DharmaNet's Guide to Theravada Dhamma Teachers:

An Online Who's Who

This page is intended as a resource to help individuals who are unfamiliar with certain teachers to find thumbnail sketches of their background and teaching approach, and ultimately, some reference as to where they teach or how to contact them. Any teacher who would care to have their e-mail address listed, or revise the information here, is invited to contact us. Please help this resource to grow.

A. B. C. D. E. F. G. H. I. J. K. L. M. N. O. P. Q. R. S. T. U. V. W. X. Y. Z.

Ajahn Amaro (Jeremy Horner), born in Kent, England, in 1956, has been a Theravadan monk since 1979 in the Thai forest tradition of Ajahn Chah and Ajahn Sumedho. He received upasampada from Ajahn Chah in 1979. He is currently the abbot of Abhayagiri Forest Monastery in Redwood Valley, CA, north of San Francisco. He is the author of Tudong - The Long Road North and Silent Rain. See also: Who's Who at Abhayagiri and The Fearless Mountain Newsletter.

Amritananda Thera is a Senior Nepalese bhikkhu, born in 1918 in Nepal. He entered Sangha at age 18, ordained in Sri Lanka and returned to Nepal. He established a Buddhist center at Svayambhunath, near Kathmandu. In 1956, he organized the 4th WFB (World Fellowship of Buddhists) Conference, at Kathmandu. In recent years has devoted himself to writing and translating.

Ananda Maitreya Mahanayaka Thera is a senior Sri Lankan monk and scholar active in the West. Born 1896, Sri Lanka; 1911: initial ordination. c. 1911-20: studied Pali, Sanskrit, Buddhist philosophy; also Sutta & Vinaya Pitakas. 1916: higher ordination. 1920: joined Ananda College. 1924: first missionary tour of India. 1924-26: lecturer in Pali and Sinhalese, at Nalanda College, Colombo. 1926-35: lecturer in Pali, Sanskrit, Sinhalese, and Buddhism at Ananda College. 1935: opened Sri Dharmananda Pirivena, an institute for Buddhist monks, at Balangoda. 1954: appointed Mahanayaka Thera at Suddharma School of Sri Lanka. 1956: appointed President of Sri Lankan contingent at 6th Sangha Council held in Rangoon. 1959: appointed Professor of Mahayana Buddhism in Vidyodaya U (now Sri Jayewardhenapura University). 1963: appointed Dean of the Faculty of Buddhism in same U. 1966: appointed Acting Vice Chancellor of same. 1967: appointed President & Mahanayaka of the United Amarapura school. 1967: to Mahabodhi Center, Sarnath (near Benares) to teach Buddhism. 1980: to England, then Moscow and Ulan Ude (Mongolia) with other Sri Lankan monks of the World Peace movement. Publications include numerous works in Sinhalese. In English: versified translation of Dhammapada, 1975-78.

Ananda Metteyya (Charles Henry Allan Bennett, 1872-1923) was the first British bhikkhu and Buddhist missionary. Born in London, son of electrical engineer. Trained as analytical chemist. Involved in Golden Dawn movement, with Y.B. Yeats, et al. 1890: Arnold's Light of Asia kindled an interest in Buddhism. 1898: "Ill-health drove me from England to the East." Initially studied Dhamma in Sri Lanka and determined to lead Buddhist mission to Europe. 1901: samanera ordination in Akyab (Burma). 1902: bhikkhu ordination. 1903: founded International Buddhist Socirty (Buddhasasana Samagana) in Rangoon. 1908: led first mission to England; returned to Burma after 6 months. 1914: ill health compelled him to disrobe and return to UK; continued Buddhist propaganda work, which he attempted to finance by his inventions. Books include An Outline of Buddhism and The Wisdom of the Aryas.

Guy Armstrong has been practicing insight meditation for 20 years. His training included practice as a Buddhist monk in Thailand with Ajahn Buddhadhasa. He began teaching meditation in 1984 and has led retreats in the United States, Europe and Australia.

