
| Konin Cardenas | ||
| Lama Justin von Bujdoss | ||
| Lauren Silver | Lauren Silver has been practicing vipassana meditation since 2004. She studies with both Gil Fronsdal and Andrea Fella; one of her primary interests is the integration of formal practice with daily life. Lauren teaches the basic instruction class at IMC, helps with programs for children and families, and coordinates Andrea's ongoing Daily Life Practice group. She has a PhD in developmental psychology and has worked as an educator in schools... | |
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Leigh Brasington | Leigh Brasington has been practicing meditation since 1985 and is the senior American student of the late Ven. Ayya Khema. Leigh began assisting Ven. Ayya Khemma in 1994, and began teaching retreats on his on in 1997. He is also authorized to teach by Jack Kornfield. Leigh has taught the jhanas, along with multiple insight practices, at well over one hundred residential retreats throughout the United States and Europe. He is the author of the... |
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Lienchi Tran | Lienchi was born into a Buddhist family. She began her path of meditation in 1986 with Thay Thich Nhat Hanh in the Mahayana tradition. In 1994, she met Venerable Khippapanno, and his kindness and wisdom inspired Lienchi to practice in the Theravada tradition. Since 1998, Lienchi has been visiting Asia regularly and has practiced with Luang Por Sumedho, Sayadaw U Pandita, and Sayadaw U Tejaniya. Lienchi has been ordained 3 times and has... |
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Lilu Chen | Lilu Chen has been practicing Vipassana meditation since 2011. She holds a PhD in Religious Studies, with a forthcoming book on Islam in China. Lilu is a graduate of the Sati Center Buddhist Chaplaincy training. She will be completing a yearlong residency in clinical pastoral education (CPE) at Sequoia Hospital. Lilu offers meditation instruction at Stanford University, where she leads student groups and evening sessions at the Windhover. She... |
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Liz Powell | Liz Powell has been practicing Vipassana meditation since 2004. She is currently in teacher training with Gil Fronsdal and Andrea Fella. A graduate of the Dharma Mentoring Training and Local Dharma Leader Training Programs with Gil Fronsdal and Andrea Fella at Insight Meditation Center, she also completed the Dedicated Practitioners and Advanced Practitioners Programs at Spirit Rock. She co-led programs at IMC for children, families and... |
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Lori Wong | Lori Wong is a Stanford-certified Compassion Cultivation Training™ (CCT) teacher, trained through Stanford University’s Center for Compassion and <a href=http://ccare.stanford.edu/>Altruism Research and Education</a>. Lori is also the founding teacher of <a href=http://imcv.org/>Insight Meditation Central Valley</a>, a graduate of <a href=https://www.spiritrock.org/CDL>Spirit Rock’s Community Dharma Leader program</a>, and has been... |
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Maria Straatmann | Maria Straatmann, a retired scientist and businesswoman, has studied in the Vipassana tradition with Gil Fronsdal since 1996. Maria serves as IMC Audiodharma Online Courses Coordinator/Teacher, and on its Chaplaincy Council; she is a Spirit Rock Buddhist Ritual Minister. She emphasizes freedom through seeing things as they are and letting go of unskillful mind habits, on the cushion and especially in daily life. |
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Marjolein Janssen | Marjolein (pronunciation “Mar-yo-line”) Janssen is originally from the Netherlands. Since 2011 she has been practicing insight meditation intensively in Europe, the US, as well as Myanmar, where she was ordained as a Buddhist nun. Marjolein brings both formal practice and practice in daily life to her teachings. She seeks to offer a practical approach to Buddhist concepts and ideas. Her sharing of the Dharma comes from her wish to contribute... |
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Mark Coleman | Mark Coleman has practiced Buddhist meditation since 1984, primarily within the insight meditation tradition. He started teaching Vipassana retreats in 1997 in Europe and currently teaches both at Spirit Rock Meditation Center and nationally. He also leads wilderness and nature-based meditation retreats from Alaska to Mexico where he integrates mindfulness practice with the great outdoors. His new book 'Awake in the Wild' is about the practice... |
