Andy Douglas (andydouglas.net) received an MFA in Creative Writing from the Nonfiction Writing Program at the University of Iowa, where he was the recipient of the Marcus Bach Fellowship for Writing about Religion and Culture. His first book, The Curve of the World: Into the Spiritual Heart of Yoga, was published in 2013. InnerWorld published his second book, Redemption Songs: A Year in the Life of a Community Prison Choir, in April, 2019. He is active in prison, environmental and other social justice issues in Iowa City, where he lives. He is also active in the Community Sing movement.
Alok Joddha Hernandez studied literature and creative writing at the State University of New York at New Paltz, where he graduated magna cum laude and was selected by the honors program as one of the outstanding graduates of the year. Making his home now in California, Hernandez is currently writing a second novel exploring his own multi-ethnic heritage as well as a non-fiction book exploring the difficult and profound philosophy behind Yoga and meditation.
Devashish holds an MFA in fiction from San Diego State University, as well as degrees in music and psychology. He is the author of seven books and is currently at work on the sequel to his last novel, The Jazz Master, and a spiritual novel set in San Franscisco in the mid-fifties during the height of the Beat Generation. He divides his time between his farm in Brazil and his farm in Puerto Rico, where he has a yoga center and a tropical-fruit plantation.
Ramesh Bjonnes is cofounder of the Prama Institute, a holistic retreat center in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. He is a certified yoga health educator, a popular yoga columnist for the award-winning Elephant Journal, and a lecturer on yoga philosophy and history to yoga teachers and students in the United States and Europe. He has been practicing Tantric yoga and meditation since 1974.
Dada Gunamuktananda is a yogic monk and meditation teacher of Ananda Marga (www.anandamarga.org). He has been practicing and teaching meditation around the world for over 30 years and is the founding coordinator of the P.R. Sarkar Institute (www.prsinstitute.org). More information, media and content can be found on his website: www.consciousfrontier.org
Dada Maheshvarananda is a yoga monk, activist and writer. As a student, he adopted a radical approach to social change, and was inspired to become, in the words of Che Guevara, a "true revolutionary guided by great feelings of love."
In 1978 he became a monk in India, dedicating his life to the service of humanity; since then he has continuously worked in different parts of the world. He teaches meditation, yoga and other techniques for personal transformation free of charge, and the Progressive Utilization Theory or Prout, a post-capitalist model to empower people and communities to create a better world.
Steven Richheimer, Ph.D. is a retired research chemist who received his doctorate from Stanford University and has practiced tantric meditation for over fifty years. He is the author of numerous scientific papers and patents in the arena of natural products and the author of several books on science/spirituality including, The Unity Principle: The Link between Science and Spirituality; The Nonlocal Universe: How Science Validates the Spiritual Worldview; Reincarnation: Science of the Afterlife; and The Fallacy of Materialism: How Consciousness Creates the Material World and Why it Matters. He can be reached through his website: https://stevenrichheimer.com.
Dada Veda is a yoga monk, meditation instructor, singer-songwriter and social activist all rolled up in one orange robe. Social justice is one of Dada’s chief interests and it is evident not only in the lyrics of many of his songs but in his essays and lectures on important social issues. He is the author of From Brooklyn to Benares and Back, his memoirs. You can contact him at www.dadaveda.com.
Kathleen Kesson is a tenured Professor of Teaching, Learning and Leadership in the School of Education at LIU-Brooklyn, where she teaches courses in the foundations of education and teacher inquiry. Prior to her scholarly career, she was a professional dancer, actor, choreographer, teacher, and community activist. Her work appears in numerous academic journals including Educational Researcher, Teachers College Record, Encounter: Education for Meaning and Social Justice, the Journal of Critical Education Policy Studies, English Education, Journal of Curriculum Theorizing, Curriculum Inquiry, and the Journal of Unschooling and Alternative Learning. Her books include Curriculum Wisdom: Educational Decisions in Democratic Societies and Understanding Democratic Curriculum Leadership (both with James Henderson) and Defending Public Schools: Teaching for a Democratic Society (with Wayne Ross). Her academic interests are in the areas of democracy in education, critical pedagogy, spirituality and education, ecological education, aesthetics, and teacher inquiry and reflection. She divides her time between Brooklyn, New York, and Barre, Vermont, where she is deeply involved in research on personalized learning in Vermont schools.
Nancy “Niiti” Gannon has twenty-five years of experience in early childhood education. Her first educational publication was For Universal Minds, followed by three teachers’ guidebooks. She also authored a book on yoga psychology, Head in the Stars, Feet on the Ground, and a memoir, Meetings with My Master.
Angela Anandi Cossu is a trained anthropologist, a compassionate vegetarian, a writer, a yogi, and a dedicated chef. She has taught the culinary arts and has written about the relationship between food, culture, and history. After pursuing her doctoral studies at Brandeis University, she taught for ten years at Tufts University in Massachusetts. At present, she devotes her time to the cultivation of serenity and the writing of her first novel, Amadea and the Burro. The author of Alimentación Vegetariana, she lives with her husband and daughter, dividing her time between two enchanting islands: Puerto Rico and her native Sardinia.
Charles Paprocki has spent many years working with different populations in the human services system. He also owned a graphics and advertising agency in New York City where he combined his skill and knowledge to create social marketing campaigns. He was one of the core leaders to create the Universal PreK program in New York State and the local food movement in Illinois. His last work was to manage an organic farm in southern Illinois. He is currently working on a trilogy on the subjects of History, Ideology and Revolution. He is retired and living in Carbondale, Illinois.
Tom Paprocki spent his early years working in the human services system. He then served thirty years at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center as head of Personnel, Procurement, and Institutional Resources. He spent the last seven years as Director of Management Operations, which included facilities, acquisitions, environmental and health services, security, and logistics for research and launch facilities at Greenbelt, Maryland and Wallops Island, Virginia. He is currently writing the trilogy History, Ideology and Revolution with his brother, Chuck.
Born in Brooklyn N.Y. and raised on Long Island, Tony began his meditation practice while a student at Binghamton University, and since that time has continued faithfully meditating at least twice a day. He has taught classes in yoga and meditation at community centers, college campuses, fitness clubs, and in Asia. Tony was blessed with the privilege of personal contact with his spiritual Master in India, who continues to be his great inspiration, even after his passing.
When teaching classes, Tony would often photocopy excerpts from various books to give his students a complete picture of spiritual philosophy and practice. Many of these books presented meditation from one specific methodology or organizational path. Why not include all these methodologies in order to present a more expansive as well as deeper portrait of meditation and spirituality, and thus the impetus for this book was born. The writer welcomes your comments and feedback, as he has experienced that meditation class is not so much about him imparting content to students, but students teaching him about meditation & life by their devotional example.