About the Teachers:

Dale Asrael has been a practitioner of meditation, Buddhism, and the Shambhala teachings for over 45 years. She became a student of Chögyam Trungpa, Rinpoche in 1973 and, after his death, continued to study with other teachers of Tibetan Buddhism. She also trained with the Zen teacher Charlotte Joko Beck during the last twelve years of her life.

Dale teaches dharma programs and leads meditation retreats internationally, and served as an Acharya (senior teacher) for twenty years. She is an authorized teacher of traditional Daoist qigong in the Xiantianwujimen lineage of Eva Wong.   

Dale is a Professor at Naropa University, where she founded and is the lead teacher for Naropa University Mindfulness Instructor Training, which just completed its twentieth annual cycle of training programs.

Her writing is published as chapters in three anthologies: “Love of Wisdom Puts You on the Spot” in Meditation in the Classroom, “No Hidden Corners” in Shadows and Light and “Compassionate Abiding” in Brilliant Sanity.

Gaylon Ferguson, Ph.D., has led group meditation retreats since 1976. He taught at Stanford, the University of Washington, and Naropa University, where he was a Core Faculty Member for fifteen years. The author of two books, Natural Wakefulness (on the four foundations of mindfulness) and Natural Bravery (on fear and fearlessness as path to manifesting bravery), his articles have appeared in Lion’s Roar, Tricycle, and Buddhadharma magazine. He contributed the foreword to the pioneering collection Black and Buddhist: What Buddhism Can Teach Us About Race, Resilience, Transformation and Freedom (Shambhala, 2020).