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Martin Aylward | Martin began exploring meditation at age 19, learning and practicing from both Asian and Western teachers, emphasizing nature as a resource for awakening. His approach draws on extensive practice in the Buddhist Theravada tradition, as well as the influence of Non-dual teachings and the Diamond Approach. He and his wife have established a practice center in South West France. |
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Martine Batchelor | MARTINE BATCHELOR was a Zen Buddhist nun in Korea for ten years. She teaches meditation retreats worldwide. She is co-editor of "Buddhism and Ecology" and editor of "Women on the Buddhist Path". She is the author of several books including her forthcoming book "Let Go: a Buddhist Guide to Breaking Free of Habits". She is interested in meditation in daily life, Buddhism and social action, religion and women issues, Zen and its history... |
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Mary Grace Orr | Mary Grace Orr is a teacher emeritus at Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Marin County (CA) and the founding teacher of Insight Santa Cruz. She has led retreats at Spirit Rock and throughout the US for 30 years. She is also deeply interested in Christian mystical traditions and is a graduate of the Living School. She lives in Volcano, HI, where she also leads a weekly group. During the time of COVID, meeting on Zoom, this group expanded to... |
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Mary Mocine | Mary Mocine is the Abbess at Clear Water Zendo in Vallejo, California. She trained at the San Francisco Zen Center, including time at Tassajara, Green Gulch and City Center. Mary was ordained by Sojun Mel Weitsman in 1994 and received Dharma Transmission in 2006. She has also trained in Japan. Mary's teaching emphasizes the awareness of the body. She is also a fan of Dudeism. Clear Water, aka the Vallejo Zen Center, was established in... |
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Matthew Brensilver | Matthew Brensilver, MSW, PhD teaches retreats at the Insight Retreat Center, Spirit Rock and other Buddhist centers. He was previously program director for Mindful Schools and for more than a decade, was a core teacher at Against the Stream Buddhist Meditation Society. Matthew worked as a clinical social worker, serving severely and persistently mentally ill adults and adolescents. He subsequently earned a PhD from the Dworak-Peck School of... |
| Matt McNeil | ||
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Max Erdstein | Max Erdstein teaches at the Insight Meditation Center and the Insight Retreat Center. He is trained as a Dharma teacher by Gil Fronsdal and received Dharma Entrustment as a Zen teacher in the lineage of Suzuki Roshi from Sojun Mel Weitsman and Gil Fronsdal. Max has practiced Buddhist meditation for more than 25 years, training in America, Japan, Thailand, and Burma. He completed the Spirit Rock/IMS Dharma teacher training program and... |
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Max Hokai Swanger | Max Hokai Swanger, M.Div., BCC was raised Jewish and Presbyterian and later converted to Buddhism in College. After college, he lived in a Buddhist communities for fifteen years and ordained as a Zen Buddhist Priest. Later he began training to be a chaplain: first in the SATI program, then as a Clinical Pastoral Educational (CPE) Resident for a year at UCSF. While starting to work as a chaplain, he earned a Masters of Divinity degree, and... |
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Meg Gawler | Meg Gawler began practicing Buddhism in 1968 as a disciple of the Zen Master, Shunryu Suzuki Roshi, including over three years of monastic training. She earned a Master’s in Applied Ecology, moved to France, pursued an international career in nature conservation and human development, and began practicing in the Theravāda tradition. She has trained with Gil Fronsdal, Ven. Anālayo, Jack Kornfield, Joseph Goldstein, and others. Meg holds a... |
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Mei Elliott | Mei Elliott is a Dharma teacher in the Theravada Buddhist tradition, who practices at the intersection between Zen and Vipassana. Mei began training as a Zen monk at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center in 2014, and has spent eight years living at Zen temples and monasteries. During this time she served as the director of San Francisco Zen Center and the guiding instructor for Young Urban Zen. Mei was authorized to teach by James Baraz and is... |
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Mel Weitsman | Sojun Mel Weitsman Roshi was abbot of the Berkeley Zen Center. He was ordained by Suzuki Roshi in 1969 as resident priest at the Berkeley Zendo, and was officially installed as abbot of the Berkeley Zen Center in 1985. Sojun lived in North Berkeley with his wife, Liz. (1929 to 2021) |
