Acharya Maureen Hall
Maureen is a graduate of the Community Dharma Leader (CDL4) program from Spirit Rock Meditation Center. She is also a lay Buddhist minister (Acharya) ordained via the Dharmacharya Program taught by Venerable Pannavati and Venerable Pannadipa, co-abbots at Embracing Simplicity Hermitage in Hendersonville, NC. She has taught MBSR at Missouri University of Science and Technology as part of the University’s wellness program 2010-2017 and taught MBSR for the Center for Integrative Medicine in Springfield, MO in 2006 and 2008 and traveled with Venerable Pannavati to India three times in service to the Dalit (untouchables) communities Venerable visits on those Bearing Witness Retreat trips. Maureen has also served as…
Ayya Sobhana
Ayya Sobhana is a Harvard graduate and trained with master Dhamma and meditation teacher Bhante Henepola Gunaratana for 25 years. Her primary practice is the Eightfold Noble Path, that is, integration of meditation with ethical living and compassionate relationships for the sake of liberation. She “went forth” into monastic life as a Samaneri in 2003 and obtained full Bhikkhuni ordination at Dambulla, Sri Lanka in 2006. In 2010 Ayya Sobhana moved from the Bhavana Society of West Virginia to Aranya Bodhi Awakening Forest Hermitage. Aranya Bodhi is a private redwood forest preserve and retreat for Buddhist monastic women on the Sonoma Coast of Northern…
Caroline Yonque
Caroline Yongue—ordained as Lay Minister, Monastic, and Teacher Savana Amata Yasa—is Director of Center for End of Life Transitions and Carolina Memorial Sanctuary (North Carolina’s first conservation burial ground). Both initiatives are all-faiths projects of Anattasati Magga, a Buddhist Sangha for the Laity in Asheville, NC. Savana Amata began her Buddhist practice in 1990. She has made death care her life work under the guidance of her teacher, Nancy Spence. In 2013, Savana Amata was asked to present an on-line retreat, “How a Buddhist Prepares for Death,” for Tricycle Magazine.
Cheryl Wilfong
Cheryl Wilfong teaches mindfulness at Vermont Insight Meditation Center and at Northampton Insight in Massachusetts. She is a Master Gardener and a Master Composter. She writes an award-winning blog at www.themeditativegardener.blogspot.com “The book’s photos themselves are meditation-worthy.” – The Philadelphia Inquirer. ” …A no-nonsense step-by-step guide to Zen gardening for the 21st century.” – Shinzen Young
Cindy Dollar
Cindy Dollar was the owner and senior teacher at One Center Yoga in Asheville, NC for thirteen years. Currently, she teaches classes in the Asheville area at various studios and offers private lessons at her home studio in Weaverville, NC. Since her Iyengar yoga certification in 1990, she has taught workshops throughout the Southeast. Cindy has traveled to Pune, India several times to study with BKS and Geeta Iyengar. She is the co-author of Yoga Your Way. A long time student of Zen Buddhism, Cindy incorporates this mindfulness practice into her yoga teaching.
DaeJa Napier
DaeJa Napier teaches Insight Meditation (Vipassana) with an emphasis on the cultivation of the four Brahma Viharas. She has practiced and studied in the Zen and Vipassana traditions since 1974. Her root teacher was the late Zen Master Seung Sahn. Her practice has continued to be enriched under the guidance of both Asian and Western teachers, including Sayadaw U Pandita, Pa Auk Sayadaw and Joseph Goldstein. DaeJa has dedicated her life to exploring the Buddhist pathways to awakening and their applications in daily life. Her conveyance of the Buddhist teachings and related practices reflect the 40 years she spent raising five…
David Chernikoff
David Chernikoff, M.Div, LCSW. (www.davidchernikoff.com) A student of meditation since 1971, David has completed the Community Dharma Leader training at Spirit Rock Meditation Center and has been teaching Insight Meditation since 1988. His teaching has been influenced by senior teachers from the Insight Meditation Society and Spirit Rock, Tibetan teachers he studied with during a 3-year stay in Nepal, and spiritual guides from other contemplative traditions, most notably Ram Dass, Father Thomas Keating, and Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi. David taught meditation and psychology at Naropa University for many years and currently has a private practice as a spiritual counselor and life…
David Smith
Dave Smith is an internationally recognized Buddhist meditation teacher, addiction treatment specialist, and published author. His background is rooted in the Insight Meditation tradition and he was empowered to teach through the Against the Stream Buddhist Meditation Society. Dave teaches residential meditation retreats and classes, provides trainings and consulting in both secular and Buddhist contexts, and works with students through his meditation mentoring program. He recently founded Rebel Saint Dharma and lives in Paonia, Colorado.
