TEACHER BIO: Maia is the Director of Community Outreach and Development at Upaya, and also directs Upaya’s Buddhist Chaplaincy Program. She sometimes serves on Upaya’s Engaged Buddhism faculty. She is an anthropologist, writer, and editor. From 2004-2008, Maia was based at the Buddhist Peace Fellowship where she served as executive director and senior editor of Turning Wheel magazine.

Maia has received lay ordination from Roshi Joan Halifax into the Order of Interbeing and the Zen Peacemaker Order. She is also a student in the Soto Zen lineage of Suzuki Roshi, and has lived and practiced at the San Francisco Zen Center where she received jukai from Victoria Shosan Austin in 2008.

From 2002-2004, Maia was the research director of the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society, in Northampton, Massachusetts, where she led a study on the use of meditation and other contemplative practices in secular settings. She is the author of a number of articles on this topic, including “The Contemplative Organization,” published in the February 2004 issue of the Journal of Organizational Change Management.

Maia is the author of a blog on socially engaged Buddhism called The Jizo Chronicles.

You can access the desired part of the series by clicking on its link below:

Sesshin: Zendo Sitting, Mountain Walking (Part 1)

Sesshin: Zendo Sitting, Mountain Walking (Part 2)

Sesshin: Zendo Sitting, Mountain Walking (Part 3 of 3)

Suggested reading: Cold Mountain by Han Shan tr. Gary Snider

For full Program Description and Teacher’s Bio, please visit Part 1.

To access the entire series, please click on the link below:
Sesshin: Zendo Sitting, Mountain Walking Series : All 3 Parts

Led by Roshi Joan Halifax, this unique retreat gives practitioners the opportunity to explore the relationship between the mountain and the monastery. The retreat begins at 5:30pm on Tuesday, May 1, with instructions on oryoki practice, followed by an informal and convivial dinner. The first evening session covers an introduction to sesshin and the place of mountains in Zen practice. The next day, Wednesday, all participants will sit a sesshin schedule with oriyoki meals; the dharma talk explores Tang Dynasty poetry and the sesshin experience. On Thursday, after the early morning sit and an informal breakfast, participants will go to gorgeous Aspen Vista (below the ski basin) for mountain walking; during this day, we explore the poetry of the great Tang Dynasty poet, Hanshan. Friday, we sit a sesshin schedule, which includes a Dharma talk by Roshi. Saturday, we move to the mountains again, each person finding the path appropriate to their abilities. The evenings of the mountain walking days, we sit and as well explore insights about our practice. Sunday, after morning meditation, we share insights into how we bring both the mountain and monastery into our lives.

This retreat is open to beginners and longterm practitioners. The time in the mountains works for all, as each person chooses their own pace of walking. The formal retreat days are accessible to all. The retreat includes interviews with Roshi and other teachers, meditation instruction, and Upaya’s exceptional food and ambience.

Suggested reading: Cold Mountain by Han Shan tr. Gary Snider

For Teacher’s Bio, please visit Part 1.

To access the entire series, please click on the link below:
Sesshin: Zendo Sitting, Mountain Walking Series : All 3 Parts

PROGRAM DESCRIPTION: This sesshin invites participants to contemplate the interdependence of monastery and mountain. We alternate days of sitting practice with mountain walking practice in the Sangre de Cristos. We explore the role of mountains in classical Zen as we study the great poetry of Tang dynasty China. This retreat emphasizes the integration of mind/body practice, a view of boundlessness, and the realization of zendo sitting and mountain walking.

Led by Roshi Joan Halifax, this unique retreat gives practitioners the opportunity to explore the relationship between the mountain and the monastery. The retreat begins at 5:30pm on Tuesday, May 1, with instructions on oryoki practice, followed by an informal and convivial dinner. The first evening session covers an introduction to sesshin and the place of mountains in Zen practice. The next day, Wednesday, all participants will sit a sesshin schedule with oriyoki meals; the dharma talk explores Tang Dynasty poetry and the sesshin experience. On Thursday, after the early morning sit and an informal breakfast, participants will go to gorgeous Aspen Vista (below the ski basin) for mountain walking; during this day, we explore the poetry of the great Tang Dynasty poet, Hanshan. Friday, we sit a sesshin schedule, which includes a Dharma talk by Roshi. Saturday, we move to the mountains again, each person finding the path appropriate to their abilities. The evenings of the mountain walking days, we sit and as well explore insights about our practice. Sunday, after morning meditation, we share insights into how we bring both the mountain and monastery into our lives.

This retreat is open to beginners and longterm practitioners. The time in the mountains works for all, as each person chooses their own pace of walking. The formal retreat days are accessible to all. The retreat includes interviews with Roshi and other teachers, meditation instruction, and Upaya’s exceptional food and ambience.

Suggested reading: Cold Mountain by Han Shan tr. Gary Snider

TEACHER BIO: Joan Halifax Roshi is a Buddhist teacher, Zen priest, anthropologist, and author. She is Founder, Abbot, and Head Teacher of Upaya Zen Center, a Buddhist monastery in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She received her Ph.D in medical anthropology in 1973. She has lectured on the subject of death and dying at many academic institutions, including Harvard Divinity School and Harvard Medical School, Georgetown Medical School, University of Virginia Medical School, Duke University Medical School, University of Connecticut Medical School, among many others. She received a National Science Foundation Fellowship in Visual Anthropology, and was an Honorary Research Fellow in Medical Ethnobotany at Harvard University. From 1972-1975, she worked with psychiatrist Stanislav Grof at the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center on pioneering work with dying cancer patients, using LSD as an adjunct to psychotherapy.

