Ongoing Presenters at the BCIC
Yogacharya Srinidhi Baba
Yogacharya Srinidhi Baba began Kriya Yoga practice in 1988, and met his Guru,
Paramahamsa Hariharananda five years later in New York. He describes
the relationship with Hariharananda as “extremely precious, enlightening
and blissful, filled with immense love and compassion.” He continued
his studies in yoga and meditation at Homestead Ashram in South Florida,
and went on from there to receive a PhD in Computer Science from Southern
Methodist University, Dallas, Texas. Srinidhi and his wife Prathima founded
the Denver Kriya Yoga Center in 1995 and have organized several Mountain
Region Kriya Yoga retreats and fundraisers for Hariharananda Balashram,
a residential school for disadvantaged children.
Email: babaji108@msn.com
Website: http://www.denverkriya.com/
Dr. Lloyd Burton
Dr. Lloyd Burton has practiced meditation in the Theravada Buddhist tradition
since 1975 under the guidance of several Asian and Western teachers.
He’s been a teacher of Vipassana Meditation since 1997 and is the founder
of Colorado Insight Meditation Community-Denver. Dr. Burton is professor
of law and public policy in the Graduate School of Public Affairs at
the University of Colorado, and is now serving his third term on the
Denver Board of Environmental Health. He is the author of Worship and
Wilderness: Culture, Religion, and Law in Public Lands Management. (University
of Wisconsin 2002.)
Email: lloydburton@cudenver.edu
Website: http://www.insightcolorado.org/
Rev. Dr. Toni Cook
Reverend Toni Cook is the principal minister at Denver’s St. Paul United Methodist
Church, “an oasis of spiritual seekers and sacred activists.” In 1996,
she co-founded the Buddhist Christian Interfaith Community with Sister
Mary Luke Tobin and Professor Jose Cabezon. Since its inception, a host
of prominent teachers from the Buddhist, Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Sufi,
Hindu, and Native American traditions have shared their wisdom and inspiration
through dialogue and contemplative practice. As a spiritual teacher,
Toni's approach is to “invoke -- and evoke -- the sacred in all times
and all places and all faces.” At Meditate08, she will focus on “The
First Beatitude: Finding One's Home in the Breath.”
Email: stpauldenver@yahoo.com
Website: http://www.stpauldenver.com/
John Congdon
John Congdon is a teacher of Centering Prayer, and a director of Contemplative
Outreach of Colorado. He describes himself as an inter-spiritual seeker.
“Spiritual practices,” he says, “are what lead us into the Mysterium
Tremendum. The longer I’m on the path, the less I know!” A retired lawyer,
he and his fellow teachers from the Center for Contemplative Living initiated
a Centering Prayer ministry at Englewood Federal Correctional Institution
near Denver, Colorado. He has made two trips to Europe to offer training
programs on contemplative spirituality and is a frequent guest at Denver
area churches, particularly those in the Protestant traditions.
Email: jcongdon@att.net
Website: http://www.centeringprayer.com/
Venerable Claude d'Estree
The Venerable Claude d’Estrée is Visiting Professor of Law at the Graduate School
of International Studies, University of Denver, and currently serves
as the University’s Buddhist Chaplain. He is a graduate of Harvard Divinity
School, where he focused on comparative spiritual disciplines. A spiritual
director and dharma teacher for over 25 years, he was named the first
Buddhist Chaplain at Harvard by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. While raised
in the Russian Orthodox Church and educated by the Jesuits, he is a lineage
holder in both the Gelugpa tradition of Tibetan Buddhism and the Son
(Zen) tradition of Korean Buddhism.