Donald Rothberg
Donald Rothberg, Ph.D., is a member of the Teachers Council at the Spirit Rock Center in California. He has practiced Insight Meditation since 1976 and also received training in Tibetan Dzogchen and Mahamudra practice, in the Hakomi approach to body-based psychotherapy, and in the Somatic Experiencing approach to working with trauma. Formerly on the faculties of the University of Kentucky, Kenyon College, and Saybrook University, he currently teaches and writes on mindfulness and lovingkindness meditation and the application of these and other practices to transforming the judgmental mind, speech and communication, working with conflict, social service, and social action. Donald is the author of The…
Dr. Hun Lye
Dorjé Lopön Dr. Lye grew up in a Buddhist home in Malaysia. From a young age, he studied and practiced Buddhism with teachers of various traditions. He met his first Tibetan teacher in the United States when he was an undergraduate student. After earning a doctorate degree in Buddhist Studies at University of Virginia and teaching for ten years in American academic institutions, Dr. Lye left academia to devote his energy fully to Dharma work. In 2013, he was appointed as a Dorjé Lopön (lit. “vajra-master”) of the Drikung Kagyü Lineage by His Holiness Drikung Kyabgön Chetsang Rinpoché (Head of…
Em Morrison
Em Morrison (pronouns: she/her) loves nothing more than creating safe, fun, and healthy spaces for people to flourish, which she has been doing in Washington, DC and throughout the US for over fourteen years. She teaches trauma-informed conflict resolution, mindfulness, empowerment self-defense and restorative justice at schools, workshops, camps, and meditation retreats. Em is grateful for every opportunity she is given to serve the dharma as she continues to wake up. www.pastpresenceforward.com
Em Morrison
Em Morrison (pronouns: she/her) loves nothing more than creating safe, fun, and healthy spaces for people to flourish, which she has been doing in Washington, DC and throughout the US for over fourteen years. She teaches trauma-informed conflict resolution, mindfulness, empowerment self-defense and restorative justice at schools, workshops, camps, and meditation retreats. Em is grateful for every opportunity she is given to serve the dharma as she continues to wake up. www.pastpresenceforward.com
Eve Decker
Eve Decker began Insight Meditation practice in 1991. She is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley; Spirit Rock’s 2-Year Path of Engagement Program (social justice and spiritual practice training); and Spirit Rock’s 2-Year Community Dharma Leader training. She has trained in the Hakomi Method (a mindfulness-centered somatic healing practice); Awakening Joy, developed by James Baraz, Transforming the Judgmental Mind, developed by Donald Rothberg; and Mindful Self Compassion, developed by Kristen Neff and Christopher Germer. Eve is also an accomplished musician, and has released four CDs of “Dharma Music” (songs inspired by Buddhist teachings) for adults, and one for…
Florence Meleo-Meyer
Florence Meleo-Meyer teaches Insight Dialogue retreats internationally and is co-developer of the Interpersonal Mindfulness Program (IMP). She has studied in India and the US with meditation masters, S.Muktananda and S.Chidvilasananda since 1976 and has practiced insight meditation for over 20 years. She met and began studying with Gregory Kramer in 2003. Florence has taught meditation for over 35 years and has taught and trained Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction teachers and teacher trainers worldwide. As director of global relations and professional education at the Mindfulness Center in the School of Public Health at Brown University, she shares the transformational value and practice of relational meditation. She offers a teacher training for the…
Fred Eppsteiner
Fred Eppsteiner is the Dharma Teacher of the Florida Community of Mindfulness with students in FL and NC. A practicing Buddhist for over 40 years, and a psychotherapist for more than 30 years, Fred has trained extensively in both Zen and Vajrayana/Dzogchen lineages. He received Dharma Transmission from Thich Nhat Hanh in 1994 and is the editor of two books: The Path of Compassion and Interbeing. For more information on Fred and the FCM, access http://www.floridamindfulness.org.