Steve Armstrong has been practicing vipassana meditation since 1975, both as a layman and as a monk, and leads retreats in the United States and Australia. His primary focus is Buddhist psychology. He was on the staff and board of directors at Insight Meditation Society for several years.

Ba Khin, Sayagji U Ba Khin (1899-1971): lay Burmese meditation master. In 1937, he began practicing vipassana under Saya Thet Gyi. He mastered several types of concentration meditation and developed powerful vipassana technique. His style, which emphasizes intensive practice rather than theoretical understanding, is taught elsewhere in the world by his disciples, e.g., S.N. Goenka, Ruth Dennison, Robert Hover.

James Baraz has been practicing vipassana meditation since 1974 and has been teaching since 1980. He leads ongoing meditation classes in the San Francisco Bay Area and is a co-founder of Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Woodacre CA.

Robert Beatty is the founding teacher of the Portland Vipassana Sangha and a psychotherapist. His practice began in India in 1971. Inspired by Ruth Denison, Robert uses poetry, movement, drumming and humor to bring creativity and life to Dharma practice. Robert teaches Dharma for everyday life, bringing lovingkindness and wisdom to intimate relationship, child rearing, work, health, and the cultivation of compassionate community.

Bhikkhu Bodhi (Thera) was born Jeffrey Block in New York City of Jewish parentage in 1944. In 1972, he received samenera ordination in Sri Lanka and bhikkhu ordination in 1973. In 1977 he returned to the USA and spent nearly 2 years at a monastery of Geshe Wangyal and 3 years at Washington Buddhist Vihara. He returned to Sri Lanka in 1982 and, in 1984, after periods of meditation training at Mitirigala Nissarana Vanaya, he accepted the editorship of the Buddhist Publication Society. He translated The Connected Discourses of the Buddha, the Samyutta Nikaya, and he edited and revised the Bhikkhu Nanamoli translation of the Majjhima Nikaya, both published by Wisdom. He is author of A Comprehensive Manual of Abhidhamma, Dana: The Practice of Giving, The Discourse On the All-Embracing Net of Views: The Brahmajala Sutta and Its Commentaries, The Discourse On Root of Existence: The Mulapariyaya Sutta and Its Commentaries, The Discourse On Root of Existence: The Mulapariyaya Sutta and Its Commentaries, The Great Discourse on Causation: The Mahanidana Sutta and Its Commentaries, Maha Kaccana: Master of Doctrinal Exposition, The Noble Eightfold Path, Nourishing the Roots, and numerous others.

Sylvia Boorstein has been teaching since 1985 and teaches both vipassana and metta meditation. She is a founding teacher of Spirit Rock Meditation Center and a psychotherapist, wife, mother, and grandmother who is particularly interested in seeing daily life as practice. She is the author of It's Easier Than You Think: The Buddhist Way to Happiness, That's Funny, You Don't Look Buddhist: On Being a Faithful Jew and a Passionate Buddhist, and Don't Just Do Something, Sit There: A Mindfulness Retreat.

Tara Brach is the founder of the Insight Meditation Community of Washington (DC) and has practiced and taught meditation since 1975. Tara is a clinical psychologist, teaches meditation classes locally, and leads retreats with Jack Kornfield and other Vipassana teachers at meditation centers around the country.

Barbara Brodsky has been practicing meditation since 1960 and teaching worldwide since 1989. She has dual roots in the Buddhist and Quaker traditions. Within Buddhism, her focus is in vipassana practice and also in pure awareness practices drawn from dzogchen teachings. She has been profoundly deaf for 24 years; living with silence has greatly influenced her life and teaching as have years of active involvement in non-violent action for social change. She is the guiding teacher of Deep Spring Center in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Barbara is married and the mother of three children.

Buddhadasa Bhikkhu was one of the most well-known meditation masters in Thailand. Born in Chaiya, the son aof a well-to-do merchant, he ordained at 21.Having completed Buddhist studies, he taught for some years and then lived alone as a tudong monk in the forest for 6 years, studying Pali and avoiding all human contact. He then became Abbot of Wat Phra Data at Chaiya; he later moved to Wat Sunanmokkhabalarama, 2.5 miles utside Chaiya. Influenced by Zen, Christianity, etc, he taughtthat Nibbanna can be attained "here and now." Books include: Heartwood of the Bodhi Tree and Mindfulness With Breathing.

