Bringing Meditation to Life
After years of meditation instruction and teaching, I began to recognize the need for a practical application of the Shambhala teachings in our society. I saw the potential for meditation training to help people reclaim their lives. I felt inspired to help bring what Sakyong Mipham teaches as stability, clarity and strength to sectors normally distinct from meditation training.
It is my passion, and life’s mission, to bring the precious teachings of the Shambhala Lineage to people in every walk of life. To that end, I offer a variety of services . . .
Meditation Instruction
After years of meditation training that included months of solitary retreat, years of group retreat and a number of advanced meditation and meditation teacher trainings I began to instruct students outside of the Shambhala Community in schools, jails, night clubs, in people’s homes and on the street. I now meditate on-line with people for a nominal donation and offer guided meditations on this website and for Susan Piver’s Open Heart Project.
A consistent meditation practice can help us develop an authentic life path that stems from a mindful integration of body, spirit and mind. This mindfulness based awareness speaks to our whole being. It allows us to uncover an unconditioned confidence not reliant on conditioned, comparative, compulsive criteria.
Habitual patterning, toxic philosophies and covenants of doubt rob us of present experience and steal our authority in life.
The stability, clarity and strength of meditation practice enables us to reclaim practical agency in our life by settling the mind, allowing an authentic direction to dawn and helping to develop the strength to continue.
Contact me for formal instruction, or to simply meditate over the phone or computer.
Teaching
I am a senior teacher in the Shambhala tradition with years of experience teaching hundreds of classes at their various centers for 25 years. In the last 12 years, I have taught classes for investment firms, correctional facilities, schools and non profit organizations in New York, DC, Baltimore, Boulder and Canada. I’ve developed applicable and accessible curricula for classes in meditation centers and colleges. I am a regular speaker at the Weekly Dharma Gathering at the Shambhala Meditation Center of New York. And teach Performance workshops and am an acting and public speaking coach. I am currently available for lectures, workshops and course, and class development.
For a 8 years I designed and taught courses in meditation and Buddhist studies for Chapman University at the Shambhala Mountain Center called “Ancient Wisdom / Modern Madness”.
Coaching
After years of meditation instruction and teaching, I began to recognize the need for a practical application of the Shambhala teachings in our society. I saw the potential for meditation training to help people reclaim their lives. I felt inspired to help bring what Sakyong Mipham teaches as stability, clarity and strength to sectors normally distinct from meditation training.
So, five years ago I created L I F E W O R K S E R V I C E S, a meditation based coaching service that combines mindfulness practice and Shambhala leadership principles as a means of helping people find an “authentic direction” in life. An authentic direction is a life path based on an organic development of awareness through meditation practice.
I offer a personalized and intuitive Meditation Based Life Coaching, Coaching on Public Speaking, Actor Training, Creativity Training, Mindbody Balance Meditation Coaching and Couple’s Communication Counseling.
L I F E W O R K S E R V I C E S is a meditation based coaching service, that combines mindfulness practice and Shambhala leadership principles in order to help people find an authentic direction in life.
Public and Motivational Speaking
I am a confident and engaging speaker and natural motivator who is well versed in meditation, coaching, personal motivation, confidence building and creativity training. I am a regular speaker at Weekly Dharma Gathering at the Shambhala Meditation Center, which gathers over 100 people weekly.
I have given talks at the Ethical Society of New York, Meadow Lakes Retirement Community, The Rubin Museum, Go Yoga in Brooklyn, and other Dharma and meditation centers.
Pastoral Services
As a senior teacher in the Shambhala Buddhist tradition I have provided Pastoral and Chaplaincy services in a number of manners. I have performed weddings, counseled couples prior to weddings, provided Hospice and End of Life Care and arranged and presided over Funeral and memorial Services.
Workshops
As a workshop presenter, I have done numerous classes and workshops on mediation, including “Working With Emotions” ; “Opening The Present” ; “Navigating the Sea Changes of Life” ; and the very popular “Kitchen Wisdom”, which drew on my experiences as a Dharma Chef in a half dozen centers across North America, as well as the personal Chef to Sakyong Mipham, and his family. I had a series of workshops called “Meditation and …” that paired mindfulness practice with psychology, Improvisation, Yoga, Somatic Experience, Movement, Finances and Coaching.
As well, I have led classic buddhist programs on the “4 Foundations of Mindfulness”, “The 6 Paramitas”, “The Way of the Bodhisttava” and “The Life of the Buddha” at the Interdependence Project, The Shambhala Center of New York, Shambhala Mountain Center, the Baltimore Shambhala Center, Karma Choling, Go Yoga in Brooklyn, The Three Jewels and Warrior Bridge Akidojo in NYC, as well as many others.
I have offered the programs “Creativity Training for Business” and “Human Communication and the Art of Cooperative Listening” in various professional capacities.
Meditation and Improvisation Creativity Training
I’ve taught meditation and improvisation classes in a variety of settings including at the Baltimore Women’s Correctional Facility, for the John’s Hopkin’s Women’s Rugby team, Chapman University, New York and Baltimore Shambhala Centers, Shambhala Mountain center and a variety of businesses and schools, employing vocal techniques of Pauline Oliveros, the theater games of Viola Spolin and Paul Sills, the improvisation works of Keith Johnstone, the genius of Del Close and the Mudra Theater of Chogyam Trungpa, Rinpoche.
My favorite workshop combines ensemble work with the present moment aesthetic of meditation training and the mindful spontaneity of improvisation for a fully sensory awake experience.
Authentic Gesture Actor Training
I have years of experience as an actor, director and coach. It is my great love to work with actors and performers to enhance their connection to the craft, the work and to themselves.
As a director I was taught to work from the inside, creating an authentic gesture and a natural response to stage stimulus. . Aside from an energetic, encouraging coaching style, I am well trained in theater games and techniques.
My view is to help the actor break from habitual patterns of ordinary reaction toward a true authentic gesture of creativity.
This training, designed for actors, musicians, poets or performers, is applicable to anyone wanting to share with their public and develop confidence in their presentational self.
Couples Communication Counseling
The magic of communication happens when we speak from the heart without qualification or reserve and listen without judgment, editorial or prejudice.
Saying how we feel without manipulation stems from the belief that we are essentially worthy and well deserving of our life. We believe in ourselves enough to trust ourselves and share our heart. Communication is about learning to break the patterns of faulty hearing and ineffective speech in order to listen and change.
In this way, we avoid the traps of habitual reactions that, in effect, force the other into the worst versions of themselves. When we believe in our basic goodness and self-worth, we can activate our partner’s great human potential. Then we are relating to the best in them.
My exercises allow couples the opportunity to talk in ways that break patterns and enhance real-time authentic communication.
The Living Voice: Developing Vocal Presence
“Living Voice” encourages an open and powerful communication between the speaker, their voice and their world.
Using mindfulness practices, theater training, movement and vocal techniques we develop an organic approach to grounding, opening and projecting the life of the voice.
I have helped professors, professionals, performers, authors and students learn to open their bodies to their spirit in story, song and lecture.
In our public speaking track we learn to organize a talk, engage the audience and present the appropriate material.
Mindbody Balance
Developing mindfulness we become aware of four basic components of our life: Body, Mind, Spirit and Life. When we learn to hear and understand these often contrasting voices, we can work to balance them into a self-supportive, fully embodied whole.
Using techniques of mindfulness training, somatic awareness, yoga, martial arts and meditation practice, I have developed a practical and useful way of training toward balance and harmony in mind and body, which allows for an embodied presence in life.
Mindbody Balance is a comprehensive meditation training that relates to our inner spirit as well as our everyday life.