My Story

I was born in the Bay Area just in time for the 1960s. Like many people, I experienced much suffering in my early life, which culminated in my being orphaned as a teenager. In my search for a response to all of my pain, I discovered Buddhism, Taoism, and Plant Medicines at the age of 15. I’ve spent my life since then practicing these intertwining paths as deeply as possible.

After a short encounter with an Ivy League University, I spent 16 years living in Zen and Tibetan Buddhist dharma centers, including 4 years as a Zen monk in Asia. I’ve practiced in 7 years of cumulative retreat, which led me to 4 years of solitary retreat in a cabin here in the mountains of Northern California. My practice has been guided by masters of the Buddhist and Taoist traditions.

As part of my medicine path, I spent 3 years in the Amazon training with traditional healers and I also completed a long apprenticeship in the western approach to medicine work. I am trained in Hakomi Mindful Somatic Psychology, Acupressure Massage, and Hypnotherapy. I am a teacher in the Hollow Bamboo School of Meditation and have also been given permission to teach by Zen Master Dae Bong Su Nim.

My many paths combined naturally with a love of nature, writing, music, language, and travel to distant lands and cultures of many kinds. For me, this work is a remembering, an awakening, and—first and always—a path of the heart.

In 2005 I founded Two Rivers Sangha, dedicated to the meeting of the Buddhist path with earth wisdom traditions.

I currently live in the wilds of West Marin in the San Francisco Bay Area.