Dharma Treasure

• Pierre Zakarauskas
• Sarah Conover & Doug Robnett
• Alexa Singer-telles
• Farshid Etemad
• Blake Barton, Tucson, AZ
• Tom Kennedy, Australia
• Robin Craig, Arizona, USA
• Henrik Norberg, Cochise Stronghold, AZ
• Gabriel Rocheleau, Quebec, Canada
• David Schultz, Calgary, Alberta, Canada
• Jeffrey Woolley, Glendale, AZ

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Pierre Zakarauskas

Pierre was drawn to practicing the Dharma to line up his understanding of the world as a physicist with how it felt to be human. Science provided him with a particular understanding of the world, including the mind, but it had nothing to say on how to live a good life, a happy and full life.

A meditator since 1995 and a daily practitioner since 2002, in 2004 Pierre decided to devote a substantial portion of his time meditating, both at home and on silent retreats. Pierre’s main teachers have been Ayya Khema and

Leigh Brasington, in the Theravadin tradition, who teaches the sutta jhanas to cultivate the mind prior to, or alongside, insight practice, along with a good dose of metta. Pierre also practiced using TMI as a guide for several years, and lately Tranquil Wisdom Insight Meditation. He also dabbled in Zen and Dzogchen.

Pierre’s joy de vivre is contagious. Pierre is happy to work with practitioners of all traditions and belief systems.

Sarah Conover & Doug Robnett

Doug Robnett and Sarah Conover are long-time Theravada practitioners, starting a practice at Spirit Rock over three decades ago and eventually landing in the Ajahn Chah tradition with their son, Tan Nisabho. Tan Nisabho is a monastic in that lineage, and is the co-founder of Clear Mountain Monastery, an aspiring Thai Forest Monastery in the Seattle area. In association with that monastery, Sarah and Doug are presently building a hermitage for monastics and serious practitioners at the base of the North Cascades in Winthrop, Washington.

 Sarah has taught meditation for a number of years at Airway Heights Correctional Facility in Washington State as well as to groups in her Spokane community. Sarah and Doug consider themselves dedicated students of monastics—both monks and nuns—who have studied in the Ajahn Chah tradition. They are also long-time supporters and students of Venerable Thubten Chodron and Sravasti Abbey in Newport, Washington.

 With an MFA in poetry, Sarah’s work has been published in various literary journals and anthologies; she is the author of six books on world wisdom traditions published by Skinner House Press; and has written feature articles for Tricycle Magazine (“When my Son Became a Monk,” “Lost at Sea,” and “Minefulness: A Case Study.” Her forthcoming memoir, Dead Reckoning: Unstorying a Life, will be released in the autumn of 2022.

 Sarah will be yogi in residence at Dharma Treasure from March 20 through April 20 and Doug will be yogi in residence for the remainder of April. Holding the space for retreatants, they will be offering morning and evening community meditations, weekly dharma talks and discussion, and guidance for those meditators who request it.

 Besides cultivating his own dharma practice and holding the retreat space for others, Doug will offer maintenance and carpentry dana to Dharma Treasure (and will be happy to share his skills—or yours—in this endeavor).

Sarah, an experienced writing instructor, will offer writing guidance of any genre and level the first week of April 2022 for  interested retreatants as a group and/or individually. Here’s her statement about creative writing in the Dharma Treasure context:

Writing to Wisdom

Just as our hearts want to cultivate wisdom, our writing selves also aim to cultivate what matters most. Ironically, words can lead us to silence, a greater listening to the dignity of our whole selves and a brave leaping into the unknown. In that listening and receptivity, we write until we surprise ourselves and honor what comes forth. This is not dissimilar to meditation—alert awareness has the chance of leaving habit behind for the nourishment of stillness. So too, writing too can be a rich arena to explore insight, reflection, and the cultivation of spiritual life.

Together, we’ll enjoy 3 aspects of writing:

• Listening and leaping!
• Discernment—separating the gems from the noise of proliferation.
• Crafting our words to make them matter.

We will mutually agree on times to work together and times to write individually.

Alexa Singer-telles

Alexa began practicing in the tradition of Vietnamese Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh in 1991 after spending a week on retreat with him. She co-founded the River Oak Sangha in Redding, CA that same year. In 2004 she was ordained into the Order of Interbeing, taking the 14 Mindfulness trainings to join the core community of this tradition. She was given the dharma name True Silent Action, Chân M?t Hành. She was invited into a dharma teacher apprenticeship and received Lamp Transmission as a dharmacharya (teacher authorization) in 2014, from Thich Nhat Hanh in Plum Village.

