The Gay Buddhist Forum by GBF

Susan Moon is a writer, editor, and lay teacher in the Soto Zen tradition. She leads Buddhist retreats and teaches writing workshops in the U.S. and abroad. Her books include "This Is Getting Old: Zen Thoughts on Aging with Humor and Dignity," "The Hidden Lamp: Stories from 25 Centuries of Awakened Women," with co-editor Florence Caplow, and most recently, "What Is Zen? Pl...

Jonathan Reynolds has trained extensively in the fields of Buddhist meditation, classical yoga, and both Eastern and Western philosophies. His teaching of meditation is influenced by Jack Kornfield, whose wisdom has infused him with compassion, playfulness, and story. Jonathan earned his Masters Degree in Holistic Counseling Psychology from John F. Kennedy University, and his ongoing interests are...

Clint Seiter has been a GBF sangha member since 1990 and is a long-time participant in the Green Gulch Zen Buddhist community. During his involvement in these communities, he has been the lead muffin baker in Green Gulch for twenty-five years and the head of GBF’s monthly “feed the homeless” dinners at Larkin Street Youth Center for over twenty years. He wrote about engaged Buddhism in the Feb 200...

Eugene Cash is the founding teacher of the San Francisco Insight Meditation Community of San Francisco. He teaches at Spirit Rock Meditation Center and leads intensive meditation retreats internationally. His teaching is influenced by both Burmese and Thai streams of the Theravada tradition as well as Zen and Tibetan Buddhist practice. He is also a teacher of the Diamond Approach, a school of spir...

Shams is a long-time Sufi practitioner and student of Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan, currently focused on deepening awareness of the profound challenge of global climate change. Shams is a group facilitator, independent editor, and writer who has worked with innovative organizations and projects dedicated to helping heal the world, including Berkeley Area Interfaith Council, Meeting of the Ways, Creatin...

Frank Ostaseski is an internationally respected Buddhist teacher and visionary cofounder of the Zen Hospice Project, and founder of the Metta Institute. He has lectured at Harvard Medical School, the Mayo Clinic, leading corporations like Google and Apple Inc., and teaches at major spiritual centers around the globe. His groundbreaking work has been featured on the Bill Moyers PBS series On Our Ow...

Jon Bernie, author of Ordinary Freedom and The Unbelievable Happiness of What Is, is a contemporary spiritual teacher who offers a compassionate, heart-centered approach to spiritual awakening. A profound enlightenment experience as a teenager ignited Jon’s spiritual search. In his early twenties he ordained as a monk in the lineage of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi, and spent the next four decades practici...

Jeffrey Schneider is a priest at the San Francisco Zen Center, where he has lived, worked and practiced since 1978. He is currently the coordinator of Zen Center’s outreach programs and founded, in 2000, the Buddhist recovery programs there. Jeffrey has offered retreats and teachings in a variety of Northern California venues as well as in Texas, Missouri, South Carolina and Virginia. ____________...

David Lewis has been following the dharma path for 45 years, has a degree in comparative religious studies, and is a graduate of Spirit Rock Meditation Center’s Dedicated Practitioners Program. He teaches Insight Meditation and enjoys sharing the dharma at several sanghas around the Bay Area. He is a proud long-time member of GBF. ______________  To support our efforts to share these talks with LG...

“Gengetsu Junsei” entered formal Buddhist practice in 1993 and received Dharma Transmission in the Soto Zen Buddhist Lineage from Zenkei Blanche Hartman in 2009. Jana led the Street Zendo at 234 Hyde Street, where meditation practices of all kinds are welcome, and was a practice leader of the Gay Buddhist Sangha. Rev. Drakka was a community activist, particularly for the rights of the poor and dis...

David Lewis has been following the dharma path for 45 years, has a degree in comparative religious studies, and is a graduate of Spirit Rock Meditation Center’s Dedicated Practitioners Program. He teaches Insight Meditation and enjoys sharing the dharma at several sanghas around the Bay Area. He is a proud long-time member of GBF. ______________  To support our efforts to share these talks with LG...

Kanzan David Zimmerman has been practicing Zen for over 20 years, half of which have been in residence at San Francisco Zen Center. He was ordained as a Soto Zen priest in the lineage of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi by Rev. Teah Strozer in 2006, and spent eight years at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, where he held a number of positions including monastery director and Head Monk (Shuso). David is now Progr...

