Lama Ani Pelma: Lama Ani Pelma (Venerable Debra Ballier) is an American Tibetan Buddhist nun who for the past 15 years has wholeheartedly dedicated her life to serving her teachers and leading students on the path to freedom. She founded the Three Jewels in NYC, which is a popular center for serious Dharma practitioners as well as spiritual seekers; since then five Three Jewels centers have been founded around the world.
For the past ten years Lama Pelma has been a student of the masters at Sera Mey Monastery, in southern India. In 2003 she completed a silent three-year retreat in the high desert of Arizona. She currently resides at Diamond Mountain University where she serves as the Retreat Master. She is also a qualified yoga instructor, certified by Dharma Mittra.
Lama Pelma is the author of The Ultimate Offering, and Children of the Universe coloring book; she works to translate and preserve traditional Tibetan scriptures; she studies the ancient practices of yoga, and when she has a moment to herself writes poetry and spends times with her Shih Tzu puppy named Tsering.
Lama Choyin Rangdrol: Before entering the dharma stream, Lama Rangdrol worked as a licensed psychiatric technician for thirty years and Drama Therapist in departments of psychiatry including UCLA Neuropsychiatric Hospital, USC University Hospital, and numerous acute psychiatric hospitals and outpatient clinics serving severely mentally ill, developmentally disabled, and homeless populations.
His academic studies also include the University of Redlands School of Music (B.A.), graduate work in Ethnic Theater at Sacramento State University, and certificates of study from the National Shakespeare Company (New York), and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (London).
In 1995 he entered retreat at Pema Osel Ling under the tutelage of Dzogchen lineage holder Lama Tharchin Rinpoche where he remained immersed in the Dudjom Tersar lineage for two years. During this time he also received teachings from Khenpo Orgyen Tinly Rinpoche (Khenpo Chozod), Tulku Thubten, Lama Nawang, Lama Gyaltsen, Lama Namkhar, Lama Yeshe Wangmo, Thinley Norbu, and Khenpo Yurmed Tinly. He became Khenpo Yurmed Tinly's private student in 1998 and remained with him until the Khenpo's death in 2005. Known for his clarity of insight, Lama Rangdrol has taught Buddhism to Tibetan, Zen, Vipassana, SGI, ecumenical, non-sectarian, Christian, Interfaith, and secular communities. He has authored five books, two music albums, is a signed music artist with BMI and his recent documentary, Festival Canceled Due to Heavy Rain has been accepted at five film festivals and is the winner of the Aloha Accolade Award from the Honolulu International Film Festival.
Lama Rangdrol is the father of a multiracial family including four children and three grandchildren. He maintains international headquarters in the Hawaiian Islands, USA.
His academic studies also include the University of Redlands School of Music (B.A.), graduate work in Ethnic Theater at Sacramento State University, and certificates of study from the National Shakespeare Company (New York), and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (London).
In 1995 he entered retreat at Pema Osel Ling under the tutelage of Dzogchen lineage holder Lama Tharchin Rinpoche where he remained immersed in the Dudjom Tersar lineage for two years. During this time he also received teachings from Khenpo Orgyen Tinly Rinpoche (Khenpo Chozod), Tulku Thubten, Lama Nawang, Lama Gyaltsen, Lama Namkhar, Lama Yeshe Wangmo, Thinley Norbu, and Khenpo Yurmed Tinly. He became Khenpo Yurmed Tinly's private student in 1998 and remained with him until the Khenpo's death in 2005. Known for his clarity of insight, Lama Rangdrol has taught Buddhism to Tibetan, Zen, Vipassana, SGI, ecumenical, non-sectarian, Christian, Interfaith, and secular communities. He has authored five books, two music albums, is a signed music artist with BMI and his recent documentary, Festival Canceled Due to Heavy Rain has been accepted at five film festivals and is the winner of the Aloha Accolade Award from the Honolulu International Film Festival.
Lama Rangdrol is the father of a multiracial family including four children and three grandchildren. He maintains international headquarters in the Hawaiian Islands, USA.