She has been blessed to be guided by several wise senior dharma teachers and is grateful that the Buddha considers spiritual friendship, kalyanamitra, to be the most important part of the path. She currently is involved with several peer sanghas, the Oregon Spiritual Friends, Jubulicious – Jewish Buddhist Women sangha, EMBRACE – working with trauma sensitive mindfulness, and a Sati study group, studying ancient sutras and currently the early women practitioners in Buddhism. She also leads retreat in her home town with a monastic from the Order of Buddhist Contemplatives, a Soto Zen community. She serves on the Plum Village Dharma Teacher Nourishment and Life Committee and is a member of the PV North American Dharma Teacher Care Taking Council.

She is the guiding teacher of several sanghas, Ancient Forest in Eureka, California, Woodside Sangha in Bellingham, Washington, and Wild Rose Sangha in Calgary, Canada. She can happily participate in these groups from the comfort of her own home now that Zoom has made cloud zendos possible. She is mentoring several aspirants to the Order of Interbeing. She has started a new sangha, MotherRoot, and offers days of mindfulness, special events, and ceremonies online, open to the communities she serves.

Alexa is a psychotherapist, practicing as a Marriage and Family Therapist for 25 years. She has been an expressive artist most of her life, studying movement, writing, dreamwork, and creative art. She has been a registered facilitator of SoulCollage® since 2008, a creative art form that uses collaged imagery to explore one’s own inner guidance and wisdom. She has woven mindfulness, creative movement and SoulCollage® together and been invited to present at national conferences and in Italy. She incorporates creativity, poetry, writing and movement into her meditation retreats. She has been a ceremonial leader of women’s gatherings, transitional events and seasonal celebrations for more than 35 years. Her intention in her work is to invite people to let go of their inner critic, move into their creative aliveness, and to “bring the beauty of spirit into form.”

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Jeffery Woolley – Glendale, Arizona

Jeff has been formally practicing mindfulness meditation since the mid 1980’s. He became a student of Samatha Vipassana and Upasaka Culadasa in 2009. A graduate of Boston University, he has been a clinical social worker for over 30 years. He also enjoys the art of Aikido. He is currently working full time as a psychotherapist and teaching two mindfulness graduate courses at ASU School of Social Work. In addition, he facilitates a mindfulness support sitting group at Jiyshinryu Akido. He is happily married and blessed with four grown children and two grandchildren.

Phone: 602-425-0569

 

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Tom Kennedy, Australia

Tom is an Australian, returning to the Stronghold for the third time this winter. He describes
himself as a support to anyone realizing ‘the inherent fragility of what is constructed by the
mind’.

Tom is a welcome addition to our resident yogi program. His Aussie warmth and natural
smile will be a ray of sunshine to those doing solitary winter retreat.
Tom’s meditation journey began with teachers in the Tibetan (Gelug) tradition. Like many
seekers from downunder, Tom traveled far and wide in search of teachers, taking him to Sri
Lanka, India and Nepal, attending shamatha, Lam Rim, vipassana and jhana retreats for over
a decade.

Tom eventually made his way to the Stronghold in 2015 to spend two months in retreat
under Culadasa’s supervision. Three years later he was certified as a TMI teacher. He then
spent two months supervised by Culadasa as one of our first teachers-in-residence before
taking on students.

Tom works one on one with meditators from around the world, on a request basis. Tom’s
‘ecology of practice’ (a term borrowed from philosopher John Vervaeke) draws from the
Tibetan tradition of meditating on the mind, working with contemporary teachers and
teachings to build on the mechanics of TMI. Tom is happy to support anyone working with
any tradition.

Tom is establishing a retreat center in Australia, which will support solitary retreaters and be
a sanctuary for native wildlife. A decade after quitting his career as an international
commercial lawyer, Tom recently spent a year on a rural property in Queensland, Australia,
helping with its rewilding: an apprenticeship in support of humanity, he called it.
As resident yogi, Tom will provide support, interviews, and guidance (if requested) to
solitary retreaters. He will facilitate an optional weekly discussion on dharma themes for
those who wish to break silence (e.g., on emptiness, the nature of mind, joy, etc.). Group
retreats may also be organized during the winter months. Movement and body-work
teachers who complement silent retreats are invited to contact DT.
Feel free to reach out to Tom if you wish to discuss your approach to retreat. Tom believes
that being well-prepared and feeling well-supported is key to a fruitful solitary retreat. up a retreat centre in the Australian bush to support people who wish to get off grid and take part in safe, self-directed practice, immersed in a vast, dynamic and life-affirming natural environment.

Tom’s teaching style is compatible with those who are comfortable taking responsibility for their own progress towards living an engaged, awakened life.

“Culadasa’s precise, no-nonsense terminology appealed to my way of thinking, empowering me to take charge of my journey. I handed back the keys to the bus, literally, and started walking again. I’ll be delighted to meet you on the road.”

