Martina Schneider

Martina Schneider has been a student of the Dharma since 1996. She has studied and practiced Vipassana meditation in the United States, India and Burma, where she was ordained as a nun. Inspired by the teachings of the Buddha she has combined her practice with social engagement and has worked extensively with homeless and underrepresented populations as well counseled people who are incarcerated and has volunteered with the Zen Hospice Project in San Francisco. Martina is also interested in the combination of mindfulness practices and psychotherapy and uses this approach in her work as a Marriage and Family Therapist Intern in private practice in San Francisco. She is currently in the teacher training program with Jack Kornfield.

Spring Washam

Spring Washam is a meditation teacher and co-founder of the East Bay Meditation Center located in Oakland, CA. She has practiced meditation since 1997 with many renowned teachers and is known for her joyful heart and loving spirit. She is considered a pioneer in bringing mindfulness-based meditation practices into schools and communities of color. Spring is a Spirit Rock Community Dharma Leader and is in teacher training with Jack Kornfield at Spirit Rock Meditation Center. She currently teaches classes, workshops, and retreats worldwide. Her Website is www.springwasham.com

Anushka Fernandopulle

Anushka Fernandopulle has practiced meditation in the Theravada Buddhist tradition for over 20 years in monasteries in Sri Lanka and India as well as in the USA. She teaches dharma groups and retreats around the USA. Anushka also works as a leadership coach with individuals and a management consultant with nonprofit organizations. Her work is informed by a B.A. in social anthropology/religion from Harvard University and an MBA from the Yale School of Management.

James Baraz

James Baraz has been teaching Insight Meditation (Vipassana) since 1978. He is a founding teacher of Spirit Rock Meditation Center. James started the Community Dharma Leader program, the Kalyana Mitta Network, and is teacher-advisor to the Spirit Rock Family and Teen program. He’s been teaching the popular online Awakening Joy course (www.awakeningjoy.info) since 2003. James is co-author with Shoshana Alexander of Awakening Joy due in 2010 (Bantam), which is based on the course. James leads ongoing meditation and Awakening Joy classes in Berkeley. For more information, visit www.insightberkeley.org. For audio recordings of his talks, visit DharmaSeed.org.

Shaila Catherine

Shaila Catherine has been practicing meditation since 1980, with seven years of accumulated silent retreat experience. She has taught since 1996 in the USA, India, Israel, England, and New Zealand. Shaila studied at the Sharpham College for Buddhist Studies in England, and dedicated several years to studying with masters in India, Nepal and Thailand. In recent years Shaila has focused on developing deep concentration (jhana) as the basis for insight, completing a one year jhana retreat at the Forest Refuge, and five months retreat with PaAuk Sayadaw of Burma. She founded Insight Meditation South Bay and authored Focused and Fearless: A Meditator's Guide to States of Deep Joy, Calm, and Clarity, published by Wisdom Publications 2008. Further information can be found at: www.imsb.org.

The Venerable Phagyab Rinpoche

Phagyab Rinpoche (pronounced “Puk Yab Rin Poh Chey”), a lama, scholar, and highly renowned practitioner in the Gelugpa order of Tibetan Buddhism. Born in Kham, Tibet, in 1966 and ordained at the age of thirteen, Rinpoche received a rigorous traditional education in Buddhist philosophy and ritual in Tibet and then at Sera Monastery in South India. While studying for his Geshe degree, the highest rank in Tibetan Buddhist scholarship, he was recognized by the Dalai Lama as the eighth reincarnation of Phagyab Rinpoche—a venerated Buddhist teacher—and was requested to return to Tibet in order to assume leadership of the Ashi and Lithang monasteries, the traditional seats of Phagyab Rinpoche. While teaching in Tibet, Rinpoche was apprehended for his religious beliefs and subsequently fled back to India before immigrating to the USA in 2003. For more information: http://www.healingthroughcompassion.org/about.html

Nuns - Ajahn Anandabodhi and Sister Sumedha

Ajahn Anandabodhi was born and raised in Wales, UK. She first became interested in Buddhism as a teenager and started practicing meditation in her early twenties. She took novice ordination in Amaravati Buddhist Monastery in 1992 and took Siladhara ordination there in 1995, with Ajahn Sumedho as preceptor. Aj Anandabodhi is one of a small group of nuns who are currently looking into the possibility of starting a nuns monastery in California.

Sister Sumedha grew up in the north of England and Scotland. She first visited Amaravati monastery when she was 15 and read some of Ajahn Chah's teachings. They made a lasting impression. After studying comparative religion at university she returned to Amaravati. She has been living there for 10 years and took Siladhara ordination in 2004.

