speakers

Joan Amaral is a Soto Zen priest ordained in 2004 at the SFZC. She has served on the SFZC Environmental Committee, been the Office Manager at City Center and has spoken out on Burma and other issues. Before studying Zen, Joan was a choreographer and she is now in the process of taking her Zen training into the world, to see where her journey will lead her.

Gigen Victoria Austin began practicing meditation in 1971. She was ordained as a Zen priest in 1982 in the lineage of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi. She received dharma transmission from Sojun Mel Weitsman. She is formerly the tanto (head of practice) at Tassajara and recently completed a 5 year term as president of San Francisco Zen Center. She is a certified Iyengar Yoga teacher who trains regularly in India and in the United States. Additionally Vicki is the SFZC Outreach Coordinator.

Jon's first awakening experience at the age of sixteen led him to spend many years practicing in the Zen and Vipassana Buddhist traditions. In the late 1980s, Jon's spiritual trajectory was profoundly altered when he met Advaita master Jean Klein, with whom he studied intensively for an extended period. Jon subsequently spent time with H.W.L. Poonja and Robert Adams, both direct disciples of Ramana Maharshi. Jon's spiritual development was also greatly aided by Brother David Steindl-Rast, a Christian monk who also studied with several well-known Zen masters and has since been instrumental in building interfaith networks worldwide. After Jon met Adyashanti in 2002, his spiritual journey came to fruition, and subsequently Adya asked Jon to teach. Jon expresses deep gratitude to Adya and all his other teachers for being clear reflections of truth, which allowed him to find his way. At its root, Jon's teaching is an invitation to allow what is to be as it is, regardless of how the mind perceives the content of this moment. The transmission of the frequency of presence – the cornerstone of the Zen and Advaita traditions – is also the root of Jon's work with individuals and groups.

Jennifer Block is a longtime practitioner and Buddhist chaplain who teaches the Zen Hospice model of care to the general public as their Public Education Director (www.zenhospice.org). She also teaches the Buddhist Chaplaincy Training program with Paul Haller and Gil Fronsdal at the Sati Center for Buddhist Studies (www.sati.org).

Renshin Judy Bunce fully entered the SF Zen Center in 2001 and gave up her 16 year career of selling real estate in San Francisco. She became a student of Blanche Hartman and ultimately went to Tassajara. In 2003, she was ordained a Zen priest/monk. She has served as tenzo at City Center and recently was shuso (head student) at Tassajara. She also has had the privilege of visiting the Tibetan Gambo Abbey in Nova Scotia and studying with Pema Chodron. Ren has many literary and professional photography credits to her name. She did photography for the Tassajara Cookbook and has been widely published in numerous media, such as Oakland Magazine and the Encyclopedia of Women and Religion in North America. She has done a great deal of work for the Zen Center, including a slide show on U-Tube and photography for the Wind Bell publications, web site, and much of the Center's publicity. Her work can be seen (and purchased) at the Zen Center Book Store. She has also written numerous articles and journals. Her personal story and training as a monk is beautifully documented in Slow Trains Literary Journal and she's written for many other sources as well. She has lectured as Tassajara and City Center. Ren has also worked in various efforts for Zen hospice and is currently in Chaplaincy training.

Laura Burges is a lay teacher in the Soto Zen tradition. She lectures and leads retreats at different practice centers in Northern California. Her column "Is That So?" appears monthly on the San Francisco Zen Center Website.

Lobsang Chokyi is the Spiritual Program Coordinator for Tse Chen Ling. She's been a nun for 7 years, and a serious student of Tibetan Buddhism since taking refuge in 1996. She has been teaching for several years. Her main teacher is Lama Zopa Rinpoche although she has studied with many great teachers such as His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Choden Rinpoche, Ribur Rinpoche, Kirti Tsenshab Rinpoche, Geshe Michael Roach, and many more. She's done a number of solitary retreats with the guidance of her teachers and spent a year in Nepal and India studying and doing retreat. Before becoming Spiritual Coordinator, she was the director of Tse Chen Ling for 2 ½ years.

Venerable Robina Courtin is a Tibetan Buddhist nun. She was born in Queensland, Australia, and grew up in a large Catholic family; at one point she entertained thoughts of becoming a Catholic nun. Today she lives in the United States, where she’s the Director of the Liberation Prison Project, an organization that takes care of the spiritual needs of more than 3,000 prison inmates in the US and Australia. The Liberation Prison Project offers support through a network of visiting teachers and correspondence, as well as distributing books and videos on Buddhist teaching.

