Our Teachers | Flowering Lotus Meditation

Our Dharma Teachers

(roll over their photos to learn more about our teachers)

Shastri Nick Kranz was appointed as a Shastri (Senior Buddhist Teacher) by his teacher and head of the Shambhala Buddhist lineage Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche in 2013. Nick is an experienced and dynamic meditation teacher with a passion for sharing authentic wisdom who has eveloped an approach to cultural transformation in the practice of Social Meditation. He is interested in the power of meditation to influence how we create culture of compassion in each moment. After 20 years of deep training in the practice of meditation, Nick has a profound belief in everyone’s potential to explore and benefit from the practice, and is devoted to guiding people along the path with friendliness and skill. Nick developed the practice of social meditation, which is practiced in Shambhala centers around the globe. He has worked with youth development in the Shambhala sangha for the last decade. Nick speaks in front of hundreds at universities, hospitals, businesses, and online. His humor and relaxation inspire people to come into the present moment and enjoy.

Spring Washam is a well-known meditation teacher, author and visionary leader based in Oakland, California. She is the author of A Fierce Heart: Finding Strength, Courage and Wisdom in Any Moment. Spring is considered a pioneer in bringing mindfulness-based healing practices to diverse communities. She is one of the founders and core teachers at the East Bay Meditation Center, located in downtown Oakland, CA. She is also the co-founder of a new organization called Communities Rizing, which is dedicated to providing yoga and meditation teacher training programs for communities of color. She received extensive training by Jack Kornfield, is a member of the teacher’s council at Spirit Rock Meditation Center in northern California, and has practiced and studied Buddhist philosophy in both the Theravada and Tibetan schools of Buddhism for the last 20 years. In addition to being a teacher, she is also a shamanic practitioner and has studied indigenous healing practices for over a decade. She is the founder of Lotus Vine Journeys, an organization that blends indigenous healing practices with Buddhist wisdom. Her writing and teachings have appeared in many online journals and publications such as Lions Roar, Tricycle, and Belief.net.

Bhante Suddhāso is a Buddhist monk living in New York City. The co-founder of Buddhist Insights, a new platform using technology to build community and facilitate access to reliable monastic teachings, his work aims to convey Buddhist concepts and their practical applicability to everyday life. Bhante Suddhāso has studied under the guidance of some of the most important names in Western Buddhism, such as Ajahn Pasanno, Ajahn Amaro, Ajahn Vīradhammo, and Bhante Gunaratana. He was initially trained in Soto Zen Buddhism at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center. Subsequently, he was ordained at Abhayagiri Buddhist Monastery in California, where he was trained in the Thai Forest Tradition of Theravāda Buddhism. Since then he has lived at a variety of monasteries from different Buddhist traditions in both rural and urban environments. A dedicated teacher, Suddhāso has taught to people of all different ages and walks of life, as well as college students of universities like Harvard, New York University, Fordham University, University of Mary Washington, Sarah Lawrence College, and Suffolk County Community College. Bhante Suddhāso brings to the table his first-hand, in-depth experience of both Theravāda and Soto Zen, as well as scholarly knowledge of all other Buddhist traditions.

Mushim Patricia Ikeda is a Buddhist teacher, writer, diversity consultant, author, mentor, and community activist. She teaches meditation retreats for people of color, women, and social justice activists nationally. Mushim has become widely known for her down-to-earth, humorous, and penetrating approach to Dharma and social transformation. Mushim has taught residential meditation retreats for people of color, social justice activists, and women nationally, and her work is based in values of cultural humility, acknowledging the wisdom that is ever-present in individuals and collectives, and the need for expression, empowerment, and co-creative self-determination in marginalized communities. Mushim has been featured in the award-winning documentary film Between the Lines: Asian American Women’s Poetry and as one of three subjects in the documentary Acting on Faith: Women’s New Religious Activism in America, distributed by the Pluralism Project at Harvard University. She is based in Oakland and teaches primarily at the East Bay Meditation Center in downtown Oakland, where she also served on the board of directors, known as the Leadership Sangha, for seven years. She now works part-time on EBMC’s staff as the community coordinator.

