Judy Seicho Fleischman is founder of Sensing Wonder, whose mission is to promote play as expression of healing in relationship. She is a Jewish-American Zen priest with Village Zendo, coordinator of Buddhist Peace Fellowship (NY Metro), and a Board-certified chaplain, who helps people move through difficulties with dignity, creativity, and purpose in a variety of healthcare settings including Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and Housing Works (for persons living with HIV). She integrates meditation, compassionate communication, and creative expression to facilitate healing as an experience of feeling whole. She holds an M.S. in Astronomy and tutors youngsters in math and science utilizing this integrative approach.

Stan Grier is a certified yoga therapist, Qigong, and meditation teacher for over 14 years, and creator of Qi-Yoga. He has worked with a broad spectrum of individuals from the ages of 3 – 60+. He is the Co-Founder of Mountain Spirit Wellness Retreats, a service organization facilitating wellness retreats for corporations and individuals. He maintains a private practice in New York and facilitates wellness retreats throughout Central America. Stan is a staff member of the Bent on Learning (yoga and meditation in grades pre-K – 12 in NYC Public Schools) and the Lineage Project (providing awareness practices to incarcerated youth). He completed the Dedicated Practice Course with New York Insight Meditation Society in 2007-2008, and is pursing an advanced degree in Holistic Nutrition with the Clayton School of Natural Health.

The Venerable Bhante Kondanna is the Abbot of the Staten Island Vihara. He is President of the New York Buddhist Council.

Josh Korda has been studying the dhamma and Insight Meditation since 1995 and received his initial teacher training with Noah Levine. He teaches meditation at DharmaPunx New York. Over the years Josh has had the honor to learn from a variety of well-known and respected teachers such as Peter Doobinin, Sharon Salzberg, Susan Kuralt Smith and Ajahn Sucitto, to name a few. Josh lives in Brooklyn, NY.

Michele Laporte is a long time student of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche and Senior teacher and meditation instructor of the Shambhala Meditation Center of New York.

Rev. T. Kenjitsu Nakagaki has been the head resident minister of New York Buddhist Church - Jodoshinshu (Shin Buddhist) Temple since 1994. He is chairperson of the Eastern District Buddhist Ministers Associations of BCA; former president of the Buddhist Council of New York from 2001 to 2005; Vice President of Interfaith Center of New York; Clergy on Call at Columbia University; adviser of the American Buddhist Study Center; and active in interfaith community such as Religions for Peace and the Interfaith Alliance. He was ordained in 1980, and came to the United States in 1985 as oversea minister from Hongwanji Mother Temple, Kyoto, Japan.

Reverend Ocean-of-Wisdom Sakya is a Buddhist Priest in the Dhyana tradition. Venerable Wisdom has studied and practiced Buddhism since 1988 and has studied in the Vipassana, Tibetan, Zen/ChÕan, Pure Land, and Vietnamese Zen traditions. Previously a Buddhist Monk he ordained as a Buddhist Priest to better meet the needs of the American public. He received transmission from Venerable Master Thich Tri Hoang in Lam Te Thien, and has studied with Venerables John Daido Loori, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, S. N. Goenkaji, Thich Nhat Hahn, and other compassionate teachers. In 2002 he became Abbot of the Middle-Way Meditation Center and established the Middle-Way Peace Order, an order geared to Western Buddhists.

Venerable Wisdom has taught at several universities and theological schools and has given talks and led retreats at a variety of locales in the US and in Asia. He has authored numerous articles.

Roshi Enkyo (Pat) O'Hara is the abbot of the Village Zendo in Manhattan. She is a Soto Zen Priest and certified Zen Teacher in the White Plum lineage, an American branch of Zen, with lineage in both the Soto and Rinzai lines, founded by Maezumi Roshi. She received priest ordination from Maezumi Roshi and Dharma Transmission from Bernie Tetsugen Glassman Roshi. She has taught meditation to many groups, centering on physical and emotional health, right livelihood, self-expression and peacemaking. She holds a Ph.D. in Media Ecology, and taught at NYU for twenty years.

Clark Strand is a former Zen Buddhist monk and the author of Meditation Without Gurus: A Guide to the Heart of Practice. A Contributing Editor to Tricycle: The Buddhist Review, his forthcoming book How to Believe in God (Whether You Believe in Religion or Not) has been called the first book in history to put Buddhism, Christianity, and Judaism all on the same page. Clark is currently in the process of creating a new Buddhist community in Woodstock, New York, the purpose of which is to offer not just a new model of Buddhism, but a new paradigm of religion for the global age. To that end, he welcomes people of any spiritual path to embrace Buddhist practice as a way of connecting more deeply to the religion of their birth.

Master J. Teasley CAM, MMA, Master of Holistic Martial Arts, Sundancer, Pipe Carrier, Traditional Healer, is founder and director of the Messianese Multicultural Center (a not for profit, 501(c)(3) organization) in Long Island, New York. A proponent of traditional healing and holistic martial arts for over thirty years, Sifu (master teacher) Teasley began his spiritual journey at the age of four. At the age of fourteen, he began his study of Chan Buddhism. His quest for enlightenment has taken him to places as diverse as the Dakota Sioux Reservations of North America, the Wu Dang Mountains of China, birthplace of Taoism and Chinese Traditional Medicine, and the Bongeun-sa Buddhist Monastery in Korea. He is about to embark on a national and international tour promoting his book on Wu Tao, the system of self-mastery he created. This work is the culmination of over thirty years of study, practice and teaching. For further information on Master Teasley, please go to www.healing4us.org.

Lama Pema Wangdak is a Tibetan and a monk since he was 7 years old. His is a student of His Holiness the Sakya Trizin and other great masters from the Sakya order of Tibetan Buddhism. He is a graduate of the Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies in Benares, India in 1980 where he received his Acharya (masters) degree.

He was send by His Holiness Sakya Trizin in 1982 as the first of the younger generation of Tibetan teachers in America from the Sakya School. In 1989 Lama Pema founded the Vikramasila Foundation. This foundation encompasses the Palden Sakya Centers in New York City, Woodstock, NY, Philmont, NY; Cresskill, NJ; Jamaica, VT and Dayton, OH. These centers offer courses in Tibetan Buddhist studies and meditation. Lama Pema is the creator of "Bur Yig"—Tibetan Braille—and the founder of Pema Ts'al (Lotus Grove) Schools in Mundgod, India (for Tibetan lay children); Pokara, Nepal (monastic schools for boys) and Pema Ts'al School in New York City which is based on the curriculum at Sakya College, India. The school in New York City provides a Buddhist education founded upon traditional monastic training and study, conforming to the Western university teaching format.

Lama Pema has been guiding western students for over 20 years. He continues to travel and teach extensively in Dharma centers around the world. His marvelous command of the English language and excelled wisdom and compassion make him an outstanding role model for today.