TEACHERS

Senior Dharma Teacher

Adrianne Ross

Adrianne, a retired family physician, has been involved in meditation and healing since 1976. She has been practising Buddhist meditation since 1984. Her spiritual journey has also included contemplative inquiry practices (Enlightenment Intensives and Diamond Approach) and Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction.

Trained by Jack Kornfield (in 1998), Adrianne is influenced by both Thai and Burmese streams of the Theravadan tradition, as well as Tibetan (Mahamudra and Dzogchen) practice. She teaches classes, weekend and residential retreats in Canada and the US.

She is involved in teaching and mentoring students in the Dedicated Practitioner and Advanced Practitioner Programs through Spirit Rock Meditation Center in California. Adrianne mentors students every year for the UCLA Mindfulness training program.

Adrianne is the guiding teacher for Saskatoon Insight Meditation Society, continuing the tradition, started by Joanne Broatch, of supporting the dharma in the prairies.

She is passionate about being awake in all areas of life, facing the challenges of diversity, equality and climate change though dharma eyes, and living the dharma as fully as possible.

She co-founded BCIMS with the late Joanne Broatch.

Teacher Council

Rachel Lewis

Rachel Lewis began practicing insight meditation in 2003, while completing her physics PhD at Yale. Since 2011, she has taught dharma and meditation classes and retreats in British Columbia and beyond. She completed the IMS/IRC 4-year teacher training in 2021, and is a guiding teacher of the British Columbia Insight Meditation Society. Her dharma teaching interests include the power of music, humour, and creativity to increase our capacity for learning, as well as the way that practice supports and is supported by social justice work.

James Lowe

James completed Spirit Rock’s Community Dharma Leader Program in 2012.

He began retreat teacher training at Spirit Rock in 2017.

After experimenting with meditation since the mid 1980’s, James made a commitment to Theravada practice in 2004 that includes annual three- to four-week retreats. James has been an adult educator since 1992 and is a counsellor and instructor in his work life. He’s interested in the workable day-to-day practice of Metta and Mindfulness at home, work, school and community. He incorporates the dharma in his counselling and leadership work, thereby translating the dharma into everyday language and practice.

Tempel Smith

Tempel Smith began practicing vipassana and metta meditation in 1989 within the Theravada Buddhist tradition at Insight Meditation Society (IMS). Tempel focused his younger years on service and activism within nuclear disarmament, environmental protection, and working in crisis shelters for homeless and abused youth. In 1997 he spent a year in Myanmar (Burma) as an ordained monk with both Ven. Sayadaw U Pandita and Ven. Pa Auk Sayadaw, and later practiced in silence for a nine month retreat back at the IMS.

Since 2001 Tempel has begun to teach meditation and Buddhist psychology to a wide variety of people including prisoners, activists, youth, service providers, and those with severe and chronic illnesses. He founded the B.A.S.E. House in San Francisco - a residential community dedicated to living a socially engaged Buddhist life. Tempel spent a year in volunteer service for Zen Hospice, and in 2003 he initiated an international meditation retreat and program for teenagers and young adults which became iBme (Inward Bound Mindfulness Education). Tempel worked for the Buddhist Peace Fellowship in Berkeley coordinating the B.A.S.E. and Young Adults programs, and also has lead pilgrimages in Thailand, Burma, and India for the past ten years.

In 2008 Tempel joined a four year teacher training program run by Jack Kornfield, Spirit Rock Meditation Center (SRMC) and IMS, and now leads the 2-year Dedicated Practitioner Program. The Dharma Tempel teaches is informed by western sciences and psychology, Theravada Buddhism, and somatic based trauma healing.

Commumity Dharma Leaders

Brock Brown

Brock Brown is a founding member and Chair of the Victoria Insight Meditation Society where he teaches and leads meditation retreats. He has been dedicated to the study and practice of the Buddha’s teachings in the Theravada tradition for the past 27 years, and is inspired by the Thai Forest tradition. He is a graduate of the Spirit Rock Dedicated Practitioners Program and the Community Dharma Leader Program and completed the Birken Forest Monastery Upasika program. Brock enjoys studying the suttas and making them relevant to our everyday lives.

Karen Lawrie

Karen has been practicing meditation for over 30 years, with experience in both the Zen and Vipassana traditions. She spent ten years in residential training at the Rochester Zen Centre under her teacher Roshi Bodhin Kjolhede. Upon returning to the West Coast 15 years ago, she also completed Spirit Rock’s Community Dharma Leader program under James Baraz and Tara Brach. She currently leads weekly sitting groups and monthly Days of Mindfulness in Vancouver. She is actively involved in supporting her own and others practice in meaningful ways that promote the embodied integration of Buddhist meditation practice in everyday life.

Janet Lironi

Janet Lironi is a Community Dharma Leader on Gabriola, who received training through Spirit Rock Meditation Center. After years of exploring diferent meditation and spiritual practices, she has, for the past 20 years, dedicated herself to the practice and study of Buddhist teachings from a Theravada or Insight perspective. In her support of Sangha on Gabriola, she leads weekly sits, yearlong study groups, beginner meditation classes, and daylong retreats. She is beginning to assist her core teacher Arinna Weisman at residential retreats. Janet is also trained as a counsellor and has taught Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction Program (developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn). Janet’s intention is to live with kindness and compassion for herself, all beings, and the earth.

