Ajahn was ordained as a Buddhist monk in 1990 in the lineage of Venerable Ajahn Chah of the Thai Forest Tradition. Born in 1962 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S.A., his interest in the teachings of the Buddha grew as he studied towards a BA degree in Religious Studies from Carleton College (1984). Following graduation, he began applying himself to training in meditation and subsequently went to Asia to find a monastery suitable for fully devoting himself to the Dhamma.
After practicing intensive meditation in various monasteries in Thailand and traveling extensively in Tibet, Nepal and India, he eventually settled at Wat Pah Nanachat, The International Forest Monastery, in the North-east of Thailand. Ajahn Chah established this branch monastery specifically for his English-speaking disciples. For the first five years after his full ordination as a bhikkhu, Ajahn Chandako was based at Wat Pah Nanachat.
Ajahn Jotipālo was born in 1965 in Indiana. He received a B.A. from Wabash College and worked for six years in technical sales. He became interested in Theravada Buddhism after sitting several Goenka retreats. While on staff at the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, he met Ajahn Amaro and Ajahn Punnadhammo. After leaving IMS, he spent three months with Ajahn Punnadhammo at the Arrow River Forest Hermitage in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada. Ajahn Jotipālo came to live at Abhayagiri in 1998 and subsequently spent two years training as an Anāgārika and Sāmaṇera. He ordained as a Bhikkhu with Ajahn Pasanno as preceptor on Ajahn Chah's birthday, June 17, 2000. Since that time, Ajahn Jotipālo has also stayed at Ajahn Chah-branch monasteries in Thailand, Canada, and New Zealand. He has returned to Abhayagiri for the vassa of 2012.
Ayya Niyyānikā is appreciative of monastic life as her container for practice. She received her initial training with the Dhammadharini community from 2014 through 2019 and is currently practicing with the Aloka Vihara Forest Monastery community in Placerville, CA.
Bhikkhu Sambodhi was born in the mid-sixties in what was then known as Czechoslovakia and what is now the Czech Republic, one the most irreligious countries in the world. Raised as an atheist with an initial strong bend toward “hard” science, he eventually ended up graduating in math and physics.
The subsequent postgraduate study of psychology, a “soft” science, led him to encounter Buddhist meditation for the first time in 1992. He then abandoned psychology and worked as a journalist, a translator and a publishing-house editor for six years, while pursuing the Buddha’s path of the Dhamma as a lay practitioner. In 1995 though, he went to Burma for the first time and for 10 months practised vipassana meditation in Mahasi Meditation Centre in Yangon, while being temporarily ordained as a monk.
His subsequent ordination as a bhikkhu took place in 2000 in Pa Auk forest monastery in Lower Burma where he underwent intense training in samatha meditation for 2 years. He then moved to Sri Lanka where he spent—on and off—12 years and was mostly associated with the forest tradition of Galduwa. A few of those years were also spent in solitude, in simple solitary huts in the area called Laggala.
Besides association with both Burmese and Sri Lankan traditions, he also spent considerable time in Western monasteries of Luang Por Chah lineage, where he benefited tremendously from their teachings.
Alex Haley is the Director of Mindfulness Programs at the University of Minnesota's Center for Spirituality & Healing where he teaches, assists with research and sets the strategy for the mindfulness program area. He has been trained by the Center for Mindfulness, the Somatic Experiencing Trauma Institute, Spirit Rock Meditation Center, the Insight Meditation Society and the Coaches Training Institute. He has practiced meditation for over 15 years, including many months of intensive retreat practice, and worked for start-ups, mid-sized companies and large multinationals both domestically and internationally in legal and business roles. Alex is a founding member of the Mindfulness for Students network and leads residential retreats around the country. For more info visit www.alexanderhaley.org.
Amma Ṭhanasanti is a California born spiritual teacher dedicated to serving all beings. Since she first encountered the Dharma in 1979, she has been committed to awakening. As a former Buddhist nun of 26 years, she combines the precision and rigor of the Ajahn Chah Forest Tradition, compassion, pure awareness practices and a passion for wholeness. Amma has been teaching intensive meditation retreats in North America, Europe, Australia and Asia since 1995. She invites an openness to pause and inquire into the truth of the present moment, integrating what is liberating at the core of our human condition.
