Archives: Authors
David Chang
David Chang, PhD., is a psychotherapist, educator, and Zen practitioner in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Chandra Chiara Ehm
CHANDRA CHIARA EHM is a researcher in Tibetan and religious studies affiliated with the Centre de recherche sur les civilisations de l’Asie orientale (CRCAO), Paris, and with Ludwig Maximilians Universität, Munich. She works with both philological and qualitative research methods, drawing on extensive fieldwork.
Andrea Burgos
Andrea Burgos met her teacher, Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche, in 2015 during a trip to Kathmandu, Nepal, and has been his student ever since. In 2017, while living in Bangkok, she discovered her love for Ashtanga yoga. Since then, yoga and meditation have played vital roles in her personal journey. Becoming a mother inspired Andrea to share her experiences in balancing the demands of her career as a real estate agent, family life, and her yoga and meditation practice as she strives to cultivate harmony in every area of her life. Andrea currently lives in La Riviera Maya, Mexico, with her husband and son.
Marisela B. Gomez
Marisela B. Gomez (she/they) is a dharma teacher in the Thich Nhat Hanh Order of Interbeing, and a dharma practitioner for more than 20 years. Her practice focuses on mindfulness in everyday life. This includes her work as a public health scholar, activist, physician, and solidarity economy organizer. Of Afro-Latina ancestry, they live in Baltimore. She co-authored the book <em>Healing our Way Home</em> and authored <em>Race, Class, Power and Organizing in East Baltimore</em> as well as numerous book chapters, and articles in popular and scholarly publications. She has blogged on the intersection of spirituality and justice at Huff Post and on the intersection of community rebuilding, wisdom justice and health at mariselabgomez.com. They’ve also delivered a TedTalk on healing racism through “waking up.”
Paulina Lamas Morales
Paulina Lamas Morales is the Co-founder and Director of Instituto Felicidad Sustentable, an organization dedicated to contemplative sciences and practices. She is a clinical psychologist graduated from Universidad Central de Chile and holds extensive academic and professional expertise in mindfulness and compassion.
Katsuzen King
Katsuzen King is a dharma Teacher in the lineage of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi. Katsuzen is the founder of the Dharma Bridge Foundation and guiding teacher of the Windsor Zen Group and the Tijuana Zen Center. For more information on teachings and retreats offered by Katsuzen, visit <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/565343696899697" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Windsor Zen Group</a> Katsuzen King es maestro del dharma en la tradición de Shunryu Suzuki Roshi. Es fundador de la Fundación Dharma Bridge y guía espiritual del Grupo Zen de Windsor y del Centro Zen Tijuana. Para más información sobre las enseñanzas y talleres que Katsuzen ofrece, visita la página de <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/565343696899697" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Windsor Zen Group</a>
Acharya Samaneti
Acharya Samaneti is a prison spiritual care worker, philosopher, lover of the written word and seeker of truth. The contemplative life called him very early in his life; an only child, Samaneti found comfort in silence, reflection, and personal inquiry. Samaneti wishes to bear witness to the universality of suffering and actions of love that awaken hearts. This mission leads him to work with incarcerated people and other marginalized populations.
Kathleen McDonald
Originally from California, Kathleen McDonald (Sangye Khadro) began studying Buddhism with Tibetan lamas in Dharamsala, India, in 1973. She became a nun in Nepal the following year, and received full (bhikshuni) ordination in 1988. She currently resides at Sravasti Abbey in Washington State, USA, and teaches online. She is the author of How to Meditate: A Practical Guide and Awakening the Kind Heart: How to Meditate on Compassion.
Gerry Shishin Wick
GERRY SHISHIN WICK is the President of Great Mountain Zen Center and former President of the White Plum Asanga. A Dharma Successor of Taizan Maezumi Roshi, Wick also studied with Shunryu Suzuki Roshi and Sochu Suzuki Roshi. Wick received a PhD in physics from UC Berkeley in 1967 and has worked as a professor, science writer, and oceanographer, among other roles. He is the author of multiple books on Zen.
Sister Tue Nghiem
Sister Tue Nghiem became a fully ordained Buddhist nun in 1996. She enjoys learning about neuroscience, knitting socks, listening to Mozart, and making samosas.
