Charlotte Joko Beck is a Zen master, the 3rd Dharma heir of Hakuyu Maezumi Roshi and founder of the Ordinary Mind Zen School; she is head of the San Diego Zen Center and also teaches at the Prairie Zen Center in Champaign, Illinois. She has written two books (see bibliography) and several short articles, including "Some suggestions on practice", "Images", "The Glass of water", and "The pools".
Pema Chödrön, one of the foremost students of the late Ven. Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, is the resident teacher/director (abbess) of Gampo Abbey in Nova Scotia - a Karma Kagyu centre affiliated with Vajradhatu - and was also guest speaker (scroll down halfway!) at a September 18 benefit for the Buddhist Alliance for Social Engagement (BASE), North America's "first urban Buddhist volunteer corps". bell hooks interviews Pema Chödrön in the March '97 Shambhala Sun.. See her teaching schedule
Ven. Thubten Chödrön (Cherry Greene) is the seniormost female teacher in the FPMT (Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition), in the Gelukpa tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. See her Questions on Buddhism (and Praises and Requests to the Twenty-One Taras for an example of a practice centered upon a female meditational deity). A video of her teachings is also available. Chödron wrote the report on Life as a Buddhist Nun
Ani-la Kelsang Chowang is an English Buddhist nun and resident teacher at Heruka Centre, the London centre of the New Kadampa Tradition (NKT), a Mahayana Buddhist organisation founded by Geshe Kelsang Gyatso.
Lucinda Treelight Green, Ph.D. is a Dharma teacher in the Theravada lineage and director of Rocky Mountain Insight in Colorado Springs, Co., USA. She received Dharma transmission from Ruth Denison of Dhamma Dena in southern California, who received transmission from U Ba Khin of Burma. In 1985, she entered a nunnery in Sri Lanka under the tutelage of Venerable Ayya Khema. Songs of the Dharma, Buddhist chants in Pali and English, is available from Treelight Productions, as well as metta and sweeping meditations (see audio list). For details please contact TLG223@aol.com.
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 (the tradition in which they studied is in parentheses): Christina Feldman, co-founder and spiritual director of Gaia House (Tibetan, Mahayana & Theravada), Martine Batchelor (Zen), Ayya Khema (Theravada), Susan Augenstein (vipassana/Zen), Ursula Fluckiger (vipassana), Maechee Pathomwan (Theravada), Sharda Rogell (vipassana), Sharon Salzburg (various - see her link below), Debbie Shapiro (various) Mary Thanissara (Western Buddhism), and Yvonne Weier (vipassana).
Joan Halifax is a Buddhist priest and student of Ven. Thich Nhat Hanh. She describes her approach to working with the terminally ill in her article "Being with Dying". She teaches courses on Buddhism and shamanic relationship to the environment at the Esalen Institute and around the world, including the upcoming Retreat on Engaged Spirituality in Santa Fe, New Mexico in May 1997.
Lene Handberg, Psychologist and Psychotherapist U.D. She has been studying Tibetan philosophy, psychology, meditation and psychotherapy with Tarab Tulku for 15 years, and has also studied with several other well-known Tibetan Scholars. She has helped Tarab Tulku in establishing the Tarab Institutes in Europe and is the President of the T.I.-Denmark.
Zenkei Blanche Hartman, Abbess of The San Francisco Zen Center, began sitting in 1969 at the Berkeley Zen Center with Sojun Mel Weitsman and in San Francisco with Suzuki-roshi. She was ordained in 1977 by Zentatsu Baker and received dharma transmission with Sojun Mel Weitsman in 1988. Zenkei became Abbess February of 1996.
Zen Master Seong Hyang (Barbara Rhodes) is the Vice School Zen Master and guiding Dharma Teacher of the Kwan Um School of Zen (Korean Son tradition), and the guiding teacher of Zen centers in Florida, Chicago and Colorado. She received Dharma transmission from Zen Master Seung Sahn in October 1992. A registered nurse, she works for Hospice Care of Rhode Island. Several of her teachings are available on the Primary Point on-line archive.
