Our Meditation Instructors
Learn more about our meditation teachers John Baker, Barry Cunningham, Laura Read and Michael Kern. One-on-one meditation sessions also available.
John Baker
Founder & Meditation Instructor
As a close student of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, John Baker has been a practitioner and teacher of Buddhism for 49 years. He coedited Trungpa’s Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism and The Myth of Freedom and is the author of various articles. John was one of the co-founders and a principal teacher at the Westchester Buddhist Center in Irvington and New York Buddha Dharma (now Path of Awakening Buddhist Center). He also co-founded Naropa University, serving as its CEO for the first three years of its existence and as head of the Buddhist Studies program for five years. John also serves individuals as a life and executive coach. He has 23 years experience in business, selling the company he founded to a Fortune 500 firm.
Contact John to request one-on-one meditation instruction at john@pathofawakeningbuddhistcenter.org
Learn more about the books co-edited by John: The Myth of Freedom, Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism
Listen to a recent Zoom talk presentation on YouTube from 2020 by John Baker from the Ongoing Tuesday Online Buddhist Course on “Becoming a Dharmic Person”
Listen to a talk on YouTube by John Baker at New York Buddha Dharma from 2016 on "The Profound Treasury of The Ocean Of Dharma" - Beginning At The Beginning
View more meditation videos by John here.
Barry Cunningham
Meditation Instructor and Co-teacher of the online Buddhist Path of Awakening Course
Barry Cunningham was introduced to Buddhist study and practice at the New York Shambhala Center in 1995.Inspired by the teachings of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche and Tibetan Buddhism in general, he completed all of the Shambhala training levels in New York before moving to Westchester in 1999. He became involved with the Westchester Buddhist Center shortly after its founding in 2009 and participated in every Buddhist study course offered there, which included meditation instructor and teacher training programs. Subsequently, Barry was approved to teach meditation and Buddhist doctrine. Experience in group and solitary retreats fueled Barry’s inspiration to convey the teachings which he has done since 2015, providing individual meditation instruction, short dharma talks in a variety of settings, and co-teaching with John Baker for Westchester Buddhist Center and now Path of Awakening Buddhist Center. Barry lives in Irvington NY. Barry and is currently completing his ngöndro, the Vajrayana “preliminary” practices.
View a talk presented by Barry on “Meditation in Action and the Nine Stages of Shamatha” from the Buddhist Awakening Course here.
Email Barry for one-on-one meditation instruction and mentoring at barry@pathofawakeningbuddhistcenter.org
Michael Kern
Meditation Instructor and Co-teacher of the online Buddhist Path of Awakening Course
Michael Kern became a student of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche in 1978, receiving the Vajrayogini abhisheka in 1985, and is currently a student of Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche. He graduated in 1980 from Naropa University with an M.A. in Buddhist and Western Psychology and earned a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Colorado in 1986. He taught Child Development in the Naropa University program and worked for many years with children, adolescents and families in different clinical settings. Authorized as a meditation instructor in 1982, he has staffed and taught in a variety of programs both at land centers and local Shambhala centers. Since retiring in 2018, he has pursued Buddhist study every summer at Nitartha Institute and has attended pilgrimages to Bhutan and India. He has been a co-teacher with Path of Awakening for the past few years and currently lives in Connecticut.