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Bobbi Allan has practiced meditation since 1974
and studied with leading US Buddhist scholar, social activist
and deep ecologist, Joanna Macy. Bobbi co-leads Stillness in Action retreats, which emphasise
engaged Buddhist practice. These retreats combine a focus on
tranquility, insight and compassion with dynamic processes for
reconnection and positive engagement with the world. She also
leads “Natural Mind” retreats with her husband, John
Allan, using Jason Siff’s ‘Recollective Awareness’
approach to meditation. Bobbi has trained in Mindfulness Based
Stress Reduction (Jon Kabat-Zinn). She teaches MBSR to school
teachers, and is working on a project to introduce mindfulness
skills into schools.
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Subhana Barzaghi is both a Zen Roshi and a teacher in
the Insight Meditation tradition. She is a resident teacher of
the Sydney Zen Centre and founding teacher of both the Bluegum
Sangha in Sydney and the Kuan Yin Meditation Centre in Lismore.
Subhana's teaching emphasises liberation here and now through
the practice of calm abiding and inquiry. She leads Zen and Insight
Meditation retreats in the Northern Rivers, Sydney, Melbourne
and in New Zealand. For more information click.
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Michael Dash
works as a counsellor
and educator and has been a Buddhist meditation practitioner
for over 20 years. He has studied in Australia, Thailand and
Burma, where he practised satipatthana vipassana in the Mahasi
Sayadaw tradition. Michael has taught courses and retreats in
Melbourne and Sydney, including courses at the Buddhist Library,
Wat Buddha Dhamma and the Blue Mountains Insight Meditation Centre.
He teaches Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), has a private
counselling practice in Sydney and works as a bereavement counsellor
at Sacred Heart and Calvary Hospices.
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Ellen Davison
has practised in both
the Zen and Vipassana traditions for over 30 years. She is a
guiding teacher at the Kuan Yin Meditation Centre in Lismore
and at Bay Insight in
Byron Bay. Ellen is an apprentice Zen teacher in the Diamond
Sangha Lineage and leads Zen and Vipassana retreats in Darwin,
Queensland and Northern NSW. She is also a psychologist and works
as a counsellor in tertiary education.
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Sky Dawson sat her first Vipassana retreat with
SN Goenka in 1981. Sayadaw U Pandita was her next guiding teacher
and in more recent times she has continued to practice under
the guidance of Steve Armstrong, Kamala Masters, Joseph Goldstein
and Sayadaw U Lakkhana. She is a member of the Perth Insight
Meditation Group and shares the dharma with a small community
of meditators who are keen to deepen their understanding and
practice. Vipassana practice and the application of the Buddha's
teachings in daily life have deepened her understanding and compassion
in her work with families facing life-threatening illness. She
has worked for the last 15 years teaching and researching in
the areas of palliative care, loss and grief at two universities
in Western Australia as well as working in a community hospice.
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Victor von der
Heyde has been practicing
meditation for over thirty years. He studied with a wide range
of teachers in India, Nepal, the US and Australia and these included
Insight Meditation, Zen, Dzogchen and non-aligned teachers. Some
of his major influences have been Toni Packer, Barry Magid and
Rodney Smith. He has taken dharma teaching roles since the early
1990s and has been leading yatras
since they started in Australia in 2006. His particular interest
is in helping people understand the different types of meditation
so that they're in a position to choose what works for them.
Victor has also completed graduate studies in Social Science,
worked for many years as a counsellor, and is chairman of the
Bodhgaya Development Association, an aid organisation that supports
literacy and self-sufficiency programs in India. He has some
suggestions for reading here.
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Winton Higgins
began meditating and
practising the Dharma in the Friends of the Western Buddhist
Order (FWBO) in 1987. In 1994 he became an active supporter of
Wat Buddha Dhamma, where he began to lead meditation retreats
in 1995. Since then he has led retreats for the Wat, the Blue
Gum Sangha and Sydney Insight Meditators, and taught many courses
for the Buddhist Library in Sydney. He follows the western insight
(vipassana) tradition and is particularly interested in the convergence
of Dharma practice and progressive western values such as democracy,
feminism and critical inquiry. His teaching has an affinity with
the work of Stephen Batchelor. He is a writer and a social-science
academic; he and his partner, Lena, have two grown-up daughters
and a grandson.