Amma Thanasanti Bhikkhuni started meditating in 1979. From that time she consciously committed to awakening and envisioned living her life as a nun. She joined the Ajahn Chah lineage and community of nuns living at both Amaravati and Chithurst Buddhist Monasteries in England where she received higher ordination. After 20 years, she returned to the U.S. as an independent nun and was then ordained as a Bhikkhuni. She founded Awakening Truth whose mission is to use Forest Tradition teachings in conjunction with depth psychology and relational practices to support integration and engagement along side awakening. She blends rigor with gentle loving encouragement to find your own way - finding a balance between fierce holding of the Dhamma and compassion, tenderness, humor and empowerment.

Magnolia Grove Monastery is a residential monastery and is simultaneously, Magnolia Village, a Mindfulness Practice Meditation Center in the tradition of Plum Village, founded by Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh, who was nominated for a Noble Peace Prize by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Magnolia Grove Monastery in Batesville, Mississippi is the realization of a dream held by a compassionate community intent on establishing a center for mindfulness in the tradition of Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh. Deer Park Monastery in California and Blue Cliff Monastery in New York uphold his tradition. Now, his teaching and methods of practice are taking root in Mississippi.

John Orr received Theravada Buddhist ordination and training for a period of eight years while living as a monk in the 1970’s in Thailand and India. His Asian teachers are Ajahn Chaa, Ajahn Buddhadasa and S.N. Goenka. He has been teaching meditation and leading retreats around the country since 1980. John is the guiding teacher of the New Hope Sangha , which is a nondenominational community located in Durham, North Carolina that respects the wisdom of various spiritual traditions. He is on the faculty of Duke University.

ev. Michaela O'Connor Bono and Rev. Koji Dreher are the resident priests and co-leaders of the Mid City Zen sangha in New Orleans. They have been practicing Zen for almost ten years, having done most of their monastic training at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center and Green Gulch farm, which are part of the San Francisco Zen Center. Rev.Koji was ordained in 2008 and Rev. Michaela took ordination in 2010. Rev. Michaela is involved in prison meditation and chaplaincy work and she is on the Board of Sakyadhita USA, a branch of the International Association of Buddhist Women.

Born in Monroe, Louisiana in 1960, Bill Savage was raised mostly in the Marshall Islands in the Central Pacific Ocean, with time also spent in Louisiana, Hawaii and Saudi Arabia. After living in Thailand for 18 years and Cambodia for one, in January 2008 Bill moved home to Louisiana and lived in New Orleans for two years before settling on his family homeplace in Morehouse Parish. Having practiced Hatha Yoga and Vipasana Meditation for many years, when Bill came to Kundalini Yoga, he sensed that it enabled all of his spiritual practices to interweave and become more whole. Bill completed his Level 1 Kundalini Yoga teacher training in October 2007 in Thailand. By the summer of 2010, he had completed the five modules of the Level 2 Kundalini Yoga teacher training: Authentic Relationships, Conscious Communication, Mind & Meditation, Lifecycles & Lifestyles, and Vitality & Stress. Bill has worked as a math and English teacher, a professor of language and education, and has also consulted internationally as an organizational and community development facilitator with humanitarian organizations, most recently in the areas of HIV and AIDS, child rights and maternal health. Bill believes that yoga is a journey of healing toward wholeness and authenticity, an intentional path to manifest one’s destiny and become complete for what one is supposed to be and do.

David R. Loy is a Buddhist philosopher who writes on the interaction between Buddhism and modernity. He has been practicing Zen since 1971 and is an authorized teacher in the Sanbo-Kyodan tradition of Japanese Zen Buddhism. David has taught at the National University of Singapore and Bunkyo University in Japan. From 2006 to 2010 he was the Besl Family Chair Professor of ethics/religion and society at Xavier University in Cincinnati. Learn more about David Loy at www.davidloy.org.

Venerable Pannavati, known for her wit and joy is Co-Abbot and Director of Heartwood Refuge, a Buddhist training community and non-sectarian retreat center near Asheville NC. She works internationally training Dharma teachers, lay practitioners, and monastics. Responsive to contemporary issues, she advocates for under-privileged communities, makes the depth of the Dharma accessible to all and guides in meditation cultivation. She is on the visiting faculty of Naropa University and Barre Institute for Buddhist Studies and teaches at Vipassana, Theravadan, Mahayana ndd Tibetan centers throughout the country

Mary Grace Orr is a vipassana teacher affiliated with Spirit Rock Meditation Center. In addition to her training with Jack Kornfield, she also studied for six years in the Ridhwan school with Hameed Ali. Prior to her involvement with Buddhist practice, she trained with the Guild for Psychological Studies, a group interested in the interface of Jungian psychology and western spiritual/contemplative traditions. She was a psychotherapist for 20 years before deciding to become a meditation teacher. She has been teaching meditation for over 20 years.