After the LSD project, she has continued to work with dying people and their families and to teach health care professionals as well as lay individuals on compassionate care of the dying. She is Director of the Project on Being with Dying and Founder and Director of the Upaya Prison Project that develops programs on meditation for prisoners. For the past twenty-five years, she has been active in environmental work. She studied for a decade with Zen Teacher Seung Sahn and was a teacher in the Kwan Um Zen School. She received the Lamp Transmission from Thich Nhat Hanh, and was given Inka by Roshi Bernie Glassman. A Founding Teacher of the Zen Peacemaker Order, her work and practice for more than three decades has focused on applied Buddhism. Her books include: The Human Encounter with Death (with Stanislav Grof); Shamanic Voices; Shaman: The Wounded Healer; The Fruitful Darkness; Simplicity in the Complex: A Buddhist Life in America; Being with Dying; and Wisdom Beyond Wisdom (with Kazuaki Tanashashi).

To access the entire series, please click on the link below:
Sesshin: Zendo Sitting, Mountain Walking Series : All 3 Parts

You can access the desired part of the series by clicking on its link below:

Zen Mind, Yoga Body: Part 1 of 2

Zen Mind, Yoga Body: Part 1 of 2

As long-time practitioners of both yoga and Zen Buddhism, Samantha and Robert integrate yoga and Zen as complementary spiritual practices, supporting and guiding the group with a combination of yoga practice, sitting meditation, and lively discussion.

The yoga practice will prepare your body and mind for meditation, and will be for all levels of ability. No previous meditation or Buddhist experience necessary-beginners are welcome!

For Teachers’ Bios, please visit Part 1.

To access the entire series, please click on the link below:
Zen Mind, Yoga Body: All 2 Parts

As long-time practitioners of both yoga and Zen Buddhism, Samantha and Robert integrate yoga and Zen as complementary spiritual practices, supporting and guiding the group with a combination of yoga practice, sitting meditation, and lively discussion.

The yoga practice will prepare your body and mind for meditation, and will be for all levels of ability. No previous meditation or Buddhist experience necessary-beginners are welcome!

Teacher Bios: Do-An Robert Thomas is a Zen Buddhist priest in the lineage of Rev. Shunryu Suzuki Roshi, author of the modern spiritual classic Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind, and founder of the first Soto Zen Buddhist monastery outside of Asia, Tassajara Zen Mountain Center.

Robert’s dharma name, given to him when he was ordained as a priest in 2000, is Shi-Zan Do-An (Lion Mountain, Path of Kindness). He has been practicing Zen Buddhism since 1993, and in 2008 he received “Dharma Transmission” from his teacher, Zoketsu Norman Fischer. From 1994 to 2000 he trained intensively as a Zen monk at Tassajara, practicing intimately with many Zen teachers (including Tenshin Reb Anderson, Zenkei Blanche Hartman, Shisan Edward Brown, Sojun Mel Weitsman, Ryushin Paul Haller and others).

He was ordained as a Zen priest in 2000 by Zoketsu Norman Fischer, and has enjoyed studying and practicing with a number of Tibetan and Theravadan Buddhist teachers.

Today, Robert leads Zen retreats and workshops, and gives public lectures throughout the year. The expression of his Buddhist practice in his teachings has been focused on helping people from all walks of life to realize the practical benefits of Zen practice and meditation (zazen), and extend the Zen mind, with its qualities of openness, clarity, and flexibility, into every moment of their life.

For many years Robert has been in a leadership role serving the San Francisco Zen Center (SFZC) sangha, one of the largest Buddhist communities outside of Asia, and since 2005 he has been the President and CEO, overseeing the administration of all three SFZC practice centers (Tassajara, Green Gulch Farm, and City Center), as well as guiding its mission of bringing the wisdom and compassion of the Buddha to the world.

Since 1993, Robert has traveled extensively in Asia, most often with his wife, Samantha Ostergaard, studying and practicing in the Theravadan and Tibetan Buddhist traditions, and at monasteries and practice centers in Thailand, India, Nepal, Burma, Laos, and Cambodia.

Robert’s university training is in fine art and filmmaking, and he has had a career as a film/video director, a magazine editor/creative director, and a small business owner. He continues to draw as often as he can and enjoys watching movies. He loves to hike and run regularly, and also takes great pleasure in cooking and reading.

Samantha Ostergaard is a Zen student and yoga teacher who has used yoga to support her zazen practice for over ten years. She lived and practiced at Tassajara for three years, receiving lay ordination from Zoketsu Norman Fischer in 2000. Her teaching of yoga is deeply influenced by Zen practice.

To access the entire series, please click on the link below:
Zen Mind, Yoga Body: All 2 Parts

Teacher Bio: Sean lives in Taos, New Mexico, with his wife Tania Casselle, a freelance journalist, travel author and fiction writer. His third novel for Bantam/Dell, The Time of New Weather, was released in Mass Market paperback in April 2008, and was named best novel in the 2009 National Federation of Press Women’s Awards, as well as in the NM Press Women’s awards.

Sean is a member of The Authors Guild and his literary agent is Peter Rubie.

Sean is an MFA graduate in writing from The Naropa Institute, the Buddhist inspired university founded by Poet Allen Ginsberg and Tibetan Lama Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche. He’s had 20+ years of formal Zen training, first under the direction of Taizan Maezumi Roshi of the Zen Center of Los Angeles and then with John Daido Loori Roshi of Zen Mountain Monastery in upstate New York. He now studies with Gerry Shishin Wick Roshi of the Great Mountain Zen Center in Colorado.

