Teachers & Guest Teachers

Patrick Thornton started the Dharma Gate Insight Meditation Community (now the Benicia Sangha) in 1994 at the request of medical professionals who had attended a six-week beginning meditation class he had taught. He began Vipassana practice with James Baraz in 1983, and was the first coordinator for Spirit Rock¹s Kalyana-Mitta groups. In 1992, after a month long retreat in France, he was invited by Thich Nhat Hahn to take lay ordination in the Tiep Hien order of Interbeing and was given the name: Chan Bi Hahn (True Compassionate Practice: lit. to suffer compassion). Patrick's teachings integrate Buddhism with other faith traditions, finding relevance of practice to daily life, and encouraging a community practice. He believes that the role of a teacher to be to inform, guide and inspire wholeness. Patrick now lives in Santa Rosa where he has a private practice bringing Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy into the therapeutic setting for individuals and groups. Patrick teaches Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy Intensives for Clinicians, and has in recent months was the keynote or principle presenter for the Collaborative Council of the Redwood Empire with the Sonoma County Bar Association / American Bar Association ("Grief Matters"), the Redwood Chapter of the American Psychological Association on "Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy," and at the Veterans Administration Post-Doctoral Conference in Palo Alto. He will also be the principle presenter for the California Professionals California Annual Conference in San Francisco in April 2010. He also serves on the Board of Directors for Easter Seals. Patrick serves as a mental health practitioner working with family and estate / civil law in collaborative law, has a advance training and is providing services as a Collaborative / Narrative Mediator in dispute resolution, and is currently working with collaborative resolution in Medical Error. For more information, please visit: www.patrickthornton.net.

Donald Rothberg has practiced Insight Meditation since 1976 and has been mentored as a teacher by John Travis, Sylvia Boorstein, and Gil Fronsdal. He writes and teaches classes and retreats on meditation, socially engaged Buddhism, and transpersonal studies, and directs a two-year interfaith program in "Socially Engaged Spirituality" for Saybrook Graduate School. Donald has worked as an educator, organizer, and board member for many years for Buddhist Peace Fellowship. He teaches frequently at Spirit Rock, including co-teaching the Friday morning (10–12:15) class on yoga and meditation and often teaching the Wednesday morning (9–11) class; he also leads two small practice groups in Berkeley. For ten years, he was a co-editor of the journal ReVision, and is a co-editor of Ken Wilber in Dialogue: Conversations with Leading Transpersonal Thinkers.
    Donald has completed writing a book on spiritual engagement and social transformation in the world. It's called The Engaged Spiritual Life. Donald's teaching schedule for the first half of 2008 can be seen here. PDF for print out here.

Richard Shankman has been a meditator since 1970 and teaches regularly at dharma centers and groups throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. Richard is active in bringing meditation and dharma to prisons, and is a co-founder of the Sati Center for Buddhist Studies. Some of his talks, besides the ones on this web-site, are posted on his own website.

Dennis Warren has been practicing Insight (Vipassana) meditation since 1982 and is a graduate of the Dharma Leaders Program at Spirit Rock Meditation Center. His teaching is based on the premise that meditation practices can be a powerful source of inspiration and energy for daily living, problem-solving, and healing. Dennis is the president of Sacramento Insight Meditation.
     Dennis has also participated in the professional training programs, under the direction of the University of Massachusetts Medical Center's Jon Kabat-Zinn and Saki Santorelli, on using meditation and yoga practices to deal with chronic pain and stress related conditions such as headaches, high blood pressure, sleep disorders, anxiety, and gastrointestinal problems.

Laura Burges is a lay Dharma teacher in the Soto Zen tradition.  She trained for three years at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center and currently practices at the San Francisco Zen Center, where she is co-chair of the Ethics and Reconciliation Council.  She leads meditation retreats at different practice centers in Northern California.
     Laura writes a monthly column for SFZC, called Is That So? For an index into all her articles, click here.

Mary Mocine is the abbess at Clear Water Zendo in Vallejo. She was trained at the San Francisco Zen Center and Berkeley Zen Center and was ordained by Sojun Mel Weitsman, former abbot of the S.F. Zen Center. Rev. Mocine has also trained with Abbess Zenkei Blanche Hartman and former Abbot Zoketsu Norman Fisher, of the San Francisco Zen Center.

