MASTER GOENKA

Satya Narayan Goenka (30 January 1924 – 29 September 2013), commonly known as S.N. Goenka, was a Burmese-Indian teacher of Vipassanā meditation. Born in Burma to a rich Indian family, he moved to India in 1969 and started teaching meditation. His teaching was notable for emphasizing that the Buddha’s path to liberation was non-sectarian, universal, and scientific in character. He became an influential teacher and established meditation centers worldwide. In November 2008 when the construction of the Global Vipassana Pagoda was completed on the outskirts of Mumbai. Goenka was an invited speaker at the Millennium World Peace Summit of Religious and Spiritual Leaders on 29 August 2000 at the United Nations in New York City. He was awarded the Padma Bhushan by the Government of India in 2012.

DALAI LAMA

The Dalai Lama is a monk of the Gelug or “Yellow Hat” school of Tibetan Buddhism, the newest of the schools of Tibetan Buddhism founded by Je Tsongkhapa. The 14th and current Dalai Lama is Tenzin Gyatso.

The Dalai Lama is considered to be the successor in a line of tulkus who are believed to be incarnations of Avalokiteśvara, the Bodhisattva of Compassion, called Chenrezig in Tibetan. The name is a combination of the Mongolic word dalai meaning “ocean” (coming from Mongolian title Dalaiyin qan or Dalaiin khan, translated as ‘Gyatso’ in Tibetan) and the Tibetan word བླ་མ་ (bla-ma) meaning “guru, teacher, mentor”. The Tibetan word “lama” corresponds to the better known Sanskrit word “guru”.

From 1642 until the 1950s (except for 1705 to 1750), the Dalai Lamas or their regents headed the Tibetan government (or Ganden Phodrang) in Lhasa which governed all or most of the Tibetan plateau with varying degrees of autonomy, up to complete sovereignty. This government also enjoyed the patronage and protection of firstly Mongol kings of the Khoshut and Dzungar Khanates (1642–1720) and then of the emperors of the Manchu-led Qing dynasty (1720–1912).

LAMA DILGO KHYESNTSE

Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche (c. 1910 – 28 September 1991) was a Vajrayana master, scholar, poet, teacher, and head of the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism from 1987 to 1991.

As the primary custodian of the teachings of Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo, Dilgo Khyentse was the de facto custodian of the vast majority of Tibetan Buddhist teachings. After the Chinese invasion of Tibet, his personal effort was crucial in the preservation of Tibetan Buddhism.

LAMA LOBSANG

Lama Lobsang Palden is a Tibetan lama (a tulku), a teacher of Yantra Yoga and Buddhist meditation, and a practitioner of holistic energy medicine. He trained at Tashi Kyil and Kaja To Monasteries in the Tibetan region of Amdo. He was initiated as a Ngakpa lama in 2011 at Lhabrang Monastery in eastern Tibet. He has taught Tibetan Buddhist meditation and Yantra Yoga all over the world.

LAMA SONAM

Lama Sonam was born in 1962 in Bhutan, He was a monk in Rumtek Monastry in Sikkim before entering Thrangu Tashi Choling in Nepal. He was a personal attendant of Thrangu Rinpoche in the Monastry for many years. He completed the three years retreat at the Namo Buddha Retreat Center and was a teacher of young monks at the Thrangu Tashi Choling. He studied English while staying at Oxford Thrangu House. He is now a Vajra Master of Hong Kong Thrangu Centre.

IRENE

SAM MCARTHUR

NESHI LOKOTZ

Neshi Lokotz teaches drum making, the Native American Medicine Wheel and Awakening The Illuminated Heart through her business Sacred Hoop. She is also a master educator/teacher and advanced practitioner of space clearing, Chinese feng shui and Native American feng shui. Ceremony and ritual have always been a part of Neshi’s life growing up in a Native American family. Learning Feng Shui and Sacred Space gave form to what she has been doing since childhood.

Neshi incorporates and blends her understanding of sacred principles from a Native American perspective in all the courses she teaches. Neshi is an enrolled tribal member of the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation and a descendent of the Ho Chunk and Yaqui Nations.

Neshi has over 10 years experience making drums and has taught hundreds of people how to make their own hand drums. Neshi has over 30 years of space-clearing experience and has lived the lifestyle of the medicine wheel her entire life. Neshi Lokotz is known as a Medicine Woman. She brings with her teaching a sense of the sacred, yet also an underlying feeling of joy, laughter, and passion for the work that she shares.

Neshi is a certified teacher of the School of Remembering for the Awakening The Illuminated Heart method of ascension and was hand selected by Drunvalo Melchizedek.

Neshi holds a B.A. in Psychology with a Human Services Emphasis, M.A. in Business and Organizational Behavior.

THICH NHAT HANH

Born in central Vietnam in 1926, Thich Nhat Hanh entered Tu Hieu Temple, in Hue city, as a novice monk at the age of sixteen. As a young bhikshu in the early 1950s he was actively engaged in the movement to renew Vietnamese Buddhism. He was one of the first bhikshus to study a secular subject at university in Saigon, and one of the first six monks to ride a bicycle.

When war came to Vietnam, monks and nuns were confronted with the question of whether to adhere to the contemplative life and stay meditating in the monasteries, or to help those around them suffering under the bombings and turmoil of war. Thich Nhat Hanh was one of those who chose to do both, and in doing so founded the Engaged Buddhism movement, coining the term in his book Vietnam: Lotus in a Sea of Fire.

His life has since been dedicated to the work of inner transformation for the benefit of individuals and society.