Gengetsu Jana Drakka has been studying at San Francisco Zen Center for fourteen years. She is a disciple of Zenkei Blanche Hartman and a great admirer of Issan Dorsey. She was ordained as a Zen Buddhist Priest in 2001, was Head Monk at San Francisco Zen Center in 2005 and became a practice leader in 2007. Jana’s ministry has a special focus on low-income and homeless people and those who work with them. She is Temple Keeper for the Faithful Fools, a board member of Religious Witness with Homeless People, a founding member of Safety for Women in the Tenderloin and works as a speaker, trainer and consultant with many other groups and institutions. Jana currently has six harm reduction meditation sittings at various locations in the City and teaches a Harm Reduction Group for homeless folks at Mission Neighborhood Resource Center. Her warmth and humor allow her teaching to reach an extremely wide audience.

Adin was one of the co-founders of GMBS. He is originally from San Francisco, where he taught high school French, German and Spanish for twenty years. He chucked it all to lead the Holy Life. To that end, Adin is now an anagārika at Amaravātī Buddhist Monastery in rural Hertfordshire, England, where he has been preparing for eventual bhikkhu ordination since 2005. (From Wikipedia: Anagārika is a Pāli word meaning homeless. In Buddhist context, an anagārika is a white-robed student in some modern forms of the Theravada tradition who, for a few months, awaits being considered for ordination. --webmaster) He will speak about his current life, i.e., the challenges and joys of monastic life and how those differ from the challenges and joys of non-monastic life.

David Ezra is a psychotherapist and a member of the GMBS Practice Council. He began Buddhist practice in 1988. His main teachers include Jack Kornfield and the teacher group at Spirit Rock Meditation Center. He has also been practicing Chi Kung for nine years and currently teaches both practices in the jails, where he works delivering mental health services. In the 1990"s, he studied and practiced with the Navajo Native American people.

Anushka has practiced intensively in the Theravada Buddhist tradition over the past 17 years in meditation centers and monasteries in the USA, India, and Sri Lanka. She has engaged in social justice work throughout her life in such areas as youth development, HIV prevention, LGBT organizing, immigrant/refugee rights, and grassroots community development. Other influences have been mystics of Christian, Hindu, Sufi and other traditions; creative arts; nature; service; and progressive social change movements. She is currently in training as a dharma teacher at Spirit Rock Meditation Center/Insight Meditation Society and works as a consultant and trainer with community-based nonprofit organizations helping them to function more effectively.

From his youth Mark was attracted to the Buddha's teaching. He began chanting Sutras in 1984. Five years later he took initiation into Buddhist Tantra according to the Nyingma Order of Tibet. Although he has generally studied and practiced in the background, he has also served both as a resident priest and executive director for Rigdu Phuntsok Ling.

John Andrew Grimes is 59 yrs. old and has lived in SF since 1971. He has practiced full time at San Francicso Zen Center since January of 1989, living at all three SFZC centers including 5 yrs at the Tassajara monastery. He was ordained by Tenshin Reb Anderson in 2000 and was shuso (head student during a period of intensified practice) at Tassajara Fall 2005. He is currently head of the kitchen (tenzo) at SFZC City Center.

Dorothy Hunt is the founder of the San Francisco Center for Meditation and Psychotherapy, and serves as Spiritual Director and President of Moon Mountain Sangha, Inc., a California non-profit religious corporation. Dorothy currently offers meditation and satsang gatherings, weekend intensives and retreats, and also sees individuals for both psychotherapy and dokusan (private meetings with a spiritual teacher.) Her teaching is centered in the San Francisco Bay Area, but is offered elsewhere by invitation. Following a series of ever-deepening realizations, Dorothy was invited by her spiritual teacher, Adyashanti, to teach within his lineage. While Adyashanti was trained in the Zen tradition, Dorothy’s spiritual path led from Mother Teresa of Calcutta to the Advaita teachers, Ramana Maharshi and Ramesh Balsekar, and eventually to Adyashanti. Each one of her teachers appeared to her totally unexpectedly, yet profoundly.Center.