Rev. Zenju Earthlyn Manuel, Ph.D., is an author and ordained Zen Buddhist priest since 2008. She will receive shiho or full dharma transmission by Zenkei Blanche Hartman in January 2016. Zenju Earthlyn Manuel combines Zen meditation, intuitive knowing, and indigenous ritual in a path of liberation. She is the guiding teacher of Still Breathing Zen Meditation Center in East Oakland. She is the author of Tell Me Something about Buddhism with a foreword by Thich Nhat Hanh and her most recent book is the bestselling, The Way of Tenderness: Awakening Through Race, Sexuality, and Gender, that explores the nature of embodiment within a boundless life. More information at zenju.org.

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; Emotional Chaos to Clarity: How to Live More Skillfully, Make Better Decisions, and Find Purpose in Life and Dancing with Life: Buddhist Insights for Finding Meaning and Joy in the Face of Suffering. For more information about Phillip and his work, visit www.dharmawisdom.org.

Since 1975, Shanta Gabriel has studied Metaphysics, Eastern Spiritual Traditions and forms of energy healing. A chance meeting with an Archangel in 1988 while on a quest to find her purpose in life, started a journey with the Angelic Dimensions that has lasted over 20 years. Shanta Gabriel is the author of The Gabriel Messages book and a card set by the same name. She regularly receives and posts practical and inspiring messages from Archangel Gabriel on her website, and in a monthly newsletter. Shanta is dedicated to bringing more Divine Light and Peace into the world through her work as a writer, a spiritual teacher and a visionary mystic. Visit the new Resources page of her website TheGabrielMessages.com to see the new online version of The Gabriel Messages Book and Cards. You will also find all her private sessions, classes and products in that section.

Lisa Ernst is a Buddhist meditation teacher, visual artist and founder of One Dharma Nashville. She emphasizes both transformational insight and everyday awakening as an invitation to embrace all of the path's possibilities. Lisa began meditating over 25 years ago in the Rinzai Zen lineage, then began incorporating Vipassana traditions as brought to the West by Jack Kornfield and others at Spirit Rock Meditation Center and Insight Meditation Society. Lisa has a close relationship with Trudy Goodman of InsightLA, who empowered her to teach in the Thai Forest lineage of Ajahn Chah. Lisa regularly leads meditation retreats and workshops, focusing especially on the South. As a practicing visual artist, she incorporated Dharma into contemplative photography and writing. She also enjoys taking meditation into diverse settings like prisons and universities.

Rebecca Bradshaw, is the Guiding Teacher of the Insight Meditation Center of Pioneer Valley in Easthampton, Massachusetts, and one of the Guiding Teachers at the Insight Meditation Center in Barre, MA. She has been practicing Vipassana meditation since 1983 in the United States and Myanmar (Burma) and teaching since 1993. She completed her dharma teacher training at Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, where she is part of the three month retreat teacher team, leads retreats for young adults, and serves as a member of the diversity committee. She also teaches at other locations in the United States and abroad, including Spanish language retreats, bringing a style that explores the convergence of love and wisdom. Rebecca has a master's degree in Counseling Psychology and is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor (LMHC).

Master John W. Ellis IV is a martial artist with more than 25 years of experience in helping people strengthen the connections between the mind, body and spirit. He teaches a variety of people, including toddlers, youth, adults senior citizens, athletes, the physically challenged, teen mothers and autistic children. He has more than 20 years of meditation practice in Christian, Zen, Vipassana and New Thought traditions. John teaches the Five Realms of Life, a Meditative Movement practice that explores the properties of Fire, Water, Earth Air and Space.

