LEAD TEACHER

Dr. Larry Ward is the co-founder and Executive Director of The Lotus Institute, a senior teacher in Thich Nhat Hanh’s Plum Village tradition of Engaged Buddhism, a poet, and the author of America’s Racial Karma: An Invitation to Heal. Dr. Ward holds a PhD in Religious Studies with an emphasis on Buddhism and the neuroscience of meditation. As a spiritual teacher, Dr. Ward interweaves insights with personal stories and resounding clarity that express his Dharma name, “True Great Sound.”

LEAD TEACHER

Dr. Peggy Rowe Ward is the Co-Founder and Director of Education of The Lotus Institute, a senior teacher in Thich Nhat Hanh’s Plum Village tradition of Engaged Buddhism, and the author of Love’s Garden: A Guide To Mindful Relationships. She has her doctorate in adult education and an MA in counseling psychology. Through meditation, movement, and art, Peggy offers a path of deep insight that enables her students to discover and embody their most creative and authentic selves.

GUEST TEACHER

Kaira Jewel Lingo is a Dharma teacher with a lifelong interest in blending spirituality and meditation with social justice. She received Lamp Transmission from Thich Nhat Hanh, and is also a teacher in the Vipassana Insight lineage. Kaira is the author of We Were Made for These Times and co-author of Healing Our Way Home: Black Buddhist Teachings on Ancestors, Joy, and Liberation. Today, she sees her work as a continuation of the Engaged Buddhism developed by Thich Nhat Hanh as well as the work of her parents, inspired by their stories and her dad’s work with Martin Luther King Jr. You can find out more about her work at kairajewel.com.

GUEST TEACHER

Brett Cook (lineage name Bodhisattva Aspiration of the Heart, Dharma name True Powerful Virtue) is an interdisciplinary artist and educator who uses storytelling as a vehicle to distill complex ideas and creative practices to transform outer and inner worlds of being. Using inquiry-based approaches he designs inclusive processes and products that promote awareness and embody the complexity of loving communities. His objects feature painting, drawing, photography, and elaborate installations to tell pluralistic stories with broad representation. His public projects typically involve community workshops featuring arts-integrated pedagogy and contemplative strategies along with music, performance, and food to create fluid boundaries between art making, daily life and healing. You can find out more about his work at brett-cook.com.

GUEST TEACHER

Kazu Haga is a trainer and practitioner of nonviolence and restorative justice, a core member of the Fierce Vulnerability Network, a founding core member of the Ahimsa Collective, a Jam facilitator and author of Healing Resistance: A Radically Different Response to Harm as well as the upcoming book, Fierce Vulnerability: Healing from Trauma, Emerging through Collapse. He works with incarcerated people, youth, and activists from around the country. He has over 25 years of experience in nonviolence and social change work. He is a resident of the Canticle Farm community on Lisjan Ohlone land, Oakland, CA, where he lives with his family. You can find out more about his work at kazuhaga.com.

GUEST TEACHER

Ava Avalos is a dancer, Dharma teacher and doctor currently working as an HIV Specialist in Botswana. She is originally from Southern California and loves to weave together her Mexican roots with those of Africa, where she has lived for over 20 years. Ava is a devoted student of yogis Rodney Yee and Colleen Saidman and brings her love of the body, dance and yoga to her Dharma practice.

GUEST TEACHER

Tamara is a trauma-informed yoga and meditation teacher, life coach and speech-language therapist. She is a nomadic yoga teacher, who brings mindfulness based practices to community spaces including schools, churches, support groups, community centers, football fields and family reunions. Her teachings help people connect to their inner wisdom and to each other through fun, movement, stillness, and the breath. As a teacher of yoga nidra,Tamara understands the transformative power of rest, joy, community and compassion to renew, recharge and restore us.  

Tamara has been featured in the magazine Yoga Journal and is a returning presenter at Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health. She is trained in meditation and mindfulness through Brown University's  Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program and is a faculty member with yoga teacher training programs offering wellness practices through meditation, movement and creativity. Tamara shares teachings that invite us to explore curiosity, self- inquiry and to connect to community.  She has a unique ability to connect to our hearts through storytelling and fun.

GUEST TEACHER

Joe Reilly is on a musical journey of faith and spirit. His songs touch deep reserves of compassion and joy within the hearts of his listeners, giving encouragement to others on the spiritual path and using music as a universal voice of communication and celebration beyond lines of religion. Joe was raised Catholic and currently studies and practices progressive Catholicism, Native American spirituality, and engaged Buddhism. Joe has been a student of Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh since 2004 and is often found singing and writing songs on spiritual retreats. Reflective of the diverse traditions that guide his path, Joe has brought his music into Ba’hai, Buddhist, and Jewish Temples, Catholic, Methodist, Unity, and Unitarian Churches, and many Native American gatherings and ceremonies. You can find out more about his work at joereilly.org.