Mel Weitsman

Mel Weitsman

Sojun Mel Weitsman is abbot of the Berkeley Zen Center and former co-abbot of the San Francisco Zen Center.

Meg Federico

Meg Federico is a writer and journalist living in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where she writes a weekly newspaper column on the changing roles of caregivers and care receivers.

Suzy Wizowaty

Suzy Wizowaty is the author of the novel The Round Barn (University Press of New England) and a novel for children, A Tour of Evil (Philomel), coming out in May. She teaches creative writing at St. Michael's College in Colchester, Vermont.

Felix Holmgren

Felix Holmgren grew up in Sweden and now resides in Nepal, where he is enrolled at Kathmandu University’s Center for Buddhist Studies at Ka-Nying Shedrub Ling Monastery, Boudhanath.

Rick Bass

Rick Bass lives with his family in Yaak and Missoula, Montana, where he has long been active in efforts to protect the last roadless lands in one of the wildest landscapes in the northern Rockies. His latest novel is 2009’s <i>Nashville Chrome</i>, which looks at the music business and the destructiveness of fame; 2012 saw the release of three nonfiction works by <i>Bass: The Black Rhinos of Namibia, A Thousand Deer, </i>and <i>In My Home There Is No More Sorrow.</i>

Michael Valpy

Michael Valpy

Michael Valpy writes frequently on religion and ethics for The Globe and Mail newspaper in Toronto.

John Whalen-Bridge

John Whalen-Bridge is Associate Professor of English at the National University of Singapore, where he teaches courses in American literature and religious studies.

Rafe Martin

Rafe Martin

Rafe Martin is a disciple of Roshi Philip Kapleau’s as well as his editor and friend. He is also an author of children’s books and a storyteller.

Marshall Glickman

Marshall Glickman is the author of Beyond the Breath: Extraordinary Mindfulness Through Whole-Body Vipassana (Tuttle Publishing) and The Mindful Money Guide: Creating Harmony Between Your Values and Your Finances (Ballantine Wellspring/Random House).

B. Alan Wallace

Dynamic lecturer, progressive scholar, and one of the most prolific writers and translators of Tibetan Buddhism in the West, B. Alan Wallace holds a doctorate in religious studies from Stanford University. He is founder and president of the  <a href="https://sbinstitute.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Santa Barbara Institute for Consciousness Studies </a>  and the  <a href="https://centerforcontemplativeresearch.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Center for Contemplative Research</a> .

Justin von Bujdoss

Lama Justin von Bujdoss is an American vajrayana Buddhist teacher, writer, and the is a co- founder of Bhumisparsha an experimental Buddhist sangha along with Lama Rod Owens and Yangti Yoga Retreat Center with Dr. Nida Chenagtsang. He is the author of Modern Tantric Buddhism: Authenticity and Embodiment in Dharma Practice published by North Atlantic Books. Justin was ordained as a repa, a lay tantric yogin in the tradition of Milarepa, by His Eminence Gyaltsab Rinpoche, one of the heart sons of His Holiness the 16 th Karmapa and is a ngakpa in the Yuthok Nyingthik lineage.

Gehlek Rinpoche

Gehlek Rinpoche (1939-2017) was born in Lhasa, Tibet. An incarnate lama, he studied at Drepung monastery, fleeing Tibet in 1959 during the Chinese invasion and emigrating to the West. He was founder and president of Jewel Heart in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and author of <i>Good Life, Good Death: Tibetan Wisdom on Reincarnation</i>.