Heng Sure (Bhikshu) holds a Ph.D. from the Graduate Theological Union at Berkeley and has a Masters from the University of California at Berkeley in Oriental Languages. He currently lectures on the Buddhist Sutras and holds regular meditation classes.
Born in Canada, Sayadaw U Jagara, originally named Martin Boisvert, embarked on his spiritual journey in the mid-1970s under the guidance of Robert H. Hover. In 1979 he received ordination as a monk from the Venerable Mahasi Sayadaw in Burma. For the next 15 years, he resided in Sri Lanka, where he blended the practice of meditation with the study of Buddhist scriptures. He also made intermittent trips to India and Thailand for meditation retreats. During the 1980s, he assumed the role of a meditation guide, conducting retreats in the tradition of S.N. Goenka across India, North America, Europe, and Asia. In 1995, he began training under the esteemed Venerable Pa Auk Sayadaw, a revered Burmese meditation master known for his commitment to the Visuddhimagga. This text serves as both a practical roadmap to deep states of meditation (jhāna) and a meticulous guide to the direct analytical approaches of vipassanā. Sayadaw U Jagara began assisting Venerable Pa Auk Sayadaw in teaching the dhamma in the early 2000s and sustained his support up to the early 2010s. In the past decade, he has independently shared his wisdom and experiences across North America, collaborating with various meditation teachers. His teachings focus on life as continuous meditation, guiding students toward liberation through observation, wisdom, and compassion.
Sayadaw U Tejaniya began his Buddhist training as a young teenager in Burma under the late Shwe Oo Min Sayadaw (1913–2002). After a career in business and life as a householder, he has become a permanent monk since 1996. He teaches meditation at Shwe Oo Min Dhammasukha Tawya in Rangoon, Burma.
Sayadaw’s relaxed demeanor and easy sense of humor can belie a commitment to awareness he encourages his students to apply in every aspect of their lives. His earlier life as a householder gives him a rare insight into the challenges faced by his lay students. His book, “Don’t Look Down on the Defilements, They Will Laugh at You”, aptly characterizes his teaching style—accessible and true to the traditional teachings of the Buddha.
Adam Stonebraker has been practicing and studying meditation in various schools since 1999, and began teaching meditation, mindfulness, and yoga in 2010. He is a teacher and leadership council member with Sacred Mountain Sangha and leads teacher trainings, retreats, and workshops internationally, in yin yoga, meditation, and mindfulness.
Adam is a graduate of Sacred Mountain Sangha’s 2-year Dharmapala Training (DPT), is currently enrolled in the Nature Dharma Teacher Training (NDTT), and is a graduate and endorsed teacher with the Insight Yoga Institute (IYI). In addition, Adam earned his MA in Mindfulness Studies from Lesley University.
Adam is committed to an all-inclusive dharma, where no aspect of the human experience is ignored. He has particular interest in the transformative power of the natural world, inter-faith dialogue, and the bodhisattva way of life.
Adrianne Ross, MD, has been involved with meditation and healing since 1978 and has offered retreats in Canada and the US since 1995. She also teaches MBSR to people with chronic pain and illness.
Aishah Shahidah Simmons (she/her) is a Black feminist lesbian survivor-healer, Theravādin Buddhist, trauma-informed, certified mindfulness meditation teacher, and a qualified Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction teacher through Brown University’s School of Professional Studies. She’s been practicing vipassanā meditation since 2002 and has more than one year of cumulative silent retreat practice in the U.S. and India. She is in the 2025-2028 Spirit Rock/IMS Teacher Training Program.
Aishah practiced vipassanā meditation exclusively in the S.N. Goenka tradition for 17 years. After leaving that tradition, she began practicing in the Insight tradition. Her primary Dharma teachers are Tuere Sala and DaRa Williams. She also studied in the Vajrayana lineage with Dr. Shanté Paradigm Smalls for two years.
Aishah is also an award-winning filmmaker-author and lecturer whose work—including the groundbreaking, Ford Foundation-funded acclaimed feature film, NO! The Rape Documentary (2006) and the 2000 Lambda Literary-award winning anthology, love WITH accountability: Digging Up the Roots of Child Sexual Abuse (AK Press)—breaks silences, offers healing paths for trauma, and provides visions for humanely disrupting the inhumane epidemic of sexual violence.