Rev. angel kyodo williams: Rev. angel Kyodo williams is the founder of Center for Transformative Change and the author of the critically acclaimed book, Being Black: Zen and the Art of Living with Fearlessness and Grace. williams is a social visionary that sees Transformative Social Change: applying inner awareness practice to broad-based social change, as America’s next great movement. Calling for a paradigm shift that “changes the way change is done,” angel envisions the building of a presence-centered social justice movement as the foundation for personal freedom, a just society and the healing of divisions of race, class, faith and politic. She notes, “Without inner change, there can be no outer change. Without collective change, no change matters.”
Her work engages at the root, field and resource levels of social transformation. angel sits on the boards of organizations that are deeply invested in applying socially transformative theories of change including: Social Justice Leadership; Forest Ethics; and Seasons Fund for Social Transformation, and previously YES! and Seeds of Justice.
Her work engages at the root, field and resource levels of social transformation. angel sits on the boards of organizations that are deeply invested in applying socially transformative theories of change including: Social Justice Leadership; Forest Ethics; and Seasons Fund for Social Transformation, and previously YES! and Seeds of Justice.
Dr. Jan Willis: Willis grew up in Docena, Ala., a small mining town just outside of Birmingham, which she described as the most segregated city in America at the time. Her father, a steelworker, was deacon at a Baptist church the family attended. “Racism was palpable” during her childhood, she said, and hate crimes against blacks — including children — were common. Willis experienced this firsthand when a burning cross was
planted on the lawn of her family’s home.
One of the earliest American scholar-practitioners of Tibetan Buddhism, Willis has published numerous essays and articles on Buddhist meditation, hagiography, women and Buddhism, and Buddhism and race. Her latest book was Dreaming Me: An African American Woman’s Spiritual Journey (2001). Willis also is the author of The Diamond Light: An Introduction to Tibetan Buddhist Meditation (1972), On Knowing Reality: The Tattvartha Chapter of Asanga’s Bodhisattvabhumi (1979), Enlightened Beings: Life Stories from the Ganden Oral Tradition (1995); and the editor of Feminine Ground: Essays on Women and Tibet (1989). She has studied with Tibetan Buddhists in India, Nepal, Switzerland and the U.S. for four decades, and has taught courses in Buddhism for 32 years. In December 2000, Time magazine named Willis one of six “spiritual innovators for the new millennium.” In 2003, she was a recipient of Wesleyan University’s Binswanger Prize for Excellence in Teaching, and she was profiled in a 2005 Newsweek article about “Spirituality in America.” Her memoir: Dreaming Me: An African American Woman's Spiritual Journey.
planted on the lawn of her family’s home.
One of the earliest American scholar-practitioners of Tibetan Buddhism, Willis has published numerous essays and articles on Buddhist meditation, hagiography, women and Buddhism, and Buddhism and race. Her latest book was Dreaming Me: An African American Woman’s Spiritual Journey (2001). Willis also is the author of The Diamond Light: An Introduction to Tibetan Buddhist Meditation (1972), On Knowing Reality: The Tattvartha Chapter of Asanga’s Bodhisattvabhumi (1979), Enlightened Beings: Life Stories from the Ganden Oral Tradition (1995); and the editor of Feminine Ground: Essays on Women and Tibet (1989). She has studied with Tibetan Buddhists in India, Nepal, Switzerland and the U.S. for four decades, and has taught courses in Buddhism for 32 years. In December 2000, Time magazine named Willis one of six “spiritual innovators for the new millennium.” In 2003, she was a recipient of Wesleyan University’s Binswanger Prize for Excellence in Teaching, and she was profiled in a 2005 Newsweek article about “Spirituality in America.” Her memoir: Dreaming Me: An African American Woman's Spiritual Journey.
Lawrence Ellis: Lawrence comes from peoples of Africa and Turtle Island (North America). He is a mix of African (several Southern and Western African peoples, with spiritual affinities with the Dagara and Yoruba peoples), African American and Tsalagi (Cherokee) peoples. Raised away from his ancestral homelands and from many (though not all) of his ancestral traditions, much of his life has focused on returning to those traditions, and on bridging the best of ancient wisdom and contemporary innovations.