He has contributed to Writer’s Market; The Sun; Yoga Journal; Tricycle: The Buddhist Review; Mandala, and Mountain Record: The Zen Practitioner’s Journal, plus the anthologies You Are Not Here and Other Works of Buddhist Fiction by Wisdom Publications, and NOW WRITE!: Fiction Writing Exercises from Today’s Best Writers and Teachers, from Tarcher.

Sean teaches creative writing, meditation, and literature for the University of New Mexico in Taos, as well as SMU-in-Taos campus at Ft. Burgwin and the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe. He lads writing workshops around the country. (See Workshops page for more information). He also co-taught for four years with Natalie Goldberg (author of Writing Down the Bones) in her series of writing and meditation seminars.

He has produced, directed and/or scripted more than 25 educational and documentary film and video programs for groups including the University of California, Santa Barbara, the Committee to Save Mono Lake, and Zen Mountain Monastery.

Sean’s plays, In The Dark, Making Carthage Yellow, Turkey, and The Glass Harmonica, have received full or workshop productions from the Ensemble Theatre Company, the Bay Area Playwrights Festival (Marin), New One-Act Theatre Ensemble (Los Angeles); Garuda Theatre Company (Boulder); and the Actors and Playwrights Theatre (Santa Barbara).

When his fingers need a break from typing, Sean plays guitar and listens to jazz. He was probably a frog in a former life judging by his fascination for them in this one. He also loves snakes and lizards and is an ace at catching snakes and moving them out of the road so they can slither somewhere safer. It’s an invaluable skill in New Mexico, and one he learned during his childhood in Miami.

Teacher bio: Sensei Arlene Lueck is currently Tanto, head of practice, at Green Dragon Temple. She was ordained in 1996 and received Dharma Transmission from Norman Fischer in 2005. She lives at Green Gulch Farm with her husband David Daigan Lueck, and she is in residence at Upaya for one month as a visiting teacher.

You can access the desired part of the series by clicking on its link below:

Retreat on Contemplative Practice and Rituals in Service to the Dying Series : Part 1

Retreat on Contemplative Practice and Rituals in Service to the Dying Series : Part 2

Retreat on Contemplative Practice and Rituals in Service to the Dying Series : Part 3

Retreat on Contemplative Practice and Rituals in Service to the Dying Series : Part 4

Retreat on Contemplative Practice and Rituals in Service to the Dying Series : Part 5

Retreat on Contemplative Practice and Rituals in Service to the Dying Series : Part 6a

Retreat on Contemplative Practice and Rituals in Service to the Dying Series : Part 6b

Retreat on Contemplative Practice and Rituals in Service to the Dying Series : Part 6c

Retreat on Contemplative Practice and Rituals in Service to the Dying Series : Part 7a

Retreat on Contemplative Practice and Rituals in Service to the Dying Series : Part 7b

Retreat on Contemplative Practice and Rituals in Service to the Dying Series : Part 8a

Retreat on Contemplative Practice and Rituals in Service to the Dying Series : Part 8b, last part

For Teachers’ Bio, please visit Part 1.

To access the entire series, please click on the link below:
Contemplative Practice and Rituals Retreat (2012) : All 12 Parts

For Teachers’ Bio, please visit Part 1.

To access the entire series, please click on the link below:
Contemplative Practice and Rituals Retreat (2012) : All 12 Parts

For Teachers’ Bio, please visit Part 1.

To access the entire series, please click on the link below:
Contemplative Practice and Rituals Retreat (2012) : All 12 Parts

For Teacher’s Bio, please visit Part 1.

To access the entire series, please click on the link below:
Contemplative Practice and Rituals Retreat (2012) : All 12 Parts

For Teacher’s Bio, please visit Part 1.

To access the entire series, please click on the link below:
Contemplative Practice and Rituals Retreat (2012) : All 12 Parts

For Teacher’s Bio, please visit Part 1.

To access the entire series, please click on the link below:
Contemplative Practice and Rituals Retreat (2012) : All 12 Parts

For Teacher’s Bio, please visit Part 1.

To access the entire series, please click on the link below:
Contemplative Practice and Rituals Retreat (2012) : All 12 Parts

Episode Description: In this lecture, world-renown speaker and hospice founder Frank Ostaseski converses with listeners about the vital importance of basic trust in our own inherent goodness as well as the entire life and death process. He also touches on how different meditative practices can cultivate a deeper sense of trust, making all of life’s stages more vivid, joyful, and filled with gratitude.

Teacher Bio: In 1987, Frank Ostaseski helped form the Zen Hospice Project, the first Buddhist hospice in America. In 2004, he created Metta Institute to broaden this work and seed the culture with innovative approaches to end-of-life care that reaffirm the spiritual dimensions of dying. A primary project of Metta Institute is the End-of-Life Care Practitioner Program that Frank leads with faculty members Ram Dass, Rachel Naomi Remen MD, and many others.

Frank is a dynamic, original, and visionary workshop leader. His public programs throughout the United States and Europe have introduced thousands to the practices of mindful and compassionate care of the dying.

“The reflection on death is life-affirming. When we come into contact with the precariousness of life, we also begin to appreciate how precious it is, and then we want to live more fully.”