The Insight Meditation Society (IMS) of Barre, Massachussetts, USA is home to many resident and visiting female teachers. The site includes photos and biographies of Ruth Denison, Christina Feldman, Narayan Liebenson Grady, Michele McDonald-Smith, Sharon Salzburg and Carol Wilson. See their teaching schedule for current retreat details.
Ven. Sangye Khandro (Kathleen McDonald) is the resident teacher of the FPMT's Amitabha Buddhist Centre in Singapore and has been a nun since 1974. Her book How to Meditate (see bibliography) is an excellent introduction to Buddhist practice.
Jetsunma Ahkön Lhamo is an American tulku (reincarnate lama) of Jewish-Italian background who belongs to the Nyingma tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. She is the resident teacher of Kunzang Palyul Chöling in Poolesville, Maryland, USA. Transcriptions of her Dharma talks are available on-line, including her most recent teaching. The center also offers a recording of chanted prayer by Jetsunma called Invocation.
Khandro Rinpoche is a Tibetan tulku (incarnate lama), also ordained as a nun, within the Kagyu tradition who has travelled and taught throughout Europe and North America. Her teachings are available on audio tape from Shambhala Publications
Jetsunma Kusho Chimey Luding is the resident lama of the Vancouver Sakya Centre in British Columbia, Canada. She is one of the seniormost lamas of the Sakya lineage. and is sister of the head of the lineage, H.H. Sakya Trizin. Jetsunma is also regarded as an incarnation of the Highest Yoga Tantra female deity Vajrayogini.
Ven. Jamyang Sakya (known to her students as Dagmola) is a Tibetan Buddhist teacher of the Sakya order based at Seattle's Sakya Monastery. She is the wife of H.H. Jidgal Dagchen Sakya Rinpoche and cousin by marriage to H.H. Sakya Trizin and H.E. Jetsunma Kusho Chimey Luding. Dagmola is featured in The Book of Tibetan Elders and herself co-authored Princess of the Snows. She specialises in the practices of the female Buddha Tara and has been called one of the finest teachers in the West. Contact person Ken Hockett (Ngawang Rabten) may be reached at (360) 793-2198 or via e-mail at khockett@ix.netcom.com.
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/compassion practice. (Read an interview with her by Tricycle magazine in the article "The Dharma of Liberation".) In the UK, Sharon frequently leads retreats at Gaia House in Devon. See A Wind Through the Heart, a conversation with Alice Walker and Sharon Salzburg on lovingkindness, from the January '97 Shambhala Sun.
Sei-un An Roselyn Stone of the Mountain Moon Zen Buddhist Group is a Canadian-born Zen Master of the Sanbo Kyodan lineage which combines elements from the Japanese Soto and Rinzai traditions. She has zendos in Brisbane, Australia and Toronto, Canada. She now resides in Brisbane from mid-June until mid-November, and in Toronto from mid-December until mid-May each year.
Taraloka is a Buddhist women's community and retreat centre. We hold 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 by Sangharakshita. The FWBO seeks 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. The FWBO has public centres in many cities throughout the world. Taraloka's aim is to help women from all walks of life to contact and realise their potential.
Lama Yeshe Wangmo is Hawaii's resident lama for the Vajrayana Foundation. She studied with the Kagyu master Kyabje Kalu Rinpoche, served on his translation committee, and completed the traditional three-year retreat. She is now based at Orgyen Dechen Cho Dzong (the retreat centre of Dzogchen master Lama Tharchin Rinpoche), on the Big Island of Hawai'i, and teaches regularly throughout Hawai'i and on the mainland - consult her teaching schedule for details. Lama Yeshe also takes part in question and answer sessions on The Channel #Tibet Homepage.