Lawrence is a complexity-science organizational consultant (one who applies insights from the study of complex systems in nature, society and science to human organizations) & spiritual activist, whose initial training in both fields was at Oxford University on a Rhodes Scholarship, where he studied the application of Gandhian nonviolence to individual & large-scale change.
His life mission focuses on supporting what has been called “The Great Turning” (Joanna Macy) / The Prophecy of the Eagle and the Condor (many Indigenous peoples of the Americas) / ”The Great Work” (Thomas Berry) / ”The Shift”, among other names – shifting our planetary culture from ecological destruction, global violence on unprecedented scales and other ills, to a life-sustaining civilization. He is especially focused on combining the best of ancient wisdom traditions with contemporary innovations that promote systemic change – from personal to political to planetary – in the footsteps of luminaries like Mahatma Gandhi, Wangari Maathai, Joanna Macy, Nelson Mandela and others. His particular niche centers on similarities between several ancient worldviews (especially Buddhist & many Indigenous), and contemporary complexity science – all of which view the world as radically interconnected. Perhaps the greatest revolution of our time is in the way that we see the world, and live in it from that vantage point – a reemphasis for many ancient cultures, and a shift for many modern cultures – of seeing the world as holistic, ecological, and deeply interconnected. Much of Lawrence’s work centers on highlighting this worldview of interconnectedness, and on cultivating practices and forms of social organization that embody it.
Lawrence has developed a range of ways to bring his work into the world, including consulting and activism. A former director with one of the world’s oldest change-consulting firms, Interaction Associates, and later as an owner of his own consulting firm, for more than twenty years Lawrence has worked with community-based, corporate, non-profit and public service organizations using complexity-science and conventional approaches – from leading highly successful redesigns of divisions of progressive multibillion dollar corporations and designing & facilitating a conference at Princeton University on complexity-science approaches to combating HIV/AIDS globally, to extensive work with numerous human rights & environmental organizations. Most recently, he has been involved in an exciting California-wide initiative designed to improve access to healthcare for key populations. Lawrence is the Founder & President of Paths to Change, a 15-year old consulting & training company.
Spring Washam: Spring Washam is a meditation and dharma teacher based in Oakland, California. She has studied meditation and Buddhist philosophy since 1997 in various traditions. After many years of teacher training with Dr. Jack Kornfield, trained as a Spirit Rock Community Dharma Leader and continues to train with Jack Kornfield at Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Woodacre, California. Spring is one of the founding members and core teachers at the East Bay Meditation Center and leads the weekly sitting group for people of color. Spring is considered a pioneer in bringing mindfulness based healing practices into diverse communities. Also considered a curandera, Spring studies indigenous healing practices and works with students individually from around the world. She currently leads healing and meditation retreats throughout the United States.
Ralph Steele: Ralph Steele is the founder of Life Transition Institute in Santa Fe, New Mexico where he serves as the guiding meditation teacher. He has practiced Theravadin Buddhist meditation for over three decades and taught since 1987, including at such venues as Spirit Rock Meditation Center and Insight Meditation Society. He completed a year of intensive practice as a monk in Burma and in Thailand. Along with his interest in preserving the Theravada tradition, he is dedicated to making the dharma available to culturally diverse populations. He has also worked with youth around the country.
Ralph received his M.A. degree from the University of Santa Clara in Marriage, Family, and Child Therapy in 1979. He holds BA degrees in Humanistic Psychology, and Religious Studies with board honors. Ralph is also the Founder of the Elisabeth Kubler-Ross Hospice Training Program at Northern New Mexico Community College. During his tenure as the Chair of the Board of Trustees of Southwestern College in Santa Fe, New Mexico, he was instrumental in transitioning the EKR Hospice Program, from a two year Associate Degree program to a Master’s Degree program in Grief, Bereavement and Counseling.