His groundbreaking work has been widely featured in the media, including the Bill Moyers television series On Our Own Terms, the PBS series With Eyes Open, The Oprah Winfrey Show, and in numerous print publications. In addition to being a Buddhist teacher, Frank is a consultant to several healthcare organizations, and he co-chaired the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Last Acts Spirituality Committee. Frank is also the author of the Being A Compassionate Companion audio series.

In 2001, Frank was honored by the Dalai Lama for his years of compassionate service to the dying and their families. In 2003, he was named one of America’s 50 most innovative people by the AARP magazine.

Frank has been a featured speaker at hundreds of programs. A few are highlighted below.

Harvard Medical School. Boston, MA
University of California, Berkeley, CA
Project on Death in America, New York, NY
Esalen Institute, Big Sur, CA
Sloan Kettering Medical Center, New York, NY
RIGPA International, Germany, England, France, Switzerland
National Hospice & Palliative Care Association, VA.
Rete di Indra, Rome Italy
Naropa Institute, Boulder, CO.
University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg Germany
Buddhism in America Conference, San Diego CA.
National Hospice Association, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Association of Hospice & Palliative Care Physicians, New Orleans LU.
Unicorn Association & College of Medicine Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland
Numerous State and Local Hospice organization

For Teacher’s Bio, please visit Part 1.

To access the entire series, please click on the link below:
Contemplative Practice and Rituals Retreat (2012) : All 12 Parts

For Teacher’s Bio, please visit Part 1.

To access the entire series, please click on the link below:
Contemplative Practice and Rituals Retreat (2012) : All 12 Parts

For Teacher’s Bio, please visit Part 1.

To access the entire series, please click on the link below:
Contemplative Practice and Rituals Retreat (2012) : All 12 Parts

For Teacher’s Bio, please visit Part 1.

To access the entire series, please click on the link below:
Contemplative Practice and Rituals Retreat (2012) : All 12 Parts

Teachers Bio: In 1987, Frank Ostaseski helped form the Zen Hospice Project, the first Buddhist hospice in America. In 2004, he created Metta Institute to broaden this work and seed the culture with innovative approaches to end-of-life care that reaffirm the spiritual dimensions of dying. A primary project of Metta Institute is the End-of-Life Care Practitioner Program that Frank leads with faculty members Ram Dass, Rachel Naomi Remen MD, and many others.

Frank is a dynamic, original, and visionary workshop leader. His public programs throughout the United States and Europe have introduced thousands to the practices of mindful and compassionate care of the dying.

“The reflection on death is life-affirming. When we come into contact with the precariousness of life, we also begin to appreciate how precious it is, and then we want to live more fully.”

His groundbreaking work has been widely featured in the media, including the Bill Moyers television series On Our Own Terms, the PBS series With Eyes Open, The Oprah Winfrey Show, and in numerous print publications. In addition to being a Buddhist teacher, Frank is a consultant to several healthcare organizations, and he co-chaired the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Last Acts Spirituality Committee. Frank is also the author of the Being A Compassionate Companion audio series.

In 2001, Frank was honored by the Dalai Lama for his years of compassionate service to the dying and their families. In 2003, he was named one of America’s 50 most innovative people by the AARP magazine.

Frank has been a featured speaker at hundreds of programs. A few are highlighted below.

Harvard Medical School. Boston, MA
University of California, Berkeley, CA
Project on Death in America, New York, NY
Esalen Institute, Big Sur, CA
Sloan Kettering Medical Center, New York, NY
RIGPA International, Germany, England, France, Switzerland
National Hospice & Palliative Care Association, VA.
Rete di Indra, Rome Italy
Naropa Institute, Boulder, CO.
University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg Germany
Buddhism in America Conference, San Diego CA.
National Hospice Association, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Association of Hospice & Palliative Care Physicians, New Orleans LU.
Unicorn Association & College of Medicine Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland
Numerous State and Local Hospice organization

Joan Halifax Roshi is a Buddhist teacher, Zen priest, anthropologist, and author. She is Founder, Abbot, and Head Teacher of Upaya Zen Center, a Buddhist monastery in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She received her Ph.D in medical anthropology in 1973. She has lectured on the subject of death and dying at many academic institutions, including Harvard Divinity School and Harvard Medical School, Georgetown Medical School, University of Virginia Medical School, Duke University Medical School, University of Connecticut Medical School, among many others. She received a National Science Foundation Fellowship in Visual Anthropology, and was an Honorary Research Fellow in Medical Ethnobotany at Harvard University. From 1972-1975, she worked with psychiatrist Stanislav Grof at the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center on pioneering work with dying cancer patients, using LSD as an adjunct to psychotherapy.

After the LSD project, she has continued to work with dying people and their families and to teach health care professionals as well as lay individuals on compassionate care of the dying. She is Director of the Project on Being with Dying and Founder and Director of the Upaya Prison Project that develops programs on meditation for prisoners. For the past twenty-five years, she has been active in environmental work. She studied for a decade with Zen Teacher Seung Sahn and was a teacher in the Kwan Um Zen School. She received the Lamp Transmission from Thich Nhat Hanh, and was given Inka by Roshi Bernie Glassman. A Founding Teacher of the Zen Peacemaker Order, her work and practice for more than three decades has focused on applied Buddhism. Her books include: The Human Encounter with Death (with Stanislav Grof); Shamanic Voices; Shaman: The Wounded Healer; The Fruitful Darkness; Simplicity in the Complex: A Buddhist Life in America; Being with Dying; and Wisdom Beyond Wisdom (with Kazuaki Tanashashi).