Gina Sharpe
Gina Sharpe is co-founder of New York Insight Meditation Center for which she was Guiding Teacher for close to 20 years. She discovered the Dharma over 40 years ago and has studied and practiced with teachers in the Zen, Tibetan and Theravada traditions (in Asia and the United States). Gina retired from the practice of law in 1993 and has been teaching workshops and retreats since 1995 at Retreat Centers and for several years, in a maximum security prison for women. She has been a leader in the work of diversity at Buddhist Retreat and Community Centers for 15 years.…
Gisela Konrad
Gisela Konrad has completed two, three-month-long retreats at the Insight Meditation Society. She is certified as a yoga teacher by the American Viniyoga Institute, and she has been taking professional yoga nidra training with Richard Miller for the past five years. She teaches yoga and practices as a licensed shiatsu therapist.
Greg Pergament
Greg Pergament, is the author of Chi Kung and Recovery and has been practicing and teaching Tai Chi Chuan and Qigong for over 20 of his 32 years in Recovery. Greg brings a grounded, wise, and playful presence to his teaching. He also leads Desert Dharma a Buddhism and Recovery group and is President of Lotus In The Desert Sangha in Las Vegas, Nevada. In addition he is a firetender for Lakota Inipi and Sundance ceremonies, and has helped facilitate many Vision Quests.
Heather Sundberg
Heather Sundberg began meditation practice in her late teens and has taught Insight Meditation since 1999. She has completed the Spirit Rock/IMS Senior Teacher Training under Jack Kornfield & Joseph Goldstein, and is currently a part of the Spirit Rock Teacher’s Council. She has completed 3 accumulated years of silent retreat, and has sat 1-3 months of retreat a year for the last 20+ years, focusing both on the Heart Practices (Brahma Viharas) & and Insight Meditation. Between 2010-2015 she spent a cumulative year in study, retreat & pilgrimage in Asia. Since 2011, she has been a Teacher at Mountain Stream Meditation Center…
Hugh Byrne
Hugh Byrne, PhD, is a senior teacher with the Insight Meditation Community of Washington. Hugh worked for more than two decades in the field of human rights and social justice and has been a lead-teacher in Garrison Institute’s Contemplative-Based Resilience (CBR) program for humanitarian aid workers responding to the refugee crisis in the Middle East and Africa. He is the author of The Here-and-Now Habit (2016) and Habit Swap: Trade in Your Unhealthy Habits for Mindful Ones (2020). For more information about Hugh, check his web site at www.hugh-byrne.com. Assistant: Mary Linda McBride
Jane Cutler
Jane Cutler has been facilitating Insight Dialogue since 2008 and has worked as a psychotherapist with individuals and groups since 1991. She co-leads an ID group in Bristol, UK, offers on-line practice, and day-long and weekend retreats. Jane has been co-abbot of a zen community in Bristol since 2003. Her special interest is an ongoing inquiry into how we can truly meet one another and stay in openhearted relationship. She sees the current climate emergency as the koan of our time. Supporting resilience in these troubled times through Insight Dialogue and other skillful means is increasingly at the heart of offering…
Jeff Collins
Jeff Collins has worked as a hospice social worker for fifteen years. He has completed three, three-month-long retreats at Insight Meditation Society, and he has been engaged in Diamond Heart work for the past sixteen years. Gisela Konrad has completed two, three-month-long retreats at the Insight Meditation Society. She is certified as a yoga teacher by the American Viniyoga Institute, and she has been taking professional yoga nidra training with Richard Miller for the past five years. She teaches yoga and practices as a licensed shiatsu therapist.
John Orr
John Orr received Theravada Buddhist ordination after training for a period of eight years while living in Thailand and India as a monk in the 1970’s. He has been teaching meditation and leading retreats around the world since then and has also practiced in the Taoist, Dzogchen, and Hindu Yoga traditions. He is the guiding teacher for the New Hope Sangha in Durham, NC.