Eugene Cash has practiced meditation intensively since 1981. He teaches vipassana retreats throughout the country as well as leading a weekly sitting group in San Francisco. He also leads a group for people with life threatening illness at the Zen Hospice project. His teaching draws on many streams of the vipassana tradition. Other influences include the teachings of Zen monk poet Ryokan and the work of A. H. Almaas. As a psychotherapist he works extensively with those who are ill, dying and bereaved.

Ajahn Chah was a meditation master of the Thai forest tradition. He was born in a rural village in a Lao part of NE Thailand and ordained as a novice in his early youth. At age 20, he took bhikkhu ordination. He studied basic Dhamma, discipline and suttas as a young monk and later practiced meditation under several masters of the forest tradition. He lived as an ascetic for several years, wandering, sleeping in forests, caves, and cremation grounds. He then spent a short but enlightening period with Ajahn Mun. He eventually settled in a thick forest grove near his birthplace and a large monastery grew up around him there (Wat Pah Pong) from which numerous branch temples have sprung in NE Thailand and elsewhere. In 1975, Wat Pah Nanachat was established as a special training monastery for westerners. Ajahn Chah died in 1992. Books of his teachings include Bodhinyana, A Still Forest Pool, A Taste of Freedom, Food for the Heart, and Living Dhamma.

Howard Cohn has been practicing vipassana since 1978. He has been teaching retreats since 1984 and leads ongoing meditation classes in San Francisco and Marin. He has also studied with teachers in the Advaita and Dzogchen traditions and incorporates the non-dual perspective into his vipassana teaching.

Ruth Denison studied in Burma in the early 1960's with the meditation master Sayagi U Ba Khin. She has been teaching since 1973 and is founder of Dhamma Dena, a desert retreat center in Joshua Tree CA, and The Center for Buddhism in the West in Germany. She is known for her energy and unorthodox way of teaching Vipassana meditation. She uses movement, music, rhythm, chanting, and sound as supportive meditation patterns for the practice.

Anna Douglas is a founding teacher of Spirit Rock Meditation Center, teaching both there and at Insight Meditation Society. She has a background in psychology and the arts, and in addition to fifteen years of vipassana practice, she has studied with teachers in the Zen, Advaita and Dzogchen traditions.

Christina Feldman has been studying and training in the Tibetan, Mahayana and Theravada traditions since 1970, and teaching meditation worldwide since 1974. She is co-founder and a guiding teacher of Gaia House in England, author of Principles of Meditation, Woman Awake! and has co-authored Stories of the Spirit, Stories of the Heart.

Matthew Flickstein, the resident teacher at the Forest Way Insight Meditation Center, has been teaching vipassana meditation for twenty years. At one time he ordained as a monk in the Theravadan tradition. He co-founded The Bhavana Society Meditation Center with Bhante Gunaratana in 1984. He is the author of Journey to the Center: A Meditation Workbook.

Gil Fronsdal has practiced Zen and vipassana since 1975 and is completing graduate studies in Buddhism at Stanford. He was trained by Jack Kornfield and leads classes and retreats at Spirit Rock Meditation Center and throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. He is the co-editor of Teachings of the Buddha.

Satya Narayan Goenka was trained in Burma (Myanmar) by the renowned Vipassana teacher, Sayagyi U Ba Khin (1899-1971). After 14 years' training under his teacher, in 1969 he was appointed as a full-fledged Vipassana acharya (teacher) in this highly respected tradition of Ledi Sayadaw. In the course of his ministry Mr. Goenka has been highly successful in taking
this ancient teaching to all corners of the globe thereby proving his deeply held conviction that humanity's problems are truly universal and will respond only to a universal remedy. His presentation of the practical, non-sectarian nature of the Buddha's teaching as the means to
achieve world peace have earned him the epithet of Vishwa Vipassana Acharya, World Vipassana Teacher. Today he oversees an organisation of more than 600 assistant teachers and more than 80 meditation centres and course sites spread across Asia, Europe, North and South America, Oceania and Africa.

