Full Calendar of Events
Apr
15

Wednesday Night Sangha

Each meeting includes a 30-minute guided meditation, a community check-in, and a dharma talk. This week will be guided by Eileen Spillane.

We will meet via zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/452542682?pwd=bUNmZDMreU5UdGtjNEhBRnU2cDI3dz09

About Eileen Spillane (she/her) (RN, BSN, MA)

I grew up in a family that normalized death and had a lot of it (big Irish family, lots of people, so lots of weddings and funerals). In college, I observed autopsies at the morgue in New York City during a death and dying course. I started my career at a cancer hospital caring for patients with brain tumors at the age of 20. My Nursing career continued into critical care where I met patients and families that often avoided discussions about end of life wishes. Patients and family members were often left with confusion and guilt when decisions needed to be made.

I’ve learned a lot from the many opportunities of being with people when they were dying. 

I slowly became comfortable with the uncomfortable. I began to see this time as a sacred privilege and the benefits flowed over into my personal life. I saw my own mortality reflected in my patients and it shifted how I valued my experiences outside of work. 

Eventually, death wasn't so scary and it became a companion that walked beside me encouraging me to say yes to opportunities that fell outside my comfort zone. Sometimes those adventures got me pretty cozy with death.

It was the mystery of death that piqued my interest in Eastern philosophy and Buddhism and led to training as a hospice volunteer through Zen Hospice Project. I’ve been a dedicated student and practitioner of meditation for two decades which has steadied my mind and heart to turn toward what is difficult.

In addition to critical care, I spent twenty years working as a Nurse with the beginning of life, when babies take their first breath. Even here, death makes an appearance in the loss of an infant or a mom; a devastating loss that is always unwelcome. That’s the thing about death, with every birth comes death. It can happen at any time and if we live with that knowledge, we might live more intentionally. If we have conversations about it, we might loosen up the fear and anxiety around it. If we prepare and share our wishes, we can give our loved ones the gift of clarity and direction so they feel confident they are following our wishes and have the opportunity to grieve without further unnecessary stress.

When I’m not working as a Nurse or facilitating meditation groups, you can find me adventuring in nature and working as an active travel guide for international hiking and biking trips. Occasionally, Nursing, travel, mindfulness, and adventures all come together and I’ve assisted people recovering from illness home from Argentina to Japan or helped check off a bucket list item by providing care on a white water rafting trip in the Grand Canyon. I am currently in Somatic Experiencing Intermediate training based on Peter Levine's trauma work and am a certified psychedelic guide through California Institute of Integral Studies.

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Apr
25

Saturday Community Sit

We start our gathering with some conversation and community check-ins, followed by a half-hour guided led by Mary or one of our community teachers.

We meet in person on the 4th Saturday of every month. Please fill out the contact form here if you are interested, and we will send you the address.

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May
6

Wednesday Night Sangha

Each meeting includes a 30-minute guided meditation, a community check-in, and a dharma talk. This week will be guided by Desto.

We will meet via zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/452542682?pwd=bUNmZDMreU5UdGtjNEhBRnU2cDI3dz09

From their own direct experience, Desto shares how dharma and practice continually lead to less suffering and more wellbeing. 

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May
13

Wednesday Night Sangha

Each meeting includes a 30-minute guided meditation, a community check-in, and a dharma talk. This week will be guided by Eileen Spillane.

We will meet via zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/452542682?pwd=bUNmZDMreU5UdGtjNEhBRnU2cDI3dz09

About Eileen Spillane (she/her) (RN, BSN, MA)

I grew up in a family that normalized death and had a lot of it (big Irish family, lots of people, so lots of weddings and funerals). In college, I observed autopsies at the morgue in New York City during a death and dying course. I started my career at a cancer hospital caring for patients with brain tumors at the age of 20. My Nursing career continued into critical care where I met patients and families that often avoided discussions about end of life wishes. Patients and family members were often left with confusion and guilt when decisions needed to be made.

I’ve learned a lot from the many opportunities of being with people when they were dying. 

I slowly became comfortable with the uncomfortable. I began to see this time as a sacred privilege and the benefits flowed over into my personal life. I saw my own mortality reflected in my patients and it shifted how I valued my experiences outside of work. 

Eventually, death wasn't so scary and it became a companion that walked beside me encouraging me to say yes to opportunities that fell outside my comfort zone. Sometimes those adventures got me pretty cozy with death.

It was the mystery of death that piqued my interest in Eastern philosophy and Buddhism and led to training as a hospice volunteer through Zen Hospice Project. I’ve been a dedicated student and practitioner of meditation for two decades which has steadied my mind and heart to turn toward what is difficult.

