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.

Ajahn Guna (or called Bhante Guna) was born in a small Indiana farming town near Chicago in 1974. In 1987 he moved to the San Francisco Bay Area. He finished his B.A. degree in Jazz Piano Performance at the Berklee School of Music in Boston in 1996. He first came to Abhayagiri in 1998 where he was introduced to the Ajahn Chah Tradition. He went to ordain in Thailand at Wat Pah Nanachat later in 1998 and received Bhikkhu ordination in 2000 at Wat Nong Pah Pong, Ajahn Chah's monastery, with Luang Por Liem as his preceptor. Since then he has lived with many of the senior disciples of Ajahn Chah, such as Ajahn Anan at Wat Marp Jan and Ajahn Pasanno. After 10 years of living in Thailand, he returned to Abhayagiri in May 2009 and currently resides at Berkeley Buddhist Monastery. Ajahn Guna helps Bhikkhu Bodhi with his charity called Buddhist Global Relief as BGR Representative of Northern California--giving talks and helping organize BGR events such as Walk to Feed the Hungry. His mother is also a Theravadin Buddhist nun. 

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

Dr. Amelia Barili graduated in 1972 from Kaivalyadhama Yoga Institute in India, with a Diploma on Comparative Philosophy of Religions and Classical Yoga and has taught yoga philosophy for many years. She is a disciple of Grandmaster Yang Mei Jun, the 27th generation inheritor of the Taoist Medical Qigong system, and has also studied other forms of Qigong. Dr. Barili, a faculty member of UC Berkeley and the Dharma Realm Buddhist University, has brought these ancient contemplative practices into the academic environment and teaches meditative techniques as tools to overcome stress and foster deep learning. She has co-lead retreats with physicist Fritjof Capra on "The Emerging Consciousness" and with abbot Ajahn Amaro on "Entering the Now."  

At UC Berkeley, in her course "Borges, Buddhism, and Cognitive Science," she begins each class with brief meditations to foster the students' ability to focus and observe their minds. She also teaches "Borges on Buddhism and Buddhism in Borges" and "Borges, Buddhism and Dreams" at OLLI (Osher Life-Long Learning Institute) for the Berkeley adult community. At the Berkeley Buddhist Monastery, she has taught the classical 2.500 year-old treatise "The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali," and continues to teach the semester-long session "Integrating Classical Yoga and Taoist Qigong" on Monday nights. 

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 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.