To access the entire series, please click on the link below:
Contemplative Practice and Rituals Retreat (2012) : All 12 Parts

You can access the desired part of the series by clicking on its link below:

Coming Home: A Buddhist Retreat on Easter and Passover Series : Part 1

Coming Home: A Buddhist Retreat on Easter and Passover Series : Part 2

Coming Home: A Buddhist Retreat on Easter and Passover Series : Part 3a

Coming Home: A Buddhist Retreat on Easter and Passover Series : Part 3b

Coming Home: A Buddhist Retreat on Easter and Passover Series : Part 4a

Coming Home: A Buddhist Retreat on Easter and Passover : Part 4b

Coming Home: A Buddhist Retreat on Easter and Passover : Part 5, last part

Episode Overview: This session begins with meditation and then explores themes of awakening to suffering and reawakening to love. In light of the confluence of Easter, Passover and Buddha’s Birthday on this weekend, this session was concluded with a ritual in which participants named that which they wanted to let go of and that which whey wanted to awaken.

For Teacher’s Bio, please visit Part 1.

Episode Overview: In this section, Sharon discusses faith and doubt and some of the differences between doubt and despair. Joan continues the telling of the Easter story by looking at the night of Christ’s crucifixion and seeing what these events can mean in our own lives.

For Teacher’s Bio, please visit Part 1.

Episode Overview: In this section, Sharon discusses faith and doubt and some of the differences between doubt and despair. Joan continues the telling of the Easter story by looking at the night of Christ’s crucifixion and seeing what these events can mean in our own lives.

For Teacher’s Bio, please visit Part 1.

Episode Overview: In this part of the program, both teachers discuss the beginning stages of their meditation centers. Also, the Easter story is picked up again, starting with the betrayal of Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane and ending with his crucifixion on the hill of Golgotha.

For Teacher’s Bio, please visit Part 1.

Episode Overview: In this part of the program, both teachers discuss the beginning stages of their meditation centers.  Also, the Easter story is picked up again, starting with the betrayal of Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane.

For Teacher’s Bio, please visit Part 1.

Episode Overview: Events leading up to and directly after the Biblical account of the last supper are reviewed and given personal meanings in our own existences.

For Teacher’s Bio, please visit Part 1.

Episode Overview: In the first session of the retreat series, the ancient symbology of the Jewish Passover Seder is explained as well as newer elements that have been included, making the meal an adaptive tradition for believers of all spiritual practices and times.

Teachers Bio: Joan Halifax Roshi is a Buddhist teacher, Zen priest, anthropologist, and author. She is Founder, Abbot, and Head Teacher of Upaya Zen Center, a Buddhist monastery in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She received her Ph.D in medical anthropology in 1973. She has lectured on the subject of death and dying at many academic institutions, including Harvard Divinity School and Harvard Medical School, Georgetown Medical School, University of Virginia Medical School, Duke University Medical School, University of Connecticut Medical School, among many others. She received a National Science Foundation Fellowship in Visual Anthropology, and was an Honorary Research Fellow in Medical Ethnobotany at Harvard University. From 1972-1975, she worked with psychiatrist Stanislav Grof at the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center on pioneering work with dying cancer patients, using LSD as an adjunct to psychotherapy.

After the LSD project, she has continued to work with dying people and their families and to teach health care professionals as well as lay individuals on compassionate care of the dying. She is Director of the Project on Being with Dying and Founder and Director of the Upaya Prison Project that develops programs on meditation for prisoners. For the past twenty-five years, she has been active in environmental work. She studied for a decade with Zen Teacher Seung Sahn and was a teacher in the Kwan Um Zen School. She received the Lamp Transmission from Thich Nhat Hanh, and was given Inka by Roshi Bernie Glassman. A Founding Teacher of the Zen Peacemaker Order, her work and practice for more than three decades has focused on applied Buddhism. Her books include: The Human Encounter with Death (with Stanislav Grof); Shamanic Voices; Shaman: The Wounded Healer; The Fruitful Darkness; Simplicity in the Complex: A Buddhist Life in America; Being with Dying; and Wisdom Beyond Wisdom (with Kazuaki Tanashashi).

Born in New York City in 1952, Sharon Salzberg experienced a childhood involving considerable loss and turmoil. An early realization of the power of meditation to overcome personal suffering determined her life direction. Her teaching and writing now communicates that power to a worldwide audience of practitioners. She offers non-sectarian retreat and study opportunities for participants from widely diverse backgrounds.

Sharon first encountered Buddhism in 1969, in an Asian philosophy course at the State University of New York, Buffalo. The course sparked an interest that, in 1970, took her to India, for an independent study program. Sharon traveled motivated by “an intuition that the methods of meditation would bring me some clarity and peace.”

In 1971, in Bodh Gaya, India, Sharon attended her first intensive meditation course. She spent the next years engaged in intensive study with highly respected Buddhist teachers. She returned to America in 1974 and began teaching vipassana (insight) meditation. Today she leads intensive retreats worldwide as well as a variety of non-residential programs, workshops, and classes.

In 1976, she established, together with Joseph Goldstein and Jack Kornfield, the Insight Meditation Society (IMS) in Barre, Massachusetts, which now ranks as one of the most prominent and active meditation centers in the Western world. Sharon and Joseph Goldstein expanded their vision in 1989 by co-founding the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies (BCBS). In 1998, they initiated the Forest Refuge, a long-term retreat center secluded in a wooded area on IMS property. Sharon resides in Barre, Massachusetts, and New York City.