Kevin Griffin
Kevin Griffin is a Buddhist teacher and author and recovering addict/alcoholic. He is best known for his ground-breaking work bringing together the Dharma with issues of recovery and the Twelve Steps. A Buddhist practitioner for 35 years and sober for over 30, he brings a wealth of experience and wisdom to his teaching and writing. His books include One Breath at a Time: Buddhism and the Twelve Steps and Buddhism and the 12 Steps Workbook. In 2015 Sounds True released his latest book, Recovering Joy: A Mindful Life after Addiction. Kevin is also a gifted musician and songwriter with a…
La Sarmiento
La Sarmiento has been practicing Vipassana meditation and has been a member of the Insight Meditation Community of Washington (IMCW) since 1998. La’s practice and approach to the Dharma has been influenced greatly by the teachings of Tara Brach, Pema Chodron, Larry Yang, Eric Kolvig, Michele McDonald, Cheri Maples, Joe Weston, and Ruth King. In September 2012, La graduated from the Community Dharma Leadership IV program sponsored by Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Woodacre, CA. Since 2005, La has been the guiding teacher/leader of the IMCW Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex and Queer (LGBTIQ) Sangha and the IMCW People of…
Lama Rod Owens
Considered one of the leaders of the next generation of Dharma teachers, Lama Rod Owens has a blend of formal Buddhist training and life experience that gives him a unique ability to understand, relate and engage with those around him in a way that’s spacious and sincere. His gentle, laid-back demeanor and willingness to bare his heart and soul makes others want to do the same. Even when seated in front of a room, he’s next to you, sharing his stories and struggles with an openness vulnerability and gentle humor that makes you genuinely feel good about who you are, with…
Leigh Brasington
Leigh Brasington has been practicing meditate since 1985 and is the senior American student of the late Ven. Ayya Khema. Leigh began assisting Ven. Ayya Khema in 2004 and began teaching retreats on his own in 1997. He teaches in Europe and North America and is the author of Right Concentration: A Practical Guide to the Jahanas. Find more about Leigh’s teaching at http://leighb.com.
Leslie Rawls
Leslie Rawls has been Thich Nhat Hanh’s student for over 20 years. She was ordained into the Order of Interbeing in 1995 and received Dharma Lamp transmission from Thich Nhat Hanh in 2009. Leslie facilitates a weekly prison sangha and is the resident Dharmacharya for the Charlotte, NC Community of Mindfulness.
Lila Kate Wheeler
Lila Kate Wheeler started practicing yoga when she was twelve and Buddhist meditation at age 21. She began teaching in the 1980’s and has sustained her practice in many Buddhist and Hindu meditative traditions. She traveled to Burma where she was ordained as a nun in 1988, and she’s studied at Dharma centers in the United States, India, Nepal, and Tibet. In addition to her Dharma teaching, Lila works as a writer, editor, and journalist. She was awarded a Radcliffe Fellowship in 2008 to support her novel writing, and she lives in Somerville, MA.
Lisa Ernst
Lisa Ernst is a meditation teacher, artist and founder of One Dharma Nashville. In her teaching, Lisa emphasizes both transformational insight and everyday awakening as an invitation to embrace all of the path’s possibilities. Lisa has been meditating for nearly 30 years in the Zen and Vipassana traditions. She received dharma teaching authorization in the Thai Forest lineage of Ajahn Chah, Jack Kornfield and Trudy Goodman. Lisa offers meditation training, classes and workshops and leads retreats nationally. She is a visiting teacher at Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Woodacre California.
Lucinda Green
Lucinda Green, Ph.D is a Dharma teacher, founder and director of Rocky Mountain Insight, a Theravada Buddhist Meditation Center in Colorado Springs, CO. Born to meditate, Lucinda first began formal practice in 1967 at age 16. Taken with the spiritual life, she continued her studies as an undergraduate in college, living in India in 1969-70. While in India she had her first brush with Buddhism and was intrigued. She began her Vipassana practice in 1976. After an auspicious meeting with Ruth Denison, in 1979, the Dharma took root, as she continued rigorous practice and study, co-founding a sangha in the…
Mark Nunberg
Mark Nunberg began his meditation practice in 1982 and has been teaching meditation since 1990. He co-founded Common Ground Meditation Center in Minneapolis in 1993 with his wife Wynn Fricke and continues to serve as the center’s Guiding Teacher. Mark has studied with both Asian and Western teachers and finds deep inspiration in the teachings of the Buddha. Mark and other leaders at Common Ground Meditation Center have begun the development of a new Retreat Property on 46 acres of rolling fields and woods in Western Wisconsin. He has been leading residential Vipassana retreats in Minnesota and around the country…
Mary Aubry
Mary Aubry began meditating in the Vipassana (insight) tradition and attending insight meditation retreats in 1993. She graduated from the Community Dharma Leadership program co-sponsored by the Spirit Rock Meditation Center and the Insight Meditation Society in 2012. Tara Brach authorized her to teach residential silent meditation retreats in 2012, and Leigh Brasington authorized her to teach jhana retreats in 2016. Other than Tara and Leigh, her primary teachers have included Joseph Goldstein, Bhikkhu Analayo, and Rodney Smith. In 2014-15, Mary co-taught a year-long program in Washington, D.C., on Aging, Illness, and Dying. Mary teaches meditation retreats nationally and internationally…
Mary Linda McBride
Mary Linda McBride is a qualified Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) teacher through the Center for Mindfulness at the University of Massachusetts School of Medicine. She also completed the 500-hour teacher training through the Engaged Mindfulness Institute – a program focused on bringing mindfulness to under-resourced communities. Mary Linda is a certified yoga instructor with 18 years of teaching experience. Contact her at Mindful Resolution.