As a young child growing up in Tibet, Anam Thubten was intent on entering the monastery, where for much of his childhood and young adult life he received the benefit of extensive academic and spiritual training from several teachers in the Nyingma branch of Tibetan Buddhism. He conveys the Dharma with the blessing of teachers Khenpo Chopel, Lama Garwang and others gone before in a lineage of wisdom holders and enlightened masters. During his formative years in Tibet he also developed a special affinity with a yogi and lifetime hermit Lama Tsurlo, who remains a deep source of inspiration in Anam Thubten’s expression of the Dharma.
After arriving in America in the early 1990’s Anam Thubten began to teach the Dharma at the request of others. Today he travels extensively in the U.S. and occasionally abroad, teaching in fluent English and offering in a direct experiential manner the essence of the timeless, non- conceptual wisdom teachings of the Buddha. These teachings, free of any sect, point directly to one’s true nature as boundless love and wisdom. In his teachings and presence with others, Anam Thubten invites the heart-opening, mind-emptying awakening to one’s true nature that is already enlightened. The transformative power of these teachings that flow from the wisdom mind of the Buddha through teachers such as Anam Thubten is apparent in the lives of many who have embraced them.
Anam Thubten is the author of various articles and books in both the Tibetan and English language. His first book in English appeared under the title ‘No Self, No Problem.’ He is the founder and spiritual advisor of Dharmata Foundation based in Point Richmond, California.
Anam Thubten’s personal scheduling and events coordinator is Joanie Mercer. For event and booking requests please contact Joanie at joanie@dharmata.org or call (512) 330-1741.
Andrew Olendzki, PhD., is the Senior Scholar at the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies, which is dedicated to the integration of scholarly understanding and meditative insight. Trained in Buddhist Studies at Lancaster University in England, as well as at Harvard and the University of Sri Lanka, he has taught at various New England colleges (including Harvard, Brandeis and Smith) and is author of "Unlimiting Mind: The radically experiential psychology of Buddhism."
Angela Dews found the dharma in 1996, starting with Zen, at Vallecitos Mountain Ranch in New Mexico as a refugee from political and community organizing. She is now fictionalizing those experiences in a series of novels. Angela co-leads the NYI Harlem POC & Allies Sitting Group. As an Army brat, she traveled through the south in the 1950s and fled to Howard University and then Columbia Graduate School of Journalism in the 1960s. She is a graduate of the fourth Community Dharma Leaders Program at Spirit Rock and is blown away by all of that.
I am a lifelong spiritual practitioner who has trained for over 20 years in the Theravada Buddhist tradition in the U.S., India and Sri Lanka. I live in an urban area and consider how the practices can translate for my fellow citizens with a busy modern life; I am most interested in bringing these ancient teachings to the contemporary world, informed by my love of creative arts, technology, politics and pop culture. I also have an MBA and am particularly interested in the practice as it relates to leadership development -- how we can each see through the things that hold us back from manifesting our unique gifts and talents in the world. I am on the Spirit Rock Teacher's Council and teach at other meditation centers, but also do a lot of teaching & coaching in tech companies, nonprofit organizations, and less overtly spiritual settings. For more information, please visit: www.anushkaf.org
My teaching practice and my personal practice continually intertwine, each weaving a pattern in the larger tapestry of the Dharma. The theme that threads itself throughout my practice relates to the tremendous pain and suffering, the challenges and difficulties that so many beings face, and the possibility of awakening from this suffering. From this immediate calling I've woven the purpose of my life.
It is a deep honor for me to come together with others who feel a similar calling of connection to the Dharma to learn about the greatest gift of all: a happiness inside of us that is unconditional, and a depth of being that is infinite.
Together, our practice is dedicated to this effort of opening to our hearts' potential. To this I bring the flavor of my lineage--the continuation of the teachings of my root teachers, Ruth Denison and her teacher U Bha Khin; a commitment to learning how to live with each other in kindness; and my life as a lesbian in a long-term relationship.
