Your Teaching Team <3

JD Doyle (they/them) teaches the liberation that is possible through the practices of Buddhism. JD is authorized to teach in the Theravada Buddhist lineage. They are based in the Bay Area of California and teach at the East Bay Meditation Center where they co-founded the Alphabet(LGBTQIA+) Sangha, at Spirit Rock Meditation Center,and elsewhere. For over twenty-three years, they worked as a public-school teacher. They are committed to celebrating the diversity of our human sangha, transforming the impacts of racism on our communities, expanding concepts of gender, and living in ways that honor the sacredness of the Earth.

Tenzin Mingyur Paldron is a transgender Tibetan artist, author, and community educator in New York City. He is a first-generation college graduate and holds a PhD in Rhetoric from UC Berkeley, where he received nine fellowships and wrote the dissertation, Tibet, China, and the United States: Self-immolation and the limits of understanding. His mixed-media installation Earth is Heard was shown in the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre in last year’s exhibition Constellation of Complicity: Visualising the Global Machinery of Authoritarian Solidarity. His first book, A Capacity to Change is a story of transgender equality and our interconnected humanities. Written from Doc Tenzin’s lens as a refugee-immigrant, it is part comic book and part historical essay.

Samantha Rise (they/them/elle) is a black, gender-expansive performer, teaching artist, activist and human-amplifier based in Lenapehoking (Philadelphia). Samantha’s passion for music and community building are the heart of their work, feeding spaces that are inquiry-driven, participant led, and abundant in joy! Rise’s artistry and songwriting is a trans-genre practice, drawing on a wide root system of traditional Black American and reminds audiences that “Music is our Birthright,” encouraging communities to resource themselves with songtools in moments of crisis and conflict. sam rise is dedicated to social justice interventions that address the lethal lack of imagination we face, embracing the challenge and the opportunity of reimagining our world.

Vivian (she/her) began practicing daily meditation in 2018 in search of a way to meet suffering. She is regularly involved in various events at Seattle Insight Meditation as a Local Dharma Leader, including the Under-40 and LGBTQIA2S+ practice groups. She is currently in the Community Dharma Leaders training through Spirit Rock. Her practice is energized by the remembrances of death, loss, and change and she is deeply grateful for the dhamma path, retreat practice, and cultivating the heart qualities of kindness.

The Joy of Clear Seeing - Online Dharma + Art Retreat for Trans Day of Visibility