Joseph Goldstein is a co-founder and guiding teacher of Insight Meditation Society in Barre MA. He has been teaching vipassana and metta retreats worldwide since 1974, and in 1989 helped establish the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies. He is the author of The Experience of Insight and Insight Meditation: The Practice of Freedom, The Path of Insight Meditation, and co-author of Seeking the Heart of Wisdom.

Michael Liebenson Grady has been practicing vipassana since 1973. He is an Associate Dharma Teacher at the Insight Meditation Society and also teaches at the Cambridge Insight Meditation Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Narayan Liebenson Grady is a Senior Dharma Teacher at the Insight Meditation Society and a Guiding Teacher at the Cambridge Insight Meditation Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She is the author of When Singing Just Sing: Life As Meditation.

Ven. Henepola Gunaratana, Ph.D., has been a Buddhist monk for over 50 years. Knowledgeable in both Western and Buddhist psychology, he is the founder of Bhavana Society, a retreat and monastic center in rural West Virginia. He is the author of a number of books, including Mindfulness in Plain English and The Path of Serenity and Insight: An Explanation of the Buddhist Jhanas.

Robert Hall is a physician of the body/mind, a psychiatrist, poet and meditation teacher. Once a student of Fritz Perls and Ida Rolf, he has been a pioneer in the integration of bodywork, pychotherapy and spiritual practice for many years. Dr. Hall is co-founder of the Lomi School and Lomi Community Clinic in Santa Rosa CA. He teaches in the United States, Europe and South America.

Jim Hopper has practiced vipassana meditation for over 13 years with Ruth Dennison, Christopher Reed and Shinzen Young. His teaching is centered on compassion, heartfulness & opening the heart to the vicissitudes of life. He teaches in Southern California.

Isaline Blew Horner (1896-1981) was a British Pali scholar. From 1942-59, she was Vice-President of the Pali Text Society, and afterwards became its President. Books include: Women Under Primitive Buddhism, The Early Buddhist Theory of Man Perfected, and Gotama te Buddha (with Ananda K. Coomaraswamy).

Ajahn Jayasaro (Shaun Chiverton) was born on the Isle of Wight, England, in 1958. He received upasampada from Ajahn Chah in 1980. He is currently Abbot at Wat Pah Nanachat.

Ayya Khema (Ilse Ledermann) was a pioneering nun in the Theravada tradition from 1979 until her death on November 2, 1997. She was ordained as a nun in 1979 by Narada Mahathera in Sri Lanka. She established Wat Buddha Dhamma, near Sydney Australia, in 1978; the International Buddhist Women's Centre in Colombo, Sri Lanka, and Parappuduwa Nun's Island; and was spiritual director of Buddha-Haus in Germany, established in 1989 under her auspices. She establishing Metta Forest Monastery in Germany as well. She is the author of Being Nobody, Going Nowhere, I Give You My Life: The Autobiography of a Western Buddhist Nun, When the Iron Eagle Flies, Who Is My Self?, Be an Island: The Buddhist Practice of Inner Peace, and other books.

Eric Kolvig has been a dharma teacher since 1985 and is a recent migrant to Sante Fe, NM after practicing intensively at Insight Meditation Society. He is particularly interested in "grassroots dharma," sitting groups and motivated local sanghas. In response to the AIDS epidemic and homophobia, he has in recent years led retreats around the United States for gay men and lesbians.

Jack Kornfield trained as a Buddhist monk in the monasteries of Thailand, India and Burma. He is a co-founder of Insight Meditation Society in Barre MA and Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Woodacre CA. He has been teaching vipassana meditation retreats worldwide since 1974. He is the author of A Path With Heart, Buddha's Little Instruction Book, Living Dharma: Teachings of Twelve Buddhist Masters, A Still Forest Pool, co-author of Seeking the Heart of Wisdom, and co-editor of Soul Food: Stories to Nourish the Spirit and the Heart and Teachings of the Buddha.