Sharon has also emerged as a featured speaker and teacher at a wide variety of events. She served as a panelist with the Dalai Lama and leading scientists at the 2005 Mind and Life Investigating the Mind Conference in Washington, DC. She also coordinated the meditation faculty for the 2005 Mind and Life Summer Institute, an intensive five-day meeting to advance research on the intersection of meditation and the cognitive and behavioral sciences.

At the 2005 Sacred Circles Conference at the Washington National Cathedral, Sharon served as a keynote speaker. She has addressed audiences at the State of the World Forum, the Peacemakers Conference (sharing a plenary panel with Nobel Laureates His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Jose Ramos Horta) and has delivered keynotes at Tricycle’s Buddhism in America Conference, as well as Yoga Journal, Kripalu and Omega conferences. She was selected to attend the Gethsemani encounter, a dialogue on spiritual life between Buddhist and Christian leaders that included His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

The written word is central to Sharon Salzberg’s teaching and studies. In her early Buddhist studies at the University of Buffalo, she discovered Chogyam Trungpa’s book, Meditation in Action. She later heard him speak at a nearby school: he was the first practicing Buddhist she encountered. While studying in India, Shunryu Suzuki’s book Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind profoundly influenced the direction of her meditation practice.

She is currently a contributing editor of Oprah’s O Magazine, and has appeared in Time Magazine, Yoga Journal, msnbc.com, Tricycle, Real Simple, Body & Soul, Mirabella, Good Housekeeping, Self, Buddhadharma, More and Shambhala Sun, as well as on a variety of radio programs.

Various anthologies on spirituality have featured Sharon Salzberg and her work, including Meetings with Remarkable Women, Gifts of the Spirit, A Complete Guide to Buddhist America, Handbook of the Heart, The Best Guide to Meditation, From the Ashes – A Spiritual Response to the Attack on America, and How to Stop the Next War Now: Effective Responses to Violence and Terrorism

Teacher Bio: Sensei Arlene Lueck is currently Tanto, head of practice, at Green Dragon Temple. She was ordained in 1996 and received Dharma Transmission from Norman Fischer in 2005. She lives at Green Gulch Farm with her husband David Daigan Lueck, and she is in residence at Upaya for one month as a visiting teacher

Teacher Bio: Sensei Arlene Lueck is currently Tanto, head of practice, at Green Dragon Temple. She was ordained in 1996 and received Dharma Transmission from Norman Fischer in 2005. She lives at Green Gulch Farm with her husband David Daigan Lueck, and she is in residence at Upaya for one month as a visiting teacher.

Teacher Bio: Sensei Arlene Lueck is currently Tanto, head of practice, at Green Dragon Temple. She was ordained in 1996 and received Dharma Transmission from Norman Fischer in 2005. She lives at Green Gulch Farm with her husband David Daigan Lueck, and she is in residence at Upaya for one month as a visiting teacher.

Laurie Leitch, PhD, cofounder of the Trauma Resource Institute, has been in psychotherapy practice and health consultation for more than 25 years. Dr. Loree Sutton is a retired Brigadier General and a Psychiatrist. Together they have worked to introduce TRM, a biologically based trauma resiliency model to veterans and warriors.

Teacher Bio: Erika Rosenberg received her Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of California, San Francisco (1994) and her B.S. in Neuroscience from San Jose State University (1986). Dr. Rosenberg’s scientific research has examined how our feelings are revealed in our facial expressions, how social factors influence emotional signals, and how anger affects cardiovascular health. Her work is published in a wide range of psychological journals and books, and she speaks at national conferences on the topics of emotions and facial expressions. Erika Rosenberg currently collaborates with other scientists on numerous projects in psychology, medicine, and computer science.

Dr. Rosenberg served on the faculties of the University of Delaware and the College of William and Mary, currently conducts research at the Center for Mind and Brain at the University of California, Davis, teaches at the Nyingma Institute of Tibetan Studies in Berkeley, and offers workshops worldwide.

Speaker Bio: On March 7, 2012, Roshi Joan Halifax gave Denbo and Denkai to Irene Kyojo Bakker. Kyojo is the Founder and Head Teacher at Zen Spirit in Holland. She has worked in the end-of-life care field for many years and has taught collaboratively with Roshi Joan in the Being with Dying program in the US and Europe. Roshi and Kyojo met at Auschwitz during a Bearing Witness Retreat led by Roshi Bernie Glassman. Over the years, they have practiced, taught and collaborated together over a number of projects.

Speaker bio: Natalie Goldberg is the author of ten books, including Writing Down the Bones, which has sold over one million copies and has been translated into twelve languages. She has also written the beloved Long Quiet Highway: Waking Up in America, a memoir about her Zen teacher. For the last thirty years she has practiced Zen and taught seminars in writing as a spiritual practice. She lives in northern New Mexico.

You can access the desired part of the series by clicking on its link below:

Zen Mind, Beginners Mind Series : Part 1

Zen Mind, Beginners Mind Series : Part 2

Zen Mind, Beginners Mind Series : Part 3a

Zen Mind, Beginners Mind Series : Part 3b

Zen Mind, Beginners Mind Series : Part 4

Zen Mind, Beginners Mind Series : Part 5a

Zen Mind, Beginners Mind Series : Part 5b

How can we become intimate with our own mind? How can we discover our true nature of wisdom and compassion? What are the tools Zen practice offers for self-realization and how can we integrate the practice into our daily life? Is it necessary to have a teacher? This weekend-retreat is for people who are new to Zen practice as well as those who want to deepen their spiritual practice. We will explore the most important basic aspects of Zen practice through sitting meditation (Zazen), walking meditation (Kinhin) inside and outside the meditation hall (Zendo), liturgy, one hour of work practice (samu), silent meals, and a dharma-talk by Sensei Beate Genko Stolte. You will have ample opportunities to ask questions about Zen practice and sufficient time for discussions with the teacher and like-minded practitioners.