Even though I have been involved in different traditions over the years, what I love about Buddhism is the simplicity of the practice; the fact that it isn't embodied by a lot of ritual, or special clothes, or the need for different props. I love the moment-to-moment calling of awareness to whatever one is doing. And vitally important, I appreciate the safety inherent in the teacher/student relationship, where the emphasis is on the practice itself and the teacher engages as a peer and spiritual friend.
Ben Connelly is a Soto Zen teacher and Dharma heir in the Katagiri lineage. He also teaches mindfulness in a wide variety of secular contexts including police training and addiction recovery groups. He works with multifaith groups focused on intersectional liberation, racial justice, and climate justice. Ben is based at Minnesota Zen Meditation Center, travels to teach across the United States, has written for Tricycle and Lion’s Roar magazines, and is the author of Inside the Grass Hut, Inside Vasubandhu's Yogacara, Vasubandhu's "Three Natures", and Mindfulness and Intimacy.
Bonnie met the Dharma in 1982 at Kopan Monastery and in Bodh Gaya India. Since then she has practiced long and short retreats with Joseph Goldstein and other eastern and western monastics and lay teachers. She is a graduate of the IMS/SRMC teacher training programs and is also involved with Indigenous ceremonies and practices. She is currently a core teacher of the IMS teacher training program and the SRMC Dedicated Practitioners Program. Dr. Duran is a Professor of Social Work and Public Health at the University of Washington in Seattle.
Chas DiCapua is currently the Insight Meditation Society's Resident Teacher, and has offered meditation since 1998. He is interested in how each person can fully and uniquely manifest the dharma. He teaches regularly at sitting groups and centers close to IMS.
Ordained as a dharma teacher by Zen master & peace activist, Thich Nhat Hanh, Cheri is also a private consultant and trainer. Cheri worked in the criminal justice profession for 25 years as a police officer, the Head of Probation & Parole, and an Assistant Attorney General in Wisconsin. She also has extensive experience as a community organizer and a social justice advocate. She has incorporated all these experiences into her understanding and teaching of the dharma and her practice of engaged Buddhism.
Craig, a dedicated member of Common Ground Meditation Center community, died of pancreatic cancer on April 18 2014 at 76 years of age. He served on the initial Board of Directors, chaired the Ethics Committee and founded the Twelve Steps and Mindfulness group. He led workshops on anger and forgiveness for many years, and also conducted Twelve Steps and Mindfulness retreats. Common Ground was Craig's spiritual home, and many of his books have been donated to the Common Ground retreat center in Wisconsin.
David R. Loy is especially interested in the conversation between Buddhism and modernity. His books include A New Buddhist Path, Ecodharma: Buddhist teachings for the Ecological Crisis, Nonduality, Lack and Transcendance, A Buddhist History of the West, The Great Awakening, Money Sex War Karma and The World Is Made of Stories. A Zen practitioner for many years, he is qualified as a teacher in the Sanbo Zen tradition.
Doug McGill founded the Rochester Meditation Center in 2004 and is the main teacher there. He gives weekly dharma talks, teaches introductory meditation, and has practiced insight meditation since the late 1980s. He publishes a daily email practice reminder called The Daily Tejaniya, and is a student of the Non-Dual teacher, Rupert Spira. He is a former reporter for The New York Times; bureau chief for Bloomberg News in Tokyo, London and Hong Kong; and in 2006 published “Here: A Global Citizen’s Journey,” a book about immigrants living in Southeast Minnesota.
Until 2015, Emil enjoyed careers advocating for unions as a labor law attorney and counseling in the field of substance abuse, including several years for Hazelden Foundation. Emil also taught as an adjunct associate professor at the Hazelden Graduate School of Addiction Studies. He began attending Common Ground and his meditation practice in 2004 as part of his ongoing recovery from addiction. Since then he has attended numerous residential retreats in the Midwest and a month long retreat at Spirit Rock Meditation Center. Emil regularly teaches at Common Ground’s Mindfulness, Recovery and the 12 Steps Group and is one of the facilitators of a mindfulness meditation group at Stillwater Correctional Facility. Emil has also been a guest teacher and led workshops at Common Ground.