Dr. Patricia Brawley maintains a therapy and consulting practice and is a university professor. She has always been deeply interested in mind-body interaction, health psychology, creativity, consciousness, and dreams. She is strongly influenced by mindfulness meditation practice, Buddhist philosophy, yoga, and humanistic values and beliefs. Dr Brawley is an independent scholar and researcher with an interest in phenomenological thought and methodology. She has presented professional papers at national and international conferences across the United States, Canada, Japan, Italy, Finland, and Russia. She is a member of the American Psychological Association, the American Counseling Association, the International Association of Eating Disorders Professionals, American Mental Health Counselors Association, the Mississippi Licensed Professional Counselors Association, the Mississippi Counselors Association, the Mississippi Psychological Association and the International Human Science Research organization. Dr Brawley, a published author, enjoys writing and leading writing groups. She lives in McComb, MS with her husband and three cats, Kwan Yin, Nightmare, and Goldilocks.

Mary Rees has been teaching Insight and Mindfulness Meditation since 1989 and Relational Meditation since 2001. Her first vipassana teacher and mentor was Rodney Smith whose focus on spaciousness remains her primary context for practice. Though Mary has worked with many teachers in several traditions, she is now a participant in the Integrated Study and Practice Community at Barre Center for Buddhist Studies. She is the author of Being Prayer--Transforming Consciousness and currently a PhD student in Psychology and Interdisciplinary Inquiry at Saybrook University.

Dr. Paul Levy has studied and practiced inner work of various kinds for many years utilizing diverse modalities. His signature practice is sitting Kundalini Energy Meditation (originally developed by Swami Rudrananda aka Rudi), which he studied with his teachers, Stuart Perrin and Jagna Schwartz, for 20 years. Paul has been teaching this practice for 16 years. Paul is a doctor of chiropractic, who resides in Chicago with his wife, Nina, a certified Kundalini Yoga instructor.

Ralph Steele has been teaching meditation retreats since 1987. He was instrumental in establishing people-of-color retreats at Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Woodacre, CA, and Insight Meditation Society in Barre, MA. Ralph is a Vietnam veteran; he practiced, as an ordained monk, in the monasteries of Burma and Thailand with masters of Buddhist Psychology. He has also received extensive training from Tibetan, Zen, and Hindu meditation masters for over forty-five years. He is the guiding teacher for Life Transition Meditation Center. Ralph's book, Tending The Fire, will be available for sale.

Pascal Auclair has been immersed in Buddhist practice and study since 1997, sitting retreats in Asia and America with revered monastics and lay teachers. He has been mentored by Joseph Goldstein and Jack Kornfield at the Insight Meditation Society (IMS) in Massachusetts and Spirit Rock Meditation Center in California, where he is now enjoying teaching retreats. Pascal teaches in North America and in Europe. His depth of insight, classical training, and creative expression all combine in a wise and compassionate presence. In addition, his warmth and humour make Pascal a much appreciated teacher.

Carla Brennan is a Vipassana teacher in the Santa Cruz area and offers a weekly meditation group, classes, retreats and other programs with the Bloom of the Present Sangha. She is a visiting teacher with the Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Woodacre, CA. Before founding Bloom of the Present in 2009, she taught with Vipassana Santa Cruz for five years. Carla began meditation practice in 1975 in the Zen tradition and was a student of Korean Zen Master Seung Sahn in Cambridge, MA. A few years later she began attending the newly formed Insight Meditation Society, completing many retreats with Jack Kornfield, Joseph Goldstein and others. Later she added the Tibetan Buddhist practice of Dzogchen with Lama Surya Das, Lama John Makransky and Tsoknyi Rinpoche. In the early ’90’s, Carla began attending wilderness retreats with John Milton and Sacred Passage, completing 2 one-month solo retreats near Crestone, CO, and training to be a Sacred Passage Guide. As part of her regular teaching she offers meditation in nature and encourages her students to open to the wisdom of the natural world. Carla has also worked as an artist and illustrator and is a former psychotherapist and counselor trainer in Psychosynthesis, a spiritual psychology. She has taught Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction for 18 years. In addition to teaching Vipassana meditation, Carla is a teacher of Natural Wisdom and Compassion Meditation with Lama John Makransky and the Foundation of Active Compassion. Her personal spiritual practice also includes qi gong and hatha yoga.

