Our initial consortium is taking shape now. Other teachers will be joining in the near future, as we expand the breadth of Ashoka.edu's offerings.

Our initial consortium of teachers includes:

The Barre Center for Buddhist Studies is an educational organization dedicated to bringing together teachers, students, scholars and practitioners who are committed to exploring Buddhist thought and practice as a living tradition, faithful to its origins and lineage, yet adaptable and alive in the current world. The center’s purpose is to encourage the integration of study and practice, and to investigate the relationship between scholarly understanding and meditative insight. It encourages engagement with the tradition in a spirit of genuine inquiry.

Bhikkhu Bodhi is an American Buddhist monk. He was appointed editor of the Buddhist Publication Society (in Sri Lanka) in 1984 and its president in 1988. Ven. Bodhi has many important publications to his credit, either as author, translator, or editor, including The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha -- A Translation of the Majjhima Nikaya (co-translated with Ven. Bhikkhu Nanamoli, 1995) and The Connected Discourses of the Buddha -- a New Translation of the Samyutta Nikaya (2000). He is currently living and teaching at Bodhi Monastery in New Jersey.

A Zen Buddhist priest since 1967, Daishin is both a Lineage and Dharma Holder in the White Plum lineage of Taizan Maezumi Roshi. He is currently an assistant teacher under Roshi Wendy Egyoku Nakao, Abbot and Head Teacher of the Zen Center of Los Angeles/Busshinji Temple. He is the author of Zen Meditation in Plain English and To Forget the Self.

Jeffrey Hopkins, Ph.D., served as the chief interpreter to the Dalai Lama for a decade. A Buddhist scholar-practitioner and the author of more than twenty-five books and translations, he is Professor of Tibetan and Buddhist Studies at the University of Virginia, where he founded the largest academic program of Tibetan Buddhism studies in the West. His books inlcude Cultivating Compassion, an eloquent, practical guide to tapping our own potential for caring, and Reflections on Reality . He has edited several books by the Dalai Lama, including How to Practice: The Way to a Meaningful Life and Advice on Dying: And Living a Better Life .

The Venerable Traleg Rinpoche— recognized by His Holiness the XVI Gylawa Karmapa as a major lineage holder in the Tibetan Tradition of Vajrayana Buddhism—has been giving lectures and seminars on Buddhism and related topics in Melbourne, Australia since 1980 where he established Kagyu E-Vam Buddhist Institute Rinpoche has traveled widely, teaching in the United States, Canada, Europe, New Zealand and South-East Asia. Rinpoche's recently published book Essence of Buddhism (Shambhala Publishing) Entitled, covers the whole spectrum of the Buddhist path giving the reader a very clear overview of the various Buddhist philosophies and practices. including the various meditative approaches of Buddhist practice.

Andrew Olendzki was trained in Buddhist Studies at Lancaster University in England, as well as at Harvard University and the University of Sri Lanka. A former executive director of Insight Meditation Society, he is currently the executive director of Barre Center for Buddhist Studies and is editor of its Insight Journal

A co-founder of Insight Meditation Society, Sharon has practiced Buddhist meditation since 1971 and has been teaching worldwide since 1974. She is a guiding teacher of IMS and author of Faith: Trusting Your Own Deepest Experience and Lovingkindness: The Revolutionary Art of Happiness and A Heart As Wide As The World: Living with Mindfulness, Wisdom, and Compassion .

Scholar, author, and former Tibetan Buddhist monk, Bob Thurman has lectured all over the world. The first Westerner to be ordained as a Tibetan Buddhist monk at the age of 24 and a student of the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala, Bob is currently Professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies at Columbia University. He is a prolific translator and writer of both scholarly and popular works, including The Tibetan Book of the Dead, Essential Tibetan Buddhism, and Inner Revolution: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Real Happiness .