Wrathful Guru Rinpoche, by Jamyong Singye

The Teachers

Les Visages de l'Amour - The Ways of Love

There is an urgent need in humanity today to develop a more compassionate, joyous and loving way to interact with each other and ourselves. Our teachers offer help to trigger the insights necessary to recognize one's own unique path without enhancing habits of limitation and insecurity. Joy and peace are incorporated as positive forces in this path, as well as a heightened sense of the sacredness and dignity of every individual.

Shahabuddin Less
Mukesh Desai
Gayan Long
Anna Less
Jamyong Singye
Sharifa Norton
Vajra Barbara Schmitz
Yves Oberlin
Jonathan Freilich

Shahabuddin Less

Shahabbuddin Less has been a senior teacher in the Sufi Order International for over 30 years. Shahabuddin leads workshops and seminars worldwide. He brings a depth of spiritual insight and profound attunement to his teachings. Students benefit from his compassionate nature, broad knowledge and gentle humor. He is founder of Rising Tide International, a center devoted to uniting the heart of all religions.

Pandit Mukesh Desai

Pandit Mukesh Desai is a disciple of Pandit Jasraj, and is a world renowned classical Hindustani musician. His love and devotion is evident in everything he does, but never more passionately than when he shares his music and himself. Pandit Mukesh's musical talent is eclipsed only by his delightful sense of humor which makes him one of the most beloved teachers of music around the world.

Gayan Long

Gayan Long is a master drummer with seventeen recording credits, including two CDs of his own. He has performed at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival and the Cathedral of Saint John's the Divine in New York City. Gayan has been leading and drumming for the Dances of Universal Peace for fifteen years. He drums and teaches regularly in the Western United States, Russia, Europe, Canada, and South America. Gayan is on staff at Colorado State University as the musical accompanist for modern dance classes and also serves as the music director for the Whole Life Church. Steeped deeply in the Sufi Ruhaniat and Shambhala Tibetan Buddhist paths, he has staffed and lead spiritual retreats/camps for seventeen years. With students around the world, Gayan's teaching and leadership style is inclusive, enthusiastic, supportive, and effective.Back to Top

Anna Less

Anna Less is a senior teacher in the Sufi Order, and co-director of Rising Tide International. She is one of the few Westerners to hold a Ph.D. in Traditional Chinese Medicine, which she was granted by Zhejiang College of Medicine in Hangzhou, China. Anna brings a deep understanding of the mystical underpinnings of physical form, and an ability to relate the subtleties of the spiritual path to our every day lives.

Jamyong Singye

Jamyong Singye is a master painter in the Karma Gardri style of Tibetan art. Formerly a Tibetan Buddhist monk for 27 years, Singye practices the profundly spiritual and meditative art of Tibet with deep understanding of the tradition and with exquisite results. Singye has works in collections worldwide, and his mastery has been recognized by many, includind His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Jamyong Singye has been faithfully carrying on the Karma Gardri lineage by teaching in the San Francisco area and throughout the world since 1983. Singye, master Thangka painter and scholar, shares his great knowledge of Tibetan art by teaching, lecturing and consulting.

end Singye

Sharifa Felicia Norton

Sharifa Felicia Norton is co-founder and coordinator of the Sufi Center in New York City, has offered retreats and workshops for many years and serves as a senior teacher and as Director of the Ziraat activity of the Sufi Order International in North America (www.Ziraat.org). She has taught at Omega Institute, Aegis Institute, Lehman College, CUNY, and currently at the United Nations International School in NYC. As a professional dancer she has performed solo dance works throughout the US, Canada, Europe, Central America and Asia.

Vajra Barbara Schmitz

Vajra Barbara Schmitz studied with Allen Ginsberg at Naropa Institute and taught writing at Northeast college for thirty years. She has published two full-length poetry collections, from Sandhills Press and Backwaters Press, and she has recently finished a memoir about her inner and outer travels with Shahabuddin.

Marguerite Barnett

Marguerite Barnett has been a Temple Dancer and teacher her whole life. Her dancing expresses the beauty of the sacred in manifestation. In her other lives, she is a surgeon and owner of a spa, bringing beauty to the body as well as the soul.

Yves Oberlin

Yves’ understanding of yoga is based on nearly 20 years of personal practice and study with some of the best yoga instructors in the world including Gabriella Giubilaro and Manouso Manos. He has also studied with the Iyengar family in Poona India as well as with the great yogi and meditation master Swami Sunderanand of Gangotri. Yves is a certified Iyengar teacher.

Jonathan Freilich

Jonathan Freilich will be joining us from New Orleans to assist in the yoga classes. He has studied yoga for the last fifteen years and the combination of his experience and warm-heart makes him an ideal yoga teacher, for the beginner and the advanced.