Archives: Authors

Emily McRae

Emily McRae is the Editorial Assistant intern for LionsRoar.com. She recently graduated from the University of King’s College with a journalism degree, and plans to work in the publishing industry.

Nancy Chu is an associate editor at Lion’s Roar. She is a PhD candidate in religious studies at Stanford University. She holds an MDiv in Buddhism from Harvard Divinity School and an MPhil in social anthropology from the University of Cambridge.

Mihiri Tillakaratne

Mihiri Tillakaratne (she/her) is a former associate editor at Lion's Roar. She has a PhD in Ethnic Studies and Gender, Women, and Sexuality (UC Berkeley), a M.A. in Ethnic Studies (UC Berkeley), and a M.A. in Asian American Studies (UCLA). She learned Pali and studied Sinhala Buddhist nationalism in post-independence Sri Lanka at Harvard. Mihiri is the director of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEw5BQq_ENM">I Take Refuge</a>, a documentary on Sri Lankan American Buddhist identity, and the founder of <a href="https://www.srilankanamericansforsocialjustice.com/">Sri Lankan Americans for Social Justice</a>.

Mary Ray Cate

Mary Ray Cate is a physician, artist, and graduate of the Buddhist chaplaincy program at Upaya Zen Center. In addition to having a grown son, she has been a foster mom to many children.

Butterfly Tony Pham

Butterfly (Tony Pham) (they/he) is a meditation instructor, compassion teacher, and healer that occupies the intersection of queer and Asian/BIPOC identities. Butterfly stewards spiritual spaces where they offer practices rooted in compassion, indigeneity, and sacred lineages. They are a current student of Arinna Weisman (Theravada/Vipassana) and Lama Rod Owens (Vajrayana/Tibetan Buddhism) in addition to participating in the East Bay Meditation Center’s PiTA8 program for social justice activists. Tony previously received a Fulbright scholarship to conduct research in Vietnam; he has also completed compassion cultivation, death doula and non-violent communication training. Butterfly is honored to currently serve as treasurer on the board of directors of the Buddhist Peace Fellowship. They now reside in Brooklyn (occupied Canarsie/Munsee Lenape land). For more information, please visit <a href="https://tonyopham.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer">tonyopham.com</a>

Ken Kessel

Ken Kessel (Zen Master Jok Um) received transmission in the Kwan Um School of Zen. He’s a licensed clinical social worker, specializing in infant mental health.

David J. Keuler

Wendy Garling

Wendy Garling is an independent scholar with a BA from Wellesley College and MA specializing in Sanskrit language and literature from the University of California, Berkeley. She is author of the award-winning <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Woman-Raised-Buddha-Extraordinary-Mahaprajapati/dp/1611806690/ref=d_pd_sbs_sccl_4_1/131-6364331-1937914?pd_rd_w=sYQT1&content-id=amzn1.sym.d8274306-8eaa-4da3-9175-aca6400f9aa9&pf_rd_p=d8274306-8eaa-4da3-9175-aca6400f9aa9&pf_rd_r=Z3BTXPE4776634P3CJCY&pd_rd_wg=FD5yx&pd_rd_r=f42ad314-8770-4a16-bfb3-b73f27755407&pd_rd_i=1611806690&psc=1">The Woman Who Raised the Buddha: The Extraordinary Life of Mahaprajapati,</a> with Foreword by His Holiness the Dalai Lama (Shambhala Publications, 2021) and <a href="https://shop.taramandala.org/products/stars-at-dawn">Stars at Dawn: Forgotten Stories of Women in the Buddha’s Life </a> (Shambhala Publications, 2016).

Meido Moore

Meido Moore is abbot of Korinji, a Rinzai Zen monastery in Reedsburg, Wisconsin.

Roxanne Dault

Roxanne Dault is a guiding teacher at True North Insight (Voie Boréale) in Canada.