• Email

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Henrik A. Norberg – Berkeley, CA

With a background in Japanese Tendai, Korean Seon, and the Thai forest tradition, I find it interesting to explore the Dharma from multiple perspectives.

I love long-distance walking meditation; I casually flirt with magic, and have a serious crush on Samatha. I value humor, simplicity, and authenticity, and I have a bottomless curiosity about the experience of …”this”

I have been meditating since the late ’90s, through 40 + retreats, and consider myself a religious Buddhist. I have an agnostic stance on several metaphysical subjects and no issues working with secular practitioners.

I started out studying Tendai with Pia Shoken Trans in Denmark while learning traditional physical practices from Sabonim Ko Tai Jeong, a former Tae Kwondo monk.

In 2008, I wanted to get a better understanding of classical Theravadin teachings, so I trained with Sumana Ratnayaka, the former abbot of Stockholm Buddhist Vihara until I moved to the US. Here I have spent time retreating and supporting the Thai Forest tradition.

The last few years I have studied under Culadasa, and joined his teacher training program in 2016.

I am working on setting up a community of The Mind Illuminated teachers and practitioners in the Bay Area. If you are in the neighbourhood, I would love to meet up or sit together in person. If you prefer to have a chat online, I am open to that, too.

• You can reach Henrik at his email

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Gabriel Rocheleau – Quebec, Canada

Gabriel has been practicing meditation for more than 10 years. He started meditating as a teen while exploring lucid dreams and his interest for meditation kept growing over time. Before encountering Culadasa’s teachings in 2015, Gabriel practiced in the Goenka, the Mahasi and the Pa Auk traditions.

I see meditation as mind-training. I teach and practice meditation pragmatically, meaning that I am concerned with what actually works, regardless of which tradition or belief-system a practice comes from. I mainly teach using Culadasa’s Samatha-Vipassana (concentration + insight) method outlined in The Mind Illuminated, since it is the most effective and comprehensive method I’ve encountered. I can also draw from my experience in other traditions when useful.

My wish to teach meditation stems from the benefits I’ve personally received from it. Meditation is, by far, the most important thing I’ve learned. I feel extremely fortunate to have stumbled on these kinds of practices early on (at the age of 14). My practice continues to satisfy a profound desire for truth in a way nothing else could. The mundane and “supramundane” insights induced by meditation have brought me immense benefits, and I can’t imagine going back to my old way of seeing the world.

I would be deeply honored to help you establish a meditation practice and get similar benefits. Whether you’re interested in “awakening” or stress-reduction, I would like to provide you the tools necessary to improve your life by training your mind.

On a more global level, I firmly believe that the only way to make a difference in this world is to change the people who make it up. I’ve seen the practice of meditation literally transform myself and others, and I want to help others discover and develop this wonderful practice.

I teach both online and offline and fluently speak French and English.

• Website
• Email

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David Schultz – Calgary, Alberta, Canada

David has practiced meditation and studied Buddhism since the late 1970s. After almost twenty years of practice under Shirfu Samanta, he was formally authorized to teach and given the teaching name Kalyanamitra (spiritual friend). Jayanta, a deeply experienced teacher and practitioner of over fifty years in the Theravada tradition, has been very helpful in guiding and mentoring him throughout the years. David has also spent time practicing in the Jodo Shinshu (Pure Land) tradition.

Culadasa’s teaching of Samatha-Vipassana as presented in The Mind Illuminated has opened the door to working with these differing traditions and to structuring teaching and practice.

It is his hope to be a good friend, in the Buddhist sense, to those who wish to practice with him and he aims to be a helpful guide. David practices with a sangha in Calgary, Canada and works online with fellow practitioners.

• Email

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Robin Craig – Flagstaff, Arizona

Robin has studied with Dharma teachers in group and solo retreat settings who have opened the doors for the fullness of kindness and compassion both on and off the cushion. This includes studies on the unfolding of the practice in The Mind Illuminated framework. This has been an important foundation for her own life as well as supporting students as they practice.

Robin is also a Licensed Professional Counselor, Somatic Experiencing Practitioner, and Associate Faculty with Organic Intelligence® (OI). She has degrees in Philosophy, Biomedical Engineering, and Counseling Psychology as well as having studied neuroscience at the Vollum Institute for Advanced Biomedical Research in Portland, OR. Robin weaves her understanding of the physiology of resilience and increased capacity into both the practice and teaching of meditation.

In 2017, Robin took Upasika vows and appreciates how joy is an integral part of the path to the deep spirituality and interconnection that is ours by nature.

You can email Robin or read more about her at  http://findingthewayout.com