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Ven. Ayya Khema (Ilse
Ledermann) was a pioneering nun in the Theravada tradition from 1979 until her death on
November 2, 1997. She was ordained as a nun in 1979 by Narada Mahathera in Sri
Lanka. She established Wat Buddha Dhamma, near Sydney Australia, in 1978; the
International Buddhist Women's Centre in Colombo, Sri Lanka, and Parappuduwa Nun's Island;
and was spiritual director of Buddha-Haus in Germany, established in 1989 under her
auspices. She established Metta Forest Monastery in Germany as well. She is
the author of Being Nobody, Going Nowhere, When the Iron Eagle Flies, Who
Is My Self? and other books. |
Not available |
 |
Sylvia
Boorstein has been teaching since 1985 and teaches both vipassana and metta
meditation. She is a founding teacher of Spirit Rock
Meditation Center and a psychotherapist, wife, mother, and grandmother who is
particularly interested in seeing daily
life as practice. She is the author of three wonderful books on Buddhism: It's
Easier Than You Think; Don't Just Do Something, Sit There; and That's
Funny, You Don't Look Buddhist. |
Spirit Rock
Meditation Center
5000 Sir Francis Drake Blvd
Woodacre, CA
U.S.A.
office tel (415) 488-0164
fax (415) 488-0170l |
 |
Ruth Denison
studied in Burma in the early 1960's with the meditation master Sayagi U Ba Khin.
She has been teaching since 1973 and is founder of Dhamma Dena, a desert retreat center in
Joshua Tree, California, and The Center for Buddhism in the West in Germany. She is
known for her energy and unorthodox way of teaching Vipassana meditation. She uses
movement, music, rhythm, chanting, and sound as supportive meditation patterns for the
practice. Ruth Denison recently featured in a teacher interview with Insight
Meditation Online. |
Dhamma Dena
HC-1, Box 250
Joshua Tree, CA 92252
tel (619) 362-4815Insight
Meditation Society
1230 Pleasant Street
Barre, MA 01005
tel (978) 355-4378
David@dharma.org |
 |
Lucinda Treelight
Green, Ph.D. is a Dharma teacher in the Theravada lineage and director of Rocky
Mountain Insight in Colorado Springs, Co., USA. She received Dharma transmission
from Ruth Denison of Dhamma Dena in southern California, who received transmission from U
Ba Khin of Burma. In 1985, she entered a nunnery in Sri Lanka under the tutelage of
Venerable Ayya Khema. More recently she has recorded Buddhist chants in Pali and
English as well as metta and sweeping meditations to assist meditators (see audiovisual resource page). |
Rocky Mountain
Insight
P.O. Box 6386
Colorado Springs, CO 80934-6386
fax (719) 685-5756
TLG223@aol.com
|
 |
The Insight Meditation Society (IMS) of Barre,
Massachussetts, USA is home to many resident and visiting female teachers. The site
includes photos and biographies of Sylvia
Boorstein, Ruth Denison, Christina Feldman, Narayan Liebenson Grady,
Michele McDonald-Smith, Sharon
Salzberg and Carol Wilson. Associate and visiting teachers currently
include: Anna Douglas, Kamala Masters, Sharda
Rogell, Marcia Rose,
Tara Brach, Sarah Doering and Gloria Ambrosia.
See the teaching
schedule for current retreat details. |
Insight
Meditation Society
1230 Pleasant Street
Barre, MA 01005
U.S.A.
