Now Online: Sacred Earth Sangha

Sebene Selassie

Sebene Selassie is a writer, teacher, and speaker who leads meditation, creativity, and nature-based practices for personal and collective liberation. Using ancient wisdom and modern science mixed with her own relational and relatable style, Sebene helps spiritually curious people explore the profound and sacred truth of belonging. She is trained as a meditation teacher, an integral coach, a practitioner of Indigenous Focusing Oriented Therapy for Complex Trauma (IFOT), and is a licensed hiking guide in New York state.

Sebene has taught classes, workshops, and retreats online and in person for almost 15 years. She is a devoted student of mystic traditions, including astrology, and writes the popular newsletter Ancestors to Elements. She is author of the book You Belong: A Call for Connection.

Lin Wang Gordon

Lin has dedicated over a decade to studying insight meditation (Vipassana) and has recently deepened her practice through the Tibetan Dzogchen traditions. Through her meditation journey, she discovers the transformative power of Buddhist philosophy and practices to help live a life of flow, joy, wonder, and resilience.

She graduated from Mark Coleman’s Awake in the Wild Nature Meditation Teacher Training in 2017 and is currently enrolled in the Community Dharma Leaders Program (CDL7) at the Spirit Rock Meditation Center. Lin has gained experience leading ecodharma retreats and co-founded the Sacred Earth Sangha of the New York Insight Meditation Center. In addition to sharing earth-based practices and ecodharma, she hopes to guide others in meditation to foster inner transformation and cultivate a deeper sense of purpose and belonging in everyday life.

Lin has served on the Board of the New York Insight Meditation Center and the Rocky Mountain Ecodharma Retreat Center. linwanggordon.com

Jon Aaron

Jon Aaron is a Dharma and mindfulness teacher based in New York and Chicago. Since 2006, he has taught at the New York Insight Meditation Center, offering Dharma and MBSR classes. He regularly leads retreats around the U.S. He is primarily grounded in the Theravāda tradition, alongside non-dual and Mahayana approaches. His teaching emphasizes integrating Dharma and mindfulness into daily life to foster clarity in addressing personal and social challenges. His teachers include Matthew Flickstein and, more recently, Kittisaro and Thanissara through their Dharmapala program. Jon also studied contemplative care at the Zen Center for Contemplative Care and completed the Integrated Study and Practice program at the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies. He is a certified MBSR teacher and teacher trainer and a Somatic Experience Practitioner®. In response to the pandemic, he and his partner, Upayadhi, launched the Space2Meditate community, offering daily meditation since March 2020. Additionally, he co-hosts the podcast Diggin’ the Dharma with scholar Doug Smith, now in its third season. JonAaron.net

Stephen Roylance

Stephen Roylance has been birding since he was 10 and has since birded in Ecuador, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Panama, Alaska, and Newfoundland. He has witnessed birding migration patterns changing due to global warming. He first confronted the tragic relationship between birds and the destruction of the environment with the extinction of the Dusky Seaside Sparrow in 1987. Since then, he’s seen a decline of too many bird species. His personal experience in seeing this decline has led him to get in touch with the very real grief we all experience when we understand what global warming means for our planet. This grief, he believes, is the touchstone to action, but only if we allow ourselves to access it.