Gregory Kramer is a Theravada Vipassana instructor, whose primary teachers were Anagarika Dhammadina, Ananda Maitreya Maha Nayaka Thera, and Achan Sobin Namto. He developed, with Terri O'Fallon, Insight Dialogue, a relational meditation practice, and founded the Metta Foundation in Portland OR.

Ajahn Maha Boowa was a meditation master of the forest tradition of NE Thailand. He studied basic Dhamma and mastered Pali before embarking upon meditation training. He spent many years practicing meditation as a forest monk. He received much instruction from Ajahn Mun, who sternly lectured him on the difference between bliss states (jhanas) and the wisdom of Enlightenment. He emphasizes the development of strong and steady concentration in practice as a forerunner to the arising of wisdom.

Mahasi Sayadaw (U Sobhana Mahathera, 1904-82) was a Burmese meditation master. Books include Practical Insight Meditation, The Progress of Insight, and Satipatthana Vipassana.

Michele McDonald-Smith has been practicing vipassana meditation since 1975 and continues to study with Sayadaw U Pandita. She has been teaching at Insight Meditation Society and worldwide since 1982, weaving her interest in relationship, nature and poetry into her teaching.

Mary Jo Meadow has studied with Joseph Goldstein and Sayadaw U Pandita. She is a retired uuniversity professor in psychology of religion, and has been teaching vipassana since 1987. In addition to simple vipassana instruction, Mary Jo offers vipassana as a method for Christian meditators and those working 12-step recovery programs. She teaches through Resources for Ecumenical Spirituality. [Source: Mary Jo Meadow]

Ajahn Mun (Phra Mun Bhuridatta Thera, 1870-1949) was a meditation master of the Thai forest tradition. Born into Kankaew in Ubol Rajadhani, NE Thailand, he took samanera ordination at age 15. He disrobed after 2 years for family reasons but returned to robe at age 22, taking bhikkhu ordination at Wat Liab. Afterwards he trained with Phra Ajahn Sao Kantisilo of Wat Liab. "Under his guidance the Ascetic Forest Tradition became a very important tradition in the revival of Buddhist meditation practice. The vast majority of recently deceased and presently living meditation masters in Thailand are either direct disciples of...(his)... or were substantially influenced by his Teachings." [footnote in Bodhinyana]. Biography: The Venerable Phra Achaan Mun Bhuridatta, compiled by Achaan Maha Boowa (English translation, Siri Buddhasukh).

Ajahn Munindo (Keith Morgan) is the abbot of Ratanagiri Buddhist Monastery at Harnham, UK. Originally from New Zealand, he received full ordination in 1974 in Thailand, where he trained under Venerable Ajahn Tate and Venerable Ajahn Chah of Wat Nong Pah Pong. He came to the UK in I980 and joined the community at Cittaviveka. Three years later he accepted an invitation to establish the Devon vihara and took up residence at Harnham in 1991.

Wes "Scoop" Nisker has practiced vipassana meditation for over 20 years. He is founder and co-editor of Inquiring Mind and author of Buddha's Nature: Evolution As a Practical Guide to Enlightenment and Crazy Wisdom. He is interested in the synthesis of modern science and western culture with the perennial wisdom of the East.

Mary 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.

Ven. Pasanno Bhikkhu (Reed Perry) took ordination in Thailand in 1974, with Ven. Phra Khru Nanasirivatana as preceptor. During his first year as a monk he was taken by his teacher to meet Ajahn Chah, with whom he asked to be allowed to stay and train. One of the early residents of Wat Pah Nanachat, Ven. Pasanno became its abbot in his seventh year. During his incumbency Wat Pah Nanachat developed considerably, both in physical size and in reputation, and Ajahn Pasanno became a very well-known and highly respected Dhamma teacher in Thailand. Ajahn Pasanno moved to California on New Year's Eve of 1997 to share the abbotship of Abhayagiri Forest Monastery in Redwood Valley.

Corrado Pensa teaches vipassana retreats in the United States, England and Italy. He is the founder of the Asoociation for Mindfulness Meditation in Rome, a professor of Eastern philosophy at the University of Rome, and a former psychotherapist.