Email: cdestree@du.edu
Rabbi Brian Field
Rabbi Brian Field was born and raised in Vancouver, British Columbia. After ordination
at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in 1994, he served a number
of congregations and worked as a hospital chaplain in New Jersey and
Wisconsin. He moved to Denver in 2004 to become the rabbi of Judaism
Your Way, a Denver-based outreach organization dedicated to cultivating
the uniqueness of each person's and family's Jewishness. “Wherever you
are on your Jewish journey,” reads the group’s motto, “we'll meet you
there.” Rabbi Field serves on the steering committees of two interfaith
organizations: We Believe Colorado, and the Abrahamic Initiative Program
at St. John’s Cathedral in Denver.
Email: rabbibrian@judaismyourway.org
Website: http://www.judaismyourway.org/
Rabbi Tirzah Firestone
Rabbi Firestone is the spiritual leader of Nevei Kodesh Jewish Renewal Community
of Boulder, as well as a renowned spiritual teacher, author and Jungian
therapist. Widely known for her groundbreaking work on the re-integration
of the feminine wisdom tradition within Judaism, Rabbi Firestone lectures
and teaches throughout the United States on spirituality, meditation,
and the integration of ancient mystical wisdom into contemporary life.
She is the author of With Roots In Heaven: One Woman’s Passionate Journey
into the Heart of Her Faith (Plume:1998), and The Receiving: Reclaiming
Jewish Women’s Wisdom (Harper San Francisco, 2003)
Email: contact@tirzahfirestone.com
Website: http://www.tirzahfirestone.com/
Danan Henry, Roshi
Danan Henry began his formal spiritual training in 1965 at the Gurdjieff Foundation
in New York City. In 1975, he became a disciple of Philip Kapleau, Roshi,
by whom he was ordained a Buddhist priest in 1986 and sanctioned to teach
in 1989. Since 1990, he has traveled regularly to Honolulu, Hawaii to
continue his formal Zen training under Robert Aitken, Roshi. Danan Henry
is the spiritual director of the Zen Center of Denver, an affiliate of
the Diamond Sangha, a worldwide network of Zen Centers in the Harada-Yasutani
lineage under the direction of Robert Aitken Roshi.
Email: office@zencenterofdenver.org
Website: http://www.zencenterofdenver.org/
Rabbi Howard Hoffman
In addition to his private counseling practice, Rabbi Henoch Dov (Howard) Hoffman
leads study
groups and Spiritual-Journey expeditions in Denver, Boulder, Utah,
Australia, and Israel.
Email: Sh6r6v4t9@aol.com
Website: http://rabbihenochdov.com/
Imam Ibrahim Kazerooni
Imam Ibrahim Kazerooni was born in 1958 in the holy city of Al-Najaf, Southern
Iraq to a family of prominent Shiite clerics. At the age of 15,
he was arrested and tortured by Saddam Hussein’s secret police.
He fled to Iran
where he was able to complete his theological studies. He has taught
Comparative Mysticism, Introduction to Islamic Law and Theology,
Qur’anic Exegeses, Islamic History, and the History of Hadith.
Kazerooni was elected
Director of the Abrahamic Initiative Program at St. John’s Cathedral
and is a member of the Board of Religious Advisers to the Denver
Chief of Police.
Email: mkazerooni@hotmail.com
Sister Rose Annette Liddell
Sister Liddell is a Catholic nun in the Loretto order, a student of Thomas Merton,
and a spiritual seeker. She is the director of the Thomas Merton Center
for Creative Exchange and a teacher of Christian meditation who adapts
various spiritual practices to meet the needs of the individual. Her
theme for Meditate 08 will be a "Lectio Divina Meditation on the Prayer of St.Francis." Address: Thomas Merton Center for Creative Exchange 2832 S. Vrain Street, Denver
CO 80236
Dr. Bob Mischke
Dr. Mischke is a longtime teacher of Christian Centering Prayer. He works with
Father Thomas Keating, and is Co-Director of the Center for Spiritual
Transformation. Retired early from the medical profession, he helped
establish a mountain retreat center near Echo Lake in the Colorado
Rockies. “I’m working,” he says, “to discover ways to open the heart,
consciously
evolve, integrate spiritual principles into daily life, and support
others on their journey.” He’s inspired by complimentary teachings from
both
the Eastern and Western traditions, and believes that transformation
occurs through an authentic daily practice of mindfulness and prayer.
