Meet The Presenters
Anam Thubten
Anam Thubten grew up in Tibet and at an early age began to practice in the Nyingma tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. Among his many teachers, his most formative guides were Lama Tsurlo, Khenpo Chopel, and Lama Garwang. He is the founder and spiritual advisor of Dharmata Foundation, teaching widely in the U.S. and abroad. He is also the author of various articles and books in both the Tibetan and English language. His books in English include The Magic of Awareness and No Self, No Problem. To view Anam Thubten’s teaching and retreat schedule, please visit www.dharmata.org/events-calendar. Through the essential wisdom of Buddhism and his personal experience on the spiritual path, Anam Thubten brings alive the timeless teachings and invites everyone to participate.
Arawana Hayashi
Arawana’s pioneering work as an innovator, performer, and educator is deeply sourced in both improvisation and traditional Japanese dance. She is currently on the core faculty of the Presencing Institute where she heads the creation of Social Presencing Theater. She brings her background in performance art-making and meditation to the creation of an embodied presence practice that makes visible both current reality and emerging future possibilities within organizations, schools, and community contexts. Arawana teaches meditation and creative process in Shambhala, a community committed to the creation of enlightened society. She is the author of Social Presencing Theater: The Art of Making a True Move published by PI Press.
Elizabeth Mattis Namgyel
Elizabeth Mattis Namgyel has studied and practiced for 35 years under the guidance of her teacher and husband Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche. She is the retreat master of Samten Ling in Crestone, Colorado and has spent over six years in retreat. She holds a degree in anthropology and an M.A. in Buddhist Studies. She teaches throughout the U.S., Australia, and Europe. She is the author of The Power of an Open Question: The Buddha’s Path to Freedom and The Logic of Faith: the Buddhist Path to Finding Certainty Beyond Belief and Doubt.
Gaylon Ferguson
Gaylon Ferguson has led group meditation retreats since 1987. He taught Religious Studies for 15 years at Naropa University. He is the author of Natural Wakefulness (on the Four Foundations of Mindfulness) and Natural Bravery (on fear and fearlessness).
Father Gregory Boyle
Gregory Boyle is the founder of Homeboy Industries in Los Angeles, the largest gang-intervention, rehabilitation, and re-entry program in the world. Born and raised in Los Angeles and Jesuit priest, from 1986 to 1992 Father Boyle served as pastor of Dolores Mission Church in Boyle Heights. Dolores Mission was the poorest Catholic parish in Los Angeles that also had the highest concentration of gang activity in the city. Father Boyle is the author of the 2010 New York Times-bestseller Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion. His second book, Barking to the Choir: The Power of Radical Kinship, was published in 2017. And his new and third book is The Whole Language: The Power of Extravagant Tenderness.
Judy Lief
Judy Lief is a Buddhist teacher who trained under the Tibetan meditation master, Ven. Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche. She has been a teacher and practitioner for over 35 years, and she continues to teach throughout the world. Judy is known for offering insights and practices stemming from the Buddhist tradition as a support for ordinary people facing the difficulties and challenges of modern life. Judy leads retreats and workshops as well as presenting online teachings.
In her teaching, Judy prefers questions to answers, humor to earnestness, delight to solemnity. Judy teaches with clarity and empathy, with deep respect for the wisdom of the Buddhist teachings and the power of Buddhist practice.
Karma Lekshe Tsomo
Karma Lekshe Tsomo is a professor of Buddhist Studies at the University of San Diego, where she teaches World Religions, Buddhist Thought and Culture, and Dying, Death, and Social Justice. She received full ordination in Korea in 1982. She is a founder of Sakyadhita International Association of Buddhist Women and the director of Jamyang Foundation, a nonprofit that supports education for girls and women in India, Bangladesh, and other developing countries. Her publications include Women in Buddhist Traditions; Buddhist Feminisms and Femininities; Into the Jaws of Yama: Buddhism, Bioethics, and Death; Sisters in Solitude: Two Traditions of Monastic Ethics for Women, and numerous books on women in Buddhism.
Krista Tippett (Host)
Krista Tippett is a Peabody-award winning broadcaster, National Humanities Medalist, and New York Times bestselling author. She hosts the On Being public radio show and podcast, curates the Civil Conversations Project, and founded and leads The On Being Project, a non-profit media and public life initiative that pursues deep thinking and moral imagination, social courage and joy, towards the renewal of inner life, outer life, and life together. Krista worked as a journalist and diplomat in Cold War Berlin, and later received a Master of Divinity from Yale University. She was awarded a National Humanities Medal from President Obama. Her books are Speaking of Faith, Einstein’s God, and Becoming Wise: An Inquiry into the Mystery and Art of Living.
Margaret Wheatley
Since 1966, Margaret Wheatley has worked globally in many different roles: as speaker, teacher, community worker, consultant, advisor, formal leader. Since 2015, with Jerry Granelli (died 07/21), she has been dedicated to training hundreds of leaders and activists from 35 countries as Warriors for the Human Spirit, armed with only the weapons of compassion and insight. In 2020, she and Jerry combined their talents to create The Warrior’s Songline, a multi-sensory experience of voice and sound that evokes the experiences and skillful means of the Warrior’s journey. She is best-selling author of nine books, from the classic Leadership and the New Science (1992) to Who Do We Choose To Be? Facing Reality, Claiming Leadership, Restoring Sanity.
Mingyur Rinpoche
Mingyur Rinpoche is a world-renowned meditation teacher with personal experience of anxiety who learned to transform his panic through meditation. Born in Nepal in 1975, Mingyur Rinpoche began to study meditation as a young boy with his father, Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche. He then became interested in contemporary science and began to collaborate with neuroscientists and psychologists, including Richard Davidson and Antoine Lutz at the University of Wisconsin.
Mingyur Rinpoche’s books include The Joy of Living: Unlocking the Secret and Science of Happiness, which debuted on the New York Times bestseller list and has been translated into over twenty languages; Joyful Wisdom: Embracing Change and Finding Freedom; and In Love with the World.
Tami Simon
Tami Simon is the Founder of Sounds True, a multi-media publisher based in Boulder, Colorado. Over its 37-year history, Sounds True has produced more than 3,000 learning programs with the world’s leading wisdom teachers and has twice been named to the Inc. 500 list of the fastest-growing private companies in North America. Tami also hosts the popular Sounds True podcast, Insights at the Edge, and is the founder of the Sounds True Foundation, dedicated to creating access to transformational learning for communities in need, and Sounds True’s Inner MBA Program, a 9-month immersion program that trains entrepreneurs, managers and employees on the inner wisdom skills needed to create businesses that honor the human heart and uplift society.