Gregory Mengel
Gregory Mengel is a senior teacher with the UNtraining, which offers classes for white-identified people to unlearn white racial conditioning.
Susan Kaiser Greenland
Susan Kaiser Greenland is a mindfulness educator who distills wisdom traditions and scientific research into straightforward practices. Her new book is <em>Real-World Enlightenment.</em>
Jeffrey Hopkins
Jeffrey Hopkins was Professor Emeritus of Tibetan Buddhist Studies at the University of Virginia, where he taught Tibetan studies and Tibetan language for more than thirty years. He received a BA magna cum laude from Harvard University in 1963, trained for five years at the Lamaist Buddhist Monastery of America (now the Tibetan Buddhist Learning Center) in New Jersey, and received a PhD in Buddhist Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1973. From 1979 to 1989 he served as His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s chief interpreter into English on lecture tours in the U.S., Canada, Southeast Asia, Great Britain, and Switzerland. He published more than fifty books, including Meditation on Emptiness, a seminal work of English language scholarship on Tibetan Madhyamaka thought, as well as translations of works by Tsongkhapa, Dolpopa, and His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama. At the University of Virginia he founded programs in Buddhist Studies and Tibetan Studies and served as Director of the Center for South Asian Studies for twelve years. Jeffrey passed away on July 3, 2024.
Martina Draszczyk
Martina Draszczyk is a scholar of Tibetan Buddhism, an interpreter, and a Dharma teacher. She holds a PhD in Buddhist Studies and Tibetology from the University of Vienna, where she engaged in research for many years. Her work focuses on Tibetan Madhyamaka, Mahamudra, buddha-nature, and mindfulness. Draszczyk served as a Guest Professor at McGill University and the University of Vienna.
Kim Thai
Kim Thai (she/her) is an interdisciplinary mindfulness writer and teacher. As an Emmy-award storyteller and a proud Queer kid of Vietnamese refugees, she has uplifted marginalized voices across different mediums for almost twenty years. Her personal essays on identity, healing and social justice have been published in <i>New York Magazine</i>’s <i>The Cut</i>, <i>Newsweek</i>, <i>Buzzfeed</i>, and more. She is a certified yoga and meditation teacher.
Marc Lesser
Marc Lesser is an executive coach, speaker, and Zen teacher with more than 25 years of experience as a leader and supporting leaders to reach their full potential, as business executives and as full, thriving, human beings. Marc helped develop a mindfulness-based emotional intelligence training for leaders within Google. He then co-founded and was CEO of the Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute from 2012– 2017. Marc has been CEO of three companies and has an MBA degree from New York University. <br><br> Marc is the author of five books including <em>Seven Practices of a Mindful Leader: Lessons From Google and a Zen Monastery Kitchen,</em> and <em>Less: Accomplishing More By Doing Less.</em> Prior to his business and coaching career, Marc was a resident of the San Francisco Zen Center for 10 years, including director of Tassajara, Zen Mountain Center, the first Zen monastery in the western world. He has a passion for utilizing business as a force for positive change and sees work as a place to cultivate character and bring meaning and satisfaction to everyday life. Find out more at <a href="https://marclesser.net">marclesser.net</a>
Rev. Syd Yang
Syd Yang is an ordained Buddhist minister, spiritual counselor, movement chaplain, writer, speaker, teacher, and group facilitator. The work and medicine they share with the world centers the voices and lived experiences of queer, trans, non-binary folks of color and finds its resonance at the intersection of memory, bodies, sexuality, spirituality, and mental health.
Paul Daisuke Goodman
Paul Daisuke Goodman manages his own production company called Eight East Productions. It’s named for the wing of the hospital where he made his first films, <em>Evergreen</em> and <em>No No Girl</em>.
Carlo Carranza
Carlo Carranza has studied and practiced Buddhism for over 24 years, beginning in 2001 with teachings from his main teacher, Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche, at the University of British Columbia. A monk for 10 years with vows from the 14th Dalai Lama, he is a Siddhartha’s Intent instructor. He has taught internationally, embraced a non-sectarian approach, translated works, and is involved with the Khyentse Foundation’s Milinda Program for Western Instructors.
Anjali Sawhney
Life coach Anjali Sawhney is on East Bay Meditation Center’s program committee and leadership sangha (board).