Founded in 1996, the Lotus Institute is an educational non-profit organization that offers practical tools and transformative experiences that heal trauma and inspire co-imagination to create the world we want.

Our vision

For liberation to be possible (for all), we must tend to our individual and collective trauma through practices rooted in celebrating our differences while experiencing safety together. When we feel safe, we have the courage to realize the systemic change that is emerging in ourselves and our communities. This is beloved community.

we are guided by

Our three pillars

Healing stored trauma

We continuously cultivate respect for trauma, understanding that it is part of our humanity. By caring for the wounds of time, we can show up better resourced and resilient in relationship with each other.

Experiencing beloved community

Beloved community is not an idea, it is a lived experience. We are re-learning how to see the profound joy and wonder in being together. Not in contrived ways, based on maps and national boundaries, but as humans living on this planet as a family with all of nature.

Transforming the narrative of superiority

Put simply, it’s about loving the skin you are in. Breaking through societal expectations and the dualities of success and failure, good and bad, strong and weak. Instead, we see each other as equals and we seek to collaborate instead of compare.

Ways we gather

Become part of the community

Join our membership program to access special events with Lotus teachers, meet other dedicated practitioners, and enjoy special discounts.

Our inspiration

The Lotus Institute was founded with the support and guidance of Thich Nhat Hanh—Zen Master, poet, activist, and founder of the Plum Village tradition. In fact, it was Thich Nhat Hanh, or Thay as he is known to his students, who officiated the wedding of Peggy and Larry at Plum Village France.

The popularization and accessibility of “mindfulness” as we know it today would not have been possible without the work of Thich Nhat Hanh. With monasteries across the globe, his students are spreading his simple yet profound methods of teaching mindfulness and living fully in the present moment.

Thich Nhat Hanh passed away on January 22, 2022, but his life and his teachings continue in all of us.

Our founders

Drs. Larry Ward and Peggy Rowe Ward

Larry Ward is a senior teacher in Buddhist Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh's Plum Village tradition, the author of the book America's Racial Karma, and co-author with his wife, Peggy, of Love's Garden: A Guide To Mindful Relationships. Dr. Ward brings forty years of international experience in organizational change and local community renewal to his work at the Lotus Institute. He holds a PhD in Religious Studies with an emphasis on Buddhism and the neuroscience of meditation, and has trained at the Trauma Resource Institute. Dr. Ward has taught courses at Claremont Graduate University and the University of the West. As a teacher, Dr. Ward interweaves insights with personal stories and resounding clarity that express his Dharma name, “True Great Sound.”

Peggy’s joyful spirit enables her students to discover and embody their most creative and authentic selves. She offers a path of deep insight through methods such as movement, writing, art and ritual. Peggy has her EdD in Adult Education and her M.A. in Counseling Psychology and co-author with her husband, Larry, of Love's Garden: A Guide To Mindful Relationships. She has taught in graduate schools of social work, psychology and counseling psychology. Her Doctoral research is in dreamwork. She has had a private therapy practice for many years and now offers consultations with a spiritual direction focus.

Our support team

  • Matt Dorma

    Communications Director

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    Matt has over a decade of experience in writing and communications roles for the private sector, government and nonprofits. With his strong editorial skills and extensive knowledge in content design, user experience and technical writing, he leads the Lotus team’ in skillful communication.

    Outside of Lotus, Matt practices and facilitates with his local mindfulness community, Wild Rose Sangha and he's currently an aspirant in the Plum Village Order of Interbeing. He loves to spend time outdoors birdwatching, running and camping with friends, family, and his two dogs, Maxxy and Oscar.

  • Mona Abutaleb

    Operations & Systems Lead

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    Mona comes to Lotus after a career spent in the nonprofit and corporate space where she supported the operations and strategy planning of different departments. Upon leaving the corporate world, Mona refocused her career on Somatic Therapy and bringing her operations skillset into the spiritual and healing spaces. She loves learning about the indigeneity of somatic therapy and spends the little free time she has deepening into the wisdom of her Egyptian ancestral lineage and expanding her relationship with the more than human world, usually through outdoor sits, medicine making, and treacherous hikes.

  • Kate Cummings

    Transition Director

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    Kate is a collaborative team leader and program director for non-profit organizations in humanitarian response and international development initiatives as well as mindfulness programs. Bridging resources and local expertise, Kate aims to facilitate systems change towards community-driven solutions and collective wellbeing. Since 2010, Kate has worked in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East, integrating trauma resiliency skills and a strategic lens to her focus on accountability to affected populations, partnership building and community engagement.

In Buddhism traditions, a ‘bodhisattva’ is someone who has taken the vow to end suffering and work for the well-being of all. You vow to cause no harm, to gather virtue, and to be of benefit to others. This vow is an inspiration and an intention that runs through all teachings and practices at the Lotus Institute.

Our community of practitioners

Diverse teachers from around the world who bring their wisdom and expertise to Lotus gatherings

The revolutionary stands in reality and projects themselves ahead so they may imagine something different. They bring that back as a light to shine on our current situation.

— Dr. Larry Ward

Our board

  • Diane Little Eagle

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    Diane A Little Eagle is an Alaska Native, Canadian Native, and Austrian. She Started meditating in the early 70s, studying with Maharishi, learning Transcendental Meditation and receiving advanced training. In the early 80s she started studying with Thich Nhat Hanh and became a dharma teacher in the Plum Village Tradition in 2018. Diane has also studied with Khentrul Rinpoche, Garchen Rinpoche, The Dalai Lama, Tukulu Yeshe and her Elders...they have taught her so so much.It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more.

  • Salvatore Caruso

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    A cultural creative, communicator, humorist and advocate for building intentional community in this age of climate disruption, Salvatore is a person of great action. The death of his father at age seven put him on a path of radical care and service for family and community.

  • Victoria Mausisa

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    Victoria has a passion for cultivating inclusiveness and for healing communities of color. An advocate for racial and social equity, she co-created ARISE Sangha -- Awakening Through Race, Intersectionality and Social Equity. After a career in healthcare management, she now dedicates time in building community in Sanghas in the Plum Village tradition of Venerable Thich Nhat Hanh.