Twin Cities Vipassana Collective
Twin Cities Vipassana Collective
Steve Armstrong has studied the dhamma and practiced insight meditation since 1975. He has served for many years at the Insight Meditation Society in Massachusetts as Executive Director, Board member and senior teacher. As a monk in Burma under the guidance of Sayadaw U Pandita he undertook intensive, silent practice of insight and lovingkindness meditations for 5 years and in Australia, he studied the Buddhist psychology (abhidhamma) with Sayadaw U Zagara. He continues his practice under the guidance of Sayadaw U Tejaniya at the Shwe Oo Min Meditation Center in Rangoon. Steve is a co-founding teacher of the Vipassana Metta Foundation’s dharma sanctuary and hermitage on Maui. He has been leading meditation retreats internationally since 1990 and encourages spiritual development through cultivating insightful awareness and liberating understanding of the core teachings of the Buddha in all life activities.
Patricia Genoud-Feldman has been practicing Buddhist meditation (Vipassana and Dzogchen) in Asia and the West since 1984 and teaching Vipassana in in Europe and in Israel since 1997 and more recently in the US at the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Mass. She lives in Geneva Switzerland with her husband, where she has co-founded the Meditation Center Vimalakirti.
Myoshin Kelley began practice in 1975 and has worked with teachers in the Theravada and Tibetan Buddhist traditions. Her own teaching emphasizes simplicity, lovingkindness and cultivating a joyful interest. She is teacher-in-residence at the Forest Refuge.
Kamala Masters is one of the founders and teachers of the Vipassana Metta Foundation on Maui, where she is currently developing Ho'omalamalama, a sanctuary-hermitage for long-term meditation practice. She teaches retreats in the Theravada tradition at venues worldwide, including being a Core Teacher at the Insight Meditation Society at Barre, Massachusetts. Practicing since 1975, her teachers have been the late Anagarika Munindra of India and Sayadaw U Pandita of Burma with whom she continues to practice. Kamala has a commitment to carrying and offering the purity of the teachings of the Buddha in a way that touches our common sense and compassion as human beings, and allows the natural inner growth of wisdom. She lives on Maui where she raised 4 children, and is now blessed with 5 grandchildren.
Annie Nugent has practiced since 1979 and was a resident teacher at Insight Meditation Society in Barre, MA from 1999-2003. Her teaching style aims to reveal how all aspects of our lives can help us come to a clear and direct understanding of the Truth.
Ajahn Punnadhammo is the resident bhikkhu at Arrow River Forest Hermitage in Thunder Bay, Ont. He has been studying and practicing Buddhism since 1979 and was ordained in Thailand in the forest tradition of Ajahn Chah in 1990. Between 1990 and 1995 he was based at Wat Pah Nanachat, Thailand. Punnadhammo is a Canadian, born Michael Dominskyj in Toronto in 1955. He began studying the Dhamma under Kema Ananda, the founder and first teacher at the Arrow River Center.
Marcia Rose is the founding and guiding teacher of The Mountain Hermitage and founding teacher of Taos Mountain Sangha. She has been studying and practicing Buddhist teachings and meditation with Asian and Western teachers since 1970, primarily in the Theravada-Vipassana (Path of the Elders) tradition. Her own teaching reflects a clear influence from the Burmese Mahasi Vipassana and the Pa-Auk Forest Monastery lineages. She has also studied and practiced in the Dzogchen Tibetan Buddhist tradition with Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche, Nyoshul Khen Rinpoche, and Tsoknyi Rinpoche. Marcia was resident teacher for staff at the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, MA from 1991-1995. She has been one of the teachers for the annual three-month retreat at IMS, and is currently a visiting teacher at The Forest Refuge in Barre, MA. Marcia also teaches Vipassana and Metta retreats in other U.S. and international venues, and is dedicated to offering these ancient and timeless teachings in ways that make them accessible and authentic for contemporary culture.
Santikaro is the founder and guiding teacher of Liberation Park in Norwalk, Wisconsin. Born and raised in Chicago, he lived in Thailand for 20 years, mainly as a Theravada Buddhist monk. After serving in the US Peace Corps, he trained as a Buddhist monk from 1985 through 2003. He lived at Suan Mokkh, a forest monastery in Southern Thailand for fifteen years, where he studied under Buddhadasa Bhikkhu, an influential teacher and reformer (who died in 1993). Santikaro taught meditation and Buddhism in Thailand for many years. He is now pursuing his vision of Liberation Park, a modern American expression of Buddhist practice, teaching, community, and social responsibility. He continues to teach meditation and translate his teacher's work, along with pondering the application of Buddha-Dhamma to our hectic high-stress ways of life, teaching Enneagram, and working in socially engaged Buddhism.