Ven. Punadhammo Bhikkhu (Michael Dominskyj) is the abbot of Arrow River Community Centre in Northern Ontario, fifty miles southwest of Thunder Bay. He has been studying and practicing Buddhism since 1979 and was ordained in Thailand in the forest tradition of Ajahn Chah in 1990. Between 1990 and 1995 he was based at Wat Pah Nanachat, Thailand. Ven. Punnadhammo was born in Toronto in 1955. He began studying the Dhamma under Kema Ananda, the founder and first teacher at the Arrow River Center.

Ven. Dr. Havanpola Ratanasara entered the monastic life at the age of 12, and took his final ordination in 1940 at age 20. He received his B.A. in Pali and Philosophy from the University of Ceylon in 1954, an M.A. in Education from Columbia University in 1958 and a Ph.D in Education from the University of London in 1965. Dr. Ratanasara served his native Sri Lanka as a delegate to the Twelfth General Assembly of the United Nations, 1957-1958. He is also founder of the Post-graduate Institute of Buddhist Studies, Vidyalankara Campus of the University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka. In 1980 Dr. Ratanasara emigrated to the United States, settled in Los Angeles and devoted himself to the promulgation of inter-Buddhist, inter religious understanding and education. He initiated the establishment of the Buddhist Sangha Council of Southern California. He also serves as Executive President of the American Buddhist Congress, a national organization of Buddhist temples and organizations, of which he is a founding member. In 1983 he founded the College of Buddhist Studies, Los Angeles. In 1992 Ven. Ratanasara was named the Chief Sangha Nayake (Judicial Patriarch) for the Western Hemisphere for his lineage, formalizing his role as chief advisor of his tradition. He has published a number of articles and books on education and Buddhism and a book titled "The Path to Perfection: A Buddhist Psychological View of Personality, Growth and Development" is being completed. Ven. Dr. H. Ratanasara died on May 26, 2000.

Joe Reissig, a former university professor, has taught meditation at Gaia House, and teaches regularly at Insight Meditation Society.

Sharda Rogell has been involved with meditation and healing since 1975 and currently teaches retreats in Europe, India and the United States.

Marcia Rose has been studying and practicing Buddhist meditation and related disciplines for many years, and has been resident teacher at Insight Meditation Society since 1991.

Larry Rosenberg practiced Zen in Korea and Japan before coming to vipassana. His approach has been strongly influenced by the forest tradition of Thailand and the teaching of Thich Nhat Hanh. He is the resident teacher at Cambridge Insight Meditation Center and the author of Breath by Breath: The Liberating Practice of Insight Meditation.

Sharon Salzberg has been practicing Buddhist meditation for over 25 years. She is a co-founder of Insight Meditation Society and has taught meditation at Buddhist centers around the world. She is the author of A Heart As Wide As the World: Living With Mindfulness, Wisdom, and Compassion, Lovingkindness: The Revolutionary Art of Happiness, and Voices of Insight.

Jason Siff teaches a form of Vipassana meditation that he originally learned as a Buddhist monk, which emphasizes greater awareness of deeper states of consciousness. He conducts workshops and retreats in the Los Angeles, Riverside & San Diego (CA) areas, which involve intensive meditation practice & individualized instruction in a group reporting format. See: The Skillful Meditation Project.

Rodney Smith has been practicing Insight Meditation since 1975 and teaching since 1983. He has been working in hospice care for 15 years. He is a former Buddhist monk and Senior Teacher for the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts and founding teacher for the Seattle Insight Meditation Society and Insight Meditation Houston. He is author of the Lessons From the Dying.

Steven Smith has studied meditation since 1970, training as monk and lay student with Sayadaw U Pandita since 1982. Founder of Vipassana Hawaii, he teaches vipassana and metta retreats worldwide. A deep reverence for nature and the power of myth is reflected in his teaching.