In addition to critical care, I spent twenty years working as a Nurse with the beginning of life, when babies take their first breath. Even here, death makes an appearance in the loss of an infant or a mom; a devastating loss that is always unwelcome. That’s the thing about death, with every birth comes death. It can happen at any time and if we live with that knowledge, we might live more intentionally. If we have conversations about it, we might loosen up the fear and anxiety around it. If we prepare and share our wishes, we can give our loved ones the gift of clarity and direction so they feel confident they are following our wishes and have the opportunity to grieve without further unnecessary stress.

When I’m not working as a Nurse or facilitating meditation groups, you can find me adventuring in nature and working as an active travel guide for international hiking and biking trips. Occasionally, Nursing, travel, mindfulness, and adventures all come together and I’ve assisted people recovering from illness home from Argentina to Japan or helped check off a bucket list item by providing care on a white water rafting trip in the Grand Canyon. I am currently in Somatic Experiencing Intermediate training based on Peter Levine's trauma work and am a certified psychedelic guide through California Institute of Integral Studies.

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May
23

Saturday Community Sit

We start our gathering with some conversation and community check-ins, followed by a half-hour guided led by Mary or one of our community teachers.

We meet in person on the 4th Saturday of every month. Please fill out the contact form here if you are interested, and we will send you the address.

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May
27

Wednesday Night Sangha

Each meeting includes a 30-minute guided meditation, a community check-in, and a dharma talk. This week will be guided by Saraswati Pottekkatt.

We will meet via zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/452542682?pwd=bUNmZDMreU5UdGtjNEhBRnU2cDI3dz09

About Saraswati

Pottekkatt

I am training to be a Board Certified Buddhist Chaplain and am trained in multiple trauma-informed somatic modalities, including Somatic Experiencing®. My personal, spiritual goal is complete spiritual liberation while being in solidarity with all who work toward decolonization. I am deeply attuned to my connection with the earth, the source of all my spiritual energy. Ritual, arts, myths, storytelling, and folklore are central to my personal and relational practice.

https://www.saraswatisomatics.com/

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Jun
3

Wednesday Night Sangha

Each meeting includes a 30-minute guided meditation, a community check-in, and a dharma talk. This week will be guided by Mary Davis.

We will meet via zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/452542682?pwd=bUNmZDMreU5UdGtjNEhBRnU2cDI3dz09

About Mary Davis

Mary fell in love with the teachings of the Buddha about 30 years ago. She started her Buddhist studies while practicing in a Tibetan tradition where she also took on leadership and teaching roles. She has been practicing in the Insight Meditation tradition for almost 20 years during which time she has attended over 25 residential retreats, including long retreat, and completed Spirit Rock's two-year Community Dharma Leader program in 2017.  She has been mentored by Howie Cohn for over a decade.

​During her career as a manager at Kaiser Permanente, she served as the Mindfulness Leader for the San Francisco Medical Center. In that role she wrote a weekly newsletter, led two lunchtime sits a week, and offered a number of Lunch and Learn lectures on mindfulness topics. In 2019, she completed the Mindful Self-Compassion Teacher Training and has incorporated the concepts into many of her teachings. Upon retiring from Kaiser in 2022, she began mentoring with Banyan, an online mindfulness meditation community.

In 2016, Mary, along with her Community Dharma Leader colleagues, Ashley Sharp and Thomas Davis IV, started Insight Richmond to offer the practices and teachings of the Western Theravada/Insight Meditation. While both Ashley and Thomas have moved onto other dharma adventures, Mary has continued to lead the group.

Mary Davis has also served as the President of the Mission Dharma Board for the past five years, having served on the Board since its inception in 2016. In addition, Mary has led a number of introductory courses, as well as sat in for Howie on Tuesday nights.  She was also one of the facilitators for the Eight-Month Investigating our Whiteness program in 2020/2021 In addition, she is a regular guest teacher at the Alameda Sangha, as well as the SF Sangha.

Mary's greatest joy is building communities where people can deepen their meditation practice as well as feel safe and seen. She brings authenticity, humor and compassion to her dharma offerings. She is available for one-on-one mentoring. If interested, please contact her here.

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Jun
10

Wednesday Night Sangha

Each meeting includes a 30-minute guided meditation, a community check-in, and a dharma talk. This week will be guided by Kitty Costello.

