TEACHERS

Tara-Lloyd Burton is a professor emeritus of Law and Public Policy at the University of Colorado’s School of Public Affairs. They also served as the founding and resident guiding teacher of the Insight Meditation Community of Denver from 1998 until 2022; they now serve as a guiding teacher emeritus for that sangha. Tara-Lloyd first undertook Insight Meditation practice with teachers/friends Joseph Goldstein, Sharon Salzberg, and Jack Kornfield in 1975. In 1985 they incorporated the organization that founded the Spirit Rock Meditation Center in northern California; and in 2000 completed seminary training in the charter class of its Community Dharma Leader training program. In 1993 they incorporated the Insight Meditation Community of Colorado, and continue to serve as president of its Board. They have periodically assisted or co-taught Jhana retreats with friend and colleague Leigh Brasington since 2005. Tara-Lloyd publicly came forth as gender-fluid in 2017. They continue to teach the Dharma and to write on subjects related to the Dharma and public policy.

David Chernikoff began the study and practice of meditation in 1971 and started teaching insight meditation in 1988. He trained as a yoga teacher at the Integral Yoga Institute and completed the Community Dharma Leader program at Spirit Rock Meditation Center. His teaching has been influenced by senior teachers from the Insight Meditation Society and Spirit Rock, Tibetan teachers he studied with during a 3-year stay in Nepal, and spiritual guides from other contemplative traditions, most notably Ram Dass, Father Thomas Keating, and Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi. Currently David has a private practice as a spiritual counselor and life coach in Boulder and teaches workshops and retreats throughout the U.S. He is the author of Life, Part Two: Seven Keys to Awakening With Purpose and Joy as You Age. 

David's Website
David's Dharma Talks

Don Morreale began his practice in the Zen tradition in 1968 at the Zen Studies Society in New York City. In 1985 he went to Thailand for six months to learn vipassana meditation, and continued his training in this country at the Insight Meditation Society under the guidance of Carol Wilson and Joseph Goldstein. He is a graduate of the Community Dharma Leader training program (CDL3) at Spirit Rock Meditation Center, and the author of The Complete Guide to Buddhist America (Shambhala 1998). He is a senior teacher at Colorado Insight Meditation Community / Denver.
Terry Ray is a licensed psychotherapist who has been practicing Vipassana or Insight meditation since 1974 and teaching for over 40 years. She completed the first Community Dharma Leader’s program at Spirit Rock and leads retreats and teaches through Naropa University and the Insight Meditation Community in Boulder. Terry also studied Sensory Awareness with Charlotte Selver and is certified to lead this somatic based mindfulness practice. She is the author of Embodied Presence, A Spiritual Memoir. Her method is gentle yet powerful and focuses on waking up to one’s innate wisdom and love through simple mindfulness practice.
Terry's Website
Johann Robbins is a contemporary teacher of Insight Meditation and Dharma. He offers classes and retreats in Boulder, and also teaches silent meditation retreats at Rocky Mountain Ecodharma Retreat Center, which he founded in 2017. He has been meditating since 1974 with a focus on Insight since 1997, and started teaching in 2008. Johann is a graduate of the Community Dharma Leader training program at Spirit Rock. His primary teachers include Shinzen Young, Eric Kolvig, and Joseph Goldstein. His style is light and open, yet focused and clear.
Johann's Website
Rocky Mountain Ecodharma Retreat Center
Peter Williams is a psychotherapist and dharma leader. He has practiced meditation for many years in the Theravada and Tibetan Buddhist traditions and has taught meditation since 2003. Peter is trained as a Community Dharma Leader through Spirit Rock Meditation Center. In an earlier life, Peter was a wildlife biologist and environmental educator for many years. Peter leads the Thursday insight meditation group in Boulder and teaches retreats throughout the Rocky Mountains.
Peter's Website
Affiliated Teachers
Barry Gillespie was introduced to formal meditation practice in 1978, through the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Ashram. After taking a combined Ashtanga Yoga and Vipassana retreat in 1999 he began exploring Theravaden Buddhist practice, sitting many long retreats at the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, MA and Spirit Rock in Woodacre, CA. His principal teacher is Guy Armstrong. He regularly teaches in Boulder and at the Rocky Mountain Ecodharma Retreat Center. His teaching schedule, many articles he has written and talks he has given on the dhamma can be found on his website.
David Loy began Zen practice in Hawaii in 1971 with Yamada Koun and Robert Aitken, and completed koan study with Koun-roshi in Japan, where he lived for almost twenty years. He was authorized to teach by the Sanbo Kyodan (a Japanese Zen tradition) in 1988 and leads retreats and workshops nationally and internationally. David’s books and articles have been translated into many languages. Many of his writings, podcasts and videos are available on his website, along with his teaching schedule.
Aruna Dhammadhira trained as a Buddhist monastic in the Theravada tradition for eighteen years, mainly in the lineage of Ajahn Chah. After some travel abroad, Aruna returned to the U.S. where she eventually found her way to Colorado. Living simply and building community were the impetus behind her forming Web of Connection, a non-profit based in Colorado Springs. She now shares her teachings with various groups along the front range and beyond. For more about Aruna and how to support her work, see natural-transformations.com
Kritee (dharma name Kanko) is a Climate Scientist-Educator, Rinzai Zen priest, Grief ritual leader, Founding spiritual teacher of Boundless in Motion and co-founder of Rocky Mountain Ecodharma Retreat Center. She has served as a faculty for many organizations for courses at the intersection of climate crisis, racial justice, trauma healing and spirituality. She finds herself committed to be in relationship with young adults, permaculture communities, LGBTQ, Indigenous, Black and other people of color. Her teaching schedule, interviews, podcasts and articles are available at this web site.