Jisho Sara Siebert

Jisho Sara Siebert is a Soto Zen Buddhist priest and teacher at Zen Fields in Ames, Iowa. Led to Buddhism by the suffering she saw in her work to prevent domestic and sexual violence, she found her way to Los Angeles, where she first met her teacher, then to Papua New Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Uganda, monasteries in Japan, and Haiti. She now works for Beyond Borders, an organization committed to preventing violence against girls and women and ending child slavery.

Bhikkhu Analayo

Bhikkhu Analayo is a German monk and scholar, ordained in 1995 in Sri Lanka. His books include Satipatthana: The Direct Path to Realization and Mindfully Facing Climate Change .

Pawan Bareja

Pawan Bareja, PhD, is a mindfulness teacher and graduate of the Spirit Rock Teacher Training program. As a trauma resolution practitioner, she works with a diverse population of clients.

Arisika Razak

Arisika Razak RAZAK is Professor Emerita at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco, where she also served as the director of the Women’s Spirituality MA and PhD program and as Director of Diversity. She has been an inner-city midwife for over two decades, has performed nationally and internationally as a spiritual dancer, and has led embodied healing workshops for over thirty-five years. She teaches at East Bay Meditation Center in Oakland.

Lynette Monteiro

Lynette Monteiro is a clinical psychologist and coauthor of Mindfulness Starts Here: An Eight-Week Guide to Skillful Living. She blogs at <a href="http://www.108zenbooks.com">108zenbooks.com</a>.

Robert Waldinger

Robert Waldinger is a psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, and Zen teacher who directs the Harvard Study of Adult Development. He is the <a href="https://www.newtonzen.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Henry David Thoreau Sangha</a>’s resident teacher.

Annie Obermeyer

Annie Obermeyer loves hazelnuts with chocolate, stock from roasted bones, and Brahms Op.118, A Major.

Rashid Hughes

Rashid Hughes (he/him) is a native of Richmond. He is a proud graduate of the Howard University Department of Music and the Howard University School of Divinity. Rashid is a certified Mindfulness and Yoga Teacher and a Restorative Justice Facilitator in Washington DC. In 2019, Rashid co-founded the <a href="https://www.heartrefugemindfulnesscommunity.org/" rel="noopener">Heart Refuge Mindfulness Community</a>, a Mindfulness Community in Washington, DC that is dedicated to inspiring Black, Indigenous, and People of Color to live with love and courage. In 2020, he was selected to be an Affiliate Teacher for the Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC. and he was also invited to be a teacher of the Presence Collective. In 2021, Rashid created the <a href="https://www.mindful.org/r-e-s-t-a-guided-practice-for-the-tired-and-weary/" rel="noopener">Four Pillars of R.E.S.T.</a>, a non-dual contemplative practice that offers four simple but direct pointers for practitioners to connect with the natural clarity of mind with ease. Rashid’s devotion to truth and compassion leads him to teach faith-based and non-religious audiences, including secular Mindfulness Communities, Buddhist Sanghas, and the Black Church. The teachings of James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, and the music of Miles Davis and John Coltrane are deep sources of inspiration and hope for Rashid. Rashid is devoted to helping all people achieve fulfillment through radical honesty and self-compassion. You can find more information about Rashid at <a href="http://www.rashidhughes.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer">www.rashidhughes.com</a>

Lisa Ernst

Lisa Ernst is a meditation teacher, artist and founder of One Dharma Nashville. In her teaching, Lisa emphasizes both transformational insight and everyday awakening as an invitation to embrace all of the path’s possibilities. Lisa has been meditating for 30 years in the Zen and Vipassana traditions. She received dharma teaching authorization through Trudy Goodman in the Thai Forest lineage of Ajahn Chah, Jack Kornfield, etc.

Ralph H. Craig III

Ralph H. Craig III is a PhD candidate in Religious Studies at Stanford University. He is a scholar of South Asian Buddhism and American Buddhism, and he has published in the Buddhist-Christian Studies journal, the Japanese Journal of Religious Studies, and on the American Academy of Religion’s Reading Religion website.