MMTCP

MMTCP Connect 2025 - Annual all-alumni gathering (virtual)
2025-11-15 - 2025-11-16
MMTCP Connect 2025: One Heart, Many Voices – our second annual all-alumni gathering (virtual) will be a weekend full of inspiration and community. More details coming soon!

When:
November 15 from 11 am – 3 pm ET
November 15 from 5:30 – 9:30 /10 pm ET
November 16 from 10:30 am – 4 pm ET

We are finalizing topics with the speakers and additional session details and will share that soon. Sessions are spread out throughout the weekend to allow peers in the Asia/Pacific region to join us live.

Some highlights:

James Baraz – 11/15 at 11 am ET

Kaira Jewel Lingo – 11/15 at 1:30 pm ET

Jack Kornfield – 11/15 at 5:30 pm ET

Bhikkhu Bodhi – keynote address 11/15 at 7:00 pm ET

Tara Brach – 11/16 at 11:30 am ET

We will also have other speakers and feature an alumni panel, our fabulous sangha leaders. and fun being-in-community sessions to get to know each other.

Check the MMTCP Connect 2025 tab on our homepage for the most current information.

We look forward to seeing you!

Mentor-led Session | Imee Contreras
2025-11-18 19:00 - 20:15 (America/New_York)
Led by MMTCP Mentors, these sessions offer a place for you to bring any and all of your teaching and practice questions and to be in sangha with alumni peers. In each session, mentors will offer a short talk and then offer guidance and wisdom for whatever is coming up for you – much like we had in peer groups.

This session will be led by Imee Contreras and is and is from 7 – 8:15 pm ET; the Zoom link is here

More about Imee Contreras
Imee first discovered meditation over thirty years ago, at 16 years old, around the time when she faced one of the most impactful crossroads in her life. She spent a large part of her younger years growing up in the United States and is now based in her motherland; the Philippines. After decades of searching, she discovered a true sense of belonging in nature, motherhood, yoga therapy, meditation practice and the Dharma.
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She mentors with a unique blend of traditional yet progressive, Eastern yet Western, and gentle yet firm approach. She works in Buddhist, secular, and cross-cultural settings that intertwine harmoniously within the mindfulness field. She believes that everything belongs when exploring one’s own mind and heart. Hence, it takes courageous and compassionate enthusiasm to meet ourselves fully. She loves engaging in relaxed, meaningful conversations that build relationship and cultivate connection.

She’s a mom to two boys whom she aspires to raise as respectful, kind, and dignified human beings. She loves dancing to live music, nature hikes and campfires, and soaking in warm ocean waters. She’s a health and wellness advocate, an organic gardener, and a yoga therapist.
Learn more about Imee and her offerings here

Trauma Sensitive Mindfulness Teachers Sangha
2025-11-18 21:00 - 22:00, 2025-12-16 21:00 - 22:00
Please join us for an hour to explore and share the ways in which we show up in the world as trauma sensitive mindfulness teachers. This meeting will be held monthly on the 3rd Tuesday of the month from 9-10pm Eastern. Here is the Zoom link; you can also use the following credentials:Meeting ID: 811 4289 6909Passcode: [REDACTED]

Plant-based Foods Exploration
2025-11-20 21:00 - 22:00, 2025-12-18 21:00 - 22:00
Monthly gathering the 3rd Thursdays at 7 pm EST to discuss individual plant-based journeys, along with teaching about plant-based lifestyles.

Mindfulness and Nonviolent Communication
2025-11-21 13:00 - 14:30, 2025-12-19 13:00 - 14:30
Meeting time is 1 pm ET. Please note that in November and December we will be meeting on the 3rd Friday of the month, which is different than our typical 4th Friday schedule.

Grief Workshop | Lama Rod Owens
2025-11-22 12:00 - 15:00
Grief can take many forms and is a response to many types of losses; grief also shows up in many areas of our lives – personal, collective, political, social, etc. We are living in intense times and tending to our own grief and helping those we work with can feel overwhelming. Lama Rod will guide us in our capacity to notice, allow, hold and experience our grief so that we can find our way of it skillfully. This workshop will also help build our capacity to support others through their grief journey with tools and practices we can utilize.

This session is from 12 – 3 pm ET; the Zoom link is here

In March 2025, Lama Rod led us in a session on Peace and Healing in a Divided World. A recording of this is available under Events–>Recordings of Past Events

More about Lama Rod Owens

Lama Rod Owens is an international influencer with a Master of Divinity degree in Buddhist Studies from Harvard Divinity School with a focus on the intersection of social change, identity, and spiritual practice. Author of The New Saints: From Broken Hearts to Spiritual Warriors and Love and Rage: The Path of Liberation through Anger and co-author of Radical Dharma: Talking Race, Love and Liberation, his teachings center on freedom, self-expression, and radical self-care. Highly sought after for talks, retreats, and workshops, his mission is showing you how to heal and free yourself. Learn more about Lama Rod and his offerings here.

