The Gay Buddhist Forum by GBF

“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...

“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...

Neil Grungras is the founder and executive director of ORAM, Organization for Refuge, Asylum and Migration. ORAM is a San Francisco-based non-profit providing international and domestic advocacy, education and representation of LGBTQ refugees. In addition to directly assisting refugees who have escaped countries such as Iran, ORAM works closely with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, the US De...

A great way to get to know fellow sangha participants, a "Dharma Duo" features two members of GBF sharing their background, what brought them to Buddhism, and how their practice and experience with the dharma has impacted their lives. ______________  To support our efforts to share these talks with LGBTQIA audiences worldwide, please visit https://gaybuddhist.org/ There you can:    Donat...

Mushim Ikeda is a meditation teacher, community peace activist, writer, diversity facilitator, and the mother of a 23-year-old son. She has done both monastic and lay Zen Buddhist practice over the past thirty years, in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and South Korea. Her poetry, fiction and essays have been published widely in journals and anthologies such as Tricycle and "Innovative Buddhist Wome...

Larry Robinson has been a practicing Buddhist for 47 years, mostly in the Zen and Vipassana traditions. He is a member of the Occidental Laguna Sangha in Sebastopol, studying with Bruce Fortin in the lineage of Suzuki Roshi. A long-time environmental and social justice activist, he is a retired ecopsychologist and former mayor of Sebastopol. He serves on the board of directors of the Center for Cl...

Shantanu is a new member of GBF, having joined the sangha just last summer. He has been a practitioner of Hatha Yoga since he was ten and growing up in Calcutta, India. After immigrating to Los Angeles in 1976, he has meditated, intermittently, through college and then graduate school at the University of Chicago. Though not a card-holding member of any religion, Shantanu holds both Hindusim and I...

Bhavani Kludt began active spiritual practice in the yoga tradition in 1990 and became a yoga teacher in 1996. She started to include Vipassana practice in 1998 and began teaching yoga/meditation in the SF County jails in 1999. Her “home” sangha is SF Insight, where she serves on the Steering Committee, and her primary teacher is Eugene Cash. Ivan M. Corado is a facilitator in the Resolve to Stop...

William Schindler, a.k.a. Brother William, earned a B.A. in Sanskrit from UC Berkeley (1975) and a Master’s degree in clinical psychology from Antioch University (1986). He also holds a California single-subject teaching credential in English. He has been studying and practicing traditional Hindu Tantra since 1969, and he lived in India for two-and-a-half years between the years 1972-1977 first as...

Tim Wickens began practice in the Theravada tradition in 1991. He has studied with many Western lay teachers (primarily Michele McDonald and Eric Kolvig) and with senior monks and nuns in the Burmese and Thai traditions. He lived and worked for two years at Spirit Rock Meditation Center and has attended retreats around the U.S. and in Canada, England, and Burma, where he spent a retreat as an orda...

Gary Ost is a retired Episcopal priest living in San Francisco. He began his study of the dharma in 2008, starting with the Shambhala school of Tibetan Buddhism. Since then he has practiced daily samatha-vipassana meditation. He has declared his aspiration to help Christians understand Buddhism better and Buddhists to understand Christianity better. Gary has taken informal bodhisattva vows, and is...

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...

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...

Pamela Weiss is a dual-lineage Buddhist teacher in Soto Zen and Theravada, and the author of “A Bigger Sky: Awakening a Fierce Feminine Buddhism." She sits on the Spirit Rock Teacher Council, and teaches through San Francisco Insight, San Francisco Zen Center and Brooklyn Zen Center. Pamela lives in San Francisco with her husband and little dog, Grover. ______________  To support our efforts...

Bernd Bender has been a student of Soto Zen since 1984. After moving to San Francisco from Germany, he began his studies at the San Francisco Zen Center, receiving lay ordination from Tenshin Reb Anderson in 1996. He has lived at all three practice centers and has translated several Buddhist texts from English to German. Bernd was Shuso (head student) during the City Center Spring Practice Period...

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. ____________...

Joan Amaral was ordained as a Zen priest in the Suzuki-roshi lineage by Darlene Cohen in 2004. She lived and practiced at Tassajara Zen Mountain Monastery for several years, and currently is in residence at San Francisco Zen Center, where she was head student during the fall practice period. ______________  To support our efforts to share these talks with LGBTQIA audiences worldwide, please visit...

Tova Green began sitting at the San Francisco Zen Center in 1990 after many years of Vipassana practice. She became a resident there in 1999 and was ordained as a priest in 2003 by Eijun Linda Cutts. Tova co-founded the Queer Dharma Group at the Center and is currently the Director of the San Francisco Zen Center's City Center. ______________  To support our efforts to share these talks with...

Jennifer Berezan is a unique blend of singer/songwriter, producer, and activist. Over the course of ten albums, she has developed and explored recurring themes with a rare wisdom. Her lifelong involvement in environmental, women’s, and other justice movements as well as an interest in Buddhism and earth-based spirituality are at the heart of her writing. ______________  To support our efforts to s...

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...

Daniel Rechtschaffen is a psychotherapist and meditation teacher in the San Francisco Bay Area who integrates cuttingedge psychological techniques with ancient wisdom traditions. Daniel convenes a yearly national conference on mindfulness in education at the Omega Institute as well as being one of their core meditation teachers. Daniel helped develop the curriculum for Mindful Schools and now cons...

Arinna Weisman has studied Insight Meditation since 1979. She teaches in the lineage of the Great Burmese teacher U Bha Khin and was empowered to teach by Ruth Denison. Arinna is the founding teacher of Insight Meditation Center of the Pioneer Valley in Easthampton, Massachusetts, and co-author of "A Beginner’s Guide to Insight Meditation." She was a resident teacher at Insight Meditatio...

Karen Van Dine connected with the San Francisco gay community in 1985 as a member of Radiant Light Ministries, where she served as a prayer counselor. Through the AIDS Epidemic of the 80’s and 90’s, Karen worked with the San Francisco Healing Circle and R.L.M., leading meditations, memorials and assisting many in conscious dying. After her time as a student at Tassajara Zen Monastery and retreats...

Jack Morin, Ph. D., has been studying the mysteries of Eros for three decades as a psychotherapist and sex researcher in the San Francisco Bay Area. He is the author of "The Erotic Mind: Unlocking the Inner Sources of Sexual Passion and Fulfillment," which offers a bold new psychology of desire and arousal based on his clinical experience as well as an in-depth analysis of over 7,000 ano...

Robert H. Hopcke is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in private practice in Berkeley,California. Along with his numerous articles and reviews published throughout the world, he is the author of the national best-seller, "There Are No Accidents: Synchronicity and the Stories of Our Lives," which has been translated into over two dozen languages. Currently Adjunct Faculty at the In...