Sister Santussika is an American Therevadan Buddhist nun. She started teaching chi gong and energy healing in 1997, began teaching meditation in 1999, began guiding people through self-reflective, visualization processes for resolving suffering and stress in 2001, and completed a four-year interfaith seminary program, receiving a Master of Divinity degree in 2002. She first took robes in 2005 and ordained as a samaneri (10-precept nun) in 2010. She has trained at Amaravati and Chithurst Buddhist Monasteries in England and Aloka Vihara in San Francisco. She now resides at the One Heart Center in Los Altos Hills, California.

Terry Ray is a licensed psychotherapist who has been practicing Vipassana meditation since 1974, and teaching for over 30 years. She completed the first Community Dharma Leader’s program at Spirit Rock, leads retreats and teaches through the Insight Meditation Community and at Naropa. Terry also studied intensively with Charlotte Selver in Sensory Awareness, and is certified to lead this somatic based mindfulness practice.

Dr Vimalasara (Valerie) Mason-John M.A is a TEDx speaker, author of 8 books including Detox Your Heart, Meditations for Emotional Trauma, and her award-winning books Eight Step Recovery - Using The Buddha’s Teachings to Overcome Addiction and her novel Borrowed Body. She is a senior teacher in the Triratna Buddhist Order, practicing for 27 years, chair of Vancouver Buddhist Centre, President of the Buddhist Recovery Network and one of the organizers of the GENX Buddhist Teacher’s gathering in 2019. She curated the Tricycle series Teachings for Uncertain Times 2018, and was the recipient of a European Diversity Awards 2018, for her past work in the LGBTQ communities in the UK. She is a co-founder of Mindfulness-Based Addiction Recovery MBAR and trained as a telephone counsellor for Night Line UK. She lives in Canada and tours internationally as a public speaker and is one of the new leading African Descent voices in the field of Mindfulness Approaches for Addictive Behaviours.

Dr. Hans Gruenig is a Dharma and meditation teacher and a professor at Tulane University, where he teaches courses on Buddhism, Asian Philosophy, and Happiness and Human Flourishing. He has been teaching meditation for more than 15 years and gave talks as a Designated Speaker for the Dalai Lama leading up to his visit to New Orleans in 2013. Since 1995 Hans has attended Buddhist teachings and meditation retreats with dozens of monastic and lay teachers in the USA, Europe, and India -- and completed a Dhamma & Meditation Teacher Training at the Bhavana Monastery with Henepola Gunaratana. After a decade of Theravada practice, Hans started attending retreats in nondual Zen and Vajrayana lineages as well. He received teachings from the Dalai Lama in India, Dzogchen initiations from Tsoknyi Rinpoche, and completed a nondual facilitator training at the Kanzeon Zen Center. Hans has also completed trainings intensive trainings in positive psychology based coaching, Marshall Rosenberg’s work on compassionate communication, Byron Katie’s work on transforming stressful thoughts, and has been certified to teach John Gottman’s principles and practices for successful relationships.

Anushka Fernandopulle teaches meditation and provides leadership coaching to individuals and teams that brings Eastern practices to Western modern life. She is interested in the synthesis of leadership, innovation and awareness, helping leaders to develop courage, clarity and compassion to make their vision come to life. She has over twenty years of training Buddhist meditation; primarily Vipassana or Insight Meditation and studied Buddhism at Harvard University. She is a member of the Teacher’s Council at Spirit Rock Meditation Center, a driving force behind the San Francisco Insight Meditation Center, a blogger on the Huffington Post about meditation and a mayoral appointee to the San Francisco Citizen’s Committee on Community Development. More about her work, publications, guided meditations and teaching can be found on her website, www.anushkaf.org

Susan Piver is a meditation teacher, writer, entrepreneur, and a professional speaker who has been invited to share her expertise everywhere from Procter & Gamble and Hubspot to CNN, Oprah, and the TODAY show. Known for her ability to merge the profound and the practical, Susan is founder of the Open Heart Project, an international online meditation center with close to 15,000 members. In her new book, Start Here Now, she presents the practice of meditation as something more than just the latest “life hack,” but as a path to wisdom and compassion. Susan is an award-winning New York Times best-selling author of nine books that have sold more than 400,000 copies and been translated into 10 languages.

