The Gay Buddhist Forum by GBF

Tom Moon has been a practitioner of Vipassana meditation for fifteen years, and his spiritual home is Spirit Rock Meditation Center. He is a psychologist in San Francisco, working primarily with gay men. His chief commitment is in exploring the interface between Buddhist practice and psychotherapy. ______________  To support our efforts to share these talks with LGBTQIA audiences worldwide, please...

Lydia Richards holds degrees in Psychology and Divinity. Her experience includes CEO, author, public speaker, pastor, hospice chaplain, workshop leader, and wife and mother of five. ______________  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 upcomi...

Victoria Austin (Shosan Gigen—“Sunlight Mountain Honoring the Mystery”) started practicing Zen in 1971. She came to the San Francisco Zen Center in 1975, received precepts in the seventies, was ordained a priest in January 1982, and received dharma transmission from Mel Weitsman in 1999. She has been teaching Iyengar yoga for 20 years, is a past president of the San Francisco Zen Center, and is a...

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...

Padmadharini has practiced in the tradition of the Friends of the Western Buddhist Order (FWBO) since 1989 and was ordained into the Western Buddhist Order (WBO) in 2004. She is actively involved in the spiritual direction of the San Francisco Buddhist Center, where she teaches meditation and leads Dharma courses. Dr. Vimalasara (Valerie) Mason-John MA (hon. doc) is a senior teacher in the Triratn...

Wes Nisker, the co-founder and editor of the international Buddhist journal Inquiring Minds, has practiced Vipassana meditation for 30 years. He is the author of "Buddha's Nature: Evolution as a Guide to Enlightenment," "Crazy Wisdom: A Romp Through the Philosophies of East and West," and "The Buddha, the Big Bang, and the Baby Boom: The Spiritual Experiments of My Ge...

Ven. Robina Courtin was ordained as a Tibetan Buddhist nun at Kopan Monastery in 1978. She has worked full-time since then for Lama Thubten Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche's Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition. She is now director of Liberation Prison Project, which supports the Buddhist practice of thousands of prisoners in the USA and Australia. ______________  To support...

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...

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....

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. ______________ Cass Brayton is a long-time volunteer and member of GBF, a founding member of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, and serves on the GBF Boa...

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...

Paul Shepard has been in recovery and concurrently practicing vipassana meditation since 1990. An active member of GBF since 1995, he initiated focus groups on Sexuality and Spirituality in 1998 and 1999 and has written major articles for the GBF Newsletter (10/1999 and 6/2005). Paul is a graduate of the Buddhist Alliance for Social Engagement (BASE) training, a program of the Buddhist Peace Fello...

Not strictly a dharma talk, Peter shares a user-friendly review of current thinking regarding the Medical-Scientific model of addiction.  ____________  Peter Washburn received his undergraduate and medical degrees from the University of Pennsylvania. He completed his residency training in Internal Medicine in the Navy, where he first got involved—some thirty years ago—in what is now called Addicti...

Padmadharini has practiced in the tradition of the Friends of the Western Buddhist Order (FWBO) since 1989 and was ordained into the Western Buddhist Order (WBO) in 2004. She is actively involved in the spiritual direction of the San Francisco Buddhist Center, where she teaches meditation and leads Dharma courses. ______________  To support our efforts to share these talks with LGBTQIA audiences w...

______________  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   Join our mailing list or discussion forum  Enjoy over 900 recorded talks dating back to 1995 CREDITS Audio Production: George Hubbard Producer: Tom Bruein Music/Logo/Ar...

For over 20 years, Roger Corless was a professor of Buddhism and Christianity at Duke University. After settling in the Bay Area in the late 1990s, he became a frequent contributor to GBF. He was also the author of several books, including "Vision of Buddhism: The Space Under the Tree." He died in January 2007. ______________  To support our efforts to share these talks with LGBTQIA audi...

Larry's topic is "Politics as a Spiritual Practice...You've got one hell of a Nirvana!"  ____________  Larry Barnett has been a member of the Sonoma City Council for the past twelve years and has twice been Mayor of Sonoma. His exposure to Buddhism began in 1974 with his attendance at Fort Mason of the Black Hat ceremony of the Sixteenth Karmapa, and he recently became a co-dir...

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.  ____________  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 in...

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. ____________ Bob Siedle-Khan has lived in San Francisco since 1996. He has three children ages 5, 8 and 9. He will talk about the year he lived in Sri Lank...

Tom Moon has been a practitioner of Vipassana meditation for fifteen years, and his spiritual home is Spirit Rock Meditation Center. He is a psychologist in San Francisco, working primarily with gay men. His chief commitment is in exploring the interface between Buddhist practice and psychotherapy. ______________  To support our efforts to share these talks with LGBTQIA audiences worldwide, please...

Blanche Hartman is the former co-abbess of the San Francisco Zen Center. She is a dharma heir of Mel Weitsman and has been practicing Soto Zen since 1969. ______________  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   Join our mail...

Kirsten DeLeo, M.A., is a longtime student of the Tibetan master Sogyal Rinpoche, author of classic bestseller The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, and a senior educator in Rigpa's Spiritual Care Program. Kirsten organizes and co-facilitates hospice and nursing home volunteer trainings, as well as workshops for medical professionals and the public on healing, aging, illness, bereavement, and...

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...

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....

For over 20 years, Roger Corless was a professor of Buddhism and Christianity at Duke University. After settling in the Bay Area in the late 1990s, he became a frequent contributor to GBF. He was also the author of several books, including "Vision of Buddhism: The Space Under the Tree." He died in January 2007. ______________  To support our efforts to share these talks with LGBTQIA audi...