Prairie Sangha Teachers

Prairie Sangha Network Teachers

Sandra Hammond
Founding Teacher

Founding Teacher: Sandra Hammond

Sandra Hammond began the Prairie Sangha for Mindfulness Meditation in 1990 and has been teaching in our Prairie Sangha Network since 1997. She is a graduate of the first Community Dharma Leaders program at Spirit Rock Meditation Center. In the 1960s, she was one of the founders of the Boston Family Institute, and in the mid 1970s, introduced Character Work, which is a Dhamma-based form of investigating and healing one's life.

Sandra was a faculty member of the Family Institute of Chicago, Northwestern University, for many years. She's been a student of Tsoknyi Rinpoche for many years and also serves on Board of Directors of Pundarika Foundation which supports Rinpoche's activities; she is Director of Retreats for the Foundation. She is also a member of the Advisory Board of Mid America Dharma.

Guiding Teachers:

The Venerable Tsoknyi Rinpoche III has been teaching students around the world since 1990. He was recognized by His Holiness the 16th Gyalwang Karmapa as a reincarnation of Drubwang Tsoknyi, a renowned master of the Drukpa Kagyu and Nyingma lineages. To learn more about Tsoknyi Rinpoche, click on the Pundarika website. Click here to view an Interview with Tsoknyi Rinpoche published in the Pundarika Foundation Newsletter.

Carol Wilson, who is based at Insight Meditation Society in Barre, MA, and Guy Armstrong, who is based at Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Woodacre, CA, are our Guiding Teachers. They have taught the four day retreats at PSMM over the past 6 years. They, along with Ajahn Amaro, are the mentors of our resident teacher, Sandra Hammond.

Retreat Teachers:

Ginny Morgan is the current President of Mid America Dharma, has been a Board Member since 1995 and has been practicing meditation since 1977. She had worked as a play therapist for chronically and acutely ill children for many years. Recently she has been working exclusively for Dharma activities, specifically teaching, both for her local sangha and around the Midwest region, volunteering for Mid America Dharma, and helping create a Midwest Retreat Center. She is currently being mentored by Matthew Flickstein.

Myoshin Kelley has been meditating since 1975 and since 1995 has been teaching for the Insight Meditation Society (IMS) in the vipassana tradition. Myoshin began serious study in an ashram in India after trekking in Nepal, and practiced intensively with Sayadaw U Janaka, beginning at his monastery in Burma. She was ordained temporarily as a nun and learned much from the devotion and sincerity experienced living in a community of nuns. On a trip to Australia, she met and became the student of the Zen master Hogen Daido Yamahta, who gave her the name Myoshin, meaning "mystic beauty of heart/mind." More recently she has been sitting with Tsoknyi Rinpoche, a Tibetan Dzogchen master. Myoshi's "ecumenical" experience has helped her to develop a somewhat eclectic approach to her practice and teaching, recognizing that there are many practices that can be done in the service of liberation. Click here to view an Interview with Myoshin Kelley published in the Fall 2000 issue of Insight.

David Chernikoff is a Dhamma teacher from Boulder, CO and is also the Director of Education and Training for the Spiritual Eldering Institute. A former hospice director, he has taught widely about aging and dying.

Andrew Getz has been practicing meditation in the Vipassana tradition for 26 years. He spent several years in Asia where he studied under the guidance of U Pandita of Burma, and in the tradition of Ajahn Buddhadasa of Thailand. He has taught retreats at the Insight Meditation Society and Spirit Rock Meditation Center.