LGBTQIA+ November Sangha!
2025-11-24 20:00 - 21:00
Join us in gratitude on Monday, November 24th at 8PM ET for a session led by 2025 cohort member, David Castonguay-Boisvert. We will gather in this Zoom room:
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81193401080?pwd=[REDACTED]

Hope to see you for some or all of the session as our year winds down!

Mindful in Nature
2025-11-26 19:00 - 20:00
Monthly Mindful in Nature Sangha meeting. This session will be lead by Philip and is from 7 – 8 pm ET

We look forward to seeing you!

Mentor-led Session | Rio Ellett
2025-12-02 11:00 - 12:15
Led by MMTCP Mentors, these sessions offer a place for you to bring any and all of your teaching and practice questions and to be in sangha with alumni peers. In each session, mentors will offer a short talk and then offer guidance and wisdom for whatever is coming up for you – much like we had in peer groups.

This session will be led by Rio Ellett and is from 11 am – 12:15 pm ET; the Zoom link is here
More About Rio
Rio Ellett (they/them) has been practicing meditation since their teens, studying with the sanghas of Thich Nhat Hanh, Spirit Rock Meditation Center, and Insight Meditation Society during years of intensive retreat practice. They began teaching meditation to young adults and environmental activists in 2013, and have since facilitated several sitting groups in Europe, including LGBTQIA+ sanghas. In 2014, they were ordained into Thich Nhat Hanh’s Order of Interbeing. They’ve been a MMTCP Mentor since 2021.
Influenced by their own experiences of disability (cystic fibrosis), trauma, and queerness, Rio is passionate about making dharma teachings accessible and welcoming to those with non-normative experiences, as well as creating safe(r) spaces. Their teaching style emphasizes easefulness, acceptance, and simplicity, as well as the practice of sangha and community building. They have roots in New Zealand and Germany and will offer groups in English and German.
Rio is a parent since 2022 and is finding parenthood to be the most challenging and transformative practice as of yet. They love tending their garden, traveling, being in the forest, and not taking themselves too seriously.

Brahmaviharas Sangha
2025-12-03 12:00 - 13:30
RSVP! Pls note: new date. Pls plan to stay for the entire session. We’ll be writing and exploring Equanimity! Zoom link below! Check out my newest Blog & pics!
——
Linda HIRSCH is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Topic: Linda HIRSCH’s Zoom Meeting
Time: Dec 3, 2025 12:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82871026418?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 828 7102 6418
Passcode: [REDACTED]
—

RISE-Refuge and Inspiration Sangha for teachers/Educators
2025-12-03 19:00 - 20:30
in beloved community of fellow like- minded/hearted teachers/educators, we cultivate Habits of the Heart, find Refuge and Inspiration for ourselves, and explore ways to take these practices to enrich the lives of others within the communities we serve. (part of a fall series of Healing the Heart of Democracy (and our own hearts!) All welcome!

White Awareness Sangha
2025-12-04 13:00 - 14:00
First of all, we welcome 2025 graduates to our on-going sangha. We began during our training in 2021 and continued into the alumni association. Some members are not part of the alumni association and they are welcome to join.
Our next meeting will be on the first Thursday of the month at 1:00 PM ET which is our normal time.
The zoom will come in an email a day or two before the event..
Metta,
Jerome
415-299-0428

Jerome Freedman, Ph. D., C.M.T, O. I.
jerome@mountainsangha.org
http://mountainsangha.org

Mindful Journaling, Mindful Writing
2025-12-07 11:30 - 12:30
“It’s a wrap”, 2025 that is”.
We will meet the first Sunday in December instead of the second this month.
“It’s a wrap”, 2025 that is. Let’s begin to close the year in writing.
Mindful Journaling lets you discover your deeper thoughts, create your world, process your feelings or simply pay with words.
We will be mindful and journal-ful again together on Sunday, December 7, at 11:30am/EST.
You are welcome as a dedicated journal-er and as a new journal-er.
Feel free to email if you wonder about this Sangha: audreybloom@bellsouth.net
Audrey
Next Meeting: Sunday, December 7, at 11:30AM/EST.
Join Zoom Meeting;
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89079623957?pwd=[REDACTED]

Awakening Together Sangha
2025-12-07 19:00 - 20:30
Monthly gathering with Jerome hosting. Please join us as we explore awakening together. Zoom Sangha Link