Maureen Hall
Maureen is a graduate of the Community Dharma Leader (CDL4) program from Spirit Rock Meditation Center. She is also a lay Buddhist minister (Acharya) ordained via theDharmacharya Program taught by Venerable Pannavati and Venerable Pannadipa, co-abbots at Embracing Simplicity Hermitage in Hendersonville, NC. She has taught MBSR at Missouri University of Science and Technology as part of the University’s wellness program 2010-2017 and taught MBSR for the Center for Integrative Medicine in Springfield, MO in 2006 and 2008. She has traveled with Venerable Pannavati to India three times in service to the Dalit (untouchables) communities Venerable visits on those Bearing Witness Retreat trips. Maureen has also…
Meredith McIntosh
Meredith McIntosh is a long-time student of Tangen Harada Roshi at Bukkokuji in Japan. She is a certified Alexander Technique teacher, a NC certified massage therapist, and a teaching and performing musician. Both her self-study and teaching are rooted in the common ground between Zen practice and body-mind/movement awareness in daily activities and the performing arts.
Pat Coffey
Pat Coffey began his meditation practice forty years ago and teaches both domestically and internationally. He has studied with numerous Asian and Western teachers in the Theravada, Tibetan, and Zen traditions. Pat is the founder of the Insight Meditation Community of Charlottesville, VA and the Blue Ridge Prison Project, co-founder of the Meditation Teacher Training Institute, and co-founder of the Awareness Training Institute along with Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach. Down-to-earth, real-world, practical dharma is the hallmark of his teaching. The father of two children, owner of several businesses, and holder of several patents, Pat draws on his varied and…
Phyllis Hicks
Phyllis Hicks teaches Insight Dialogue retreats internationally and is co-developer of the Interpersonal Mindfulness Program (IMP). She chairs the Insight Dialogue Community Teachers’ Council. She has studied with a variety of Vipassana teachers since 1999, and extensively with Gregory Kramer since 2004. As a psychotherapist for over 30 years, she brings together Eastern and Western understandings of psychology and contemplative practice. She teaches Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction at Duke Integrative Medicine and is a guiding teacher for Triangle Insight. Phyllis lives in Chapel Hill, NC.
Rev. Ginger Lee
Rev. Ginger Lee was ordained as a Won Buddhist priest in 2006. During her novice training, she served at the Won-Buddhist temples in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and in Swaziland, Africa. Rev. Ginger completed her undergraduate training at YoungSan University, South Korea, and received her Master’s degree at the Won Institute of Graduate Studies in Philadelphia. In 2012, Rev. Ginger became the associate priest at the Won Buddhism Temple in Chapel Hill. Here, she leads temple services, meditation workshops, and dharma study groups. Rev. Ginger has 10 years of experience and training in Qi-gong and Tai-chi, and incorporates these forms of moving meditation…
Rev. WonGong So
Rev. WonGong (also known as Rev. Wow!Gong) started her training in 1988 and was ordained a KyoMooNym (dharma teacher) in 1994 after seven years of intensive training in Korea. She subsequently served in the Kang-Nam Temple in Seoul and the Rockville Temple in Maryland. As a pioneering Won Buddhist priest in the West, she has established temples in Chapel Hill and Raleigh, North Carolina. Wow!Gong guest lectures at schools and colleges, provides life counseling, and leads retreats, youth dharma camps, and cultural enrichment programs. She has been active within the international interfaith community and teaches meditation and dharma to people…
Ronya Banks
Ronya Banks is the founding teacher of the Asheville Insight Meditation center in Asheville, NC, in the USA. In addition to having lived as a Theravada Buddhist nun, Ronya’s teaching is informed by over 35 years of intensive Vipassana meditation practice, studying with more than 30 different Buddhist teachers, spending more than one year cumulatively on numerous silent meditation retreats, and her participation in the Spirit Rock Community Dharma Leader training program. Ronya Banks has been teaching for over a decade. She leads residential meditation retreats and has worked in person and online with people from all over the world. …
Ruth Ostrenga
Ruth Ostrenga, ordained as Lay Minister Apara Nissaya Yasa, has been a student of Nancy Spence since 2000. Nissaya volunteers her time and talents with Center for End of Life Transitions, facilitating workshops and retreats as well as guiding individuals and families during the moments leading to death and beyond. Nissaya will be assisting Savana Amata with this retreat. Savana Amata and Nissaya have both participated in Anyen Rinpoche’s Dying with Confidence program. Both are known as Doulas for the Dying and as Death Care Midwives.