Speaker bio: Sensei Beate Genko Stolte is a Zen teacher and the first Dharma successor of Roshi Joan Halifax in the lineage of Taizan Maezumi Roshi. Born in Germany, she has practiced Zen for more than 20 years and was priest-ordained in the lineage of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi (“Zen Mind, Beginners Mind”).

She has degrees in business administration and fiscal law. She has lived, practiced, and taught in Zen Buddhist communities in the United States, Switzerland and Germany and visited Japan for Zen Buddhist studies.

As a co-founder of a German Buddhist Study Center, she served as president of the board for ten years as well as director.

To access the entire series, please click on the link below:
Zen Mind, Beginners Mind Series: All 7 Parts

How can we become intimate with our own mind? How can we discover our true nature of wisdom and compassion? What are the tools Zen practice offers for self-realization and how can we integrate the practice into our daily life? Is it necessary to have a teacher? This weekend-retreat is for people who are new to Zen practice as well as those who want to deepen their spiritual practice. We will explore the most important basic aspects of Zen practice through sitting meditation (Zazen), walking meditation (Kinhin) inside and outside the meditation hall (Zendo), liturgy, one hour of work practice (samu), silent meals, and a dharma-talk by Sensei Beate Genko Stolte. You will have ample opportunities to ask questions about Zen practice and sufficient time for discussions with the teacher and like-minded practitioners.

Speaker bio: Sensei Beate Genko Stolte is a Zen teacher and the first Dharma successor of Roshi Joan Halifax in the lineage of Taizan Maezumi Roshi. Born in Germany, she has practiced Zen for more than 20 years and was priest-ordained in the lineage of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi (“Zen Mind, Beginners Mind”).

She has degrees in business administration and fiscal law. She has lived, practiced, and taught in Zen Buddhist communities in the United States, Switzerland and Germany and visited Japan for Zen Buddhist studies.

As a co-founder of a German Buddhist Study Center, she served as president of the board for ten years as well as director.

To access the entire series, please click on the link below:
Zen Mind, Beginners Mind Series: All 7 Parts

How can we become intimate with our own mind? How can we discover our true nature of wisdom and compassion? What are the tools Zen practice offers for self-realization and how can we integrate the practice into our daily life? Is it necessary to have a teacher? This weekend-retreat is for people who are new to Zen practice as well as those who want to deepen their spiritual practice. We will explore the most important basic aspects of Zen practice through sitting meditation (Zazen), walking meditation (Kinhin) inside and outside the meditation hall (Zendo), liturgy, one hour of work practice (samu), silent meals, and a dharma-talk by Sensei Beate Genko Stolte. You will have ample opportunities to ask questions about Zen practice and sufficient time for discussions with the teacher and like-minded practitioners.

Speaker bio: Sensei Beate Genko Stolte is a Zen teacher and the first Dharma successor of Roshi Joan Halifax in the lineage of Taizan Maezumi Roshi. Born in Germany, she has practiced Zen for more than 20 years and was priest-ordained in the lineage of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi (“Zen Mind, Beginners Mind”).

She has degrees in business administration and fiscal law. She has lived, practiced, and taught in Zen Buddhist communities in the United States, Switzerland and Germany and visited Japan for Zen Buddhist studies.

As a co-founder of a German Buddhist Study Center, she served as president of the board for ten years as well as director.

To access the entire series, please click on the link below:
Zen Mind, Beginners Mind Series: All 7 Parts

How can we become intimate with our own mind? How can we discover our true nature of wisdom and compassion? What are the tools Zen practice offers for self-realization and how can we integrate the practice into our daily life? Is it necessary to have a teacher? This weekend-retreat is for people who are new to Zen practice as well as those who want to deepen their spiritual practice. We will explore the most important basic aspects of Zen practice through sitting meditation (Zazen), walking meditation (Kinhin) inside and outside the meditation hall (Zendo), liturgy, one hour of work practice (samu), silent meals, and a dharma-talk by Sensei Beate Genko Stolte. You will have ample opportunities to ask questions about Zen practice and sufficient time for discussions with the teacher and like-minded practitioners.

Speaker bio: Sensei Beate Genko Stolte is a Zen teacher and the first Dharma successor of Roshi Joan Halifax in the lineage of Taizan Maezumi Roshi. Born in Germany, she has practiced Zen for more than 20 years and was priest-ordained in the lineage of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi (“Zen Mind, Beginners Mind”).

She has degrees in business administration and fiscal law. She has lived, practiced, and taught in Zen Buddhist communities in the United States, Switzerland and Germany and visited Japan for Zen Buddhist studies.

As a co-founder of a German Buddhist Study Center, she served as president of the board for ten years as well as director.

To access the entire series, please click on the link below:
Zen Mind, Beginners Mind Series: All 7 Parts

How can we become intimate with our own mind? How can we discover our true nature of wisdom and compassion? What are the tools Zen practice offers for self-realization and how can we integrate the practice into our daily life? Is it necessary to have a teacher? This weekend-retreat is for people who are new to Zen practice as well as those who want to deepen their spiritual practice. We will explore the most important basic aspects of Zen practice through sitting meditation (Zazen), walking meditation (Kinhin) inside and outside the meditation hall (Zendo), liturgy, one hour of work practice (samu), silent meals, and a dharma-talk by Sensei Beate Genko Stolte. You will have ample opportunities to ask questions about Zen practice and sufficient time for discussions with the teacher and like-minded practitioners.