Join Rik Isensee in a lively and experiential exploration of how mindfulness enriches our lives with equanimity and wisdom at this time of life. Rik first studied and practiced mindfulness in a systematic way during the summer of 1974 at Naropa, in a Vipassana meditation group with Joseph Goldstein. He has also studied Hakomi, a mindfulness-based approach to somatic psychotherapy. Rik practices psychotherapy in San Francisco, and he's the author of three self-help books for gay men: Love Between Men, Reclaiming Your Life, and Are You Ready? The Gay Man's Guide to Thriving at Midlife. http://www.rikisensee.com

Cynthia Kear

Cynthia served as a volunteer chaplain at Kaiser/SF for two years. She has facilitated several workshops, most recently in Mindfulness and in Death & Dying. She is enrolled in UC Berkeley’s Grief Counseling program. Lay ordained in 2004, she is in training for priest ordination. Her article, The Dharma of Death, will appear in the winter issue of Buddhadharma Quarterly.

Paul King has been a Soto Zen practitioner for 7 years. He is lay ordained and studies at the SF Zen Center. He leads and talks at the Monday night, Meditation in Recovery session. He is a local business owner, an avid traveler and guest lecturer at San Francisco Academy of Art and SFSU.

Myo Lahey has had a sitting practice since high school. He received ordination in 1986, was Head Monk at Tassajara in 1989 and again at Green Gulch Farm in 1990. Myo received Dharma Transmission in the Soto Zen lineage from Tenshin Reb Anderson in 1999, and he's been the resident Practice Leader at Hartford Street Zen Center since the Fall of 2002.

Diane is completing her master’s degree in Clinical Gerontology at Notre Dame De Namur University in Belmont CA. She received her training in peer grief counseling for adults in 2006 at Kara Institute in Palo Alto, where she is a volunteer grief counselor.2002.

Lee Lipp, Ph.D., has been a psychotherapist and professor teaching existential and systems therapy since 1982 and supervises at Haight Ashbury Psychological Services. She has been a member of Thich Nhat Hahn’s Order of Interbeing and has been practicing Vipassana and Soto Zen for 15 years. Lay ordained at SFZC, she has also served on Buddhist Peace Fellowship’s Board and as mentor for Buddhist Alliance for Social Engagement. Recently, Lee has provided classes in many venues that focus on teaching specific mindfulness practices in relation to transforming depression and anxiety, including the SF Dept, of Mental Health, where she will be teaching this year.2002.

Zenju Earthlyn Manuel has been a dharma practitioner for nearly 20 years, initially as a student of Nichiren Buddhism and currently in the Soto Zen tradition at San Francisco Zen Center and Berkeley Zen Center. She is the student leader of the Middle Way (Majjhima Patipada) Sitting Meditation Group in Oakland, California.

Earthlyn has an M.A. in Urban Planning from U.C.L.A. and a Ph.D. in Transformation and Consciousness from the California Institute of Integral Studies, and has served as Development Director and Program Director for several California-based nonprofit organizations and cultural centers, including the Women of Color Resource Center and The Women’s Foundation. She co-founded the Marcus Garvey Alternative School for African American children in Los Angeles in 1974. Earthlyn currently lives in Oakland, California.

Earthlyn is also a visual artist, consultant and guest speaker for several Bay Area universities, and the author of Seeking Enchantment: A Spiritual Journey of Healing from Oppression (Kasai River Press), and the Black Angel Cards: A Soul Revival Guide for Black Women (Harper San Francisco). She is a contributing author to Dharma, Color, and Culture: New Voices in Western Buddhism (Parallax), an anthology of essays by Buddhist teachers and practitioners of color and Spirited (Redbone Press), an anthology of Black gays and lesbians on spirituality. Her essay, “The Zen Liberation in the Art of Romare Bearden” is forthcoming in the International Review of African American Art . Other essays have appeared in Turning Wheel, Wind Bell (S.F. Zen Center magazine), and Mindfulness Bell.

Rev. Ryuei Michael McCormick is an ordained minister in the Nichiren Shu and is currently an assistant minister at the San Jose Nichiren Buddhist Temple. He also faciliates a sitting meditation/Dharma discussion/Nichiren Buddhist service every Sunday from 3-5 pm at the Faithful Fools meditation hall at 230 Hyde Street in San Francisco. Ryuei is also well versed in the Pali Canon, and has practiced Zen in the Japanese and Korean traditions under various teachers. You can visit his website at http://nichirenscoffeehouse.net/Ryuei/index.html or his blog at http://www.fraughtwithperil.com/blogs/ryuei/

