Carla Brennan is an Insight Meditation teacher and offers a monthly Zoom drop-in meditation group, occasional retreats and other programs with the Bloom of the Present Sangha. She is a visiting teacher with the Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Woodacre, CA and other Dharma Centers. She founded Bloom of the Present Insight Meditation in 2013.
Carla began meditation practice in 1975 in the Zen tradition and was a student of Korean Zen Master Seung Sahn in Cambridge, MA. A few years later she began attending the newly formed Insight Meditation Society, completing many retreats with Jack Kornfield, Joseph Goldstein and others. Later she added the Tibetan Buddhist practice of Dzogchen with Lama Surya Das, Lama John Makransky, Tsoknyi Rinpoche and Anam Thubten Rinpoche. In the early 90’s, Carla began attending wilderness retreats with John Milton and Sacred Passage, completing 2 one-month solo retreats near Crestone, CO, and training to be a Sacred Passage Guide. As part of her regular teaching she offers meditation in nature and encourages her students to open to the wisdom of the natural world.
Carla has also worked as an artist and illustrator and is a former psychotherapist and counselor trainer in Psychosynthesis (a transpersonal psychology). She has taught Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction for 18 years. Her personal spiritual practice also includes qi gong and hatha yoga. Carla is a nature photographer and delights in exploring the natural world with the eye of an artist (carlabrennan.com).