Disability Affinity Sangha
2025-12-09 14:30 - 16:00
We meet the 2nd Tuesday of every month from 2:30-4pm ET. We are an affinity group that is open to alumni who have a disability, including a chronic medical condition. Prior to attending your first group, please read our sangha page. Here’s the zoom link: https://cuboulder.zoom.us/j/94776947948

Asia Sangha
2025-12-14 10:00 - 11:30
Monthly Online Meetup. Second Sunday of every month For anyone from, living in, connected to and / or interested in Asian cultural context of practice

Mentor-led Session | Carole Melkonian
2025-12-16 19:00 - 20:15
Led by MMTCP Mentors, these sessions offer a place for you to bring any and all of your teaching and practice questions and to be in sangha with alumni peers. In each session, mentors will offer a short talk and then offer guidance and wisdom for whatever is coming up for you – much like we had in peer groups.

This session will be led by Carole Melkonian and is from 7:00 – 8:15 pm ET; the Zoom link is here

More About Carole
Carole Melkonian has been practicing meditation for decades. In 1980, she spent 4 years in residence at Zen Mountain Monastery under the guidance of John Daido Loori and then 12 years studying closely with Thich Nhat Hanh, helping start his publishing company, Parallax Press. She has attended many three-month Winter Retreats at Chithurst and Amaravati monasteries and dedicated all of 2015 to practice meditation at monasteries in England and America.
She draws inspiration most deeply from the nuns and monks in the Forest Tradition of Luang Por Chah and is especially drawn to the teachings of Ajahn Sucitto and former nun Willa Thaniya Reid, with whom she continues to study.

In her meditation practice, she emphasizes embodiment, metta/loving friendliness, and energy-based body work (qi gong and yoga). To the ebbs and flows of daily life, she directly applies the liberating teachings of the Buddha. She encourages bringing faith, curiosity and kindness to meditation practice and life. She lives with her partner Thomas in Portland, Oregon.

LGBTQIA+ December '25 Gathering
2025-12-22 20:00 - 21:00
Let’s close out this year with some gratitude! Join us for our final sangha gathering of 2025 as we hold space for the theme of “Remembering Gratitude: A way to see clearly in troubling times.” Rita will guide us on Monday, Dec. 22, 2025 from 8-9 PM ET in this Zoom room: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/4049152340 Hope to see you there!

RISE: Refuge/Inspiration and Habits of the Heart
2026-01-04 12:00 - 13:30
Winter/spring series of monthly sessions on how Mindfulness can serve to heal our own hearts and the Heart of Democracy. We explore how Habits of the Heart can serve to ground, inspire and resource ourselves so that we can best contribute and serve our communities and world.
We will kick off the new year with a session on Sunday, Jan. 4 from 12 – 1:30 pm ET
The Zoom link is here – https://us02web.zoom.us/j/6770705919

MCMT Sangha: Opening to New Possibility - A New Year Practice
2026-01-10 12:00 - 13:30
Opening to New Possibility: A New Year Practice offers a gentle, spacious pause at the beginning of the year—an opportunity to slow down, listen inwardly, and reconnect with what matters most beneath habit, pressure, and expectation. Drawing from Buddhist teachings, accessible insights from neuroscience, and a deeply guided, trauma-sensitive meditation practice, this 90-minute live gathering invites participants to meet their experience with awareness and compassion, creating conditions for clarity and fresh possibility to emerge in their own time. Through reflection and shared inquiry, we’ll explore how listening itself becomes a doorway to wisdom, steadiness, and a more grounded way of meeting the year ahead.
Please join with your camera ON, if at all possible, and bring paper and pen for journaling.
Hope you can join us!

MINDFUL WRITING
2026-01-11 11:30 - 12:30
Mindful Journaling lets you discover your deeper thoughts, create your world, process your feelings or simply play with words. Everyone welcome.
We will be mindful and journal-ful together this new year on Sunday, January, at 11th at 11:30am/EST.
You are welcome as a dedicated writer or as a new journal-er.
Feel free to email if you wonder about this Sangha: audreybloom@bellsouth.net

Mentor-led Session | Rio Ellett
2026-01-13 11:00 - 12:15
Led by MMTCP Mentors, these sessions offer a place for you to bring any and all of your teaching and practice questions and to be in sangha with alumni peers. In each session, mentors will offer a short talk and then offer guidance and wisdom for whatever is coming up for you – much like we had in peer groups.

