The Gay Buddhist Forum by GBF

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...

Howard King has been studying on various spiritual paths for over 40 years. For the past 20 years, he has been studying the healing ways that come from shamanic cultures. His present study is within the Tibetan Buddhadharma traditions. ______________  To support our efforts to share these talks with LGBTQIA audiences worldwide, please visit https://gaybuddhist.org/ There you can:    Donate   Learn...

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.  ____________  Dean Bellerby teaches Integral Coaching® practice and ‘A Year To Live’ groups, exploring what it means to be fully human, fully spirit, and...

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...

Tempel Smith began practicing meditation in 1989. In 1997 he ordained as a monk in Burma with Sayadaw U Pandita and Pa Auk Sayadaw. Now, back in the Bay Area, he is works on integrating these deep meditative practices into daily life and in his work with the Buddhist Peace Fellowship. Tempel has taught meditation and Buddhist psychology, is the founder of the West Coast Teen Meditation Retreat, an...

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...

CJ Grant has been studying and practicing Theravadan and Tibetan Buddhism since 1971. In 2000, he traveled to most of the important Buddhist shrines and holy sites in order to experience both the ambience and the spiritual aspects of the sites and to deepen his understanding of the tradition and the practice. He has lived and participated for extended periods in both Theravadan monasteries and Hin...

Bill Weber is a senior Vipassana practitioner and a graduate from Spirit Rock’s Community Dharma Leaders program. He has twenty-five years of extensive retreat practice and currently practices at home with his husband or sits with a small group of gay men. He is also a documentary filmmaker and video editor, whose latest projects are “To Be Takei” and “The Untold Tales of Armistead Maupin.” ______...

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...

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...

Nyima Marc Olmsted is a senior student and resident teacher of the San Francisco chapter of the Vajrayana Foundation, Last Chance Gonpa. He has been a student of Buddhism since 1974, when Allen Ginsberg taught him sitting practice. He completed three-year retreat under his current teacher, Lama Tharchin Rinpoche, in 1995. ______________  To support our efforts to share these talks with LGBTQIA aud...

Cathleen Williams has been in and about the San Francisco Zen Center for 25 years or so, practicing both as a lay student and as a priest. Over the years she has found that the beginning questions of practice evolve into more refined questions that engage her whole life and that involve both her priest and her psychotherapy practice. Though she is now living away from City Center, her on-going con...

Tempel Smith began practicing meditation in 1989. In 1997 he ordained as a monk in Burma with Sayadaw U Pandita and Pa Auk Sayadaw. Now, back in the Bay Area, he is works on integrating these deep meditative practices into daily life and in his work with the Buddhist Peace Fellowship. Tempel has taught meditation and Buddhist psychology, is the founder of the West Coast Teen Meditation Retreat, an...

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....

Howard DePorte speaks on the impact of the dharma and his Buddhist practice during a time of crisis in his life.  ____________  Howard DePorte is a former Lutheran minister and longtime GBF member. ______________  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 sc...

Scott Hunt has written extensively on issues of social justice and human rights. His latest book, "The Future of Peace," was declared one of the best spiritual books of 2002 by Spirituality and Health Magazine. After 22 years of study, Scott was instructed to teach Tantric Buddhism in the Nyingma Lineage of Tibetan Buddhism by His Holiness Mindrolling Trichen Rinpoche. For more about Sco...

Furyu Nancy Schroeder has been with the San Francisco Zen Center since 1976, was ordained a Buddhist priest in 1986, and is a dharma heir of Tenshin Reb Anderson. She is currently tanto, or head of practice, at Green Gulch Farm. ______________  To support our efforts to share these talks with LGBTQIA audiences worldwide, please visit https://gaybuddhist.org/ There you can:    Donate   Learn how to...

Mark Marion is a psychotherapist with a practice that specializes in depression, anxiety and couples counseling. His Buddhist practice is in the Vipassana tradition. He contributed to both volumes of "Queer Dharma: Voices of Gay Buddhists" and wrote a chapter for the book "Gay and Lesbian Mental Health: A Sourcebook for Practitioners" ______________  To support our efforts to s...

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...

John King is a Zen priest in Suzuki Roshi's linage. He has been shusho (head monk) at Tassajara, and his practice is primarily with inmates in the S.F. jail system and at San Quentin. ______________  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...

Ji-Sing Norman Eng is the facilitator of Q-Sangha and the "Minister of Buddhist Spirituality" at the Metropolitan Community Church of San Francisco. His main spiritual teacher is Thich Nhat Hanh ("Thay"), and he was ordained by Thay into the "Order of Interbeing" (Unified Buddhist Church) in 2003 with the Dharma name of "True Wonderful Happiness." __________...

Jay Kumar is an accomplished scholar and instructor of Ancient Languages and Cultures, having studied Sanskrit for 10 years as well as being proficient in several ancient and modern languages. He received his B.A at Northwestern University and his M.A. at Columbia University, and he will soon complete his Ph. D. at UCLA in Sanskrit and Healing Traditions of Ancient India. He currently conducts bot...

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...

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...