Dolores Watson: Dolores Watson, Founder of Flowering Lotus Meditation and Retreat Center, has been involved with healing modalities of mind, body and spirit for many years. Her vision for Flowering Lotus is to provide a peaceful place where people of all backgrounds can come to experience healing through meditation, gentle movement and wholesome vegetarian food.
Certified to teach hatha yoga and meditation by Integral Yoga over 35 years ago, she has continued expanding her knowledge of healing through meditation, visualizations and affirmations. She has also been rigorously engaged with two transformational groups for more than 20 years: Landmark Education and Insight. Having completed her first 10 day Vipassana meditation course led by S.N. Goenka in 2003, she has committed herself to the practice of Vipassana meditation and the sharing of this process with others.
Dolores founded Radiance, a wholistic healing center, in New York City in 1984. The center focused on a strictly vegetarian diet of raw foods, vegetable juice fasting and internal cleansing. Dolores guided her students through a 4 week process that resulted in self-healing of many diseases such as high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity, abnormal lumps, joint and muscular pain just to name a few. Besides intestinal cleansing products, she engaged them in meditation, chanting and visualizations. Prior to Radiance, Dolores taught elementary, junior high, adult education and junior college in New York City.
Certified to teach hatha yoga and meditation by Integral Yoga over 35 years ago, she has continued expanding her knowledge of healing through meditation, visualizations and affirmations. She has also been rigorously engaged with two transformational groups for more than 20 years: Landmark Education and Insight. Having completed her first 10 day Vipassana meditation course led by S.N. Goenka in 2003, she has committed herself to the practice of Vipassana meditation and the sharing of this process with others.
Dolores founded Radiance, a wholistic healing center, in New York City in 1984. The center focused on a strictly vegetarian diet of raw foods, vegetable juice fasting and internal cleansing. Dolores guided her students through a 4 week process that resulted in self-healing of many diseases such as high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity, abnormal lumps, joint and muscular pain just to name a few. Besides intestinal cleansing products, she engaged them in meditation, chanting and visualizations. Prior to Radiance, Dolores taught elementary, junior high, adult education and junior college in New York City.
John W. Ellis IV: Master John W. Ellis IV is a martial artist with more than 25 years of experience in helping people strengthen the connections between the mind, body and spirit.
He teaches a variety of people, including toddlers, youth, adults senior citizens, athletes, the physically challenged, teen mothers and autistic children.
He has more than 20 years of meditation practice in Christian, Zen, Vipassana and New Thought traditions. John teaches the Five Realms of Life, a Meditative Movement practice that explores the properties of Fire, Water, Earth Air and Space.
He teaches a variety of people, including toddlers, youth, adults senior citizens, athletes, the physically challenged, teen mothers and autistic children.
He has more than 20 years of meditation practice in Christian, Zen, Vipassana and New Thought traditions. John teaches the Five Realms of Life, a Meditative Movement practice that explores the properties of Fire, Water, Earth Air and Space.
Rev. Zenju Earthlyn Marselean Manuel: Rev. Zenju is an author, visual artist, poet, drummer and ordained Zen Buddhist priest in which she includes African and Native American indigenous healing, was born in Los Angeles, California to parents who migrated from Creole Louisiana. She is the gatekeeper and spiritual conduit for a divination system called the Black Angel Cards: Wisdom from an African Dreambody www.blackangelcards.com.She is also the author of Tell Me Something About Buddhism with a foreword written by Thich Nhat Hanh www.zenjuearthlynmanuel.co
Zenju Earthlyn’s spiritual work is steeped in ancient memories of her ancestors and therefore explores the deep inner spiritual journey of our human existence. Her wisdom is rich with insights into birth and death, transformation, and the exploration of other worlds. In essence, she offers the riches of her internal discoveries.
PART I of this series may be found HERE
PART I of this series may be found HERE
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DISCLAIMER: I cannot personally vouch for the level of competency, skill, ethical nor moral standards of all these teachers. Inclusion in this post should not be viewed as a blanket endorsement of the teacher nor of his or her abilities. Before studying with any teacher it is wise to check with the Beloved Community (local Sangha) in order to discover how the teacher is regarded in the local community and all other relevant communities.
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