During most of 2005 and part of 2006, Amy Miller (Ven. Lobsang Chodren) was organizing international teaching tours for and traveling with the esteemed Tibetan Buddhist master, Ven. Kirti Tsenshab Rinpoche. Prior to this, she completed a solitary seven-month retreat at Vajrapani Institute in California, where she was director from 1995-2004. From 1998-2002, she was also the manager of the Lawudo Retreat Fund, which supports Tibetan and Sherpa monks and nuns in study and retreat in the Everest Region of Nepal. Additionally, in 1990, Amy co-founded Tse Chen Ling, a Buddhist city center in the heart of San Francisco, California. Amy came to Tibetan Buddhism in 1987 and has spent a great deal of time doing meditation retreats in India, Nepal and the United States. She has traveled extensively throughout the world and has had the good fortune to visit Tibet in 1987 and again in 2001 as a pilgrimage leader for the Institute of Noetic Science in the United States. Amy was ordained as a Buddhist nun in June 2000 by the great Tibetan master, Ven. Choden Rinpoche, and has been teaching extensively since 1992. Her teaching style emphasizes a practical approach to integrating Buddhist philosophy into everyday life. She is happy to help people connect with meditation and mindfulness in an effort to gain a refreshing perspective on normally stressful living.

Susan Moon is a writer and teacher as well as the former editor of Turning Wheel magazine. She is the author of The Life and Letters of Tofu Roshi, a humor book about an imaginary Zen master, and editor of Not Turning Away: The Practice of Engaged Buddhism. She has been a Zen student since 1976, practicing in the lineage of Suzuki Roshi, and she received entrustment as a lay teacher from Norman Fischer in 2005. She also practices photography.

Carol has studied and practiced Mindfulness Meditation and Daily Life Practice since 1978 with the pioneer Dharma Teacher Ruth Denison, one of the first women to bring Buddhist teaching to the West. Carol received permission to teach in 1991, and is Guiding Teacher of the Lesbian Buddhist Sangha in Berkeley. In addition, Carol brings with her over 25 years of experience as a psychotherapist, group facilitator, teacher, and clinical supervisor. She is currently working on her dissertation at the California Institute of Integral Studies on Buddhism, Mindfulness, and Healing. She is the co-author of A Woman’s Guide to Spiritual Renewal, and co-founder of Womanshare, a sanctuary and retreat center for queer women in Oregon.

David Richo, Ph.D., M.F.T., is a psychotherapist, teacher, and writer who emphasizes Jungian, transpersonal, and spiritual perspectives in his work. He is the author of several books, including How to Be an Adult and The Five Things We Cannot Change and the Happiness We Find By Embracing Them. Dave's new book is entitled The Power of Coincidence.

Dennis is a communications skills trainer, writer, Internet activist, and creator ofthe web-based Cooperative Communication Skills Extended Learning Community at www.NewConversations.net. He received his MA in interpersonal communication and human development from the Vermont College Graduate Program, after studying sociology and religious studies at UC Santa Barbara, and theology at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley. His books include The Geometry of Dialogue, The Seven Challenges Workbook, Prayer Evolving , and, most recently, Turning Toward Life , an exploration of reverence for life as a spiritual path.

Donald Rothberg, a member of the Spirit Rock Teachers Council and the Executive Faculty at Saybrook Graduate School, 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 has been an organizer, teacher, and board member for the Buddhist Peace Fellowship, and directs a two-year Spirit Rock training program called "The Path of Engagement," and an interfaith program at Saybrook on "Socially Engaged Spirituality." He is the author of The Engaged Spiritual Life: A BuddhistApproach to Transforming Ourselves and the World.

Daigaku Rumme is a Soto Zen priest and resident of City Center who practiced Zen in Japan for more than twenty-five years. He has been practicing and enjoying calligraphy for even longer. He has translated the works of Harada Roshi in the book, The Essence of Zen.

Bruce dal Santo met the Tibetan lama Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche in 1971 and began practicing with him in 1977. He attended the Vajrayana Seminary that Trungpa taught in Lake Louise, Canada, in 1979 and was Director of the S.F. Shambhala center for three years. He is currently the Director of Education for the center. He has completed a month long sitting (or Dathun), three months of study and practice with Rinpoche at the Vajrayana Seminary, and he has received Vajrayogini (one of the Anuttara [Highest Yoga] Tantras in Tibetan Buddhism) and Chakrasamvara Abhishekas (an elevated ceremonial ritual) from Trungpa Rinpoche's son, The Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche.