Franz Moeckl has practiced and studied insight meditation, Tai Chi and Qigong for more than 25 years, including time as a Buddhist monk in Thailand. He now teaches in the US, Europe and Asia.
Gabe Keller Flores has been part of the Common Ground community since 2008, when he was a high schooler falling in love with the Dharma. He currently serves as Operations Manager, and previously was Office Manager and Secretary on the Board of Directors. As a practitioner and teacher, he’s interested in the integration of love and wisdom and the natural process of awakening taught by the Buddha.
Gail has been practicing mindfulness meditation since 1987. For eight years she worked at the Vipassana Support Institute with Shinzen Young, the author of "Break Through Pain: A Step-by-Step Mindfulness Meditation Program for Transforming Chronic and Acute Pain". Since coming to Common Ground in 2002, she has been an integral member of our community and served in many important roles, including as one of our main teachers. She has led the Intro to Mindfulness Meditation workshop for many years.
Gregory has been teaching meditation since 1980. He developed the practice of Insight Dialogue, offering retreats worldwide and authoring books including Insight Dialogue: The Interpersonal Path to Freedom and Dharma Contemplation: Meditating Together with Wisdom Texts.
Spiritual Ecologist Heather Lyn Mann is a practitioner of Buddhism, sailing, and mindful advocacy. Mann founded and led the not-for-profit Center for Resilient Cities--an organization mobilizing inner-city residents to restore natural beauty and function in damaged neighborhood landscapes. She also co-edits Touching the Earth: A Newsletter of Earth Holding Actions in the Plum Village Tradition. In 2007, together with her husband and cat, Mann set sail on a 15,000-nautical-mile, six-year voyage.
Henry Emmons is a psychiatrist who integrates mind-body and natural therapies, mindfulness and Buddhist teachings, and compassion and insight into his clinical work. Henry developed the Resilience Training Program, which is currently offered at the Penny George Institute for Health and Healing. This unique program is based upon the ideas developed in his books, The Chemistry of Joy and The Chemistry of Calm. In addition to Resilience Training, Henry has developed “A Year of Living Mindfully” and “The Inner Life of Healers: Programs of Renewal for Health Professionals” offered through the University of Minnesota’s Center for Spirituality and Healing. He is also a founding board member of the International Network for Integrative Mental Health.
I try to convey that the wisdom and compassion we are looking for is already inside of us. I see practice as learning how to purify our mind and heart so we can hear the Buddha inside. In doing so, we naturally embody the dharma and help awaken that understanding and love in others we meet.
I try to use the formal teachings as a doorway for people to see the truth in themselves. I feel I'm doing my job when people look into themselves to come to their own deep understandings of the truth, access their own inner wisdom and trust in their "Buddha-knowing," as Ajahn Chah called it, which is different from their intellectual knowing.
The Buddha-knowing is a deeper place, underneath the concepts, which is in touch with the truth, with our seed of awakening. I want practitioners to have more and more confidence in, and familiarity with, that deeper place of knowing. It is accessing this dimension of our being that becomes the guide to cutting through the confusion caused by greed and fear. We have everything we need inside ourselves. We do not need to look to a teacher when we remember who we really are.
Jean Haley has been studying and practicing Buddhism since 1998. She completed the Community Dharma Leader’s training through Spirit Rock Meditation Center in 2012 and has been a guest teacher at Common Ground and elsewhere since then. She is a Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker in private practice and also teaches at the Center for Spirituality & Healing at the University of Minnesota.
Byakuren (White Lotus) Judith Ragir is the Senior Dharma Teacher at Clouds in Water Zen Center. She studied with Dainin Katagiri Roshi from 1973-1990 at the Minnesota Zen Meditation Center in Minneapolis. Following his death in 1990, Judith was instrumental in founding the Clouds in Water Zen Center in St. Paul where she was a senior teacher for nine years. In December 2007, Joen Snyder-O’Neal, of Compassionate Ocean Dharma Center, bestowed on Judith Dharma Transmission, the authorization to teach. This transmission is in Katagiri Roshi’s lineage.