We will meet via zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/452542682?pwd=bUNmZDMreU5UdGtjNEhBRnU2cDI3dz09

About Kitty Costello

Kitty Costello has been practicing and teaching Eastern meditative and movement practices for more than 40 years. She found her Dharma home in Insight practice in 2000 and has since graduated from Spirit Rock’s Dedicated Practitioners, Buddhist Psychology, and Community Dharma Leader Programs. As a psychotherapist and meditation teacher, she integrates Eastern and Western approaches to metabolize stress and trauma, helping to free the bodymind into its natural state of wellbeing. As an editor with Freedom Voices Publications for more than 30 years, she has fostered its mission to publish works “that speaks to and from communities on the margins.”

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Jun
24

Wednesday Night Sangha

Each meeting includes a 30-minute guided meditation, a community check-in, and a dharma talk. This week will be guided by Sumati Shakthi Ganeshan.

We will meet via zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/452542682?pwd=bUNmZDMreU5UdGtjNEhBRnU2cDI3dz09

Sumati Shakthi Ganeshan has been teaching yoga and meditation for 19 years in the Bay Area. She studied Bharatha Natyam for 11years. Her asana teachers include Rodney Yee, Shiva Rea, Sarah Powers, and Timothy Lynch. Shakthi is a doctor of Internal Medicine and Pediatrics with a Masters of Public Health. Shakthi is a dharma teacher in the Vipassana tradition, having studied under Jack Kornfield, Guy Armstrong, Joseph Goldstein, Will Kabat-Zinn, James Baraz, Gil Fronsdale, Andrea Fella, Pamela Weiss, Kate Munding. She is co-founder of Assayasangha.org and teaches two meditation classes per week. Shakthi originates from ancestral temple culture, Indian classical music training, childhood immersed in bhajans and vedic chants, and has studied clinical Ayurveda, including pulse and tongue diagnosis. She is a trained Interplay Leader- a healing modality combining singing, storytelling and dance in the form of classes and workshops.

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Jun
27

Saturday Community Sit

We start our gathering with some conversation and community check-ins, followed by a half-hour guided led by Mary or one of our community teachers.

We meet in person on the 4th Saturday of every month. Please fill out the contact form here if you are interested, and we will send you the address.

View Event →
Jul
8

Wednesday Night Sangha

Each meeting includes a 30-minute guided meditation, a community check-in, and a dharma talk. This week will be guided by Desto.

We will meet via zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/452542682?pwd=bUNmZDMreU5UdGtjNEhBRnU2cDI3dz09

From their own direct experience, Desto shares how dharma and practice continually lead to less suffering and more wellbeing. 

View Event →
Jul
25

Saturday Community Sit

We start our gathering with some conversation and community check-ins, followed by a half-hour guided led by Mary or one of our community teachers.

We meet in person on the 4th Saturday of every month. Please fill out the contact form here if you are interested, and we will send you the address.

View Event →
Aug
22

Saturday Community Sit

We start our gathering with some conversation and community check-ins, followed by a half-hour guided led by Mary or one of our community teachers.

We meet in person on the 4th Saturday of every month. Please fill out the contact form here if you are interested, and we will send you the address.

View Event →
Sep
9

Wednesday Night Sangha

Each meeting includes a 30-minute guided meditation, a community check-in, and a dharma talk. This week will be guided by Desto.

We will meet via zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/452542682?pwd=bUNmZDMreU5UdGtjNEhBRnU2cDI3dz09

From their own direct experience, Desto shares how dharma and practice continually lead to less suffering and more wellbeing. 

View Event →
Sep
16

Wednesday Night Sangha

Each meeting includes a 30-minute guided meditation, a community check-in, and a dharma talk. This week will be guided by Fresh “Lev” White.

We will meet via zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/452542682?pwd=bUNmZDMreU5UdGtjNEhBRnU2cDI3dz09

Fresh “Lev” White is a love and compassion activist. He offers mindfulness, mediation, and diversity trainings as tools for shifting towards more authentic, conscious, and passionate living. He teaches and writes about how unconditional love and self-compassion are the ultimate gateways to honoring and understanding others; thus, healing our communities and our planet.

As certified coach and Founder of Affirmative Acts Consulting, Lev has supported executives, entrepreneurs, artists, other coaches and teams with achieving their goals. Through value alignment, offering accountability and helping to create individual practices of self-care, and self-compassion, his clients have successfully improved their management skills, founded organizations, and taken leadership roles in new executive and director positions. Through the practice of mindfulness, Lev helps clients see clearly through their fears, and improve their emotional responses to challenging situations, which supports strengthening their efficiency and expanding their creativity, in all areas of their life.

