Teachers
Rev. Heng Sure, Director of Berkeley Buddhist Monastery
Dharma Master Heng Sure was ordained as a Buddhist monk in 1976. For the sake of world peace, he undertook an over six hundred mile pilgrimage from South Pasadena to Ukiah, repeatedly taking three steps and one bow to cover the entire journey. In the entire two years taken to make the pilgrimage, he observed a practice of total silence. Rev. Heng Sure has an M.A. in Oriental Languages from UC Berkeley, and a Ph.D. from the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley. He serves as the Managing Director of the Berkeley Buddhist Monastery and teaches on the staff at the Institute for World Religions. He lectures on the Avamtasak Sutra at the Berkeley Monastery every Saturday evening. He is actively involved in interfaith dialogue and in the ongoing conversation between spirituality and technology.
Dharma Master Chin He
Born in Spain, after receiving a Ph.D. in Chemistry, he came to the United States in 1997 to pursue postdoctoral studies at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. One year later he came upon Buddhism and discovered that it offered a very profound view of life, and a methodology to live it meaningfully. After working in Japan for three years and traveling extensively in Asia, in 2004 he decided to adventure into the Buddhist monastic life at the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas. He still considers himself a researcher, only that now he has gone deeper and broadened his field of interest.
Dr. Martin Verhoeven
Dr. Martin Verhoeven, when training under Venerable Master Hsuan Hua, also undertook the bowing pilgrimage dedicated to world peace with Reverend Heng Sure. He graduated with a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His areas of interest are the historical teachings of Buddhism and the process of religious acculturation. Dr. Verhoeven has studied and lectured extensively throughout Asia, Europe, the United States, and Canada. Currently, he is an adjunct professor of history and phenomenology of religion at the Graduate Theological Union (GTU) and Dharma Realm Buddhist University (DRBU). He also teaches a weekly meditation series at the Berkeley Buddhist Monastery every Friday evening.
Doug Powers
Mr. Douglas Powers hold an M.A. from GTU and a B.A. and an M.A.T. from the University of Redlands. He is Vice President of Dharma Realm Buddhist University and currently teaches Western Philosophy and Psychology at DRBU. Doug has also been teaching at Berkeley High School for over 30 years. An advocate to introducing Buddhism to high school students, he has been known to hold impromptu meditation sessions at the Berkeley Buddhist Monastery. Doug is another regular facilitator at the Berkeley student roundtable discussions.
Steven Tainer
Steven A. Tainer has studied Eastern contemplative traditions intensively since 1970 with many Tibetan, Chinese and Korean masters. After practicing for a number of years in both mountain retreats and ordinary life circumstances, he now teaches Buddhist, Taoist and Confucian fundamentals. His specialties are Indian Buddhist philosophy, the "Unity of the Three Traditions" in Chinese thought, Taoist yogic practice, and Ch'an contemplation. He is a core faculty member of the Kira Institute (www.kira.org ), which explores the interface between modern, scientifically-framed perspectives and matters involving human values. He is currently collaborating with his Kira colleagues on books dealing with these subjects. Working on behalf of his teachers, Mr. Tainer has been the coauthor or editor of over eighteen books on Buddhism and Taoism (including Dragon's Play, and Time, Space, Knowledge). A new series of books on his own meditation teaching is also in progress. He is currently teaching a course in Buddhist meditation every Wednesday evening at Berkeley Monastery.