Calendar

Everyday Dharma, Sundays 3:00 to 4:30 pm

57 Hartford Street, San Francisco, CA

May 2012

Rev. angel Kyodo Williams

May 6: Rev. angel Kyodo Williams

Rev. angel Kyodo Williams is a maverick spiritual teacher, activist and author of the critically-acclaimed book, Being Black: Zen and the Art of Living with Fearlessness and Grace, hailed as "a classic" by Jack Kornfield, and "an act of love" by novelist Alice Walker. Though a dharmaholder in the Zen Peacemaker Order, she holds allegiance to no tradition, school or dogma and her teachings are influenced by a breathtaking variety of perspectives, practices and ways. Rev. angel devotes herself to articulating Transformative Social Change—applying inner awareness practice to broad-based social change—as America's next great movement. She notes, "Without inner change, there can be no outer change. Without collective change, no change matters." For more information: http://transformativechange.org.

Homecoming

David Ezra

May 13: David Ezra

David Ezra has been involved with GBS for many years. He has been practicing meditation for 25+ years beginning with Jack Kornfield and the Spirit Rock teachers' group. In addition, he has been studying Chi Gong for over 20 years and currently teaches both practices to inmates in the Contra Costa County County Jail where he works as a licensed mental health clinician.

Jon Bernie

May 20: Jon Bernie*

Jon Bernie is a contemporary spiritual teacher in the lineage of Adyashanti, leading regular classes, retreats and intensives in the Bay Area and beyond. As a counselor in private practice, Jon also works with individuals directly to facilitate consciousness development and deep emotional healing. Jon’s first awakening experience at the age of sixteen led him to spend many years practicing in the Zen and Theravada Buddhist traditions, first as a monk in the lineage of Shunryu Suzuki-Roshi, and later as an early student of Jack Kornfield. In the late 1980s, Jon’s spiritual trajectory was profoundly altered when he met Advaita master Jean Klein, with whom he studied for an extended period. Jon subsequently spent time with H.W.L. Poonja and Robert Adams, both direct disciples of Ramana Maharshi. Jon was asked to teach by Adyashanti in 2002.

In addition to his work as a spiritual teacher, Jon is a certified Zero Balancing practitioner and a teacher of the Alexander Technique in private practice in San Francisco since 1981. Jon’s healing work has also been deeply influenced by extensive training in NLP, hypnosis, Self Acceptance Training, cranio-sacral therapy and the Qigong system of Dr. Yu Penxi. In addition to his private practice, Jon has given lectures and workshops for the general public at the Suzuki Method Teacher’s Conference, UCSF Medical School, JFK University and the Whole Life Expo. For more information on Jon's practice, visit http://www.jonbernie.org/.

* Jon's teaching practice is called "satsang" -- silent meditation followed by dialogue. A description can be found on his website: http://www.jonbernie.org/events/satsangs/.

Benjamin Young

May 27: Benjamin Young

Benjamin Young began his spiritual practice when he was in his early twenties after reading a book which mentioned a spiritual teacher from India named Ramana Mahashi. Even though the reference was brief, Benjamin continued to investigate the life of Ramana Maharshi and develop his spiritual practice. Over the last forty years, he has studied many spiritual paths and pursued a number of meditation practices. Benjamin traveled to India for two months in 2001, visiting the Ramana Maharshi Ashram, where he and a close friend took monk’s vows. He has been practicing a Buddhist form of meditation called Anapanasati (Mindfulness of the In and Out Breath) for the past 20 years and assisting others in developing their spiritual practices. Anapanasati is a form of meditation that incorporates both Samatha (Calm Abiding) and Vipassana (Insight) into the practice. The title of Benjamin’s talk is Coming Home – From Head to Heart, Breath by Breath.