Our spiritual Advisors
Pema Chödrön is a notable American figure in Tibetan Buddhism. She is an ordained nun, prolific author, and has conducted workshops, seminars, and meditation retreats in Europe, Australia, and throughout North America. She is the resident teacher at Gampo Abbey, a monastery on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, Canada.
Thubten Chodron was ordained as a Buddhist nun in the Tibetan tradition in 1977 and has studied and practiced the Dharma under the guidance of H.H. Dalai Lama and other Tibetan masters for many years. She is the founder and abbess of Sravasti Abbey, (Washington State). She is active in interfaith dialogue and prison work. Venerable Chodron teaches worldwide. She is the author of Open Heart, Clear Mind; Buddhism for Beginners; and many other titles.
Joseph Goldstein has been leading insight and lovingkindness meditation retreats worldwide since 1974. He is a cofounder of the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, where he is one of the organization’s guiding teachers. In 1989, together with several other teachers and students of insight meditation, he helped establish the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies.
Joan Halifax is a Buddhist teacher, Zen priest, anthropologist, and author. She is Founder, Abbot, and Head Teacher of Upaya Zen Center, a Buddhist monastery in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She has worked in the area of death and dying for over thirty years and is Director of the Project on Being with Dying. For the past twenty-five years, she has been active in environmental work.
Jon Kabat-Zinn is the founder of the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society at the University of Massachusetts Medical School and its acclaimed Stress Reduction Clinic. He teaches mindfulness and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) in various venues around the world. He received his Ph.D. in molecular biology from MIT in 1971 in the laboratory of Nobel Laureate, Salvador Luria.
Jack Kornfield has been a practitioner for over 40 years, he is one of the key teachers to introduce mindfulness and vipassana meditation to the West. He is a founding teacher of the Insight Meditation Society (IMS) and Spirit Rock Center and has taught meditation internationally since 1974. He also holds a Ph.D. in clinical psychology
Elizabeth Mattis-Namgyel has studied and practiced the Buddhadharma for 25 years. Having spent over six years in retreat, she now serves as the Retreat Master for Samten Ling, a long-term retreat center located in Southern Colorado. Elizabeth delights in wrestling with the challenges that tend to plague modern day practitioners, while maintaining a deep respect for the tradition she comes from. She teaches throughout the U.S. and Europe.
Matthieu Ricard is a Buddhist monk who went from a scientific career as a molecular biologist in France (working under French Nobel Laureate François Jacob) to the study of Buddhism in the Himalayas 40 years ago. Within the Mind and Life Institute, he is an active participant in the current scientific research on the effects of meditation on the brain. He has been the French interpreter for the Dalai Lama since 1989.
Sharon Salzberg is the Co-founder of the Insight Meditation Society (IMS) in Barre Massachusetts. She is one of America’s leading meditation teachers and authors, and has been guiding meditation retreats worldwide since 1974.
IN MEMORIaM
Former Spiritual Advisors whose teachings continue to inspire our work.
Gone but not forgotten.
Robert Baker Dairyu Chotan Aitken Rōshi (June 19, 1917 – August 5, 2010) was a Zen teacher in the Harada-Yasutani lineage. He co-founded the Honolulu Diamond Sangha in 1959 together with his wife. Aitken received Dharma transmission from Koun Yamada in 1985 but decided to live as a layperson. He was a social activist advocating for social justice for gays, women and Native Hawaiians throughout his life, and was one of the original founders of the Buddhist Peace Fellowship.
Roshi Bernie Glassman was a world-renowned pioneer in the American Zen Movement. He was a spiritual leader, published author, accomplished academic and successful businessman with a PhD in Applied Mathematics. Renowned for opening the innovative Greyston Bakery in Yonkers, New York that employed homeless and under-educated members of the community, Bernie went on to found the Zen Peacemakers and the Greyston Foundation.
Father Thomas wrote many articles and books that deal with contemplative prayer, especially Centering Prayer. He presented the Centering Prayer method and its related mystical theology to gatherings of non-Christians, Protestants, and Roman Catholics worldwide. He also took this ministry to seminarians, priests, lay people, and prisoners.
John Daido Loori (June 14, 1931 – October 9, 2009) was a Zen Buddhist rōshi who served as the abbot of Zen Mountain Monastery and was the founder of the Mountains and Rivers Order and CEO of Dharma Communications. Daido Loori received shiho (dharma transmission) from Taizan Maezumi in 1986 and also received a Dendo Kyoshi certificate formally from the Soto school of Japan in 1994.
Stephen Levine was a poet, an author, a spiritual teacher. For over thirty-two years, Stephen and Ondrea Levine provided emotional and spiritual support for those who are life-threatened, and for caregivers. Through their healing and forgiveness workshops, many writings, and endless compassion, Stephen and Ondrea touched the lives of thousands of people all over the world.
Around 1976, Thrangu Rinpoche began giving authentic Buddhist teachings in the West. He traveled extensively throughout Europe, Asia, and the United States. In 1984 he spent several months in Tibet where he ordained over one hundred monks and nuns and visited several monasteries Because of his vast knowledge of the Dharma and his skill as a teacher, he was appointed by His Holiness the Dalai Lama to be the personal tutor for His Holiness the Seventeenth Karmapa.