Margo McLoughlin

Margo completed her training to be a Community Dharma Leader in 2012. A writer, storyteller, and teacher, Margo holds a Master of Divinity from Harvard where she studied Pali and Sanskrit. As an inter-faith chaplain at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, Margo led a number of storytelling series for patients, families and staff. As a storytelling consultant with the Fetzer Institute, Margo gathered more than 200 folktales on the theme of generosity. Many of those stories are gathered in two anthologies, edited by Margo: Seeds of Generosity: Storytelling in the Classroom and The Giving Heart: Folktales for Exploring Generosity. Currently, Margo is a board member of the BC Association for Living Mindfully (BCALM) and leads retreats and classes with the Victoria Insight Meditation Society.

Pari Ruengvisesh

Pari was born and raised in Thailand. Growing up in a predominantly Theravada Buddhist culture, she became familiar with Buddhist teachings and living the teachings as an embodied way of life. She has been living in Vancouver since the late 90’s. In 2004, she started formal Vipassana and Metta Meditation practice with Linda McDonald, and later on, with Michele McDonald and Steven Smith, as well as other western teachers and Asian monastics. Pari is committed to formal meditation practice on intensive retreats and applying the teachings in her daily life. Her primary practice is the Four Establishments of Mindfulness in the Mahasi Tradition. She has practiced under the guidance of the late Sayadaw U Pandita and Sayadaw U Lakkhana of Burma, and since 2010, Sayadaw U Vivekananda of Panditarama Lumbini, Nepal.

In 2012 she completed the Community Dhamma Leader Program at Spirit Rock, California. She has been sharing the Dhamma in Vancouver, and since 2013, has been assisting Michele McDonald, Steven Smith, and Jesse Vega-Frey with their annual Spring retreat at Hollyhock on Cortes Island, BC.

Margot Sangster

Margot has studied at meditation centers and monasteries in the USA, Thailand, Nepal, England, and Canada. She lived/volunteered at Spirit Rock and Wat Kow Tahm Meditation Center in Thailand.

In addition to the Spirit Rock Community Dharma Leaders Program, Margot completed the Buddhist Peace Fellowship BASE Program (Buddhist Alliance for Social Engagement), and the Zen Hospice Training. She has been teaching meditation to people from all walks of life since 1998.

Margot holds a Masters Degree in Counseling Psychology. Her professional experience is diverse, and includes social services, non-formal education, and international development. Her work has taken her to Afghanistan and the Philippines.

For practice interviews email Margot or phone 604.831.9226

Judy Witheford

Judy began her spiritual training in the late 1970’s in the Rinzai Zen tradition under Joshu Sasaki Roshi. In 2000, she ordained as a Buddhist nun in Burma and from 2000 - 2008 spent 24 months in intensive silent meditation retreats in Burma at Chanmyay Yeiktha, Panditarama Forest Center and Sayadaw U Tejaniya's Shwe Oo Min. In 2008, she and Sayadaw U Indaka organized a free medical/dental clinic to serve 1900 poor rural families in two Myanmar villages. She completed the Community Dharma Leader program at Spirit Rock in 2008. In 2015 and 2016, she spent 4.5 months in intensive silent meditation in Lumbini, Nepal under the guidance of Sayadaw U Vivekananda and Sayalay Bhaddamanika. She has also participated in several six-week retreats at the Forest Refuge in Barre with Ajahn Sucitto, Joseph Goldstein and Sayadaw U Vivekananda. Judy teaches Beginning Vipassana Meditation and leads an ongoing meditation group on Vancouver's East side.

Senior Students

Jason Leslie

Jason has been an avid meditator since 2004. He began practicing in the Theravada tradition in 2011 and recently completed the Spirit Rock Dedicated Practitioners Program. He regularly sits retreats and attended the 3-month retreat at the Insight Meditation Society in 2017. Formerly a lawyer, Jason is now pursuing a PhD in law, focusing on the nature of property and economic justice in the Canadian housing market.

Santa Aloi

Santa has practiced in the Vipassana tradition for over 25 years. She has sat many long retreats and has completed both the Dedicated Practioners Program (2010) and the Advanced Practitioners Program (2017) at Spirit Rock.

She has been greatly influenced by the teachings of Ajahn Sumedho, with her main Vipassana teachers being Guy Armstrong, Phillip Moffitt, Adrianne Ross, Joseph Goldstein and, lately, Bikkhu Analayo. She has been authorized by Adrianne Ross and Phillip Moffitt to lead sitting groups and to teach classes. A former Professor of Dance at SFU, choreographer and dancer, she taught movement and improvisation from a place of mindfulness of body, mind and heart.

Jenna Jordinson

Since 1984 Jenna has been attending yearly meditation retreats in the Theravada tradition. Her dharma journey has led her to train as an interfaith hospital chaplain where she has served patients and families at critical moments of their lives. She envisions a sangha where community members are supported with compassion at times of transition. Jenna has answered requests to lead sitting groups and teach introductory meditation classes. In the late 1990’s she managed the first local residential retreats of teachers Adrianne Ross and Joanne Broatch. Two meditation groups she started when her children were young continue now, over twenty years later. She is influenced by the teachings of Ajahn Chah from the Thai Forest tradition and Gregory Kramer's Insight Dialogue, among others.