Tel (978) 355-4378
David@dharma.org |
no picture
available |
Upasika Kee Nanayon,
who wrote under the penname K. Khao-suan-luang, was one of the foremost woman teachers of
Dhamma in modern Thailand. Born in 1901, she started a practice centre for women in
1945 on a hill in the province of Rajburi, to the west of Bangkok, where she lived until
her death in 1979. Known for the simplicity of her way of life, and for the direct,
uncompromising style of her teaching, she had a way with words evident not only in her
talks, which attracted listeners from all over Thailand, but also in her poetry, which was
widely published. Many of her writings are available on the Thai forest tradition page of
the Theravada text archive. |
Not available |
 |
Narayan
Liebenson Grady is a guiding teacher at the Cambridge
Insight Meditation Center where she has taught since 1985. She is the author of When
Singing, Just Sing: Life As Meditation. See her article, coauthored with
husband Michael Liebenson Grady, Investigation:
Listening as Deeply as we Possibly Can in Insight Meditation Online. |
Insight
Meditation Society
1230 Pleasant Street
Barre, MA 01005
U.S.A.
Tel (978) 355-4378
David@dharma.org |
|
Shirley June Johannesen is
an acknowledged and respected teacher, author and leader in the field of stretching, yoga,
vipassana meditation and relaxation. She teaches classes in insight meditation, yoga, and
other body-mind practices in Calgary, Alberta. |
Shirley
Johannesen
StretchAwareness Centre
3212 - 6 Street SW
Calgary, Alberta
Canada T2S 2M3
tel (403) 243-3433
E-mail johannes@cadvision.com |
 |
Cecilie Kwiat
has studied and practised within Theravada and Vajrayana since 1965, and lived as a nun (maechee)
on long retreat in Thailand for two years. She now lives, teaches and leads retreats
in Calgary, Canada. Cecilie is also my beloved first teacher, so I can personally
recommend her very highly! See her take on the subject of women in western Buddhism (in a 1991 interview). |
Cecilie
Kwiat
Calgary, Alberta
Canada
ckwiat@telusplanet.net |
 |
UPDATED Kamala Masters, an
Asian-American woman living on Maui, is a Guiding Teacher with the Vipassana Metta Foundation. Her dhamma practice
began with Munindra over 20 years ago and in recent years she continues to do intensive
retreats with Sayadaw U Pandita, under whose guidance she has practiced both insight and
lovingkindness meditations. Kamala's most intensive practice has been within her
home and community and offers guidance for householders as parent, spouse and community
member. See the teacher
interview with Kamala and her partner Steve Armstrong in IMO. |
Vipassana Metta Foundation
P.O. Box 1188
Kula, HI 96790-1188
U.S.A.
tel (808) 573-3450
metta@maui.net |
 |
Michele
McDonald-Smith has been practicing vipassana meditation since 1975 and continues
to study with Sayadaw U Pandita. She has been teaching at Insight Meditation Society and worldwide since
1982, weaving her interest in relationship, nature and poetry into her teaching. She
has a deep interest in preserving the ancient teachings and in finding ways of expression
that make them more accessible and authentic for us in this time. |
Insight
Meditation Society
1230 Pleasant Street
Barre, MA 01005
U.S.A.
Tel (978) 355-4378
David@dharma.org |
 |
Mary Orr
is a vipassana teacher affiliated with Spirit Rock
Meditation Center. In addition to her training with Jack Kornfield, she also
studied for six years in the Ridhwan school with Hameed Ali. Prior to her
involvement with Buddhist practice, she trained with the Guild for Psychological Studies,
a group interested in the interface of Jungian psychology and western
spiritual/contemplative traditions. |
Spirit Rock
Meditation Center
5000 Sir Francis Drake Boulevard
Woodacre, CA
U.S.A.
office tel (415) 488-0164
fax (415) 488-0170
Voice mail |
 |
UPDATED Sharda
Rogell has practiced meditation since 1976, primarily with teachers in the
Theravadin tradition, and has led retreats since 1985. Sharda is a resident teacher
at Seattle Insight Meditation Center.