Ruth King is an Insight Meditation Teacher and Emotional Wisdom author and consultant. King teaches at Insight Meditation communities nationwide. She is a guiding teacher at Insight Meditation Community of Washington, DC, core teacher in the Dedicated Practitioner Program at Spirit Rock Meditation Center, and the founder of Mindful Members Practice Community in Charlotte, NC. She is the creator of the Mindful of Race Training -- A Stimulus for Social Healing and Leadership, the 8-week course Mindfulness Practices for Living Well, the DVD program Mindful Approaches to Cultural Competency, and the audio program Embracing the Mad Mind -- Cultivating Calm in Chaos. King is also the author of The Emotional Wisdom Cards, Soothing The Inner Flames of Rage -- Meditations That Educate the Heart and Transform the Mind, and Healing Rage–Women Making Inner Peace Possible

Michael Grady is a core teacher at the Insight Meditation Society and has been a guiding teacher for more than 20 years at the Cambridge Insight Meditation Center, an urban dharma center that emphasizes contemplative practice in daily life. Michael began practicing Insight meditation in 1974 with Joseph Goldstein and Sharon Salzberg. More recently, he trained with the late Master Sheng Yen and was introduced to the practice of Silent Illumination in the Chan tradition. This practice emphasizes cultivating a wise and compassionate attitude in meditation practice, as well as including all of life as an opportunity for awakening.

Dolores Watson, Founder and Director Emerita of Flowering Lotus Meditation and Retreat Center, has been involved with healing modalities of mind, body and spirit for many years. Her vision for Flowering Lotus is to provide a peaceful place where people of all backgrounds can come to experience healing through meditation, gentle movement and wholesome vegetarian food. Certified to teach hatha yoga and meditation by Integral Yoga over 35 years ago, she has continued expanding her knowledge of healing through meditation, visualizations and affirmations. She has also been rigorously engaged with two transformational groups for more than 20 years: Landmark Education and Insight. Having completed her first 10 day Vipassana meditation course led by S.N. Goenka in 2003, she has committed herself to the practice of Vipassana meditation and the sharing of this process with others. Dolores founded Radiance, a wholistic healing center, in New York City in 1984. The center focused on a strictly vegetarian diet of raw foods, vegetable juice fasting and internal cleansing. Dolores guided her students through a 4 week process that resulted in self-healing of many diseases such as high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity, abnormal lumps, joint and muscular pain just to name a few. Besides intestinal cleansing products, she engaged them in meditation, chanting and visualizations. Prior to Radiance, Dolores taught elementary, junior high, adult education and junior college in New York City.

Dolores retired from Flowering Lotus March 2019. It’s because of Dolores’ vision and generosity that Flowering Lotus exists. We wish her happiness and send her much loving kindness in her retirement.

Bhikkhu Pannadipa is Co-Abbot of Embracing Simplicity Hermitage, located in North Carolina. His clarity, stillness and finely honed skills will add unspeakable depth to the practitioner’s experience. Powerfully present with penetrating awareness, he guides meditators towards jhanic attainment (a concentrated mind), teaching them how to use this empowerment in all circumstances of practical life. He is a Theravadan monk, formerly Chan, and a Tien Shen Pi Shr Fu.

David Chernikoff, M.Div., L.C.S.W., began the study and practice of meditation in 1971 and started teaching insight meditation in 1988. He trained as a yoga teacher at the Integral Yoga Institute and completed the Community Dharma Leader program at Spirit Rock Meditation Center. His teaching has been influenced by senior teachers from the Insight Meditation Society and Spirit Rock, Tibetan teachers with whom he studied during a 3-year stay in Nepal, and spiritual guides from other contemplative traditions, most notably Ram Dass, Father Thomas Keating, and Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi. David taught psychology and meditation for many years at Naropa University. He currently serves as one of the guiding teachers of the Insight Meditation Community of Colorado and has a private practice as a spiritual counselor and psychotherapist in Boulder.

Sarah Vekasi, M.Div. is the founder of the Eco-Chaplaincy Initiative, in Black Mountain, NC, which provides pastoral support for social justice and environmental justice activists throughout Central Appalachia and North Carolina. Sarah is a longtime student and colleague of Joanna Macy, facilitating and teaching the Work That Reconnects and Active Hope with her for many years. Originally from rural Montana, Sarah entered the world of direct action activism and community organizing as a teenager. She lived in a tree for nearly a year in Western Washington and helped organize large protests and movement spaces throughout the west coast in the late 1990’s. In her young twenties she needed answers about suffering and the Bodhisattva pledge, so she moved into a traditional Zen monastery in Japan for several years, practicing with Tangen Harada Roshi, before returning to the United States in 2004 to coin and create Eco-Chaplaincy. Sarah has a Master of Divinity from Naropa University, and has worked as a Chaplain within the movement to end mountaintop removal coal mining and towards a sustainable Appalachia since 2009.