Lev has offered over 200 trainings in the Bay Area and Beyond. He earned facilitation skills through his coaching certification, and an extensive leadership training program, each through the Co-Active Training Institute (formally known as The Coaches Training Institute) in 2011.  He was trained on delivering LGBTQIA+ Ally trainings by CUAV in 2002, and in 2005 became a Certified Trainer through Out and Equal Workplace Advocates.

Lev is mindfully grounded at the East Bay Meditation Center, and a graduate of Spirit Rock’s Community Dharma Leadership program. Lev also offers secular mindfulness and non-secular meditation and talks on Compassion in both corporate and private settings. He credits his ability to reach and connect with diverse audiences to his years growing up in and around various communities in New York, D.C. and San Francisco.

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Sep
23

Wednesday Night Sangha

Each meeting includes a 30-minute guided meditation, a community check-in, and a dharma talk. This week will be guided by Sumati Shakthi Ganeshan.

We will meet via zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/452542682?pwd=bUNmZDMreU5UdGtjNEhBRnU2cDI3dz09

Sumati Shakthi Ganeshan has been teaching yoga and meditation for 19 years in the Bay Area. She studied Bharatha Natyam for 11years. Her asana teachers include Rodney Yee, Shiva Rea, Sarah Powers, and Timothy Lynch. Shakthi is a doctor of Internal Medicine and Pediatrics with a Masters of Public Health. Shakthi is a dharma teacher in the Vipassana tradition, having studied under Jack Kornfield, Guy Armstrong, Joseph Goldstein, Will Kabat-Zinn, James Baraz, Gil Fronsdale, Andrea Fella, Pamela Weiss, Kate Munding. She is co-founder of Assayasangha.org and teaches two meditation classes per week. Shakthi originates from ancestral temple culture, Indian classical music training, childhood immersed in bhajans and vedic chants, and has studied clinical Ayurveda, including pulse and tongue diagnosis. She is a trained Interplay Leader- a healing modality combining singing, storytelling and dance in the form of classes and workshops.

View Event →
Sep
26

Saturday Community Sit

We start our gathering with some conversation and community check-ins, followed by a half-hour guided led by Mary or one of our community teachers.

We meet in person on the 4th Saturday of every month. Please fill out the contact form here if you are interested, and we will send you the address.

View Event →
Oct
14

Wednesday Night Sangha

Each meeting includes a 30-minute guided meditation, a community check-in, and a dharma talk. This week will be guided by Sumati Shakthi Ganeshan.

We will meet via zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/452542682?pwd=bUNmZDMreU5UdGtjNEhBRnU2cDI3dz09

Sumati Shakthi Ganeshan has been teaching yoga and meditation for 19 years in the Bay Area. She studied Bharatha Natyam for 11years. Her asana teachers include Rodney Yee, Shiva Rea, Sarah Powers, and Timothy Lynch. Shakthi is a doctor of Internal Medicine and Pediatrics with a Masters of Public Health. Shakthi is a dharma teacher in the Vipassana tradition, having studied under Jack Kornfield, Guy Armstrong, Joseph Goldstein, Will Kabat-Zinn, James Baraz, Gil Fronsdale, Andrea Fella, Pamela Weiss, Kate Munding. She is co-founder of Assayasangha.org and teaches two meditation classes per week. Shakthi originates from ancestral temple culture, Indian classical music training, childhood immersed in bhajans and vedic chants, and has studied clinical Ayurveda, including pulse and tongue diagnosis. She is a trained Interplay Leader- a healing modality combining singing, storytelling and dance in the form of classes and workshops.

View Event →
Oct
24

Saturday Community Sit

We start our gathering with some conversation and community check-ins, followed by a half-hour guided led by Mary or one of our community teachers.

We meet in person on the 4th Saturday of every month. Please fill out the contact form here if you are interested, and we will send you the address.

View Event →
Nov
4

Wednesday Night Sangha

Each meeting includes a 30-minute guided meditation, a community check-in, and a dharma talk. This week will be guided by Fresh “Lev” White.

We will meet via zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/452542682?pwd=bUNmZDMreU5UdGtjNEhBRnU2cDI3dz09

Fresh “Lev” White is a love and compassion activist. He offers mindfulness, mediation, and diversity trainings as tools for shifting towards more authentic, conscious, and passionate living. He teaches and writes about how unconditional love and self-compassion are the ultimate gateways to honoring and understanding others; thus, healing our communities and our planet.

