The Gay Buddhist Forum by GBF

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.  ____________  Harley Shapiro has been a student and teacher of cultural anthropology and photography in Berkeley and San Francisco since 1966. He has trav...

Sita has been chanting in different venues for the past 17 years. She started within the Hindu tradition of kirtan and then expanded out to all traditions to reach broader audiences. She is a disciple of Neem Karoli Baba and has performed with Krishna Das, Ram Dass, and Baghavan Das. A native of Ireland, she feels that her voice comes out of her Celtic roots; its powerful resonance harkens to an a...

Br. ChiSing, M.Div., M.A. is an Interfaith retreat facilitator, spiritual director, ritual artist, musician, and the founder of “Interfaith Mindfulness Ministries.” He is a Community College adjunct professor of World Religions. His primary teacher is Thich Nhat Hanh and he was ordained into the “Order of Interbeing” in 2003. He has led retreats in San Francisco, Berkeley and Los Angeles. He is th...

Ray Dyer, Jim Stewart and Ari Kleiman share their thoughts about the meaning and role of spiritual friendship in our lives and sangha, followed by a group discussion. ______________  To support our efforts to share these talks with LGBTQIA audiences worldwide, please visit https://gaybuddhist.org/ There you can:    Donate   Learn how to participate live   Find our schedule of upcoming speakers   J...

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...

Gensha Lin Maslow is a zen priest in the tradition of Shunryu Suzuki, ordained by Chikudo Lewis Richmond in 2006. Deciding he just wasn’t a theist at age 17, he abandoned his Jewish religion of origin, searching for a more direct and enriching spiritual practice. He began practicing Zen Buddhism at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center in 1980. There were several years of deep involvement with the Radical...

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...

Eco-philosopher and visionary Joanna Macy has developed an international following over the course of 40 years as a speaker and workshop leader on Buddhism, general systems theory, and deep ecology. A respected voice in movements for peace, justice, and ecology, she interweaves her scholarship with four decades of activism. She is author of many books including "Thinking Like a Mountain,&quot...

Lee Lipp, Ph. D., has a therapy practice in San Francisco and supervises at Haight Ashbury Psychological Services. She has been a member of Thich Nhat Hahn’s Order of Interbeing, practicing Zen and Vipassana, since 1990. She is the Diversity/Outreach Coordinator at the San Francisco Zen Center. She teaches “Transforming Depression” classes in venues that include Spirit Rock Meditation Center, Insi...

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...

Sylvia has been teaching since 1985 and teaches both vipassana and metta meditation. She is a founding teacher of Spirit Rock Meditation Center and a psychotherapist, wife, mother, and grandmother who is particularly interested in seeing daily life as practice. Her books include "It’s Easier Than You Think: The Buddhist Way to Happiness," "Don’t Just Do Something, Sit There: A Mindf...

Emilio began his Tai Chi and Qigong practice in 1973 with Grand Master Kai Ying Tung and still studies with him today. For over forty years he’s taught classes in N. California and conducted workshops for Kaiser, the VA, persons with PTSD and HIV, and at recovery conferences. He taught Qigong at the first GLBT residential retreat at Spirit Rock in 1985. Since then most meditation centers have adde...

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...

Jim Wilson is the Director of Sutra Salon, a group of Buddhist practitioners in Sebastopol, CA. He has practiced Buddhism as both a monastic and lay person for 30 years in a variety of traditions, including Zen, Theravada, Dzog Chen, and Nichiren. He is the former Abbot of the Chogye Zen Buddhist Temple in New York. More recently he was the Buddhist Chaplain at a prison for the criminally insane....

Larry Yang is a Spirit Rock Community Dharma Leader and leads meditation retreats tailored for men, people of color, the LGBTQ communities, and people in recovery from addiction. He co-leads a meditation group for the LGBTQ community in San Francisco and is a psychotherapist and a consultant in cultural competency. ______________  To support our efforts to share these talks with LGBTQIA audiences...

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...

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.  ____________  Long an admirer of the Buddha, Tom Bruein began studying the Dharma in earnest after the coronation of Pope Benedict XVI in 2005. Certified...

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...

James Baraz has been a meditation teacher since 1978. He is creator and teacher of the Awakening Joy course (since 2003). He leads retreats, workshops and classes in U.S and abroad. He is a Co-founding Teacher of Spirit Rock Meditation Center, and co-author of Awakening Joy, the book based on the course (with Shoshana Alexander). He is a Guiding Teacher for One Earth Sangha, a website devoted to e...

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...

Andrea Fella has been practicing Insight Meditation since 1996, and under Gil Fronsdal's guidance, began teaching meditation classes in 2003. She is particularly drawn to intensive retreat practice, and has done a number of long retreats, both in the U.S. and Burma. During one long practice period in Burma, she ordained as a nun with Sayadaw U Janaka. Andrea teaches residential retreats for I...

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...

Carol Osmer Newhouse has studied Insight Meditation for more than 30 years and has been teaching for 20. She was given Dharma transmission by The Venerable Ruth Denison, student of the great meditation master U Ba Khin of Burma. She has studied with Dr. Rina Sircar of CIIS and Dr Thynn Thynn in Daily Life Practice. She is the founding teacher of the Lesbian Buddhist Sangha in Berkeley, and a Licen...

Eve Siegal, M.S., CMT, is a body-energy therapist, co-active life coach, popular presenter, and Tibetan Buddhist practitioner. Since 1989, she has helped a wide variety of people learn how to transform obstacles into radiant aliveness and personal fulfillment. ______________  To support our efforts to share these talks with LGBTQIA audiences worldwide, please visit https://gaybuddhist.org/ There y...

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...