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Malcolm Huxter began following the teachings of the
Buddha in the mid 1970's and has mostly practised within the
Theravada traditions. He ordained in Thailand and practised intensively
as a monk for 2 years. After disrobing in 1979 he continued his
commitment to meditation through daily practice, study with lay
and ordained teachers and regular attendance at intensive retreats
within the Mahasi tradition. He has also practised within Tibetan
Mahayana and Japanese Zen traditions. Malcolm is a clinical psychologist
and works in both public mental health and private practice.
He has been sharing his understanding about the path of awakening
in the form of individual psychotherapy, courses, retreats, and
therapist supervision and workshops since 1991. For more information
see www.malhuxter.com
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Will James attended his first Insight Meditation
retreat in the late 1970's with Christopher Titmuss; this meeting
kindled a deep interest in meditation and the Dharma. Will has
studied in the zen and insight traditions and teaches at the
Tallowwood Sangha in Bellingen, as well as retreats on the east
coast, at the Dharma Gatherings in Australia and India and assists
Radha Nicholson with the Australian Dharma Facilitators Program.
Will has been a director of the Bellingen Global Carnival; an
annual world music festival for ten years and for many years
has been organizing and managing Dharma events.
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Patrick Kearney
has 30 years experience
in Buddhist meditation, in both the Zen and Theravada traditions.
Since 1984 he has trained in vipassana (insight) meditation in
the tradition of the lineage of Mahasi Sayadaw of Burma. His
teachers have included Robert Aitken Roshi, Sayadaw U Pandita,
Sayadaw U Lakkhana, Sayadaw U Janaka, John Hale and Christopher
Titmuss. For three years, Patrick was resident teacher at Blue
Mountains Insight Meditation Centre. Now based in Sydney, he
teaches retreats, seminars and classes around Australia. He teaches
both the techniques of meditation along with the theory that
underlies them. Understanding both, a student can become independent
and self-directed. For more information see www.dharmasalon.net
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Anna Markey was introduced to Buddhist practice in
1983 while teaching in a Tibetan village in India. She attended
retreats with Christopher Titmuss the same year and has practiced
vipassana meditation ever since. Anna also practiced for a number
of years with a Zen group in the tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh
and the Mahasi style of practice with Patrick Kearney. Anna leads
two groups in South Australia - the Goolwa Dharma Group, and
the Ashtree Sangha in Adelaide. She is interested in applying
the Buddha's teachings to our daily lives and in exploring the
dharma with children.
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Radha Nicholson teaches
the cultivation of wisdom and compassion through insight. Her
teachings focus on inquiry and the non-dual nature of reality.
Radha first met Christopher Titmuss in India in 1975 where she
participated in extended retreats. She is a guiding teacher for
Bay Insight in Byron Bay. Radha teaches retreats in Australia
and regularly teaches with Christopher in Sarnath, India, at
the annual Dharma Gathering. She is a Registered Psychologist
and member of the Australian Psychological Society with a private
practice in Bangalow, in Northern NSW. Radha is the mother of
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Carol Perry leads retreats, weeklong bush yatras
(mindfulness walks) & dharma workshops. She has 30 years
of Insight meditation experience and is a mentor for the web-based
Living Dharma program. Carol is the co-founder of Dharmananda
a sustainable community in northern NSW. She has lived in community
for 35 years. Her commitment to community led to her work as
a dispute mediator and teacher of mindful communication workshops.
In addition Carol has a mindfulness- based psychotherapy (Hakomi)
practice in Lismore NSW & Melbourne. For more information
click.
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Geoff Simpson
began to explore meditation
in 1979 and continues to do so. He has an affinity with the Thai
Forest tradition which reveals the Buddha's liberating teachings
through calmness, mindfulness and inquiry. He shares these teachings
with the Heart Insight group in Brisbane. Geoff works in mental
health.
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Jenny Taylor
has been a dharma practitioner
for 30 years, studying with a range of teachers, initially in
the Thai forest tradition and the Mahasi tradition. She began
teaching 10 years ago and participates in teacher training retreats
with Jason Siff. She lives in Alice Springs, works as a visual
artist and teaches art in remote communities. She has a particular
interest in the affinity between unstructured meditative experience
and the practice of creative arts.
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