In addition, Sharda teaches
and leads retreats in other parts of the world, including IMS (Mass.), Spirit
Rock (Calif.), and centres in Canada, Sweden, and New Zealand. NEW
Insight Magazine interviews Sharda in Seeing the Truth of Freedom. |
Seattle Insight Meditation Society
P.O. Box 95817
Seattle, WA 98145-2817
U.S.A.
tel (206) 366-2111 |
 |
Sharon Salzberg has practised
and studied in a variety of Buddhist traditions since 1970, and is best known for her teaching retreats on intensive awareness
and lovingkindness practice. (Read Tricycle magazine's interview with her in The Dharma of Liberation.) In
the UK, Sharon frequently leads retreats at Gaia
House in Devon. See A
Wind Through the Heart, her conversation with Alice Walker on lovingkindness, from the
January 1997 Shambhala Sun. |
Contact
address:
Insight Meditation Society
1230 Pleasant Street
Barre, MA 01005
U.S.A.
Tel (978) 355-4378 |
 |
Spirit Rock Meditation Center is a practice
center in Marin County, California, which stresses the practice of mindful attention known
as Insight (or vipassana)
meditation. Regular teachers
include: Sylvia Boorstein (vipassana, metta), Debra
Chamberlin-Taylor (vipassana, Dzogchen), Anna Douglas
(vipassana, Zen, Dzogchen), Mary Orr (vipassana), and Julie
Wester (vipassana). Visiting vipassana teachers include Sharon Salzberg, Christina
Feldman, Arinna Weisman, Carol Wilson and Sharda
Rogell. See the teaching program for
current retreat details. |
Spirit Rock Meditation Center
5000 Sir Francis Drake Boulevard
Woodacre, CA
U.S.A.
office tel (415) 488-0164
fax (415) 488-0170
Voice mail |
|
UPDATED Dr. Thynn Thynn is
residential teacher at the Sae Taw Win II
Dhamma Center in Sebastopol, California. Dr. Thynn, who is Burmese-born, is the lineage holder of the Shwe Baw Gyun
Burmese Buddhist tradition. She gives public lectures on classical Buddhism as
well as weekly classes in vipassana meditation in daily life. Dhamma instruction via
the Internet is a recent development for her geographically distant students. The
Sae Taw Win II Center is a Theravada Buddhist yogi/lay residential community and
teaching/training institute in Theravada Buddhism and practice. |
Sae Taw Win II Dhamma Center
7415 Hayden Avenue
Sebastopol, CA 95472
tel (707) 829-9857
Email Thynnthynn@aol.com |
 |
Julie Wester
has practiced vipassana meditation since 1973 and has led retreats since 1985. Her
teaching reflects her training with Ruth Denison, whose pioneering approach to vipassana
meditation incorporates guided movement and sensory exploration with the silent retreat
setting. She is affiliated with Spirit Rock
Meditation Center. |
Spirit Rock Meditation Center
5000 Sir Francis Drake Boulevard
Woodacre, CA
U.S.A.
office tel (415) 488-0164
fax (415) 488-0170
Voice mail |
|
Arinna
Weisman was born in Johannesburg, South Africa and has lived in London, Israel
and Europe. She studied with Ruth Denison and many other teachers in the Buddhist
tradition and her spiritual practice includes work with Native American Elders. She
is working toward a multicultural and gender-inclusive expression of the dharma and
teaches throughout the United States. She is affiliated with Spirit Rock Meditation Center, and leads many
retreats for lesbian, gay and transgendered Buddhists. |
Spirit Rock Meditation Center
5000 Sir Francis Drake Boulevard
Woodacre, CA
U.S.A.
office tel (415) 488-0164
fax (415) 488-0170
Voice mail
http://pacific.telebyte.com/~robin/ |
 |
Carol Wilson
has been practicing vipassana meditation since 1971, most recently with Sayadaw U Pandita.
She has been teaching since 1986 in the United States, Canada and Europe, including
the annual three-month retreat at Insight
Meditation Society. |
Insight Meditation Society
1230 Pleasant Street
Barre, MA 01005
U.S.A.
Tel (978) 355-4378
David@dharma.org |