Long an admirer of the Buddha, Tom Bruein began studying the Dharma in earnest after the coronation of Pope Benedict XVI in 2005. Certified as a clinical hypnotherapist, he was especially drawn to the Buddhist approach to understanding and calming the mind and ego. Recognizing the risk of substituting one form of attachment (the material world) for another (spiritual/philosophical attainment), he...

Bill Scheinman has been teaching mindfulness since 2001 and leads corporate mindfulness workshops throughout the Bay Area as well as classes in mindfulness-based stress reduction. He is a se- nior facilitator with the Potential Project, teaches online mindful- ness classes with eMindful, and works with individuals as a mind- fulness coach. He is a graduate of Spirit Rock’s Community Dhar- ma Leade...

Donald Rothberg, Ph. D., a member of the Teachers Council at Spirit Rock Center, and a teacher at the East Bay Meditation Center, teaches retreats and groups on concentration and insight meditation practice, lovingkindness practice, transforming the judgmental mind, mindful communication, working skillfully with conflict, and socially engaged Buddhism. He has practiced insight meditation since 197...

Baruch Golden is a longtime GBF Member who has been practicing Vipassana meditation since 1998. He completed Spirit Rock’s Community Dharma Leaders program in 2012 and the Buddhist Chaplaincy Training Program with the Sati Center in Redwood City in 2013. He teaches dharma primarily at the East Bay Meditation Center and also taught mindfulness in elementary schools in SF and Oakland with the Mindfu...

Sean Feit Oakes, PhD (he/him, queer, Puerto Rican and English ancestry, living on unceded Pomo land in NorCal), teaches Buddhism and somatic practice focusing on the integration of meditation, trauma resolution, and social justice. He received teaching authorization from Jack Kornfield, and wrote his dissertation on extraordinary states in Buddhist meditation and experimental dance. He teaches at...

Charles Garfield is a psychologist, professor and lecturer, and the author of twelve books including Life's Last Gift. He has been recognized internationally as the founder of Shanti Project, a widely acclaimed AIDS and cancer service organization (www.shanti.org). For more than forty years, he has pioneered the development of healthcare and social service oriented volunteer organizations in...

Heather Sundberg began teaching meditation in 1999. She has completed the four-year Spirit Rock’s Insight Meditation Society Teacher Training. Beginning her own meditation practice in her late teens, for 20+ years, Heather has studied with senior teachers in the Insight Meditation and Tibetan traditions, and has sat 1-3 months of retreat a year for the last 15+ years. She is a teacher for Mountain...

David Lewis has been following the dharma path for 45 years, has a degree in comparative religious studies, and is a graduate of Spirit Rock Meditation Center’s Dedicated Practitioners Program. He teaches Insight Meditation and enjoys sharing the dharma at several sanghas around the Bay Area. He is a proud long-time member of GBF. ______________  To support our efforts to share these talks with LG...

Dale Borglum founded and directed the Hanuman Foundation Dying Center in Santa Fe, New Mexico, the first residential facility in the United States to support conscious dying. Working with Ram Dass and Stephen Levine, Dale helped found the conscious dying movement in the West. He has been the Executive Director of the Living/Dying Project in Santa Fe and since 1986 in the San Francisco Bay Area. He...

Clint discusses his involvement in “engaged Buddhism” through his baking at Green Gulch and cooking for runaway and homeless youth, and how this has become an integral part of his Buddhist practice.  ____________  Clint Seiter has been a GBF sangha member since 1990 and is a long-time participant in the Green Gulch Zen Buddhist community. During his involvement in these communities, he has been th...

Joe Goode is the artistic director of The Joe Goode Performance Group, and a professor in the Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies at UC Berkeley. He has had a meditation practice since 1979, and has incorporated Buddhist principles and meditation practices into his choreographic works. His work blends theater, dance, and spoken word, to focus on the fallibility and imperfection o...

Sheppard B. Kominars is an author, educator and poet. He has published two volumes of poetry, “Portal Poems: Perspectives on Aging” and “Angles of Incidence: Poems of 7 Decades,” and he is working on a third, “Poems Last But Not Lost.” A resident of San Francisco, Kominars teaches poetry and journal writing workshops. Writing and education have marked his entire life. He wrote his first poem at ag...

Kevin Griffin is a Buddhist teacher and author known for his innovative work connecting dharma and recovery, especially through his 2004 book "One Breath at a Time: Buddhism and the Twelve Steps." He has been a Buddhist practitioner for over thirty-five years and a teacher for two decades. He reaches a broad range of audiences in dharma centers, wellness centers, and secular mindfulness...