Taigen Dan Leighton is a Zen priest and Dharma successor of Tenshin Reb Anderson in the lineage of Suzuki Roshi. Taigen has practiced in Japan as well as America, is author of the Bodhisattva Archetypes, and is co-translator of several Zen texts including Cultivating the Empty Field, The Wholehearted Way, and Dogen's Pure Standards for the Zen Community. He teaches at the Berkeley Graduate Theological Union and is Dharma Teacher of the Mountain Source Sangha meditation groups, based in the Bay Area. For more information, see www.MtSource.org.

The son of a Quaker father and Jewish mother, Steve Keyes (ryhmes with 'eyes') took up Zen practice as a teenager in 1964. His first ten years of practice were in the Rinzai school of Zen, in the midwest and California. In the middle 70s he became a student of the Soto Zen Master Kobun Chino Roshi. In 1986 he moved to Willits, a small town in Mendocino County, California, with his family. Teaching a meditation class there for some local 12 step group members led to his starting a non-sectarian meditation group, the Buddhist Fellowship. He ran this for about thirteen years. Nine years ago he was given a Nyoi, which is a scepter known in the Soto sect as a "Teaching Stick" (a kind of teacher's credential within that school), by Angie Boissevain, a senior disciple of the late Kobun Chino. Although his training is in the Zen tradition, Steve has developed his own eclectic approach to teaching Buddhist meditation.

Roger Corless was Professor of Religion, Emeritus, at Duke University. His special interests were Pure Land Buddhism, Christian Spirituality, and Buddhist-Christian Dialogue. He was a co-founder of the Society for Buddhist-Christian Studies and its journal Buddhist-Christian Studies. He published about sixty academic papers and four books, including the widely praised Vision of Buddhism: The Space Under the Tree. Roger passed away on January 12th, 2007.

After weeks of prepatory study and ceremonial activity, Setsuan Gaelyn Godwin received formal dharma transmission from Tenshin Reb Anderson. Shortly, she'll be leaving Green Gulch for Houston, Texas, to assume her new role as resident teacher for the zen group (Housten Zen Community) that has been meeting there for many years. Gaelyn has been an influential administrator and teacher at Zen Center for the last 15 years, serving as, among other things, Director at Tassajara, Guest Program Manager at Green Gulch and a principal sewing instructor in the community. We wish her the best of luck and know that our loss will be Houston's gain!

Wendy Johnson is a lay Dharma teacher ordained by Thich Nhat Hanh. Wendy has lived and practiced at Green Gulch Farm Zen Center in northern California since 1975. As a wife and mother of two, Wendy combines her 30-year training in organic agriculture with a commitment to teaching meditation engaged with the life of the world. She has been involved for many years in establishing gardening programs in Bay Area schools. She is completing a book on Zen practice and gardening to be published by Bantam Press.

Zoketsu Norman Fischer, installed as Abbot of San Francisco Zen Center in 1995, began practicing at Zen Center in 1970. He was at Tassajara from 1976 to 1981; from 1981 to the present he has been at Green Gulch Farm. He is a poet and has published six books, the last one--Jerusalem Moonlight (San Francisco: Clear Glass Press, 1995)--is an exploration in prose of his Jewish and Buddhist roots. Fischer has also taught high school English. He is married with two grown sons. His teaching focuses on the relationship between meditation practice and ordinary everyday life. Learn more about Norman's work at the Everyday Zen Foundation website.

Marc Lesser is a longtime Zen practitioner/student. He is founder and currently serves as chief creative officer of Brush Dance, a spiritual lifestyle company that markets cards, calendars, journals and other paper products. Marc was recently ordained as a Zen Preist.

Charlie Johnson is a retired chemical engineer. He now teaches Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), yoga / qigong, meditation, and the Dharma in the greater San Francisco Bay Area. He has been practicing meditation and yoga since 1972. He has studied Tibetan Buddhism with Lama Lodu Rinpoche of Kagyu Droden Kunchab in San Francisco. More recently he has been studying the Theravada Buddhist tradition and practicing at the Spirit Rock Meditation Center and is a graduate of their Community Dharma Leaders program. He is a certified yoga teacher, is registered with the Yoga Alliance and is a member of the California Yoga Teachers Association and the International Association of Yoga Therapists.