Jeffrey is a priest at the San Francisco Zen Center where he has practiced since 1978. The main focus of his work for the past several years has been with people in recovery. To this end, he began a regular group at Zen Center five years ago to explore the correlations between Buddhism and recovery. He has lead workshops on this topic in San Francisco, Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, in Texas and Missouri.

Fu Schroeder received Dharma Transmission in 1999 in the lineage of Shunryu Suzuki-roshi. She's lived and worked in the San Francisco Zen Center community since 1978. She has held many positions including Head Cook, Abbot's Assistant, Head of the Meditation Hall, Vice-President, Director of Green Gulch Farm, Head of Practice and currently, Head of Educational Programs for Zen Center. She is also the Vice-President of the Marin Interfaith Council and an active participant in the Marin Organizing Committee.

Fu teaches meditation and Buddhist principles in a variety of venues including the Community Congregational Church in Tiburon, The Edith Caldwell Gallery in Sausalito and at Green Gulch Farm. She lives at Green Gulch with her 12-year old daughter Sabrina.

Eve has been a Tibetan Buddhist meditation practitioner for over 20 years under the guidance of her teacher, Ven. Chhoje Rinpoche. She is a Life Coach trained through the program at The Coaches Training Institute of San Rafael and is currently registered as a Certified Somatic (body-energy) Therapist.. Her website is http://www.kailasbodytherapy.com.

Gregory is a long term member of the GMBS Practice Council, and has had a Buddhist practice for many years. He has a background which includes study of the S.E. Asian region. He has visited all of the countries of that area, having done extensive research into each of them. He speaks Thai, and is am presently studying Japanese culture, art and Zen. His Buddhist practice has been influenced by Theravada and Zen.

Greg Taylor has been studying and meditating under the guidance of Jim Gilman (a disciple of Swami Chinmayananda) for sixteen years. During the 90's, he meditated regularly at the Hartford Street Zen Center, in order to deepen his practice. In 2002, he lived in the SF Zen Center for one very educational month. He's a nationally known, well-published poet, whose work is an attempt tp embody spiritual truths, especially as those principles and beliefs play out in the world of gay sexuality.

Rusty Wells is a San Francisco-based, world-traveled teacher of Bhakti Flow, a form of yoga wrapped in love and devotion. His teaching philosophy is based on the idea that through the practice of yoga, we can actually reduce suffering in this world, and at the heart of the individual yoga practice is the discovery of universal oneness. He has been inspired by many wonderful teachers including Shri Dharma Mittra, Pandit Rajmani Tigunait, Swami Sivananda, Baron Baptiste and pretty much everyone he gets to meet. His classes fuse together elements from Ashtanga, Bikram and Sivananda. Rusty, and his unique, challenging, vibrant style of yoga, has been featured in numerous publications, including Yoga Journal, Yogi Times, 7X7, Breathe Magazine, London Times, San Francisco Chronicle, and San Francisco Magazine, among others.

Dairyu Michael Wenger received dharma transmission from Sojun Mel Weitsman and is the author of Thirty Three Fingers, a collection of modern American koans, and editor of the book Wind Bell. He is in charge of Dharma group support at Zen Center.

Don (I Kan) Wiepert has practiced Zen meditation since 1990 and was given Jukai (lay ordination) in June 2006 at the SF Zen Center. After retirement as a professor and college psychotherapist in 1992, he lived in Kripalu Yoga Center and was certified as a Yoga teacher. He also has lived at the Green Gulch and San Francisco Zen Centers. His practice is in socially engaged Buddhism, with gay prisoners, at a weekly vigil, with the homeless and with the GI Rights hotline.

Jim Wilson, the former abbot of the Chogya Zen Center in New York, has studied in the Chogye, Fuke, and Soto traditions of Zen. He has practiced Buddhism as both a monastic and lay person for 30 years. In addition to his abbotship, Jim has more recently been the Buddhist Chaplain at a prison for the criminally insane. He leads a weekly sutra salon in Sebastopol, California. Jin is also the Manager and Co-Founder of Many Rivers Books & Tea, owned and operated by Tayu Order, Incorporated, a non-profit spiritual organization that has been present in Sonoma County for over 20 years.

Benjamin has been leading retreats, teaching meditation and facilitating spiritual discussions for more than twentyfive years. He practices and teaches a form of meditation called Anapanasati (Mindfulness of the In and Out Breath) which is most common among the Theravadan traditions of Southeast Asia.