TCVC retreats are led by senior teachers in the Theravada Buddhist tradition. These teachers have undergone extensive training under respected teachers in their tradition and continue to pass on the wisdom of this lineage at our retreats. Though held in a common tradition, each teacher brings their own unique offering as they connect with retreatants from their own experiences and places of wisdom. TCVC is grateful for their many years of teaching our retreats.
TCVC Teachers
Steve Armstrong
Steve Armstrong has studied the dhamma and practiced insight meditation since 1975. He has served for many years at the Insight Meditation Society in Massachusetts as Executive Director, Board member and senior teacher. As a monk in Burma under the guidance of Sayadaw U Pandita he undertook intensive, silent practice of insight and lovingkindness meditations for 5 years and in Australia, he studied the Buddhist psychology (abhidhamma) with Sayadaw U Zagara. He continues his practice under the guidance of Sayadaw U Tejaniya at the Shwe Oo Min Meditation Center in Rangoon. Steve is a co-founding teacher of the Vipassana Metta Foundation’s dhamma sanctuary on Maui. He has been leading meditation retreats internationally since 1990 and encourages spiritual development through cultivating insightful awareness and liberating understanding of the core teachings of the Buddha in all life activities.
Rebecca Bradshaw
Rebecca Bradshaw is a Buddhist Insight Meditation teacher living in the hills of Western Massachusetts with her husband and two cats. She has been practicing Buddhist Vipassana meditation since 1983 in the United States and Myanmar (Burma) and teaching since 1993. She completed her dharma teacher training at Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, where she is part of the three-month retreat teacher team and leads retreats for young adults. She also teaches at other locations in the United States and abroad, including Spanish language retreats. Rebecca has a Master’s degree in Counseling Psychology and is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor (LMHC). Rebecca’s teaching focuses on down-to-earth embodied practice flavored with grounded aliveness from years of qi gong practice. Her meditation teaching style is infused with large doses of loving kindness and compassion; we need these in order to have the strength and flexibility to touch and be touched deeply by life. The woods, lakes, animals, and plants are also her teachers and their lessons are embedded in all that she shares. Her book, Down to Earth Dharma, is due to be published by Shambhala Publications in the fall of 2024. Her hope is that we can unbind our hearts and minds, learn to connect deeply with life, and be of service to our communities and our planet during these challenging times. For more information, please see her webpage at www.rebeccabradshaw.org.
Chas DiCapua
Chas DiCapua has been practicing mindfulness and Buddhist meditation, primarily in the Theravada school, for over 20 years. He has trained with Burmese meditation masters, western monastics of the Thai Forest tradition and senior western Vipassana teachers. In 2003 Chas was invited to be the Resident Teacher at the Insight Meditation Society where he continues to serve in that role. He is interested in how the basic material of our everyday lives, including relationships, can be used as a vehicle for awakening. Chas teaches retreats at IMS, at various centers and sanghas throughout the country, and offers Spiritual Counseling for individuals. He is a member of the IMS Diversity Committee and is actively involved with the work of undoing racism and understanding white privilege.
Bonnie Duran
Bonnie Duran met the Dharma in 1982 when she sat a month at Kopan Monastery in Nepal and learned Vipassana in Bodh Gaya India. Since then, she has taken teachings from many western teachers including Joseph Goldstein and Marcia Rose, as well as Tibetan teachers, Venerable Tsoknyi Rinpoche and Lama Zopa Rinpoche. Bonnie is a graduate of the SRMC/IMS Community Dharma Leader training program and will complete the retreat teacher-training program in 2016. She teaches at the Insight Meditation Society and Spirit Rock Meditation Center, and helps organize the People of Color and Allies Sangha that meet weekly in Seattle. She is a contributor to Hilda Guitierrez Baldoquin’s book, Dharma, Color and Culture: New Voices in Western Buddhism and has written for the Turning Wheel. Dr. Duran is an associate professor in the Schools of Social Work and Public Health at the University of Washington, is director of the Center for Indigenous Health Research, and is involved in Native American spiritual practices and traditions.
