Dave and Jessica have been practicing for almost 30 years and share very similar Dharma roots. 

Jess Morey is a meditation teacher and contemplative coach. https://jessicamorey.org/

She began practicing meditation at age 14 on teen retreats offered by the Insight Meditation Society (IMS), and has maintained a consistent commitment to meditation since. Diving head first into meditation at such a key developmental stage makes the revelatory perspective of mindfulness & compassion her natural home turf, and gives her an easy, conversational teaching style anyone can relate to.

She is also a lead teacher, cofounder and former executive director of Inward Bound Mindfulness Education which runs in-depth mindfulness programming for youth, and the parents and professionals who support them across the US, and internationally.

Before dedicating her professional life to teaching mindfulness, Jess studied engineering and worked in clean energy finance. She has no doubt in the technical brilliance of humanity to solve the challenges facing us – including climate change and systemic injustice. Where she believes we need some help is in our inner & interpersonal intelligence.

Two questions are explored in dialog between Dave Smith and Stephen Batchelor 

1. What is a secular approach to the dharma?

2. How can this approach alter, enhance, or challenge our practice in a meaningful way?

These monthly events will explore a range of topics that are both rooted in early Buddhist thought and are relevant to the challenges and issues that we face in our current lived experience.

The format will not follow a traditional Dharma talk, but will take place in a dialogue format that is intended to raise more questions than provide answers. As the practice of the Dharma continues to make inroads into our culture through various channels, these dialogues have been created to address ideas, topics, and tensions that are not generally addressed in the greater arena of mindfulness, Dharma, and Buddhism.

Any donations offered for this program are greatly appreciated. You can support us through making a tax free donation via PAYPAL. https://seculardharmafoundation.com/donate/

The mission of the Secular Dharma Foundation (501c) is to foster the advancement of emotional and psychological well-being through the education and integration of mindfulness, psychology, nature-based programming, and various therapeutic modalities. We provide educational tools and resources, mindfulness and emotional skills training through online programs, podcasts, trainings, and retreats.

Maureen Fallon-Cyr, LCSW is a clinical social worker, meditation teacher, and certified Hakomi therapist. She has worked as a mindfulness-based psychotherapist with children and adults for over 30 years, specializing in trauma, somatic release work, and depth psychology. A lover of Dharma, she has sat multiple long retreats and served on the teaching council of the Durango Dharma Center for eight years, teaching meditation, mindfulness 12-Step work, mindful parenting, and householder practices. Weaving together her practices of mindfulness and psychology, she developed Essence-OrientedTM Release Work, outlined in her new book, Reimagining Success: Manifesting Happiness and Fulfillment. With her husband Mark, who is a psychiatrist, they have developed True Success For All, a program that empowers people to more fully realize their potential and what it means to live a truly successful life. 

Website:  True Success For All      https://www.truesuccessforall.com/
Upcoming Training in Essence-Oriented Therapy True Success Boston Training

Mike Slott is a lifelong US political and labor movement activist. A Buddhist practitioner since 2010, he is the editor of the Secular Buddhist Network website, responsible for their newsletter, Rethinking the Dharma/Reimagining Community.

Find out more: https://secularbuddhistnetwork.org/

Get the book: https://tuwhiri.org/products/mindful-solidarity

Rabbi Dr. Jay Michaelson works at the intersection of politics, law, and contemplative practice.  A journalist, meditation teacher, and professor, Jay is the author of ten books and over three hundred articles.

Jay is a contributing writer to New York Magazine, Rolling Stone, The Daily Beast, and other publications, where he most frequently writes about the Supreme Court, religion, LGBTQ issues, and climate change. He has appeared on NPR, CNN, and MSNBC, and in 2013, he wrote the landmark report Redefining Religious Liberty: The Covert Campaign against Civil Rights. Jay has twice won the New York Society of Professional Journalists ‘Deadline Club’ award for opinion writing.

Jay is also a teacher, podcast host, and editor at the Ten Percent Happier meditation startup, which makes serious contemplative practice available to a contemporary audience.  He has written several books about meditation and spirituality, including The Gate of Tears: Sadness and the Spiritual Path  and Evolving Dharma: Meditation, Buddhism, and the Next Generation of Enlightenment. He is also  a nondenominational rabbi and frequently writes and teaches about Jewish theology and mysticism. Books on that subject include Everything is God: The Radical Path of Nondual Judaism and God in Your Body: Kabbalah, Mindfulness, and Embodied Spiritual Practice. Jay has been a scholar in residence at numerous universities, synagogues, and other institutions.  Samples of this work can be found on this site’s multimedia page and on Jay’s YouTube channel.  Testimonials can be found here.

Finally, Jay is an affiliated assistant professor at Chicago Theological Seminary and a visiting fellow at the Center for LGBTQ & Gender Studies in Religion, where he teaches and writes about religion and sexuality, law and religion, and Jewish theology and mysticism. He holds a Ph.D from Hebrew University and a J.D. from Yale Law School. He previously held teaching positions at Boston University Law School and City College of New York. Dr. Michaelson’s academic CV and publication list is here.

From 2003 to 2013, Jay was a professional LGBT activist; he founded two LGBT organizations and spoke at over 100 religious institutions in support of his bestselling book God vs. Gay? The Religious Case for Equality. In 1998-99, Jay clerked for Judge Merrick Garland of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

Amma Thanasanti first encountered the Dharma in 1979. As a former Buddhist nun of 26 years, she combines the precision and rigor of Ajahn Chah Forest Tradition, compassion, pure awareness practices and a passion for wholeness. Amma is in touch with the natural world and uses nature in her teaching. Amma has been teaching intensive meditation retreats in North America, Europe, Australia and Asia since 1995.

