Teachers

Gil Fronsdal is the primary teacher for the Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, California; he has been teaching since 1990. He has practiced Zen and Vipassana in the U.S. and Asia since 1975. He was a Theravada monk in Burma in 1985, and in 1989 began training with Jack Kornfield to be a Vipassana teacher. Gil teaches at Spirit Rock Meditation Center where he is part of its Teachers Council.

Gil was ordained as a Soto Zen priest at the San Francisco Zen Center in 1982, and in 1995 received Dharma Transmission from Mel Weitsman, the abbot of the Berkeley Zen Center. He is currently serving on the SF Zen Center Elders’ Council.

Gil has an undergraduate degree in agriculture from U.C. Davis where he was active in promoting the field of sustainable farming. In 1998 he received a PhD in Religious Studies from Stanford University studying the earliest developments of the bodhisattva ideal. He is the author of The Issue at Hand, essays on mindfulness practice, and the translator of The Dhammapada, published by Shambhala Publications.

You may listen to Gil’s talks on Audio Dharma.

Andrea Fella has been practicing Insight Meditation since 1996, and, under Gil Fronsdal’s guidance, began teaching meditation classes in 2003. She is particularly drawn to intensive retreat practice, and has done a number of long retreats, both in the U.S. and Burma. During one long practice period in Burma, she ordained as a nun with Sayadaw U Janeka. Andrea teaches residential retreats for IMC, and is in the Spirit Rock teacher training program with Jack Kornfield and Joseph Goldstein.

You may listen to Andrea’s talks on Audio Dharma.

Community Dharma Leaders

	Terry Lesser – Yoga for Meditation Terry teaches Yoga for Meditation. She has been practicing yoga since 1984, and has been teaching since 1995. She was trained in Iyengar yoga at the Yoga Room’s Advanced Studies/Teacher Training Program in Berkeley. Terry has been practicing Vipassana Meditation since 1992, and is a graduate of the Community Dharma Leader program at Spirit Rock Meditation Center. Her focus is on the integration of mindfulness meditation and yoga.
	Ines Freedman – Online Meditation Course Ines first became interested in meditation through her yoga practice in 1970. She has been practicing Buddhist meditation since 1985, with Gil Fronsdal being her primary teacher. She is a member of the IMC Chaplaincy Council and is past Managing Director of IMC. She has experience with long meditation retreats including extended self-retreats, and has a special interest in working with meditation practices for those with chronic pain. She is a retired chiropractor. You may listen to Ines’s talks on Audio Dharma.
	Berget Jelane – San Jose Sangha Berget has been practicing Buddhist meditation since 1986. She coordinates and teaches at the San Jose Sangha. As a graduate of the Sati Center Chaplaincy program, she conducts wedding, funerals and other ceremonies. In her psychotherapy practice, she uses mindfulness with psychotherapeutic exploration to help clients break free of old patterns of behavior. You may listen to Berget’s talks on Audio Dharma.
	Jim Bronson Jim began working with the inner life and spiritual traditions as a student of Krishnamurti in 1968. Jim’s focus on Vipassana Meditation began in 1990 with Howard Nudleman and a precursor of IMC. Jim expresses his practice in the world through providing community outreach and education through Kara for people and groups dealing with tragedy and loss. In addition to talks and meditation instruction at IMC, Jim has organized self-taught retreats in beautiful natural settings. You may listen to Jim’s talks on Audio Dharma.