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PAST DHARMA TEACHERS

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Lama Rod Owens is an author, activist, and Lama (Buddhist Teacher) in the Kagyu School of Tibetan Buddhism. He holds a Master of Divinity degree in Buddhist Studies from Harvard Divinity School and is the co-founder of Bhumisparsha, a Buddhist tantric practice and study community. Lama Rod’s work has been published and featured in several publications including Buddhadharma, Lion's Roar, Tricycle, and the Harvard Divinity Bulletin;. He is a coauthor of Radical Dharma: Talking Race, Love, and Liberation; and of the recently published Love and Rage: The Path to Freedom Through Anger.

Wayne Vicknair has been President of the Board of Directors of Flowering Lotus since January, 2018. A retired Human Resources professional, Wayne lives in Metairie, Louisiana. He began his meditation practice about 7 years ago, to supplement other personal recovery goals. He is also an active practitioner of the Twelve Steps Recovery program. On January 1, 2016 Wayne received the Five Mindfulness Trainings at Magnolia Grove Monastery, the Zen monastery and retreat center founded by Thich Nhat Hanh in Batesville, Mississippi. His dharma name is Loving New Me of the Heart. He continues to find peace and serenity through his daily meditation practice.

Dawn Barie is a meditation and Dharma teacher, and a licensed psychotherapist practicing in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. She is the founder of the Center for Mindful Living in Lewisburg.

Dawn traveled to Thailand in 1997 and immersed herself in meditation practice with Buddhist monks at The Middle Way Meditation Institute. She has traveled through South and Southeast Asia and has experience in the Theravada, Mahayana and Tibetan traditions. Dawn primarily teaches the tradition of Luang Pu Sodh Candasaro (1885-1959) of Thailand. She received a scholarship from the Thai Dhammachai International Research Institute to pursue graduate studies in Buddhism at the University of Sydney, Australia, with the goal of teaching the Dharma in the West. She uses her training in meditation to provide mindfulness-based therapies in her psychotherapy practice.

Dawn has led national and international meditation retreats, workshops and courses in cities across the U.S. in a variety of settings – including clinics, wellness centers, educational institutions and corporations – and has also taught at the United Nations.

Dawn regularly teaches classes and leads retreats at the Meditation Center of Alabama. She first taught at Flowering Lotus in 2019, when her powerful message and presence had a profound impact on its participants. We are honored to welcome this extraordinary teacher to a return engagement with the Flowering Lotus sangha.

Known for her warmth and ability to “translate” between traditions, Christie was ordained a Dharmacharya (Buddhist minister) in October 2016 by Venerables Pannavati and Pannadipa after practicing a dedicated contemplative path since 1985. As spiritual director, licensed professional counselor (TN and MS), the author of Accepting Your Resurrection(2008), and host of the Deep South Dharma podcast, Christie seeks to help people find the courage to find and follow the wisdom of loving, wise Awareness.

Christie was instrumental in the establishment of Buddhist recovery circles in Nashville, TN, responsible for Contemplative Programs at The Ranch TN from 2013-2018, and was founder and teacher of Embracing Simplicity Nashville from 2014-2019. Since relocating to Oxford MS in the Spring of 2019 to play at grandmothering, Christie has co-founded Deep South Dharma, a Buddhist community with local and online offerings. Her chief interest is to help practitioners free themselves from the tyranny of preferences and see through delusions of self so as to be mirrors of truth and beauty in a hurting world.

Daniel Scharpenburg is a meditation teacher, writer, and podcaster. In his day job he’s a union labor activist. Daniel’s goal is to bring meditation practice and Buddhism to people in a practical way that they can apply to their everyday lives. He teaches in small gatherings and retreats.

Scharpenburg has been practicing Buddhism and meditating for more than twenty years, with many different teachers. He spent time teaching at the Open Heart Project and at the Rime Buddhist Center before becoming an independent teacher. He was appointed a lay dharma teacher by the International Chan Buddhism Institute and was named a Lineage Holder in the Lay Caodong Chan Tradition. He also received meditation teacher training from the Rime Buddhist Center and from the Anchor Meditation Center.

Daniel is a co-owner of the website The Tattooed Buddha. His work has appeared in the publications Lion’s Roar, Elephant Journal, Patheos, and The Mighty.

Rev. Seiho Mudo Morris is an ordained Rinzai Zen Buddhist monk, having trained and practiced in the Zen tradition for nearly three decades, as well as receiving formal training and empowerments in Tibetan Nyingma and Sakya lineages in various teachings and practices, over the past three years.

Seiho has been providing workshops and immersion practices related to cultural/racial bias, racism and otherism, harmonizing the Four Noble Truths, Eightfold Path and a specifically revised expression Twelve Step principles; in an effort to help support and advance a path of change related to racism. He has conducted programs at Sundiatia Festival in Seattle, Washington; Nalanda West; The Gathering II: Buddhist Teachers Black-African Descent 2019; Choboji Dai Bai Zan; True Freedom Yoga; and most recently at Boundless Heart Sangha.

He has been in long-term recovery for the last 33 years, and is a former addictions counselor, program director and facility administrator. He is currently on the administrative team of a behavioral health facility in the State of Maryland. He regularly offers 3- and 5-day Zen and Twelve Step immersion practices.

Devon and Craig Hase mentor dharma practitioners online, teach meditation on the Simple Habit app, and lead meditation retreats throughout North America and Europe. Devon teaches at the Insight Meditation Society and Spirit Rock and mentors mindfulness teachers for Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach’s Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Program. Craig spent six years in a Zen monastery and then completed a PhD in counseling psychology before making his topsy-turvy transition into teaching mindfulness, meditation, and dharma full time. Craig and Devon have studied closely with Joseph Goldstein, Tara Brach, Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, and many others in the Insight, Zen, and Vajrayana traditions. These days they live together in urban retreat in Ashland, Oregon, splitting each week between retreat practice and dharma mentoring. Their first book, How Not to Be a Hot Mess: A Survival Guide for Modern Life, offers six really good pieces of semi-Buddhist advice to keep you anchored and steady amidst the chaos of modern life.

Märta Vigerstad has been meditating since she was 8 years old. She has been Facilitating Social Meditation for 6 years and is a Meditation Instructor in the Shambhala Lineage. She works as a social worker in Baltimore City Public Schools providing individual and family therapy for students.

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.

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.

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.

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