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Michael Newhall | Shoho Michael Newhall began practicing and studying with Kobun Chino Otogawa Roshi in the early seventies. He was ordained in the mid-eighties by Chino Roshi and also in Japan by Kobun's brother Kiebun Otogawa Roshi, with whom he did ceremony and temple training. He also practiced with Dainin Katagiri Roshi and Tozen Akiyama Roshi. Monastery training was with Tenshin Reb Anderson at Tassajara, and also under Kobun Chino Roshi as shuso of angos... |
| Michelle Shields | ||
| Mindy Zlotnik | ||
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Mirka Knaster | Mirka Knaster has practiced in the Theravada tradition since her first retreat in India in 1981. An independent scholar and freelance writer and editor, she has written <em>Living This Life Fully: Stories and Teachings of Munindra</em> (Shambhala), a book about the meditation master who first taught Dipa Ma, Joseph Goldstein, and many of our western dharma leaders. He was a pivotal figure in the transmission of Dharma to the West and the... |
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Misha Merrill | Misha Merrill is a Zen teacher in the lineage of Shunryu Suzuki, Roshi of the San Francisco Zen Center. She received Dharma Transmission from his disciple, Les Kaye, in 1998 and has been the guiding teacher of Zen Heart Sangha on the Peninsula since 1993. She also teaches young children at the Peninsula School of Menlo Park. She lives in the hills above Stanford with her husband and four-footed friends, and joyfully cultivates a large garden. |
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Mushim (Patricia) Ikeda | Mushim (Patricia) Ikeda is a core teacher at East Bay Meditation Center in downtown Oakland, California. She is a published author and a diversity and inclusion consultant, and she has taught residential retreats for people of color, women, and social justice activists nationally. She teaches an award-winning yearlong program of secular mindfulness training for agents of change at EBMC -- the award given to the program, Practice in... |
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Nathan Jishin Michon | is a postdoctoral JSPS research fellow at Ryukoku University in Kyoto, Japan focused on Buddhist chaplaincy. They especially focus on the development of Buddhist chaplaincy training programs around Japan. Jishin previously worked in hospice and disaster care. They previously trained in Zen and Thai Forest Tradition for a number of years, and then ordained both as a Shingon Buddhist priest and as an interfaith minister. Jishin is editor of... |
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Nikki Mirghafori | Dr. Nikki Mirghafori is a Buddhist teacher and Artificial Intelligence scientist. She is a lineage holder in the Theravada tradition, empowered by the Burmese meditation master Venerable Pa Auk Sayadaw, with whom she practiced the jhanas and detailed analytical (Abhidhamma-style) vipassana. She teaches at the Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City and the Insight Retreat Center in Scotts Valley, CA, and serves as a Stewarding Teacher at... |
| Nirali Shah | ||
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Nolitha Tsengiwe | Nolitha is a Dharma teacher and board member at Dharmagiri Sacred Mountain Retreat Center, in SA that was founded by Kittisaro and Thanisara Weinberg. She has practiced since 1997 under Kittisaro and Thanissara, who are of Ajahn Chah ‘s lineage. In her first retreat with these beloved teachers she discovered silence as a refuge and has never looked back. Nolitha completed the Community Dharma leadership program (CDL4) under Spirit Rock in 2014... |
| Nona Olivia | Nona Olivia has been practicing meditation for some 40 years, during which time she raised her children and became a grandmother. Deeply involved in the Insight Meditation tradition of Theravada Buddhism, Nona graduated from Spirit Rock Meditation Center's first Dedicated Practitioner Program and is a Lay Buddhist Minister, ordained by Gil Fronsdal. Nona practices with and is very inspired by the monastics in the tradition of Ajahn Chah. She... | |
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Norman Fischer | Norman is a Zen priest and abbot, a husband, father, and a poet, a teacher with wide-ranging interests and passions. During almost 30 years at San Francisco Zen Center, he served as director, tenzo, tanto, operations manager and other positions. Norman retired as abbot of Zen Center in 2000 to take his teaching out into the world. He continues his involvement with the Zen Center as a senior Dharma teacher. Norman believes in the possibility of... |