Eileen Phillips recently moved from Sacramento to Grass Valley. She is a former SBMG Sangha member, and has been a student of John Travis since the first class he taught in Sacramento in 1992. She is a founding director of Mountain Stream Meditation Center in Nevada City, and sits with the Auburn and Nevada City sitting groups. She is a graduate of the Spirit Rock Community Dharma Leadership Program and is also engaged in a professional training with Bob Stahl in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction.

Diana Winston is the founder of the BASE program (Buddhist Alliance for Social Engagement), America's first socially engaged Buddhist training program. She has practiced Insight Meditation since 1989 and spent a year (1998) as a Buddhist nun in Burma (Myanmar). She teaches meditation to adults and teens in India and America and served as the associate director of the Buddhist Peace Fellowship in Berkeley, California. She is the author of Wide Awake: A Buddhist Guide for Teens. More about Diana's current work can be found at the website of the Buddhist Peace Fellowship.

Tenryu Paul Rosenblum began Zen practice with Suzuki-roshi more than 35 years ago and received priest ordination from Zentatsu Baker-roshi in 1975. After about 10 years as a resident at Zen Center, he left (1978) and actively engaged in a worldly life. Tenryu resumed practice with Baker-roshi in the mid-90's and received transmission from him in 1999. He is currently teaching in Europe about six months each year and is the Seido, Resident Teacher, at Genrin-ji, a Zen temple in the Black Forest region of Germany. Tenryu also leads a Sitting and Study group that meets in Lafayette when he is in the Bay Area. For more information, please see: www.TenryuPaulRosenblum.com.

Ernest Isaacs is a psychotherapist in private practice and has been with the Dharma since 1977. He graduated from the Spirit Rock Community Dharma Leaders program several years ago. For the last 15 years he has taught a weekly sitting group in Walnut Creek.

Ron began practice with The Berkeley Zen Center, led by Sojun Mel Weitsman, in the early 70's. He says he chose Zen as his meditation path because he liked the emphasis on an everyday schedule of meditation as a part of one's daily activities, rather than special retreats, progression through different practices, or accumulation of conceptual learning. He was a resident of BZC for about ten years and held most of the possible practice positions including head cook, president, treasurer, coordinator, work leader, etc. He currently works as a manager at a yoga and massage studio in San Francisco.

Meghan Collins began Zen practice at Berkeley Zen Center in 1975, and today continues to visit there often, as well as continuing her practice at Clear Water Zen Center in Vallejo. For six years, until she moved out of the area, she was a pillar of our community here, having the job of finding and scheduling guest teachers. Having been head student at the fall 2005 practice period at Clear Water allows her (according to Zen tradition) to begin developing as a lay teacher.
     One of her chief interests, which she considers an important part of her Buddhist practice, is healing music. To this end, she plays her folk harp several times a month at hospitals and nursing homes.

Enrico signed on to the Magical Mystery Tour while growing up in the Bay Area. He considers Alan Watts and Gary Snyder among his earliest influences - as well as the translations of Witter Bynner and Paul Reps. He is a student of John Travis and the wilderness and a devotee of the Seat of the Pants School of Buddhism. Enrico and his wife Itaka (see below) share their lives together in Paris and in the wilds of islands and deserts.

Itaka Schlubach is a Gestalt-therapist practicing in France. She works combining the process of therapy and meditation; integrating various forms of awakenings (whether these insights emerge from spiritual practices and-or through trauma) into our ordinary lives. She draws from Gestalt-therapy theory the awareness of self, boundary and field in the ever fluctuating moment to work with individuals and groups. She first encountered the meditative state through prayer in early childhood, and continues to actively explore all forms of meditation. She co-created a regular non-denominational weekly sitting group in Paris and she chooses each Moment to share her life with Enrico Martignoni. Itaka (pronounced e-tah-kah) was born in Mexico.