Kaia Svien is an instructor, author, and counselor with 20 years experience teaching Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction and related courses. She became interested in mindfulness-based techniques after finding herself struggling with depression. She has taught Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and other mindfulness related courses at Abbott Northwestern Hospital’s Penny George Institute for Health and Healing, the Center for Spirituality and Healing at the University of MN, and the Holistic Health Studies program at St. Catherine University as well as local hospitals, women’s prisons, and venues throughout the Twin Cities. Kaia has studied with Joanna Macy and is passionate about applying the principles of buddhism to our understanding of climate change and other social issues that are based in the delusion of separation.
Kaia is a lover of wilderness, myth and metaphor and has authored To Follow the Moon, a novel following three friends seeking to gain wisdom by following the Moon through its cycles. She is also co-founder of the Iraqi and American Reconciliation Project and the Elda Reading & Math Center. She is a lead teacher of Open Hearted Resiliency, a specialist in Learning Differences (SLBP), and holds a M.S. in Education and B.A. Art History.
It has long been important for me to offer the purity of the teachings of the Buddha in a way that connects with our common sense and compassion as human beings, which allows for the natural blossoming of wisdom.
Kevin Griffin is the author of the seminal 2004 book "One Breath at a Time: Buddhism and the Twelve Steps" and the recent "A Burning Desire: Dharma God and the Path of Recovery". He has been practicing Buddhist meditation for three decades and been in recovery since 1985. He’s been a meditation teacher for almost fifteen years. His teacher training was at Spirit Rock Meditation Center where he currently leads Dharma and Recovery classes.
Kyoko Katayama, a psychotherapist for over 30 years, has made an intention and practice of integrating her spiritual life, her professional work, and personal experiences towards ease and integrity in all that she does. She has been a student of dharma, practicing at Common Ground since 1999. She has completed a two-year study and practice on Satipatthana (The Foundations of Mindfulness) with Matthew Flickstein.
Larry Yang, a longtime meditator, trained as a psychotherapist, has taught meditation since 1999 and is a core teacher at East Bay Meditation Center in Oakland, CA. He has practiced in Southeast Asia and was a Buddhist monk in Thailand.
Born in Chicago of African and Native heritage, Louis Alemayehu developed his poetic skills and musical sensibilities as a part of the Black Arts Movement in the 1970s. His believes that poetry is a tool for healing; his performances, lyrical twinings of jazz, chant, poetry and song, are art-as-ritual, often performed ceremonially. He teaches classes in poetry and language arts at the Multicultural Indigenous Academy, and facilitates community workshops on racism, culture and community-building.
I find teaching to be a very deep and powerful "no self" practice. When I connect with others during Dharma talks--in the intimacy of small groups, and while holding meditation practice interviews--I am continually reminded to know, and be, in a place of clarity, spaciousness and immediate presence. Being able to offer students such a place of connection is my greatest pleasure and inspiration, as well as the most appreciated challenge in my teaching practice.
For me, the real fruit of the teaching is seeing the beauty of a gradual, and sometimes sudden, unfolding of a heartmind into its true self; seeing the variety of ways a person's essential, creative energy of being flows into the world.
On one end of the teaching, I am excited and inspired by students who are deeply committed to long-term, intensive practice. On the other end (and of course they're connected), I find that working closely with people at the grass roots level--in a co-creative process of developing and sustaining Dharma practice, study and community opportunitiies on a day-to-day basis--is equally exciting and inspiring.
From the immediacy of presence flows a wisdom that naturally connects us to the way of things. This amazing gift of mindfulness provides us with a spaciousness where we can make appropriate, healthy and creative life choices. Rather than being caught up in our old, conditioned habits, mindfulness provides us with the gift of engagement at its best. This is the Gift of the Dharma that we offer to all beings.
