Our potential as humans is vast and deep, and can be intentionally developed. There is a way that we can learn to open to all of our experience with kindness and clarity. As we begin to find this stability of heart and mind, wisdom will emerge.This emergence of wisdom, and strengthening of compassion, are the road to our individual and collective happiness and well-being.
Yong is a Dharma Council teacher at the Durango Dharma Center and a core teacher for Sacred Mountain Sangha, and is also a visiting teacher for other community centers across North America. He teaches retreats at the Insight Meditation Society, Spirit Rock Meditation Center, Big Bear Retreat Center, and Vallecitos Mountain Retreat Center. He is a graduate of the 4-year Insight Meditation Society Retreat Teacher Training program, Spirit Rock Meditation Center’s 2-year Community Dharma Leaders program, and the Sacred Mountain Sangha 2-year Dharmapala training, taught by his primary teachers Kittisaro and Thanissara. Yong is also a retired acupuncturist, is passionate about Nature and Dharma, and has particular interests in devotional expression, supporting caregivers, and offering teachings to communities of color in the Dharma.
Yvonne Rand was a meditation teacher and lay householder priest
in the Soto Zen Buddhist tradition, active from 1972 until her
death in 2020. She started her studies in Eastern religion while
an undergraduate at Stanford University, where she majored in
Chinese intellectual history.
Rand became a close student of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi in 1966,
served as his personal assistant and advisor, and with his wife
Mitsu Suzuki, cared for him through his dying and death in 1971.
She was a founder of the San Francisco Zen Center, was ordained
as a priest there, served on the board of directors for many
years, and continued to practice and teach there for many years.
She studied with Dainin Katagiri Roshi and received dharma
transmission from him in 1989. In the course of her career, her
profound interest in the Dharma led her to study closely with
notable teachers in various Buddhist traditions, including
Rinzai Zen with Maureen Stuart Roshi and Shodo Harada Roshi;
Theravada Buddhism with Ven. Henepola Gunaratana and Achan
Sumedho; and the Himalayan Buddhist tradition with His Holiness
the Dalai Lama, Lama Anagarika Govinda, and Tara Tulku Rinpoche.
Rand was instrumental in developing a ceremony of remembrance in
the West called the Jizo Ceremony (after the Japanese
bodhisattva) for children, born and unborn, who have died. This
ceremony continues as part of her Dharma legacy, as numerous
other Buddhist teachers have taken it up. Her understanding of
the inseparability of life and death led her to sit with and
tend people in end-of-life care over many decades. She also
taught and counseled extensively both professional and volunteer
caregivers working with the terminally ill.