Anam Thubten

Anam Thubten grew up in Tibet and received traditional Buddhist training from various teachers at an early age. He developed a special affinity towards a very inspiring Dharma teacher and hermit named Lama Tsurlo. Lama Tsurlo's kindness and wisdom gave him a firm base to advance in his dharma practice, and still serves as a source of inspiration on his spiritual path, as well as in his work as a teacher. In the 1990s, Anam Thubten arrived in America, and interested people began requesting dharma teachings of him. Since then, he has been travelling and teaching extensively, both in the U.S and abroad. He is the founder of the Dharmata Foundation, and author of various articles and books in both the Tibetan and English language. His teachings draw mainly from the Prajnaparamita; the timeless, non-conceptual wisdom of the Buddha. Currently, Anam resides in the San Francisco Bay Area, California.

Will Kabat-Zinn

Will Kabat-Zinn has practiced Vipassana meditation intensively in the U.S. and in Burma and currently lives and teaches in the San Francisco bay area. Will teaches regularly at SF Insight, Sprit Rock, and The California Institute for Integral Studies. For the past eight years he has taught meditation and awareness practices to incarcerated youth, first in New York City and currently in Alemeda County. An MFT Intern in private practice in San Francisco and Berkeley, Will sees individuals and couples for psychotherapy (supervised by Jeff Kitzes MFC24988). He is in teacher training with Jack Kornfield

Donald Rothberg

Donald Rothberg, a member of the Spirit Rock Teachers Council, writes and teaches classes, groups, and retreats on meditation, daily life practice, and socially engaged Buddhism, in the San Francisco Bay Area and nationally. He is a member of the faculty at Saybrook Graduate School in San Francisco and has been an organizer, teacher, and board member for the Buddhist Peace Fellowship over many years. At Spirit Rock, he directs a two-year program called "The Path of Engagement" helping participants to connect inner and outer transformation. Donald is the co-editor of Ken Wilber in Dialogue: Conversations with Leading Transpersonal Thinkers and the author of The Engaged Spiritual Life: A Buddhist Approach to Transforming Ourselves and the World.

Marty Barclay

Marty Barclay is a certified Middendorf breathexperience™ Practitioner. She joined the Institute staff in February 2005. She has a private practice in Berkeley, California. Middendorf Breath Work, is one of today's leading somatic practices which develops the theme of allowing the breath to come and go on its own. This Sunday is a unique opportunity to develop and deepen your understanding and your relationship to the breath.

Tempel Smith

Tempel Smith has been practicing Insight and Metta meditation since the 1989 including a year as a fully ordained monk in Burma. He is the founder of BASE House, a collective of socially engage Dharma practitioners. He is currently organizes the Young Adult programs at the Buddhist Peace Fellowship, and is in teacher training at Spirit Rock. Tempel has been leading retreats for adults and youth for ten years.

Ajahn Maha Prasert

Ajahn Maha Prasert, a Buddhist monk in the Thai Forest Tradition, was born in 1946, in Thailand. He took novice ordaination in 1957, at age 11, and full ordination in 1968. Studying in India from 1971 to 1975, he completed his master's degree at Magadh University. In July 1983, he founded Wat Buddhanusorn in Fremont, CA and is the abbot. He also serves as assistant abbot to Wat Rajburana in Bangkok, Thailand. With his encouragement and mentorship, Ayya Tataaloka Bhikkhuni, founded Dhammadharini Vihara, the first Thai Forest Tradition monastic retreat for women in Fremont, California, United States.

Ayya Tathaaloka

Ayya Tathaaloka Bhikkhuni is an American-born member of the Buddhist Monastic Sangha with a background in Zen and Theravadan Buddhism. Venerable Tathaaloka began her journey into monastic life more than twenty years ago, and was granted Higher Ordination by an multi-ethnic gathering of the Bhikkhu & Bhikkhuni Sanghas in Southern California in early 1997. In 2005 she co-founded Dhammadharini "Women Upholding the Dhamma" and the first Theravadan Buddhist women's monastery in the Western United States here in the San Francisco East Bay. Following in the late Ayya Khema's footsteps, in 2009 Ayya Tathaaloka became the second Western woman to be appointed a Preceptor in Theravadan Buddhism. Inspired by the Forest traditions in Buddhism, she is currently involved in founding a rustic off-the-grid women's monastic retreat on the Sonoma Coast named Aranya Bodhi: Awakening Forest Hermitage, while sharing her time with the hermitage's "in the Bay" annex in Fremont: The Bodhi House.

Dhammadharini, Aranya Bodhi Awakening Forest Hermitage, The Bodhi House

Richard Shankman

Richard Shankman has been a meditator since 1970 and teaches regularly at dharma centers and groups throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. Richard is active in bringing meditation and dharma to prisons, and is a co-founder of the Sati Center for Buddhist Studies.