As certified coach and Founder of Affirmative Acts Consulting, Lev has supported executives, entrepreneurs, artists, other coaches and teams with achieving their goals. Through value alignment, offering accountability and helping to create individual practices of self-care, and self-compassion, his clients have successfully improved their management skills, founded organizations, and taken leadership roles in new executive and director positions. Through the practice of mindfulness, Lev helps clients see clearly through their fears, and improve their emotional responses to challenging situations, which supports strengthening their efficiency and expanding their creativity, in all areas of their life.

Lev has offered over 200 trainings in the Bay Area and Beyond. He earned facilitation skills through his coaching certification, and an extensive leadership training program, each through the Co-Active Training Institute (formally known as The Coaches Training Institute) in 2011.  He was trained on delivering LGBTQIA+ Ally trainings by CUAV in 2002, and in 2005 became a Certified Trainer through Out and Equal Workplace Advocates.

Lev is mindfully grounded at the East Bay Meditation Center, and a graduate of Spirit Rock’s Community Dharma Leadership program. Lev also offers secular mindfulness and non-secular meditation and talks on Compassion in both corporate and private settings. He credits his ability to reach and connect with diverse audiences to his years growing up in and around various communities in New York, D.C. and San Francisco.

https://affirmativeacts.org/

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Nov
18

Wednesday Night Sangha

Each meeting includes a 30-minute guided meditation, a community check-in, and a dharma talk. This week will be guided by Desto.

We will meet via zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/452542682?pwd=bUNmZDMreU5UdGtjNEhBRnU2cDI3dz09

From their own direct experience, Desto shares how dharma and practice continually lead to less suffering and more wellbeing. 

View Event →
Nov
28

Saturday Community Sit

We start our gathering with some conversation and community check-ins, followed by a half-hour guided led by Mary or one of our community teachers.

We meet in person on the 4th Saturday of every month. Please fill out the contact form here if you are interested, and we will send you the address.

View Event →
Dec
16

Wednesday Night Sangha

Each meeting includes a 30-minute guided meditation, a community check-in, and a dharma talk. This week will be guided by Fresh “Lev” White.

We will meet via zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/452542682?pwd=bUNmZDMreU5UdGtjNEhBRnU2cDI3dz09

Fresh “Lev” White is a love and compassion activist. He offers mindfulness, mediation, and diversity trainings as tools for shifting towards more authentic, conscious, and passionate living. He teaches and writes about how unconditional love and self-compassion are the ultimate gateways to honoring and understanding others; thus, healing our communities and our planet.

As certified coach and Founder of Affirmative Acts Consulting, Lev has supported executives, entrepreneurs, artists, other coaches and teams with achieving their goals. Through value alignment, offering accountability and helping to create individual practices of self-care, and self-compassion, his clients have successfully improved their management skills, founded organizations, and taken leadership roles in new executive and director positions. Through the practice of mindfulness, Lev helps clients see clearly through their fears, and improve their emotional responses to challenging situations, which supports strengthening their efficiency and expanding their creativity, in all areas of their life.

Lev has offered over 200 trainings in the Bay Area and Beyond. He earned facilitation skills through his coaching certification, and an extensive leadership training program, each through the Co-Active Training Institute (formally known as The Coaches Training Institute) in 2011.  He was trained on delivering LGBTQIA+ Ally trainings by CUAV in 2002, and in 2005 became a Certified Trainer through Out and Equal Workplace Advocates.

Lev is mindfully grounded at the East Bay Meditation Center, and a graduate of Spirit Rock’s Community Dharma Leadership program. Lev also offers secular mindfulness and non-secular meditation and talks on Compassion in both corporate and private settings. He credits his ability to reach and connect with diverse audiences to his years growing up in and around various communities in New York, D.C. and San Francisco.

https://affirmativeacts.org/

View Event →
Dec
26

Saturday Community Sit

We start our gathering with some conversation and community check-ins, followed by a half-hour guided led by Mary or one of our community teachers.

We meet in person on the 4th Saturday of every month. Please fill out the contact form here if you are interested, and we will send you the address.

View Event →
Apr
8

Wednesday Night Sangha

Each meeting includes a 30-minute guided meditation, a community check-in, and a dharma talk. This week will be guided by Ellen Carlton.

We will meet via zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/452542682?pwd=bUNmZDMreU5UdGtjNEhBRnU2cDI3dz09

About Ellen

My primary approach to mindfulness is bringing the dharma into daily life — using the insights of Buddhist psychology to invite us to explore our inner world of thoughts and emotions, and from that awareness, act with greater intention and care.

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