Speaker bio: Sensei Beate Genko Stolte is a Zen teacher and the first Dharma successor of Roshi Joan Halifax in the lineage of Taizan Maezumi Roshi. Born in Germany, she has practiced Zen for more than 20 years and was priest-ordained in the lineage of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi (“Zen Mind, Beginners Mind”).

She has degrees in business administration and fiscal law. She has lived, practiced, and taught in Zen Buddhist communities in the United States, Switzerland and Germany and visited Japan for Zen Buddhist studies.

As a co-founder of a German Buddhist Study Center, she served as president of the board for ten years as well as director.

To access the entire series, please click on the link below:
Zen Mind, Beginners Mind Series: All 7 Parts

How can we become intimate with our own mind? How can we discover our true nature of wisdom and compassion? What are the tools Zen practice offers for self-realization and how can we integrate the practice into our daily life? Is it necessary to have a teacher? This weekend-retreat is for people who are new to Zen practice as well as those who want to deepen their spiritual practice. We will explore the most important basic aspects of Zen practice through sitting meditation (Zazen), walking meditation (Kinhin) inside and outside the meditation hall (Zendo), liturgy, one hour of work practice (samu), silent meals, and a dharma-talk by Sensei Beate Genko Stolte. You will have ample opportunities to ask questions about Zen practice and sufficient time for discussions with the teacher and like-minded practitioners.

Speaker bio: Sensei Beate Genko Stolte is a Zen teacher and the first Dharma successor of Roshi Joan Halifax in the lineage of Taizan Maezumi Roshi. Born in Germany, she has practiced Zen for more than 20 years and was priest-ordained in the lineage of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi (“Zen Mind, Beginners Mind”).

She has degrees in business administration and fiscal law. She has lived, practiced, and taught in Zen Buddhist communities in the United States, Switzerland and Germany and visited Japan for Zen Buddhist studies.

As a co-founder of a German Buddhist Study Center, she served as president of the board for ten years as well as director.

To access the entire series, please click on the link below:
Zen Mind, Beginners Mind Series: All 7 Parts

How can we become intimate with our own mind? How can we discover our true nature of wisdom and compassion? What are the tools Zen practice offers for self-realization and how can we integrate the practice into our daily life? Is it necessary to have a teacher? This weekend-retreat is for people who are new to Zen practice as well as those who want to deepen their spiritual practice. We will explore the most important basic aspects of Zen practice through sitting meditation (Zazen), walking meditation (Kinhin) inside and outside the meditation hall (Zendo), liturgy, one hour of work practice (samu), silent meals, and a dharma-talk by Sensei Beate Genko Stolte. You will have ample opportunities to ask questions about Zen practice and sufficient time for discussions with the teacher and like-minded practitioners.

Speaker bio: Sensei Beate Genko Stolte is a Zen teacher and the first Dharma successor of Roshi Joan Halifax in the lineage of Taizan Maezumi Roshi. Born in Germany, she has practiced Zen for more than 20 years and was priest-ordained in the lineage of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi (“Zen Mind, Beginners Mind”).

She has degrees in business administration and fiscal law. She has lived, practiced, and taught in Zen Buddhist communities in the United States, Switzerland and Germany and visited Japan for Zen Buddhist studies.

As a co-founder of a German Buddhist Study Center, she served as president of the board for ten years as well as director.

To access the entire series, please click on the link below:
Zen Mind, Beginners Mind Series: All 7 Parts

This is the third talk of a three-part series titled Awakening Through Writing. The  1st talk was by Henry Shukman) and 2nd one by Natalie Goldberg.

Speaker bio: Jimmy Santiago Baca was born in New Mexico of Indio-Mexican descent, Jimmy Santiago Baca was raised first by his grandmother and later sent to an orphanage. A runaway at age 13, it was after Baca was sentenced to five years in a maximum security prison that he began to turn his life around: he learned to read and write and unearthed a voracious passion for poetry.

Baca has devoted his post-prison life to writing and teaching others who are overcoming hardship. His themes include American Southwest barrios, addiction, injustice, education, community, love and beyond. He has conducted hundreds of writing workshops in prisons, community centers, libraries, and universities throughout the country. In 2005 he created Cedar Tree Inc., a nonprofit foundation that works to give people of all walks of life the opportunity to become educated and improve their lives.

Speaker bio: Natalie Goldberg is the author of ten books, including Writing Down the Bones, which has sold over one million copies and has been translated into twelve languages. She has also written the beloved Long Quiet Highway: Waking Up in America, a memoir about her Zen teacher. For the last thirty years she has practiced Zen and taught seminars in writing as a spiritual practice. She lives in northern New Mexico.

Please click here for the 1st talk (by Henry Shukman) and the 2nd talk (by Natalie Goldberg) in this series.

Speaker bio: Ray Olson, an internist by training, was a longtime Professor of Medicine at the University of North Texas Health Science Center. He has been a Zen student for over 30 years and received Jukai in 1989. He was ordained Novice Priest by Roshi Joan Halifax in 2009 and was made Dharma Holder at Upaya Zen Center in 2010. Ray serves as coordinator of Upaya’s Prison Outreach Project and teaches classes in both the local county jail and the local state penitentiary. He trains volunteers for work with prison inmates. Ray is long-married to Nancy; they have three grown children and four growing grandchildren.