Pamela Weiss

Pamela Weiss is a meditation teacher, professional coach and leader of coach training programs. She has practiced Buddhism for 19 years, including several years of Zen monastic training. Through her company, An Appropriate Response (www.appropriateresponse.com), she coaches leaders and executives in organizations, and leads meditation classes, workshops and retreats. The focus of her work is the integration of spiritual practice into the nitty-gritty of everyday life. She lives in San Francisco with her husband.

Andrea Fella

Andrea Fella has been practicing Insight Meditation since 1996, and, under Gil Fronsdal's guidance, began teaching meditation classes in 2003. She is particularly drawn to intensive retreat practice, and has done a number of long retreats, both in the U.S. and Burma. During one long practice period in Burma, she ordained as a nun with Sayadaw U Janeka. Andrea teaches residential retreats for IMC, and is in the Spirit Rock teacher training program with Jack Kornfield and Joseph Goldstein. You can listen to Andrea's talks at www.audiodharma.org.

Charlie Johnson

Charlie Johnson is a retired chemical engineer. He now teaches Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction, yoga, meditation, and the Dharma in the greater San Francisco Bay Area. He has been practicing meditation and yoga since 1972. He has studied Tibetan Buddhism but more recently has been practicing in the Theravada Buddhist tradition at SRMC and is a graduate of their Community Dharma Leaders program. He is a certified yoga teacher and registered with the Yoga Alliance.

Art Jolly

Art Jolly has been meditating since the mid-1990's. He has also participated in Spirit Rock's Dedicated Practitioners and Community Dharma Leaders Programs, and in 2003 he spent 5 months as a monk in Burma. He has led a sitting group in Oakland since 2006.

Randy Cherner

Randy Cherner has been a somatic educator and has had a meditation practice for more than 30 years. In 1985 he founded a center for the practice of somatic education in Corte Madera. He is a Guild Certified Feldenkrais practitioner with extensive training in cranial sacral work. Randy holds a black belt in Aikido.

Lisa Dale Miller

Lisa Dale Miller, MFT is a mindfulness-based psychotherapist in private practice in Los Gatos, CA. She is a featured presenter at conferences on the clinical applications of mindfulness meditation, teaches MBSR, MBCT, MBRP (Mindfulness-Based Relapse Prevention for addiction recovery,) and has created MBDBT. She is also an internationally exhibited visual artist. Lisa has been a yogic and vipassana meditation practitioner for more than 30 years. Her web site is www.lisadalemiller.com

Brooke Brown

Brooke A. Brown, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist in private practice in Marin County and San Francisco. She graduated from the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology, was trained in an integrative approach to wellness, and is certified in EMDR. She began practicing vipassana in 1990 and has been a member of the Marin Sangha since its inception in the early '90s.   For more information about Brooke, visit her website at: www. brookebrownphd.com

Ines Freedman

Ines Freedman has been practicing Buddhist meditation for over 20 years, with Gil Fronsdal being her primary teacher. She is Managing Director of the Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City and is currently a participant in the Spirit Rock Community Dharma Leader Program. She is a retired chiropractor and has a special interest in working with meditation and physical pain.

Dana DePalma

Dana DePalma has practiced Vipassana meditation since 1993, is a graduate of Spirit Rock’s Community Dharma Leadership program and is in the joint teacher training program of Spirit Rock and Insight Meditation Society. She leads the dharma and meditation part of an ongoing weekly class at Spirit Rock that combines meditation and yoga. She practices as a psychotherapist in San Rafael and is particularly interested in the interface between depth psychotherapy and meditative practices. Currently, she is actively engaged in family practice as the mother of an exuberant toddler.

Ed Brown

Edward Espe Brown is a zen priest and author of The Tassajara Bread Book and Tomato Blessings and Radish Teachings. Also a student of Vipassana, yoga, cranio-sacral, handwriting change, and chi gung, as well as a lover of poetry, his teaching style weaves together a multiplicity of strands.

Wendy Palmer

Wendy Palmer has been teaching classes in Conscious Embodiment and Intuition Training for twenty five years and has practiced aikido and meditation for 34 years. She is a sixth degree Black Belt in Aikido and is co-founder and teacher at Aikido of Tamalpais in Mill Valley, California. Wendy is author of The Intuitive Body: Aikido as a Clairsentient Practice (North Atlantic Press, 1994) and The Practice of Freedom: Aikido Principles as a Spiritual Guide (Rodmell Press, 2002).

Pascal Auclair

Pascal Auclair has been immersed in the Dharma since 1997, sitting retreats in Thailand, India and America with revered monastics and lay teachers. He is currently being mentored by Joseph Goldstein and Jack Kornfield while working at the Insight Meditation Society in Massachusetts and Spirit Rock Meditation Center in California. He has been working with teens for close to a decade now.