Claudia Hansson, Director
My background includes a Catholic upbringing and education including the Jesuits at the University of Santa Clara. My experiences with meditation led me to Buddhism where I worked with Dan Jorgensen and then Ken McLeod. I was authorized to teach in 2005 and completed Ken McLeod’s three-year teacher development program. I co-taught retreats with Dan Jorgensen for 20 years. Dan passed away in April 2020. He supported and mentored me throughout his life and I continue to carry his legacy. Ken McLeod has taught, pushed, and nurtured both my practice and my teaching. I realize what a rare gift I have received and honor it by teaching students with compassion and integrity.
My career background is in research and teaching psychology and sociology. After a number of years, I moved into administration working as a dean and a vice-president of student services. I took early retirement and opened a neurofeedback clinic which I co-owned and operated for 10 yrs. before turning to full-time dharma teaching. I have been working individually with students for over 10 yrs.
Contact me at [email protected]
The following individuals have recently completed the Curl of the Wave Teacher Development Program under the direction of Claudia Hansson and can be contacted by email.
Richard Owings
I am originally from Minnesota and while in college in the early seventies, I learned meditation from a Hindu Yogi. Yogic meditation is similar to Shamata meditation where one focuses attention on the breath while additionally reciting a mantra and focusing on the body’s energy channels and chakras. When I first moved to California in 1985, I learned chanting in the Nichiren Daishonin tradition. I have been practicing Buddhist meditation in the Karma Kagu tradition for the last thirteen years and have been a student of Claudia Hansson for the last nine years. I completed the three-year teacher training program conducted by Claudia and Dan Jorgensen to teach Shamata, Vipassana, and Mahamudra meditation. I am in my third year of a master’s in Divinity program at Naropa University where I am studying Buddhist philosophy, meditation, and spiritual care with a Buddhist orientation. I also completed a one-year Mindfulness Instructor Training program at Naropa with an emphasis on understanding the special issues between trauma and meditation. I work with beginning and experienced students.
Rebecca Krause-Hardie
As a youngster I was drawn to what- I would call now – the path of awakening or freedom. My interest has always been in the ‘doing part’. That is, how do we actually experientially wake up, and in particular as a natural part of our daily life. As a professional classical musician, I’ve come to see how similar the practices are in key ways, and how many lessons learned are transferable. Similarly, as a student of Yang Style Tai Chi for many years as well as the Alexander Technique, these practices also inform my approach to teaching. One of the great blessings of the Buddhist path, is that the path itself is so well laid out for us, though there are many ways that can help us respond to the ‘calling’ we have in our souls. Books that have been close to my heart include The Cloud of Unknowing, The Pilgrims Progress, Silver River, and The Inner Life. My primary teachers have been Martin Smith and Claudia Hansson, Carol Yamasaki, Maggie Newman and Jon Bernie.
Beth Johnson
I draw on my own experience of trauma to help students be at home in the body and clear obstacles to awakening. My teaching style incorporates an emphasis on embodiment, creativity, and engagement with the natural world. I work with meditation students who want to follow the traditional Dharma path, and also teach DharmaYoga—a blend of hatha yoga and Buddhist mindfulness, lead creative writing workshops using the AWA method, and facilitate psychospiritual exploration through SoulCollage. I am grateful to all my teachers; especially Dan Jorgensen, Lama Yeshe Jinpa, and Claudia Hansson. My main practice is Mahamudra. I am an aspiring poet, painter, and potter who lives in the Sacramento Valley.
