About Teresa
Teresa started a peaceful abiding (śamathā) meditation practice in 2012 in order to deal with work stress from the sort of job that involves a pager and emergency calls in the middle of the night, and found it so effective and liberating that she continued seeking more wisdom from the lineage she received instruction in. She has taken vows in the vajrayana Nyingma, Karma Kagyü, and Shambhala lineages, and is a Shambhala Guide authorized to give initial śamathā meditation instruction in the Shambhala lineage.
Her root (and also heart) teacher is Yeshe Kaytup Rinpoche, her second heart teacher is Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, and has had the great fortune to have received instruction on meditation, personal liberation, emptiness, and compassion from senior students of the late Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche before having a child.
When she did have a child in an area with few other Buddhists, she was grateful for the nuggets of wisdom from fellow householder yogi sangha members, but found herself with few acquaintances with small children now. When she discovered another sangha family with a child around their age of hers, she was delighted, and happily followed one of the other parents in starting a children’s dharma program at the San Antonio Shambhala center. When Sumi Loundon Kim published her Sitting Together family curriculum, they immediately started using it and added parents’ classes concurrently with the children’s classes.
When the Covid-19 pandemic forced the local in-person program online, the founder of the family program with early childhood education experience figured out how to make the lessons engaging even online, and families from all around the US started attending. It wasn’t for every family (Zoom fatigue is real), but to fulfill the potential of an online community to connect compassionate, meditating families no matter how far from a meditation center they may live, Teresa started Compassionate Meditating Families to bring practicing families together.
We look forward to meeting your wisdom!