Kevin Griffin has been practicing meditation since 1978, and doing Buddhist Vipassana practice since 1980. He has studied with the leading Western Vipassana teachers, including Joseph Goldstein, Jack Kornfield, Ruth Denison, Christopher Titmuss, Ajahn Amaro, James Baraz, Wes Nisker, and many others. He has been teaching meditation in the San Francisco Bay Area since 1996.
     Kevin has been actively working with the Twelve Steps since 1985, maintaining continuous sobriety from alcohol and drugs during that time.
     Kevin has been trained as a Community Dharma Leader (CDL) with the Spirit Rock Teaching Collective, a two and a half year program of study, retreat, and teacher training. He has been mentored in that program by James Baraz, one of the founders of Spirit Rock Meditation Center.
     Kevin has been writing fiction and non-fiction for fifteen years. He holds an MFA in Creative Writing from UC Irvine.

Wes "Scoop" Nisker, author of the enduring classic Crazy Wisdom, the widely acclaimed Buddha's Nature, and most recently, The Big Bang, the Buddha, and the Baby Boom, is a founder and co-editor of the superb Buddhist journal Inquiring Mind. An enduring San Francisco celebrity, having been on Bay Area radio for more than twenty-five years, Nisker is a teacher of Buddhist meditation and philosophy, and is located prominently in the group of our country's most influential voices for spiritual transformation.

Dr. Kabatznick recently spent a two-year sabbatical on a meditation retreat in Thailand, under the guidance of two of the most highly esteemed Buddhist meditation masters in the country.
Currently, Dr. Kabatznick is a consultant to the UCSF Department of Psychiatry, where she is involved in a research study involving mindfulness and emotional eating. She offers workshops and lectures on mindful eating and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for depression (MBCT.) She is also a feature writer and the book review editor for Inquiring Mind: A Journal for the Vipassana Community. Her private practice based in Berkeley, California, is devoted to those challenged with weight, depression and relationship issues.

Heather Sundberg began teaching meditation in 1999 to youth and families. A graduate of the Spirit Rock Community Dharma Leaders program, she is currently in teacher training under the guidance of Jack Kornfield. Beginning her own meditation practice in her late teens, over the last fifteen-plus years Heather has studied with senior teachers in the Vipassana and Tibetan traditions, and has sat 1-3 months of retreat a year for the last decade. At Spirit Rock, she is a teacher for the Family Program and for the weekly Women's Class. She brings to her teaching a passion for the depth of retreat practice, combined with a playful creativity for integrating the teachings into daily life.

Tempel Smith began practicing vipassana and metta meditation in 1989 within the Theravada Buddhist tradition at Insight Meditation Society, and focused his early service and activism on nuclear disarmament, environmental protection, and working in crisis shelters for homeless and abused youth. In 1997 he spent a year in Burma as an ordained monk, and later practiced vipassana for a year at the IMS in Massachusetts under the guidance of Michele McDonald and Joseph Goldstein.
Since 2001 Tempel has begun to teach meditation and Buddhist psychology to a wide variety of people including prisoners, activists, youth, service providers, and those with severe and chronic illnesses. He founded the BASE House in San Francisco - a residential community dedicated to living a socially engaged Buddhist life, spent a year in volunteer service for Zen Hospice, and led the Teen Program for Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, CA.
Tempel currently works for the Buddhist Peace Fellowship in Berkeley coordinating the Young Adults program, and teaches in Northern California. He serves on the Spirit Rock Teen Counsel, and is in the Spirit Rock/Insight Meditation Society's teacher training program.

Amber Allen began practicing meditation while training to be a theater actress at Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle, WA. She received her BFA in theater June of 2002 and began to pursue her career. However she found herself in meditation or on the yoga mat more than on the stage or at auditions. Questioning her dream of being an actress she began to listen to the call of a spiritually disciplined life. In 2004 Amber took a Yoga teachers training at Moksha Yoga Center in Chicago Illinois. She has studied with many master teachers such as Aadil Pakilava, Rod Stryker, Ana Forest, Tias Little, and has been a student of Baba Hari Das since 2001. She has been practicing yoga since 1999 and teaching Yoga since 2005. In 2007 she went to North India where she met her Guru. She lived and worked in India for one year taking teachings in yoga therapy, art and esthetics, Buddhist philosophy and meditation. She plans to return to India in 2009 to complete her studies.