John Orr
John received Theravada Buddhist ordination while living in Thailand and India as a monk for eight years. He has been teaching Vipassana Meditation and leading retreats, internationally, since 1980 and has also practiced in the Taoist, Tibetan Dzogchen, and Hindu Yoga traditions.
Deborah Eden Tull
DEBORAH EDEN TULL, founder of Mindful Living Revolution, teaches the integration of compassionate awareness into every aspect of our lives, bridging personal and collective awakening in an age of global change. She is an engaged dharma teacher, spiritual activist, author, and sustainability educator, who teaches dharma intertwined with post-patriarchal thought and practices, resting upon a lived knowledge of our unity with the more than human world. She trained for seven and a half years as a Buddhist monk at a silent Zen monastery and has taught engaged meditation for over 20 years. Eden has lived in sustainable communities and as an organic gardener/farmer for decades and celebrates the essential wisdom of nature. She currently resides in the mountains of western North Carolina, originally Cherokee land, with her husband. She offers retreats, workshops, classes, and consultations nationally and internationally, integrating presence and partnership with nature.
Paul Linn
Paul Linn began dharma studies and meditation in 1977. He has taught throughout the US mainland and Hawaiian islands since 1987 and co-founded the Gainesville Vipassana Society with Steve Bean in 1997. Paul's extensive study and practice of psychotherapy combined with dharma teachings help inform the nature of Awakening as inherent in living itself. With respect to the spiritual traditions that meditation resides within, he aims to bring a freshness and wonder forth that reminds the heart to rest in itself and realize what is unlimited.
Michael Scardaville
Michael Scardaville has been practicing Vipassana or Insight Meditation for almost 30 years and has taught meditation for more than 15 years in a maximum-security state prison and the Buncombe County jail. He also has taught in several Asheville sanghas, where he led day-long and residential retreats, and in a number of addiction recovery facilities. He had the privilege of serving for 10 years on the Board of Directors of the Southern Dharma Retreat Center near Hot Springs, NC. Michael believes that meditation can be a transformational practice that can enable us to recognize our true nature and live from our hearts.
David McKay
David McKay entered a Zen Buddhist monastery at the age of twenty-nine and spent the next eighteen years training there in silence. Over time he became a skilled facilitator and counselor, offering retreats and workshops at the monastery and across the country. David left the monastery in the fall of 2014 to further explore life and practice back in the world. He currently resides in the mountains of North Carolina, where he offers and supports awareness practice in the form of online and in-person meditation and discussion groups, workshops, one-on-one guidance, and retreats.
Roger Hawkins
Roger arrived in 1971 at the San Francisco Zen Center at the age of 22, just after the passing of the celebrated Zen teacher Sunryu Suzuki Roshi.
Having studied for two years with Taizan Maezumi Roshi until his death, Roger received Dharma transmission from Lou Mitsunen Nordstrom Roshi after completing koan work. Roger holds a doctorate in psychology from Antioch University.
Combining Zen with psychotherapy throughout the eighties, he addressed the minds of American Buddhist students in his inspiring and gentle way. In 2003, he founded the Broward (FL) Zen Group, now online, where he travels to teach twice a year. He leads three online Sanghas, including Lotus Petal Sangha with Judith Toy.
Venerable Soma
Venerable Soma is ordained as a Theravadan Monk and has resided at Heartwood Refuge since 2019. During this time she has been the assistant to Venerable Pannavati, and the coordinator of Treasure Human Life, developing educational programs for Dalit children in India, migrant camp for children and other service programs. Prior to taking and receiving vows, Venerable Soma received Buddhist Chaplaincy training and ordination from Upaya Zen Center.
Scott MacGregor
Scott MacGregor is a licensed clinical therapist and stress reduction educator with over twenty years of meditation practice including retreats for mindfulness, meditation in medicine and research, insight meditation, and spiritual reflection. His MBSR certification is through Brown University and he has participated in professional training under the direction of Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn at UMASS Medical School's Center for Mindfulness. He is also trained in the Mindful Schools curriculum. He teaches mindfulness at the Asheville & Charlotte Fire Departments, UNC School of Medicine ~ Asheville Campus, and the VA Medical Center's Integrative Pain Management Clinic.
Noah Rasheta
Noah is a Buddhist philosopher, best-selling author, host of the Secular Buddhism Podcast, and creator of The Inner Peace Roadmap.
Emily West Horn
Emily West Horn is a Certified Mindfulness Teacher via the International Mindfulness Teachers Association. She is also authorized to teach meditation by Spirit Rock Meditation Center and Insight Meditation Society. Emily has been called a “power player of the mindfulness movement" by Wired Magazine. Her work is featured in 10% Happier, Boston Children's Hospital's Comfort Ability Project, Buddhist Geeks, and apps such as Brightmind and Buddhify. She's also been mentoring mindfulness teachers in a certification program led by Jack Kornfield, Ph.D and Tara Brach Ph.D for over 7 years.
Oren Jay Sofer
Oren has practiced meditation in the early Buddhist tradition since 1997, beginning his studies in Bodh Gaya, India with Anagarika Munindra and Godwin Samararatne. He is a long-time student of Joseph Goldstein, Michele McDonald, and Ajahn Sucitto, and a graduate of the IMS - Spirit Rock Vipassana Teacher Training, and current member of the Spirit Rock Teachers Council.
Oren is the author of Say What You Mean: A Mindful Approach to Nonviolent Communication, a practical guidebook for having more effective, satisfying conversations. He is also co-author of two books on teaching mindfulness to teens and adolescents: The Mindful Schools Curriculum for Adolescents and Teaching Mindfulness to Empower Teens. His lates book is Your Heart Was Made for This.
Joesphine Spilka
Josephine was certified as a meditation instructor in 1989 in the Kagyu lineage of Tibetan Buddhism. She is a Shambhala training director, leading classes and programs from 1996 through the present. She completed a 3-yr teacher training program featuring practices from the Shangpa Kagyu tradition. Currently, she offers retreats, programs and mentoring weaving together various these traditions for today's students.
https://www.essencepresence.com/