Patricia Genoud-Feldman
Patricia Genoud-Feldman has been practicing Buddhist meditation (Vipassana and Dzogchen) in Asia and the West since 1984 and teaching Vipassana in in Europe and in Israel since 1997 and more recently in the US at the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Mass. She lives in Geneva Switzerland with her husband, where she has co-founded the Meditation Center Vimalakirti.
Shelly Graf
Shelly has been practicing at Common Ground Meditation since 2003 where they currently serve as a Co-Guiding Teacher. Shelly is a graduate of Insight Meditation Society’s four-year teacher training program. They teach retreats nationally as well as a variety of programs at the Common Ground including co-leading residential retreats. Shelly has been a clinician and administrator in the Social Work and mental health fields since 2005. They have a special interest in waking up to whiteness as part of this total path of awakening. Whatever Shelly’s role may be, they will always be a grateful student of Buddhist Practice first.
Alex Haley
Alex Haley leads a weekly sitting group in Northeast Minneapolis and guest teaches at various locations around the Twin Cities. He also teaches Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction and Mindfulness at Work through the University of Minnesota. Alex has trained through the Center for Spirituality and Healing, the Center for Mindfulness, and the Somatic Experiencing Trauma Institute. Alex has also trained as a Community Dharma Leader by Spirit Rock Meditation Center (SRMC) and completed the four-year teacher training program run by SRMC and the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, MA.
Deborah Helzer
Deborah Helzer has been meditating since 1991, and has practiced and studied both Western and Asian traditions. She spent a year as a Theravadan nun in Burma, and her teaching style reflects the influence of the late Burmese master Mahasi Sayadaw and his emphasis on clear, non-judgmental awareness. Deborah has been mentored in her teaching by Joseph Goldstein and other senior Vipassana teachers connected with the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, MA. She has been teaching locally and assisting at retreats around the country since 2002.
Myoshin Kelley
Myoshin Kelley began practice in 1975 and has worked with teachers in the Theravada and Tibetan Buddhist traditions. She has practiced extensively with the Burmese meditation masters Chanmyay Sayadaw, Sayadaw U Pandita, and Sayadaw U Tejaniya. In the early 1990s Myoshin received meditation instruction from the Soto Zen master Hogen Yamahata. In 1994 she accompanied her husband, Edwin, to the Insight Meditation Society (IMS) in Barre, MA, where she was trained as a meditation instructor by Joseph Goldstein and Sharon Salzburg. Since then she has been teaching meditation in a number of places throughout North America. In 2003, she was appointed the teacher in residence at the Forest Refuge, the long-term practice center at IMS. Her own teaching emphasizes simplicity, lovingkindness and cultivating a joyful interest. She is currently lives in Minneapolis and instructs with the Tergar Meditation Community.
Kamala Masters
Kamala Masters is one of the founders and teachers of the Vipassana Metta Foundation on Maui. She teaches retreats in the Theravada tradition at venues worldwide, including being a Guiding Teacher at the Insight Meditation Society at Barre, Massachusetts. Practicing since 1975, her teachers have been the late Anagarika Munindra of India and the late Sayadaw U Pandita of Burma, and Sayadaw U Tejaniya of Burma with whom she continues to practice. Kamala has a commitment to carrying and offering the purity of the teachings of the Buddha in a way that touches our common sense and compassion as human beings, and allows the natural inner growth of wisdom. She lives on Maui where she raised four children, and is now blessed with seven grandchildren. Kamala practiced both insight and loving kindness meditations intensively under the guidance and preceptorship of Sayadaw U Pandita, in the USA, Australia and in Burma as a nun and a lay woman.
Tara Mulay
Tara Mulay teaches and mentors Insight Meditation practitioners to refine their mindfulness practice, both on the meditation cushion and in daily life. Her dharma offerings stem from the lineage of Mahasi Sayadaw, and she has gratefully drawn influence from many other teachers within and outside of the Mahasi lineage, including Howard Cohn, Kamala Masters, Joseph Goldstein, and Sayadaw U Tejaniya. Tara practiced criminal defense law in California for over 20 years. She was a leader of Mission Dharma in San Francisco, and in 2016 she co-founded the San Francisco Black, Indigenous, and People of Color Insight Sangha. In 2021, she was authorized to teach by Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts.