Website: http://www.centerforspiritual.com/
Don Morreale
Don Morreale has studied in Zen, Tibetan, and Theravadan traditions and has authored
"The Complete Guide to Buddhist America".
Opalanga Pugh
Opalanga Pugh is resident “griot,” storyteller and facilitator in the International
Career Advancement Program (ICAP) at University of Denver Graduate School
of International Studies. She’s a master storyteller, “urban griot,”
and spiritual teacher. A Denver native, she has shared her sacred storytelling
throughout the United States, Canada, West Africa, and the Caribbean.
Ms. Pugh uses story as a tool for personal/spiritual transformation.
In her own spiritual practice she merges West African spirituality, Christianity,
and Buddhist meditation. Through storytelling, music, chanting, and silent
contemplation, she leads her listeners into profound states of spiritual
unfolding.
Email: jalimuso@opalangastoryteller.com
Website: http://www.opalangastoryteller.com/
Anyen Rinpoche
Westerners love Anyen Rinpoche for his humor, directness, and ability to bring
the traditional teachings of Tibetan Buddhism to life in a way that is
pertinent, practical and easy to understand. Rinpoche grew up in a small
village in the high mountains of Amdo, Tibet. Trained as a scholar, he
became the heart student of the great realized master Tsara Dharmakirit
Rinpoche, holder of an uncut, pristine lineage that extends directly
from Patrul Rinpoche. Anyen Rinpoche teaches meditation and shedra -
intensive Buddhist study.
Email: info@anyenrinpoche.com
Website: http://www.anyenrinpoche.com/
Roland Stanich
Rollie Stanich grew up in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. He was awarded the University
of Calgary's highest scholarship for four consecutive years, and
graduated with distinction from the Faculty of Management in 1990.
He taught at the University's Faculty of Continuing Education for
several years, then worked for ten years in software development
in Montreal. Rollie assisted with the early development of the
Integral Naked website and joined Integral Institute as the site's
Managing Editor in 2004. A year later, he was appointed to his
present position as Chief Facilitator of Integral Spiritual Center.
He co-organized numerous ISC seminars on Integral Buddhism and
Integral Christianity and the ISC Teachers' Gatherings of 2005,
2006, and 2007. Rollie presented on the work of James Fowler and
Ken Wilber at the third ISC Teachers' Gathering, and is a frequent
teacher at Boulder Integral, Denver's Buddhist/Christian Interfaith
Group, and at Integral Salons and seminars across the U.S. and
Canada.
Christine Tulis, Celtic Harpist
Inspired by the beauty of the Celtic harp, Christine Tulis composes and performs
original music intended to deepen the awareness of our Divine Essence.
All
of her vocal pieces feature spiritually uplifting lyrics originating
from
her own experiences or the poetry of Rumi, 13th century mystic
saint.
A leader in her field pioneering powerful combinations of healing arts, music, and sacred performance, she delights in bringing her unique blend of offerings all over the world.
Email: christine@christinetulis.com
Website:http://www.christinetulis.com/
David Atekpatzin Young
David Atekpatzin Young is an Apache curandero (traditional healer) and spiritual
leader of the Iglesia de Aztlan, a Native People’s Community Church.
He is the founder and organizer of the annual International Wenakuo Traditional
Spiritual Retreat, and the National Two Spirit Society. He also founded
Kalmeka Aztlan, a school specializing in indigenous traditional medicine.
Mr. Young has taught courses at Naropa University, and has been a guest
lecturer at the University of Colorado, Denver Metropolitan State College,
Denver University, the University of Washington and at conferences throughout
North America and Spain.
Email: atekpatzin@gmail.com