Sharon Beckman-Brindley
Sharon Beckman-Brindley has practiced Vipassana meditation for over 25 years and is a senior teacher of Insight Dialogue. She has studied and practiced intensively with Gregory Kramer since 2001. Sharon is clinical psychologist and has taught and written for many years on the integration of Buddhist and western psychology. She is a co-founder and senior teacher of the Insight Meditation Community of Charlottesville, VA, and a graduate of the Community Dharma Leaders program at Spirit Rock Meditation Center.
Southern Dharma Staff
Southern Dharma and the Residential staff depend upon generosity in many forms to maintain the beautiful campus. Your support through service Dana is very appreciated and so important.
Sujata Yasa (Nancy Spence)
Since her first reading of the teachings of Gautama Buddha in A Buddhist Bible in 1976, Nancy Spence-Edwards has avidly and sincerely practiced offering the Buddha, the Dharma, and Sangha. To deepen her own practice, she began lay training at Vichara Bodhiyana Monastery in Greeley Hill, California, under Jay Dupont, Roshi. She entered Priest training there in 1979 and was ordained as Yasa. She then trained as a Lay Minister at Shasta Abbey in Mt. Shasta, California, receiving her Lay Minister certification in 1984. Most recently, she was ordained as Lay Teacher Sujata Yasa in 2012 and goes by this name now. …
Teijo Munnich
Reverend Teijo Munnich is a Dharma Heir of Dainin Katagiri Roshi and a certified Soto Zen Priest. She received formal training at Hokyoji in Minnesota, Tassajara Zen Mountain Center in California, and Hosshinji Sodo in Japan. Her current interest is in developing Great Tree Zen Women’s Temple as a residential practice center for women in western North Carolina. She also serves as teacher for the Zen Center of Asheville and the Charlotte Zen Meditation Society.
Therese Fitzgerald
Therese Fitzgerald was ordained by Richard Baker-roshi in 1986 and as a Dharma teacher by Thich Nhat Hanh in 1994. Therese has been teaching at Southern Dharma for twenty years. Originally from Charlotte NC, Therese now lives on Maui HI, where she works as a meditation teacher and Spiritual Care Counselor at Hospice Maui.
Ven. Pannadipa Bhikkhu
Venerable Pannadipa is the abbot of Embracing Simplicity Hermitage and spiritual directors of Heartwood Refuge, a non-sectarian Buddhist residential community and retreat center in Hendersonville NC. They guide a local sangha, offer an international teacher training program and engage in advocacy and hands-on ministry to relieve human suffering, globally.
Ven. Pannavati Bhikkhuni
Venerables Pannavati is the abbot of Embracing Simplicity Hermitage and spiritual directors of Heartwood Refuge, a non-sectarian Buddhist residential community and retreat center in Hendersonville NC. They guide a local sangha, offer an international teacher training program and engage in advocacy and hands-on ministry to relieve human suffering, globally.
Walt Opie
Walt Opie has practiced insight meditation with various teachers since 1993. He teaches insight meditation retreats and serves as a volunteer prison facilitator with Buddhist Pathways Prison Project. A graduate of Spirit Rock’s Community Dharma Leaders program (mentored by Kevin Griffin), he is a current participant in the 2017-2021 Insight Meditation Society (IMS) Teacher Training Program in Barre, Massachusetts. His most influential teachers include Joseph Goldstein, Sayadaw U Tejaniya, Bhikkhu Analayo, and Gil Fronsdal.
Ward Simmons
Ward Simmons has been practicing Insight Mediation since 1999. He regularly participates in residential meditation retreats ranging in length from a week to a month. He has completed the year-long Integrated Study and Practice at the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies in Barre, Massachusetts, and the two-year Community Dharma Leader program through Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Marin County, California. Ward has found the practice of Insight Meditation to be life-changing, and he considers it a privilege to share this path with others.