Teachers and Dharma Leaders

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  Bob Stahl Teacher
  

  Bob Stahl

  Teacher

  Bob Stahl, PhD, formerly lived in a Buddhist monastery for eight and a half years and later founded eight Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) programs in medical centers in the SF Bay Area. He is on faculty at the Brown University Mindfulness Center and formerly at the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. Bob teaches MBSR Teacher Trainings and Insight Meditation retreats worldwide and is the former guiding teacher at Insight Santa Cruz and a visiting teacher at Spirit Rock and Insight Meditation Society. He is co-author of five books: A Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Workbook (1st & 2nd editions), Living With Your Heart Wide Open, Calming the Rush of Panic, A Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Workbook for Anxiety, and MBSR Everyday.

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  Dawn Neal Teacher
  

  Dawn Neal

  Teacher

  Dawn Neal has devoted several years to silent retreat since 2005. She has an MA in Theravada Buddhist studies and spiritual care, and is a professional interfaith spiritual care counselor (chaplain). Her intensive practice includes ordaining in Burma, where she was authorized to teach the Buddhist path from the perspective of Mettā. Dawn is completing Dharma Teacher training with Gil Fronsdal and Andrea Fella. Since 2010, she has taught classes, workshops, and retreats in the Bay Area and beyond. See http://www.liberatingdharma.org for her full teaching schedule.

  Dawn works as a Professional Interfaith Spiritual Care Counselor (Chaplain). She also serves the Dharma community as a Buddhist teacher and scholar. She is currently in Gil Fronsdal and Andrea Fella’s Dharma Teacher Training through the Insight Retreat Center.

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  Mary Grace Orr Emeritus Founding Teacher
  

  Mary Grace Orr

  Emeritus Founding Teacher

  Mary Grace Orr is the Founding Teacher of Insight Santa Cruz, which began with a small sitting group in 1989. She is also a teacher emeritus at Spirit Rock Meditation Center. She stepped down from her role at ISC late in 2011 and shortly after moved to Volcano, Hawaiʻi. She teaches two regular groups there, as well as a few retreats on the mainland. In addition to her Buddhist practice, she is deeply interested in Christian mystical traditions and recently completed the two year Living School program with Richard Rohr. Email Mary Grace if you would like to join her weekly meditation and discussion group on Zoom.

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  Tenzin Chogkyi Teacher
  

  Tenzin Chogkyi

  Teacher

  Tenzin Chogkyi  (she/her/hers) is a teacher of workshops and programs that bridge the worlds of Buddhist thought, contemplative practice, mental and emotional cultivation, and the latest research in the field of positive psychology. Tenzin first became interested in meditation in the early 1970s and then started practicing Tibetan Buddhism in early 1991 during a year she spent studying in India and Nepal. She completed several long meditation retreats over a six-year period and took monastic ordination with His Holiness the Dalai Lama, practicing as a monastic for nearly 20 years. Since 2006 she has been teaching in Buddhist centers around the world and taught in prisons for 15 years.

  She is also a certified teacher of Compassion Cultivation Training and the Cultivating Emotional Balance program. Tenzin is especially interested in bringing the wisdom of Buddhism into modern culture and into alignment with modern cultural values such as racial and gender justice and environmental awareness. She feels strongly that a genuine and meaningful spiritual path includes not only personal transformation, but social and cultural transformation as well. She loves interfaith collaboration and is a volunteer for the Interfaith Speakers Bureau of the Islamic Networks Group in the greater San Francisco Bay Area. She is featured on a monthly radio show called “Reflections on Buddhism on KSQD 90.7 in the Santa Cruz area. She also finds time to create her Unlocking True Happiness podcast which you can check out at unlockingtruehappiness.org where you will also find her current teaching schedule. She is currently based on traditional Awaswas Ohlone land, in what is now known as Santa Cruz, CA.