This session will be led by Rio Ellett and is from 11 am – 12:15 pm ET (rescheduled from December 2); the Zoom link is here
More About Rio
Rio Ellett (they/them) has been practicing meditation since their teens, studying with the sanghas of Thich Nhat Hanh, Spirit Rock Meditation Center, and Insight Meditation Society during years of intensive retreat practice. They began teaching meditation to young adults and environmental activists in 2013, and have since facilitated several sitting groups in Europe, including LGBTQIA+ sanghas. In 2014, they were ordained into Thich Nhat Hanh’s Order of Interbeing. They’ve been a MMTCP Mentor since 2021.
Influenced by their own experiences of disability (cystic fibrosis), trauma, and queerness, Rio is passionate about making dharma teachings accessible and welcoming to those with non-normative experiences, as well as creating safe(r) spaces. Their teaching style emphasizes easefulness, acceptance, and simplicity, as well as the practice of sangha and community building. They have roots in New Zealand and Germany and will offer groups in English and German.
Rio is a parent since 2022 and is finding parenthood to be the most challenging and transformative practice as of yet. They love tending their garden, traveling, being in the forest, and not taking themselves too seriously.

LGBTQIA+ Sangha
2026-01-22 20:00 - 21:00
Happy New Year dear Sangha! We kick off our first gathering of the year on Thursday, January 22nd from 8PM ET-9PM ET. Alyssa will guide us on the theme, “Making Space: What are you inviting in for 2026?” Come join us with a word, a theme, or a phrase about what you’re calling in for the near future. Join us in the Zoom room for all or part of the session:
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81193401080?pwd=[REDACTED]

Hope to see you there!

Mindful Nonviolent Communication
2026-01-23 13:00 - 14:30
Happy New Year, Sangha! Please join us for our first 2026 monthly meeting with guest facilitator, Sunil Joseph. Sunil will present on how to use NVC to transform shame into remorse with the power of empathy.
——
“If you put shame in a Petri dish, it needs three things to grow exponentially: secrecy, silence, and judgment. If you put the same amount of shame in a petri dish and douse it with empathy, it can’t survive.” — Brené Brown
——
Join us in using our practice to bring light to corners too long in the dark…

Mentor-led Session | Deb Kerr
2026-01-27 19:00 - 20:30
These sessions offer a place for you to bring any and all of your teaching and practice questions and to be in sangha with alumni peers. In each session, mentors will offer a short talk, lead a reflective or practice exercise and then offer guidance and wisdom for any questions you have – much like we had in peer groups. This session is from 7 – 8:30 pm ET and will be led by Deb Kerr; Zoom link is here.

Please note: these sessions are not recorded. Now more than ever we need to be in community and though we can’t be together in person, please join us live for this valuable sangha.

more about Deb Kerr
Debra Kerr (she/her) identifies as a cisgender heterosexual white woman living with a disability. She is a partner, mother, grandmother, and retired speech pathologist who has meditated since 1991 and taught since 2002. Deb loves being in nature, community building, scuba diving, juggling, music, and humor. A graduate of Spirit Rock’s Community Dharma Leaders Program, Deb is a Core Teacher at East Bay Meditation Center, where she also guides the Every Body Every Mind Sangha for people with disabilities and chronic illnesses. Her meditation practice is influenced by both Theravada and Dzogchen teachings. Deb is dedicated to waking up as much as possible, and to using the tools of Buddhist practice to dismantle racism and other forms of oppression and exclusion. She loves maximizing well-being and human potential through the practices of lovingkindness, compassion, and wisdom.

Brahmaviharas -
2026-01-28 12:00 - 13:30
– I wish you, your families and friends wellbeing, inspiration and peace of mind throughout and beyond 2026. May our sangha bring us together more often in meaningful exchanges of insight, resources, ways to embrace and teach the 4 Divine Abodes.
– I would like to sit together on a date and a time that suit more of you. Last Wednesdays, noon-1:30 pm EST are not ideal for those of you who work full-time. I would appreciate your feedback, regarding preferred days and times, going forward.
– Until and unless I hear from those of you are listed as Members of this sangha, I will continue to open my portal on the last Wed./mo., noon-1:30 pm EST. Next session: Wed., January 28th. Rf: Zoom Link below. I am hoping to bring a delightful, unique guest speaker on this date; stay tuned for further details. (image: Aspiration (c) Linda J. Hirsch, 2018/2025. All Rts. Rsvd.)
Happy, Meaningful New Year to All!
Linda (508.202.2923)
Zoom Link:
Linda HIRSCH is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Topic: Linda HIRSCH’s Zoom Meeting
Time: Jan 28, 2026 12:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84136844470?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 841 3684 4470
Passcode: [REDACTED]

Mindful in Nature
2026-01-28 19:00 - 20:00
Greetings friends, we look forward to seeing you at this link for mindful in nature sangha!
https://meet.google.com/fmp-yofm-wsg
