Matteo Pistono is a writer, meditation teacher, and conscious breathing guide. His Breathe How You Want to Feel: Your Breathing Tool Kit for Better Health, Restorative Sleep, and Deeper Connection is a how-to book for upgrading your nervous system to live your optimal life physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Matteo has authored numerous books including, Meditation: Coming To Know Your Mind, Fearless in Tibet and In The Shadow of the Buddha. He teaches concsious breathing and meditation to individuals and groups in-person as well as online.

Matteo began his spiritual journey over 30 years ago while living in Nepal and Tibet. Informed by his study of Buddhism, Vedanta, and Hatha Yoga, extensive periods of solitary meditation, and pilgrimages across sacred Himalayan landscapes, Matteo offers an engaged approach to ancient wisdom traditions. Matteo maintains a daily yoga asana, pranayama, and meditation practice.

Matteo earned a Masters in Indian Philosophy from the University of London, and his writings have appeared in The Washington Post, BBC, Buddhadharma, Tricycle, Men’s Journal, Kyoto Journal, and HIMAL South Asia.

Matteo and his wife surf and ride mountaiin bikes from their home in Southern California.

Henry Shukman is a teacher in the Sanbo Zen lineage and has trained in various other meditation schools and practices. After a spontaneous spiritual awakening at the age of 19, he embarked on a long journey of healing and deeper awakening, guided by Roshis John Gaynor, Joan Rieck, Ruben Habito, and Yamada Roshi, international abbot of Sanbo Zen, who ultimately appointed him a teacher in 2010. Since then he has been leading a growing number of practitioners on the path of awakening, in Europe and the US. He has also been authorized to teach Mindfulness by Shinzen Young, and is a certified dreamwork therapist. He is the Spiritual Director Emeritus of Mountain Cloud Zen Center in Santa Fe, New Mexico. To learn more please visit: www.henryshukman.com.

Impromptu talk given at Menla on Easter Saturday 2024 to a gathering of Yogi/nis.