Teaching Meditation

Dr. Daniel Ingram is a retired emergency medicine doctor who is the author of two versions of the book Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha.   His current projects are the Emergent Phenomenology Research Consortium and a charity called the Emergence Benefactors.  Daniel discusses the way in which he became a dharma teacher, where he actually began by working with the most advanced practitioners, and he discusses a number of a...

Shaila Catherine rejoins us on the program.  We discuss several ancient practices, including the asubha practice (sometimes called "foulness of the body") and what the Buddha calls "crushing mind with mind," and how these practices do and don't work for modern students.  Shaila also describes her own process for finding a teacher once one is already a teacher.  She has just written a new book called Beyond ...

Lopön Chandra Easton is a Westerner who grew up in the Vajrayana Buddhist tradition.  She did nine years of preparatory (ngondro) practices and spent 5 - 10 years training to be a teacher.  She is a lineage holder under Lama Tsultrim  Allione, author of the book Feeding Your Demons.  She is currently on the Tara Mandala Board of Directors and the Tara Mandala Bay Area coordinating committee, through which she teaches and organizes ...

Australian teacher Kynan Tan, PhD only recently began teaching meditation and was quickly able to leave his regular job and become a fulltime teacher.  In this interview, you'll hear how he prepared himself to teach, how he gets continuing education and supervision as a new teacher, and what steps he thinks allowed him to attract so many students in a short time.  You can learn more about Kynan and contact him at https://kynan...

Vidyamala Burch is the founder of Breathworks, has a teacher training program with over 600 alumni, has been teaching mindfulness for pain for many decades, and has been voted one of the most influential disabled people in the United Kingdom.  Hear Vidyamala's story of growing up in New Zealand, moving full-time into a retreat center, and starting and steering Breathworks.  She'll discuss how to keep the "heart"...

Mukti is a teacher in a nondual lineage.  She received her authorization to teach from Adyashanti, her husband.  You can learn more about Mukti over here.

Mukti’s teachings invite attunement to the act of being and to the heart of awareness. Such attunement can awaken Spirit to reveal Itself as your essential self and as the essence of all of life. This revelation is known as Self-realization, and is the birth of conscious...

Upali talks about teaching intro courses vs advanced students, coping with the unfairness of the world, working with students' emotional wellbeing, and how to escape Garfunkel syndrome.

Upasaka Upali is a Dharma teacher who aims to demystify meditation, provide tangible instruction, and create a rewarding experience for practitioners. Upali received transmission in a lineage that can be traced back to the Buddha throu...

Shaila Catherine is the founder of Insight Meditation South Bay, a meditation group in Silicon Valley, and also Bodhi Courses, an online Buddhist classroom. She has been practicing meditation since 1980, with more than nine years of accumulated silent retreat experience. She has taught since 1996 in the USA, and internationally.   She completed a one-year intensive meditation retreat with the focus on concentration and jhana, and a...

Boaz Feldman talks with Upali from a multi-year meditation retreat and shares his personal journey of becoming a monk, returning to lay life, and becoming a psychologist.  Boaz and Upali talk about the challenges and benefits of integrating ancient tradition in a modern world, and Boaz presents a framework that formulates that possibilty.  To learn more about Boaz, please check out his website: http://boazfeldman.com/, and  you can...

This episode touches on Christian practice, Adyashanti's lineage of Zen, and how to teach meditation from more of a non-doing, already-there perspective, rather than a technique-based one.

Dorothy Hunt is the founder of the San Francisco Center for Meditation and Psychotherapy, and serves as Spiritual Director and President of Moon Mountain Sangha, Inc., a California non-profit religious corporation. Dorothy currently...

Shinzen Young is an American mindfulness teacher and neuroscience research consultant.

His systematic approach to categorizing, adapting and teaching meditation, known as Unified Mindfulness, has resulted in collaborations with Harvard Medical School, Carnegie-Mellon University and the University of Vermont in the bourgeoning field of contemplative neuroscience.

Shinzen’s interest in Asia began at the age of 14 when he decided to att...

Upali interviews Stephen Batchelor,  a contemporary Buddhist teacher and writer, a former monk best known for his secular or agnostic approach to Buddhism.  They talk about teaching Dharma (vs simply teaching meditation), finding authority through authorship, and plant medicine. Stephen teaches meditation around the world, and he is the author of such well-known books as Buddhism Without Beliefs, Confession of a Buddhist Atheist, A...

Tucker interviews Stephanie Nash.  Stephanie has a psychology degree from Duke University and a Masters from Yale University.  In addition to her career as an actress, Stephanie has had the privilege of working closely with Shinzen Young and has been a facilitator with Vipassana Support International since 1999, teaching retreats.   In addition to a specialization in mindful eating, Stephanie has written several influential guides,...

Upali interviews Tucker.  Dr. Tucker Peck is a meditation teacher and clinical psychologist whose specialties include working with advanced meditators and using meditation to help those suffering from psychological disorders.

Tucker began formal training in meditation in 2005 and has studied with Sharon Salzberg of the Insight Meditation Society and Upasaka Culadasa.

Tucker received his undergraduate degree in Psychology fr...