| No Teacher | ||
| Oori Silberstein | ||
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Oren Jay Sofer | Oren Jay Sofer, a CNVC Certified Nonviolent Communication Trainer, teaches workshops and retreats on meditation and communication internationally. His teaching emphasizes how awareness practice and communication training deepen one another in a synergistic manner. He holds a degree in Comparative Religion from Columbia University and is certified as a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner for healing trauma. Oren is a husband, a father, and the... |
| Pa Auk Sayadaw | Venerable Pa Auk Sayadaw is the founder and main teacher of the Pa Auk Forest Monastery in southern Burma. He teaches a particularly thoroughgoing, step-by-step tranquility & insight practice to monastics and lay people practicing at the monastery. This includes samatha (deep access concentration and the jhanas) as well as a variety of vipassana techniques. The purpose of these practices is to bring the practitioner towards Liberation as... | |
| Pablo González | ||
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Pamela Ayo Yetunde | Pamela Ayo Yetunde is a Community Dharma Leader, Zen student, chaplain, pastoral counselor, and pastoral care instructor. She is the principal co-founder and editor-in-chief of Buddhist Justice Reporter. Ayo is the author of Casting Indra’s Net: Fostering Spiritual Kinship and Community, co-editor of Black and Buddhist: What Buddhism Can Teach Us About Race, Resilience, Transformation and Freedom, other books and articles, and is an associate... |
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Pamela Weiss | Pamela Weiss is the Founder and Chief Wisdom Officer of Appropriate Response, a company dedicated to bringing the principles and practices of mindfulness to the workplace. She has been practicing meditation for over 25 years, including several years of Zen monastic training, and completion of teacher training with Jack Kornfield through Spirit Rock. She lives in San Francisco and teaches internationally. |
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Paul Haller | Paul Haller has been teaching the dharma for over 35 years. Initially ordained as a Theravada monk in Thailand, he became a priest at the San Francisco Zen Center in 1980 and its abbot from 2003 to 2012. He has been leading the Zen Center's outreach program and has extensive experience integrating Buddhist practice with hospice, jail and peace work. |
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Phillip Moffitt | Phillip Moffitt is a Buddhist meditation teacher and writer based in the San Francisco Bay Area. He teaches a weekly insight (vipassana) meditation class in Marin County, is Co-Guiding Teacher at Spirit Rock Meditation Center, and leads retreats throughout the United States. Phillip is also the founder and director of Life Balance Institute where he trains executives and individuals in skillful living. He is the author of two books: ... |
| Rachel Lewis | ||
| Rebecca Bradshaw | ||
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Rebecca Dixon | Rebecca Dixon has had a dedicated practice since 1993. She is an original member of IMC's Chaplaincy Council and has mentored students in every offering of IMC's online meditation course. A graduate of the Community Dharma Leader program, Rebecca helped start the East Bay Meditation Center, leads a sitting group that has met on Monday nights in Oakland since 2002, is a founding teacher of Alameda Sangha. You're welcome to visit her web site,... |
| Rebekkah LaDyne | Rebekkah is the Family Program Teacher at Spirit Rock where she teaches parents, family events, and teens. She began practicing meditation and yoga in her late teens. She has studied and practiced Vipassana meditation in the U.S., India and Thailand. Meditation, Yoga and Dharma have helped her to live more honestly and more fully in each part of her life. Rebekkah has been sharing Dharma through Yoga and Dharma classes, workshops and retreats... | |
| Ren Bunce | ||
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Renshin Bunce | Renshin Bunce is a Zen Buddhist priest, ordained in the tradition of Shunryu Suzuki-roshi. Renshin left a career in real estate to move into San Francisco Zen Center, where she lived for seven years. She now lives on the peninsula where she works as a hospice chaplain. Renshin is a graduate of the Sati Center's Buddhist Chaplaincy Training. She has a sitting group Sunday evenings in San Carlos. |