Tara felt initially drawn to dharma practice upon encountering the Buddha’s teachings rejecting caste as a measure of worth and of capacity for awakening. She believes classical Buddhist practices, designed to cultivate compassion, non-greed, non-hatred, and non-delusion, are uniquely potent vehicles for empowering people in marginalized communities and effecting social change. For more information visit Taramulay.com.
Annie Nugent
Annie Nugent has practiced since 1979 and was a resident teacher at Insight Meditation Society in Barre, MA from 1999-2003. Her teaching style aims to reveal how all aspects of our lives can help us come to a clear and direct understanding of the Truth.
Vance Pryor
Vance Pryor, PsyD, began insight meditation in 1998. He has been deeply influenced by the teachings of Sayadaw U Pandita and Sayadaw U Tejaniya. His training to become a teacher has been supported by the mentorship of Steve Armstrong and Kamala Masters. He is a recent graduate of the Insight Meditation Society’s 2017-2021 Teacher Training Program.
Ajahn Punnadhammo
Ajahn Punnadhammo is the resident bhikkhu at Arrow River Forest Hermitage in Thunder Bay, Ont. He has been studying and practicing Buddhism since 1979 and was ordained in Thailand in the forest tradition of Ajahn Chah in 1990. Between 1990 and 1995 he was based at Wat Pah Nanachat, Thailand. Punnadhammo is a Canadian, born Michael Dominskyj in Toronto in 1955. He began studying the Dhamma under Kema Ananda, the founder and first teacher at the Arrow River Center.
Marcia Rose
Marcia Rose is the founding and guiding teacher of The Mountain Hermitage and founding teacher of Taos Mountain Sangha. She has been studying and practicing Buddhist teachings and meditation with Asian and Western teachers since 1970, primarily in the Theravada-Vipassana (Path of the Elders) tradition. Her own teaching reflects a clear influence from the Burmese Mahasi Vipassana and the Pa-Auk Forest Monastery lineages. She has also studied and practiced in the Dzogchen Tibetan Buddhist tradition with Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche, Nyoshul Khen Rinpoche, and Tsoknyi Rinpoche. Marcia was resident teacher for staff at the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, MA from 1991-1995. She has been one of the teachers for the annual three-month retreat at IMS, and is currently a visiting teacher at The Forest Refuge in Barre, MA. Marcia also teaches Vipassana and Metta retreats in other U.S. and international venues, and is dedicated to offering these ancient and timeless teachings in ways that make them accessible and authentic for contemporary culture.
Santikaro
Santikaro is the founder and guiding teacher of Liberation Park in Norwalk, Wisconsin. Born and raised in Chicago, he lived in Thailand for 20 years, mainly as a Theravada Buddhist monk. After serving in the US Peace Corps, he trained as a Buddhist monk from 1985 through 2003. He lived at Suan Mokkh, a forest monastery in Southern Thailand for fifteen years, where he studied under Buddhadasa Bhikkhu, an influential teacher and reformer (who died in 1993). Santikaro taught meditation and Buddhism in Thailand for many years. He is now pursuing his vision of Liberation Park, a modern American expression of Buddhist practice, teaching, community, and social responsibility. He continues to teach meditation and translate his teacher’s work, along with pondering the application of Buddha-Dhamma to our hectic high-stress ways of life, teaching Enneagram, and working in socially engaged Buddhism.
Alexis Santos
Alexis Santos has practiced Insight Meditation in India, Burma and the US since 2001. He met Sayadaw U Tejaniya in Burma in 2003 and has been his long-time student, including several years of training as a Buddhist Monk under his guidance. Alexis’ teaching emphasizes knowing the mind through a natural and relaxed continuity. He brings a practical, intuitive and compassionate approach to the development of wisdom. He is in the current Spirit Rock/IMS Teacher Training and can be found assisting retreats throughout the US.