Bhante Buddharakkhita was born and raised in Uganda, East Africa. He first encountered Buddhism in 1990 while living in India, and he began practicing meditation in 1993. He was ordained as a Buddhist monk by the late Venerable U Silananda in 2002 at the Tathagata Meditation Center in San Jose, California and then he spent eight years under the guidance of Bhante Gunaratana at the Bhavana Society, West Virginia. He is the founder of the Uganda Buddhist Center in Uganda. Besides spending time at the Buddhist Center in Uganda, he is on the council of spiritual advisers to the Global Buddhist Relief, New Jersey. Bhante has been teaching meditation in Africa, Australia, Europe, Asia, and the U.S, since 2005. His book, Planting Dhamma Seeds: The Emergence of Buddhism in Africa, tells the story of his religious and spiritual work in Africa.

Bhante is the Former Spiritual Director of Flowering Lotus Meditation Center. We are so grateful for Bhante’s guidance for our first 9 years of existence! He helped inspire our Founder to start Flowering Lotus.

Ven. Suhita Dharma, Mahathero (May 4, 1941- December 28, 2013), called "Bhante" by his students, was a well-known senior Buddhist bhikkhu ordained in the three lineages: Mahayana, Theravada, and Vajrayana. He was the first African American to be ordained a Buddhist monk; he was ordained by the late Ven. Thich Thien An, the first Vietnamese Buddhist master to come to Los Angeles. Bhante worked to Mexico at the end of his life; on a pilgrimage to pay respects to the ancient deities of the indigenous peoples of Mexico, praying to ask permission for the establishment of a Buddhist center in Mexico at the request of the Mayans, Yaquis, Tarahumaras, Pimas, and Aztecs, and to meet with the shamans in those traditions. A longtime social justice activist and social worker, Bhante began working with Indo-Chinese refugees entering the U.S. in 1975 and worked with homeless persons, people with HIV/AIDS, and formerly incarcerated people. Bhante taught compassion meditation for everyday life and practice for those who are working with people in different communities, emphasizing a one-to-one approach as well as introducing students to the practice of Kalyanamitta (spiritual friend) and helping those who are within the sea of samsaric suffering.

Rev. Michaela O'Connor Bono is the resident priest and co-leader of the Mid City Zen sangha in New Orleans. She has been practicing Zen for almost ten years, having done most of their monastic training at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center and Green Gulch farm, which are part of the San Francisco Zen Center. Rev. Michaela took ordination in 2010. Rev. Michaela is involved in prison meditation and chaplaincy work and she is on the Board of Sakyadhita USA, a branch of the International Association of Buddhist Women.

Shaila Catherine is the founder of Bodhi Courses, an online Dhamma classroom, and Insight Meditation South Bay, a Buddhist meditation center in Silicon Valley in California. She has been practicing meditation since 1980, accumulating more than eight years of silent retreat experience, and has taught internationally since 1996. Shaila studied with masters in India, Thailand, and Nepal, and also with the founders of western meditation centers. She completed a one-year intensive meditation retreat with the focus on concentration and jhāna, and authored Focused and Fearless: A Meditator’s Guide to States of Deep Joy, Calm, and Clarity. From 2006-2015 Shaila practiced under the direction of Venerable Pa-Auk Sayadaw. She authored Wisdom Wide and Deep: A Practical Handbook for Mastering Jhāna and Vipassanā to help make this traditional approach to samadhi and vipassana accessible to western practitioners.

JoAnna Hardy has been exploring and practicing multiple traditions since 1999. In 2005, her focus landed on Buddhism and Vipassana meditation. Helping communities and individuals that don’t typically have access to the traditional dharma settings, social/racial justice and building multicultural community is top on her list of priorities. She is an empowered teacher in the Spirit Rock, IMS lineage and the Guiding Teacher of Against the Stream Buddhist Meditation Society.