Our initial consortium is taking shape now. Other teachers will be joining in the near future, as we expand the breadth of Ashoka.edu's offerings.

Our initial consortium of teachers includes:

The Barre Center for Buddhist Studies is an educational organization dedicated to bringing together teachers, students, scholars and practitioners who are committed to exploring Buddhist thought and practice as a living tradition, faithful to its origins and lineage, yet adaptable and alive in the current world. The center’s purpose is to encourage the integration of study and practice, and to investigate the relationship between scholarly understanding and meditative insight. It encourages engagement with the tradition in a spirit of genuine inquiry.

Bhikkhu Bodhi is an American Buddhist monk. He was appointed editor of the Buddhist Publication Society (in Sri Lanka) in 1984 and its president in 1988. Ven. Bodhi has many important publications to his credit, either as author, translator, or editor, including The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha -- A Translation of the Majjhima Nikaya (co-translated with Ven. Bhikkhu Nanamoli, 1995) and The Connected Discourses of the Buddha -- a New Translation of the Samyutta Nikaya (2000). He is currently living and teaching at Bodhi Monastery in New Jersey.

A Zen Buddhist priest since 1967, Daishin is both a Lineage and Dharma Holder in the White Plum lineage of Taizan Maezumi Roshi. He is currently an assistant teacher under Roshi Wendy Egyoku Nakao, Abbot and Head Teacher of the Zen Center of Los Angeles/Busshinji Temple. He is the author of Zen Meditation in Plain English and To Forget the Self.

Bernie Glassman is a Zen master and the first dharma successor to Taizan Maezumi Roshi, founder of the Zen Center of Los Angeles. He is well known for integrating Zen practice with social, economic, and educational initiatives. After receiving Dharma transmission, Bernie established the Zen Community of New York and founded the Greyston Mandala, a network of community development organizations providing a variety of services in southwest Yonkers. With his late wife, Jishu Holmes, Bernie co-founded Peacemaker Community, a global, multi-faith network of peacemakers. He is the author of Instructions to the Cook and Bearing Witness: A Zen Master's Lessons in Making Peace. .

Joan Halifax, Roshi, Ph.D., a Soto Priest and abbot of Upaya Zen Center, was formally ordained in 1976 by Zen Master Seung Sahn. She received the Lamp Transmission from Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh in 1990 and is a Dharmacarya in the Tiep Hien Order. She is a Founding Teacher in the Zen Peacemaker Order of Roshi Bernie Glassman. Joan works in the New Mexico Penitentiary with maximum-security prisoners and is the founder of the Project on Being with Dying. She has taught at Columbia University, the University of Miami School of Medicine, the New School for Social Research, the Naropa Institute and the California Institute for Integral Studies. Her books include The Human Encounter with Death (with Stanislav Grof), Shamanic Voices, The Fruitful Darkness, Simplicity in the Complex: A Buddhist Life in America and the forthcoming Being with Dying.

Jeffrey Hopkins, Ph.D., served as the chief interpreter to the Dalai Lama for a decade. A Buddhist scholar-practitioner and the author of more than twenty-five books and translations, he is Professor of Tibetan and Buddhist Studies at the University of Virginia, where he founded the largest academic program of Tibetan Buddhism studies in the West. His books inlcude Cultivating Compassion, an eloquent, practical guide to tapping our own potential for caring, and Reflections on Reality . He has edited several books by the Dalai Lama, including How to Practice: The Way to a Meaningful Life and Advice on Dying: And Living a Better Life .

The Venerable Traleg Rinpoche— recognized by His Holiness the XVI Gylawa Karmapa as a major lineage holder in the Tibetan Tradition of Vajrayana Buddhism—has been giving lectures and seminars on Buddhism and related topics in Melbourne, Australia since 1980 where he established Kagyu E-Vam Buddhist Institute Rinpoche has traveled widely, teaching in the United States, Canada, Europe, New Zealand and South-East Asia. Rinpoche's recently published book Essence of Buddhism (Shambhala Publishing) Entitled, covers the whole spectrum of the Buddhist path giving the reader a very clear overview of the various Buddhist philosophies and practices. including the various meditative approaches of Buddhist practice.

Andrew Olendzki was trained in Buddhist Studies at Lancaster University in England, as well as at Harvard University and the University of Sri Lanka. A former executive director of Insight Meditation Society, he is currently the executive director of Barre Center for Buddhist Studies and is editor of its Insight Journal

Mingyur Dorje Rinpoche was born in Nepal in 1976 and began his Buddhist monastic education as a child. At the age of 12, he was officially enthroned by the 12th Tai Situ Rinpoche as the 7th incarnation of the Great Terton Yongle Mingyur Dorje of the 17th century, a legendary Tibetan meditation master and scholar, whose lineage made enormous contributions to the Buddhist canon. Having completed his first three-year retreat at the age of 17, Mingyur Rinpoche was appointed retreat master of Sherab Ling monastery. He has taught in the West and is known for his ability to convey the Buddhist teachings in a clear and skillful manner.

A co-founder of Insight Meditation Society, Sharon has practiced Buddhist meditation since 1971 and has been teaching worldwide since 1974. She is a guiding teacher of IMS and author of Faith: Trusting Your Own Deepest Experience and Lovingkindness: The Revolutionary Art of Happiness and A Heart As Wide As The World: Living with Mindfulness, Wisdom, and Compassion .

Jill Satterfield has been a practitioner of yoga and Tibetan Buddhist meditation for over 20 years. In her unique teaching method she integrates Buddhist practice in the Dzogchen (Great Perfection) and Vipassana (Insight) traditions with classical Hatha Yoga to unlock the deeper healing potential of body and mind.

Scholar, author, and former Tibetan Buddhist monk, Bob Thurman has lectured all over the world. The first Westerner to be ordained as a Tibetan Buddhist monk at the age of 24 and a student of the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala, Bob is currently Professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies at Columbia University. He is a prolific translator and writer of both scholarly and popular works, including The Tibetan Book of the Dead, Essential Tibetan Buddhism, and Inner Revolution: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Real Happiness .