Speakers for the Month

May 2004 Speakers

May Speaker Biographies

Angie Boissevain has been a student of Kobun Chino, a Soto Zen teacher, since 1971, first at Haiku zendo in Los Altos, then as head student teacher and director at Jikoji, a retreat center in the Santa Cruz mountains. She was ordained as a lay priest in 1989. Retired from Jikoji, she now meets weekly with meditation groups in the Bay Area. She has raised three children and is a published poet.

Stuart Clancy has been a vipassana meditator and student of John Travis since 1991. His practice includes a weekly intensive men's group since 1995 and has facilitated the Folsom Prison Pathways Sangha weekly meeting since 1998. Stu is a CPA and lives in Auburn.

Steven Gasner has been practicing Buddhist Meditation since 1983. Originally studying in the Zen Tradition for a brief but very fruitful time with Joko Beck at the Zen Center of Los Angeles. He has also practiced at the Community Meditation Center in Los Angeles with Shinzen Young. He is a founding member of the Insight Meditation Center and has been practicing there since 1995.

Tempel Smith began practicing meditation in 1989. In 1997 he ordained as a monk in Burma with Sayadaw U Pandita and Pa Auk Sayadaw. He then practiced as a long-term yogi at IMS. Now, in the Bay Area, he is working on integrating these deep meditative practices into daily life and in his work with the Buddhist Peace Fellowship. Tempel has taught meditation and Buddhist psychology, and is a member of the Spirit Rock Teen Council. He teaches the Teen Program at the Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City. He is also interested in meditation for the chronically ill and those in prison.

Taraniya (Gloria Taraniya Ambrosia) has been offering instruction in Theravada Buddhist teachings and practices since 1990. She is a student of the western forest sangha, the disciples of Ajahn Sumedho, and is a Lay Buddhist Minister in association with Abhayagiri Buddhist Monastery in California. She has served as resident teacher of the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts from 1996 through 1999. Taraniya teaches at the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies and at Dhamma centers in the United States.