WAiB Pages

Female Teachers in Buddhism

GENERAL


Martine Batchelor Martine Batchelor lived in Korea as a Zen nun under the guidance of Master Kusan for ten years. She co-edited Buddhism and Ecology and compiled Walking on Lotus Flowers: Buddhist Women Working, Loving and Meditating. She is a guiding teacher at Gaia House (a nonsectarian Buddhist centre) and lives in Totnes, Devon.  See "Very Good Dharma Friends", an interview with Martine and husband/teaching partner Stephen in Insight Meditation Online.

Gaia House
West Ogwell
Newton Abbot
Devon TQ12 6EN

United Kingdom
tel  (01626) 333613
gaiahouse@gn.apc.org

no picture
available

Barbara Brodsky has been practicing meditation since 1960 and teaching worldwide since 1989.  She has dual roots in the Buddhist and Quaker traditions. Within Buddhism, her focus is in vipassana practice and also in pure awareness practices drawn from Dzogchen teachings.  She has been profoundly deaf for 24 years; living with silence has greatly influenced her life and teaching as have years of active involvement in non-violent action for social change.  She is the guiding teacher of Deep Spring Center in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Barbara is married and the mother of three children.

Deep Spring Center
3455 Charing Cross Road
Ann Arbor, MI 48108
USA
tel  (313) 971-3455

info@deepspring.org

Anna Douglas Anna Douglas is a founding teacher of Spirit Rock Meditation Center, teaching both there and at Insight Meditation Society.  She has a background in psychology and the arts, and in addition to fifteen years of vipassana practice, she has studied with teachers in the Zen, Advaita and Dzogchen traditions.

Spirit Rock Meditation Center
5000 Sir Francis Drake Boulevard
Woodacre, CA
U.S.A.
office tel (415) 488-0164
fax (415) 488-0170

Christina Feldman Christina Feldman has been studying and training in the Tibetan, Mahayana and Theravada traditions since 1970, and teaching meditation worldwide since 1974.  She is co-founder and a guiding teacher of Gaia House in England, author of Woman Awake! and has co-authored Stories of the Spirit, Stories of the Heart.

Gaia House
West Ogwell
Newton Abbot
Devon TQ12 6EN

United Kingdom
tel  (01626) 333613
gaiahouse@gn.apc.org

Gaia House Gaia House, a nonsectarian Buddhist centre in Totnes, England, is home to numerous resident and visiting female teachers who feature frequently on the retreat schedule.  These include the following teachers: Christina Feldman, co-founder and spiritual director of Gaia House (Tibetan, Mahayana & Theravada), Martine Batchelor (Zen), Ursula Fluckiger (vipassana), Sharda Rogell (vipassana), Debbie Shapiro (various), Mary Thanissara (Western Buddhism), and Yvonne Weier (vipassana).

Gaia House
West Ogwell
Newton Abbot
Devon TQ12 6EN

United Kingdom
tel  (01626) 333613
gaiahouse@gn.apc.org

Clara Luz Ibanez Clara Luz Ibaņez first trained in Vipassana and Zen for ten years, then continued her studies in Vajrayana (Kagyu/Nyingma). She was confirmed as a teacher by her main Lama, HH Shenphen Dawa Norbu Rinpoche, with whom she worked to establish the first Nyingma center in Spain. After coming out as a woman, Clara left that organization to teach general Mahayana and meditation, with special emphasis on practising heart-compassion and with Kwan-Yin as guide and inspiration. Also a transpersonal therapist, yoga teacher and reiki healer/master, Clara teaches at Karuna Centre, where she also leads meditation retreats and human potential workshops.

Clara Luz Ibaņez
PO Box 56
25080 Lleida
SPAIN
Tel. c/o Karuna 973.272.485
E-mail clara-luz@usa.net

Ven. Cecilie Kwiat Cecilie Kwiat has studied and practised within Theravada and Vajrayana since 1965, and was appointed by H.H. the 16th Karmapa to be the first resident teacher at the Karma Kagyu Centre of Toronto (North America's largest Kagyu centre at the time).  She now lives, teaches and leads retreats in Calgary, Canada.   Cecilie is also my beloved first teacher, so I can personally recommend her very highly!  See her take on the subject of women in western Buddhism (in a 1991 interview).

Cecilie Kwiat
Calgary, Alberta
Canada
E-mail ckwiat@telusplanet.net

Toni Packer Toni Packer is a former Zen teacher who left the tradition behind. She also spent time listening to Krishnamurti talks. Toni is the founder of Springwater Center in rural New York state, and the author of The Work Of This Moment and The Light Of Discovery.  Toni works simply and directly, without methods, practices, rituals, or dogmas.  Her emphasis is on awareness, insight, and open being.  She offers retreats at Springwater, and also in Europe and California: see her teaching calendar for details.

Toni Packer
c/o Springwater Center
7179 Mill Street
Springwater, NY 14560
Tel (716) 669-2141
Fax (716) 669-9573
E-mail: spwtrctr@servtech.com

Marcia Rose Marcia Rose has been studying and practicing Buddhist teachings, meditation and related disciplines for many years, primarily in the Theravada and Tibetan Buddhist traditions with Asian and Western masters. She teaches worldwide and is an Associate Teacher at the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts.  Marcia lives in Taos, New Mexico and guides a weekly class/sitting group there when she is not on the road teaching. Marcia Rose
HCR 74 - Box 22215
El Prado, New Mexico 87529

U.S.A.
Tel (505) 751-2132 (voice mail)
marciar@laplaza.org
Sharon Salzberg Sharon Salzberg has practised and studied in a variety of Buddhist traditions since 1970, and is best known for her teaching retreats on intensive awareness and lovingkindness practice.  (Read Tricycle magazine's interview with her in The Dharma of Liberation.)   In the UK, Sharon frequently leads retreats at Gaia House in Devon.  See A Wind Through the Heart, her conversation with Alice Walker on lovingkindness, from the January 1997 Shambhala Sun.

Contact address:
Insight Meditation Society

1230 Pleasant Street
Barre, MA 01005
U.S.A.
Tel  (978) 355-4378

no picture
available

The Springwater Center for Meditative Inquiry is a nonsectarian center on over 200 acres of land in rural western New York state. Founded by Toni Packer, the Center offers retreats with Toni and others, as well as opportunities to come outside of retreat times as a guest or volunteer. There are no rituals or ceremonies, activities are optional, and the approach is simple awareness, without methods, techniques or dogmas. Books, tapes, and newsletter available.

Springwater Center for Meditative Inquiry
7179 Mill Street
Springwater, NY 14560
Tel (716) 669-2141
Fax (716) 669-9573
E-mail: spwtrctr@servtech.com

Buddha face from Lotus Realm Taraloka is a Buddhist women's community and retreat centre which holds a year-round program of events and retreats varying in length from one day to two weeks. It is part of the Friends of the Western Buddhist Order, a movement founded in 1967 to establish Buddhist principles in the modern world, drawing inspiration from the whole of the Buddhist tradition as well as from Western art and culture.  Taraloka's aim is to help women from all walks of life to contact and realise their potential.

Shropshire
United Kingdom (England)
No mailing address available
100073.3502@compuserve.com


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This page was last amended on 1 January 2001.
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