David Lewis has been following the dharma path for 45 years and has a degree in comparative religious studies. He teaches Insight Meditation and enjoys sharing the dharma at several sanghas around the Bay Area. He is a proud longtime member of GBF.
Alistair Shanks is the Volunteer Program Manager at Zen Caregiving Project where he has worked since 2004, first as a hospice volunteer and training facilitator, and in his current position since 2016.
Ryuko Laura Burges, a lay entrusted dharma teacher in the Soto Zen
tradition, lectures and leads retreats at practice centers in Northern California.
Group discussions are a perennial favorite at GBF, allowing us to get to know each other in a way that speaker-led dharma talks do not always offer.
Dale Borglum founded and directed the Hanuman Foundation Dying Center in
Santa Fe, New Mexico, the first residential facility in the United States to support
conscious dying. Working with Ram Dass and Stephen Levine, Dale helped found the
conscious dying movement in the West. He has been the Executive Director of the
Living/Dying Project in Santa Fe and since 1986 in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Prasadachitta was ordained into the Triratna Buddhist Order in 2011 and he became the Chair of the San Francisco Buddhist Center in April 2022.
Jetsun Zerdan Kelsang Phunrab is an American Kadampa Buddhist monk. Zerdan has been ordained for 17 years, and a practicing Buddhist for more than 22 years. He was ordained in Ulverston, England by a Gelugpa monk, Geshe Kelsang Gyatso Rinpoche. He began his ordained life by helping to create a Buddhist temple by teaching meditation and Buddhadharma in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. Zerdan now lives a humble life in Eugene, Oregon, keeping his vows, maintaining a vegan and minimalist lifestyle, and sharing a warm, gentle heart and joyful attitude.
Group discussions are a perennial favorite at GBF, allowing us to get to know each other in a way that speaker-led dharma talks do not always offer.
Group discussions are a perennial favorite at GBF, allowing us to get to know each other in a way that speaker-led dharma talks do not always offer.
John Martin teaches Vipassana (Insight), Metta (Loving Kindness) and LGBTQIA+
meditation retreats. He leads an ongoing weekly Monday evening meditation group
in San Francisco.
Kevin Griffin is a Buddhist teacher and author known for his innovative work connecting
dharma and recovery, especially through his 2004 book "One Breath at a Time: Buddhism
and the Twelve Steps".
Rev. Daigan Gaither (he/him) began Buddhist practice in 1995 in the Vipassana
(Insight) tradition, and then began to study Zen in 2003. He received Lay Ordination
in 2006 where he was given the name Daigan or “Great Vow,” and received Priest
Ordination in July 2011.