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Rev. Liên Shutt | Rev. Keiryū Liên Shutt is a lineage holder in the Shunryu Suzuki tradition. Born to a Buddhist family in Vietnam, she received her meditation training in the Insight and Zen traditions in the US, Thailand, Japan and Vietnam. She was a founding member of the Buddhists of Color in 1998 and currently is the Guiding Teacher of Access to Zen, an anti-racist, inclusive sangha and non-profit in the SF Bay Area. She lives in San Francisco with her... |
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Richard Shankman | Richard Shankman has been a meditator since 1970 and teaches at dharma centers and groups nationally, including Spirit Rock Meditation Center and Insight Meditation Society. He is a co-founder of the Sati Center for Buddhist Studies and Mindful Schools. He is the author of The Experience of Samadhi: An In-Depth Investigation of Buddhist Meditation. |
| Richard Sievers | Richard Sievers was introduced to Vipassana meditation in 1984 on his first 10 day retreat with Sister Ayya Khema, a Buddhist nun from Sri Lanka. Along the path he has had the good fortune of practicing with many dharma teachers, Steve Armstrong, Kamala Master, Jack Kornfield, John Travis, and since moving to the peninsula in 1998, Gil Fronsdal at IMC. His practice continues with great appreciation for the Dharma. | |
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Rick Maddock | Rick Maddock, MD, is a professor of psychiatry who teaches and conducts neuroscience research at the UC Davis School of Medicine. A long-time dharma practitioner with a focus on the teachings of early Indian Buddhism, Rick has completed Spirit Rock’s training programs for senior students and teaches dharma in the Sacramento area and Sierra foothills. His teachings explore the convergence between contemporary scientific insights about the human... |
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Rita Gross | Rita Gross, or Acharya Rita as she is known, has been studying, practicing and teaching Vajrayana for forty years. Known as a warm, humorous and very clear teacher, she teaches with a rare combination of academic and dharmic perspectives. She is internationally known for her innovative work on gender and religion. She also has extensive training and experience as a professor of comparative studies in religion and is a Buddhist Dharma teacher,... |
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Robert Cusick | Robert Cusick is the Co- Founder & Director of the Applied Compassion Training (ACT) program offered through the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research & Education (CCARE) at Stanford University. He is a Stanford Lecturer and Certified Sr. Stanford Compassion Training Instructor and teaches at Stanford University, UCSF, Kaiser Permanente Medical Centers and in multiple other venues. He is a longtime meditator and student of... |
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Ronna Kabatznick | Ronna Kabatznick is a social psychologist who has been practicing meditation since 1985. She spent nearly two years on a Vipassana meditation retreat under the guidance of two of Thailand's greatest Forest Masters. She is the author of "The Zen of Eating: Ancient Answers to Modern Weight Problems" and a board member of The Center for Mindful Eating, a web-based organization designed to help educate professionals about Mindful Eating.... |
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Rose Taylor Goldfield | Rose Taylor Goldfield is a second-generation Buddhist teacher and a certified life coach. She studied and practiced under the guidance of the Tibetan master Khenpo Tsültrim Gyamtso Rinpoche, who appointed her teacher of philosophy, meditation, and yogic movement meditation to his nuns in Nepal and Bhutan. Rose is also a published translator and author of books and articles on Buddhist philosophy and meditation. Her new book, out later this... |
| Ruby Grad | ||
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Ruth King | Ruth King, is a teacher in the Insight Meditation tradition. She is on the Teacher’s Council at Insight Meditation Community of Washington and Spirit Rock Meditation Center, and is the founder of Mindful Members Insight Meditation Community of Charlotte, NC. She is a life coach and leadership consultant, and offers the Mindful of Race Training program to teams and organizations nationwide. She is the author of several publications, including... |
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Sally Clough | Sally Clough was introduced to vipassana through retreats in India in 1981. She co-founded the Sharpham meditation community in Devon, England, and was the Executive Director of Spirit Rock for five years. Trained by Jack Kornfield, Sally has led meditation classes and assisted on retreats since 1994. |