Amma’s teaching style emphasizes deep listening, authenticity, inquiry, fierce compassion, warmth, humor and an unwavering commitment to presence. She feels a special calling to do her own work so that students from diverse communities feel supported and belonging; where the community members are able to connect across differences of culture, race, gender, sexuality and ability. She invites an openness to pause and inquire into the truth of the present moment, integrating adaptive skillful means and rooted traditional approaches.

https://awakeningtruth.org/

https://awakeningtruth.org/integrated-meditation/

Oren has practiced meditation in the early Buddhist tradition since 1997, beginning his studies in Bodh Gaya, India with Anagarika Munindra and Godwin Samararatne. He is a long-time student of Joseph Goldstein, Michele McDonald, and Ajahn Sucitto, a member of the Spirit Rock Teacher’s Council, a husband, and father.

Oren is the author of several books, including the best-seller Say What You Mean: A Mindful Approach to Nonviolent Communication, a practical guidebook for having more effective, satisfying conversations. His latest book, Your Heart Was Made For This: Contemplative Practices to Meet a World in Crisis with Courage, Integrity and Love, explores the relevance of contemplative practice for our current moment in history. He is also co-author of two books on teaching mindfulness to adolescents: The Mindful Schools Curriculum for Adolescents and Teaching Mindfulness to Empower Teens.

Oren first became interested in contemplative practice in high school, when he picked up a little book called The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff. He went on to complete a degree in Comparative Religion from Columbia University, and later spent two and a half years of living as an Anagarika (renunciate) at branch monasteries in the Ajahn Chah Thai Forest lineage. Today, his teaching combines classical Buddhist training with the accessible language of secular mindfulness.

https://www.orenjaysofer.com/about

Eve Ekman, Ph.D., MSW, is a GGSC Senior Fellow. An experienced speaker, researcher, and group facilitator, she brings a unique background ideally suited to training individuals and organizations in the science of happiness, resilience, compassion, mindfulness, and emotional awareness. Eve creates dynamic trainings adapted specifically for the needs of her participants, drawing upon her deep scientific knowledge, direct clinical work, and experiences in a range of institutional and organizational settings, particularly within the health care field. She worked for years as a social worker in health care, criminal justice, and social welfare systems, which inspired her to earn her master’s and Ph.D. at UC Berkeley and complete her postdoctoral training at UCSF Osher Center for Integrative Medicine. Her research has focused on helping professional care providers prevent burnout by giving them easier access to practices of attention, insight, and resilience. Building on her research, she developed trainings to address burnout in national and international organizations and has delivered keynotes and workshops for a wide range of companies, including Airbnb, Salesforce, and Kaiser Permanente. Eve is a second-generation emotion researcher who has had meaningful collaborations with her father, renowned emotion researcher Dr. Paul Ekman, including on The Atlas of Emotions, an online visual tool commissioned by the Dalai Lama to teach emotional awareness, and Cultivating Emotional Balance, an intensive, evidence-based training for compassion and mindfulness. Eve’s writing on empathy, burnout, and compassion has appeared in peer-reviewed journals, magazines, and books, including Oxford handbooks of positive psychology and compassion science. She is a regular practitioner of meditation, yoga, and cold water surfing, and brings her enthusiasm for living a rich emotional life into her teaching.

https://eveekman.com/

Andrew Chapman is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and the co-director and guiding teacher at Wild Heart Meditation Center, a non-profit Buddhist community center located in Nashville, TN.  He has a psychotherapy practice and also offers mentorship, group facilitation, education, and training for individuals, groups and organizations interested in mindfulness meditation.

Andrew is licensed by the State of Tennessee to practice psychotherapy (LCSW 7188). He has also been authorized to facilitate mindfulness and empowered as a Buddhist Teacher through Spirit Rock Meditation Center after completing the Community Dharma Leader Training Program in the Spring of 2017. Andrew has spent over 6 months of his life on intensive silent meditation retreat, with a steadfast commitment to his personal meditation practice. He has been a guest lecturer at Vanderbilt University, Belmont University, Nashville Psychotherapy Institute, University of Tennessee, and Meharry Medical College, speaking to students, faculty, as well as mental health professionals. In addition to his psychotherapy practice, Andrew offers mindfulness-based therapeutic groups and workshops at several mental health and addictions treatment centers in the greater Nashville area.

Bill Duane is the principal at Bill Duane and Associates, a consulting firm focused on innovation. He helps organizations and individuals execute well in ambiguity and rapid change through innovation mindset, managing complexity and resilience. He works with leading companies including tech, pharma and media.

He teaches innovation and AI workshops at Stanford’s Hasso Plattner Institute of Design and is the Director of Strategy and Implementation at the Center for the Study of Apparent Selves, working on applied AI ethics, funded by a two-year Templeton Foundation grant. He holds a Research Fellowship at Kathmandu University as part of this effort.

He was an engineering executive at Google for nine years, leading the production engineering teams for websearch infrastructure and then Google Workspace (gmail, docs, calendar, etc.) responsible for scaling these services worldwide during hypergrowth. After becoming curious about burnout, performance and culture, he started a second career at Google, establishing the role of Superintendent of Wellbeing and creating successful programs to explore the intersection of performance and human flourishing for the following five years.

He is on the advisory board of Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute, a Fellowship Advisor to the Just Economy Institute and advisor to several for-profit and nonprofit startups.

https://apparentselves.org/