Ajahn Sucitto was born in London in 1949. While in Thailand in 1975 he happened upon a class in Buddhist meditation in Chiang Mai and after a few days' practice he decided to make a tentative commitment to the Holy Life. He spent the next 3 years in Thailand, mostly at Wat Kiriwong in Nakhon Sawan. In 1978, he returned to England and met Ajahn Sumedho there; he decided to stay and train with him and for the next fifteen years was responsible for editing and publishing Ajahn Sumedho's talks. In 1984, Venerable Sucitto moved to Amaravati Buddhist Monastery where he was involved in establishing a training for 10-precept nuns. Since 1992, he has been the Abbot of Chithurst Buddhist Monastery in the south of England. He is author and illustrator of The Dawn of the Dhamma: Illuminations from the Buddha's First Discourse.

Ajahn Sumedho (Robert Jackman) is an American-born meditation master and founder of many Western monasteries in the Thai forest tradition. For twelve years he studied closely with Ajahn Chah at Wat Pah Pong in Thailand, who appointed him to be the first Western abbot of a Thai monastery, Wat Pah Nanachat, in 1974. In 1979 he established Chithurst Forest Monastery (Wat Pah Cittaviveka) on 108 acres of forest in rural West Sussex in Briatain and became its first Abbot. From this have sprung various other centers in England, Australia, New Zealand, Switzerland, Italy, and the USA. His books include The Mind and the Way, The Way It Is, Cittaviveka: Teachings from the Silent Mind, and Mindfulness: The Path to the Deathless.

Ven. Thanissaro Bhikkhu (Geoffrey DeGraff) is an American monk in the Thai forest monastery tradition, in the lineage of Ajahn Lee Dhammadharo and Ajahn Fuang Jotiko. He is the abbot of Metta Forest Monastery in Valley Center CA, near San Diego. He is fluent in Thai and is one of the primary translators of the teachings of many great Thai meditation masters into English, such as Ajahns Fuang, Lee, Maha Boowa, and Kee Nanayon (most of which are also available electronically through DharmaNet International). Tan Geoff is also a skilled and clear teacher in his own right. He translated and explained the Patimokkha training rules in his book The Buddhist Monastic Code, and is also author of The Mind Like Fire Unbound and his newest work The Wings to Awakening. He is one of the great contemporary scholar monks of the Thai tradition.

Christopher Titmuss gives teachings worldwide concerned with spiritual realization and insight meditation. He is the author of An Awakened Life, Light on Enlightenment, The Power of Meditation, Spirit of Change, The Profound and the Profane, and Fire Dance and Other Poems. He is co-founder of Gaia House Trust and lives in Totnes, England.

John Travis has been a student of vipassana since 1970. In the eight years he lived in Asia, he studied intensively with senior teachers of the vipassana and Tibetan traditions.

Ajahn Viradhammo. Born in 1948 (Vitauts Akers) of Latvian parents in West Germany; in 1952, his family emigrated to Toronto, Canada. 1971: met first teacher - American bhikkhu in India. 1973: samanera in Bangkok. 1975: bhikkhu at Wat Pah Pong, in NE Thailand, under Ajahn Cha.

Julie Wester has practiced vipassana meditation since 1973 and has led retreats since 1985. Her teaching reflects her training with Ruth Denison, whose pioneering approach to vipassana meditation incorporates guided movement and sensory exploration with the silent retreat setting.

Arinna Weisman was born in Johannesburg, South Africa and has lived in London, Israel and Europe. She studied with Ruth Denison and many other teachers in the Buddhist tradition and her spiritual practice includes work with Native American Elders. She is working toward a multicultural and gender inclusive expression of the dharma and teaches throughout the United States.

Carol Wilson has been practicing vipassana meditation since 1971, most recently with Sayadaw U Pandita. She has been teaching since 1986 in the United States, Canada and Europe.

Shinzen Young has trained extensively in Asian monasteries, is an ordained Buddhist monk and has widely explored the psychological and scientific aspects of the meditative state and biofeedback experience. He is the director of the Community Meditation Center of Los Angeles. He is author of Break Through Pain Study Guide: How to Relieve Pain Using Ancient Meditation Techniques.

[Sources: Insight, Spirit Rock Meditation Center Newsletter, Skillful Means, The Buddhist Handbook, Seeing the Way, and e-mail.

| Top of Page | Home |