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Sandra Sanabria | Sandra Sanabria is a certified Compassion Cultivation Teacher (CCT©). She was born and raised in Colombia, where she began her career in Biomedical Sciences. The study of the Buddhist teachings, the meditation practice and the cultivation of compassion have become an essential part of her life, reinforcing her wonder for science and empowering her to serve her community. Sandra teaches mindfulness and CCT in English and Spanish in the Bay... |
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Santikaro | Santikaro lived with Ajahn Buddhadasa during the last nine years of his life and became his primary translator. Ordained as a Theravada Bhikkhu in 1985, Santikaro spent most of his monastic life at Suan Mokkh. During this time he led Dawn Kiam, a small monastic community for foreigners. He is the founder of Liberation Park, a modern expression of Buddhist practice, study, and social responsibility, located in rural southwestern Wisconsin. ... |
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Sarah Shaw | Dr. Sarah Shaw is a faculty member and lecturer at the University of Oxford. She has taught and published numerous works on the history and practices of Buddhism, including The Art of Listening: A Guide to the Early Teachings of Buddhism, Mindfulness: Where It Comes from and What It Means, The Jatakas: Birth Stories of Bodhisatta, An Introduction to Buddhist Meditation, and The Spirit of Meditation. |
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Sayadaw U Jagara | Sayadaw U Jagara has 43 years’ experience as a Buddhist monk, living in Sri Lanka and Myanmar, dedicated to the practice, study and teaching of dhamma. He has trained and taught in the U Ba Khin as well as in the Pa Auk traditions of Myanmar. |
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Sayadaw U Tejaniya | SAYADAW U TEJANIYA started practicing and studying dhamma with his teacher the late Shwe Oo Min Sayadaw (the Gold Cave Hermitage Monastic Teacher) when he was thirteen years old. Ordained as a Buddhist monk for more than 10 years, he teaches meditation at Shwe Oo Min Dhammasukha Tawya in Yangon, Myanmar (Rangoon, Burma). |
| Sean Kerr | Sean Kerr is in the Department of South and Southeast Asian Studies at University of California, Berkeley, where he is pursuing his Ph.D. on the topic of Indian Buddhism and Pali commentarial literature. He holds a B.A. and M.A. in Sanskrit from the same department, and has been a student of Vipassanā meditation since 2002. He has been teaching Pali in India and the Bay Area since 2010. | |
| Shahara Godfrey | ||
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Shaila Catherine | Shaila Catherine has been practicing meditation since 1980, with more than eight years of accumulated silent retreat experience. She has taught retreats since 1996 in the USA, and internationally. Shaila has dedicated several years to studying with masters in India, Nepal and Thailand, completed a one year intensive meditation retreat with the focus on concentration and jhana, and authored Focused and Fearless: A Meditator’s Guide to States of... |
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Shantum Seth | Shantum Seth is a teacher, social development worker and ordained teacher in the Zen lineage of the Venerable Thich Nhat Hanh. He is actively involved in the non-profit Ahimsa, which is pioneering work on "Mindfulness in Education" and setting up a centre for this purpose in the foothills of the Himalayas. |
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Sharon Salzberg | Sharon Salzberg is a meditation pioneer, world-renowned teacher, and New York Times bestselling author. She is among the first to bring mindfulness and lovingkindness meditation to mainstream American culture nearly 50 years ago, inspiring generations of meditation teachers and wellness influencers. Sharon is co-founder of the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, MA, and the author of thirteen books, including the New York Times bestseller... |
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Shelley Gault | Shelley has been meditating since her college days in the 60s, and practicing in the Buddhist Insight tradition since 2003. She has spent over three years cumulatively in silent retreat in this tradition. She’s one of the leaders and teachers of the Open Door Sangha in Santa Barbara, where she lives, and offers service teaching and in many other roles for IMC and IRC. A wife, mother, and grandmother, Shelley also volunteers at a large estate... |