Meet the CCN Teachers

Our Principal Teachers

Meet

Lama B. Alan Wallace, PhD

Lama Alan Wallace is one of the world’s leading scholars, writers, and teachers of Tibetan Buddhism, and an outspoken advocate for a revolution in the mind sciences, one that will replace the current paradigm of materialist reductionism with a new paradigm based on contemplative methods of inquiry into the nature and potentials of the mind.

With more than 40 years of formal studies in the Indo-Tibetan tradition (including 14 years as a monastic) and prestigious degrees from Amherst College and Stanford, he is uniquely qualified to bridge the gap between modern science and the time-tested approaches to contemplative practice preserved by multiple lineages. A student of the Dalai Lama and many other renowned teachers, Lama Alan has authored and translated more than 40 books on the philosophy of consciousness, Tibetan Buddhism and applied contemplative practice.

Detailed biography: https://www.alanwallace.org/about-alan-wallace/

Books by Dr. B. Alan Wallace: https://www.alanwallace.org/writings/books/

Meet

Eva Natanya, PhD

A scholar of Indian and Tibetan Buddhism, Christian theology, and comparative religion, Eva (known to our dharma community as Yangchen) has served in many capacities as a spiritual teacher, academic lecturer, translator and editor of Tibetan texts, scholarly writer, and retreat leader.

Following a nine-year career as a professional ballet dancer with both the New York City Ballet and the Royal Ballet of England, she earned an MA in Christian Systematic Theology at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California, and a PhD in Religious Studies from the University of Virginia. She has worked closely with Lama Alan Wallace on his translations for several books, including Open Mind and Fathoming the Mind, and has co-taught meditation retreats with Lama Alan around the world.

In a Christian context, Eva co-authored Living Resurrected Lives: What It Means and Why It Matters with Veronica Mary Rolf. She has spent more than three years in solitary meditation retreat, and remains in residence at Miyo Samten Ling, guiding fellow retreatants in the details of contemplative training.

Meet

Glen Svensson

Glen has been a student and practitioner of Tibetan Buddhism since 1995 and graduated from the seven-year Masters Program in Advanced Buddhist Studies of Sutra and Tantra at Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa (Pomaia, Italy) in 2004.

Since 2005 he has taught and led meditation retreats in India, Europe, North America and Australia with a clear and structured teaching style emphasizing the integration of philosophical view, meditation and daily life conduct.

Originally from Australia, Glen attained a BSc in IT at the University of Queensland. After four years working in Brisbane, he spent the next eight years working and traveling around the world. Having ‘bumped’ into Buddhism during his travels (“I read a book about Buddhism and it seemed so logical and many things resonated extremely well with my innate beliefs”), he attended his first Dharma teaching in Dharamsala, India in 1995.

He completed the two following Kopan November courses in Kathmandu, Nepal and joined the seven-year Masters Program in Advanced Buddhist Studies of Sutra and Tantra at the Lama Tzong Khapa Institute (Pomaia, Italy). He graduated from the Masters Program in 2004 and completed his studies with an eight-month retreat at Oseling Center in Spain. Since 2005 he has taught and led meditation retreats in India, Europe, North America and Australia with a teaching style emphasizing clarity and stressing the integration of philosophical view, meditation and daily life conduct.

Meet

David Oromith

David is a Buddhist contemplative, author, meditation guide and retreat leader. He has been practising meditation since he was 18 years old, specifically in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition for 10 years, and has been a student of Lama Alan’s since 2017 and considers him to be his root teacher. It was during his time working in mental health services that he first trained as a meditation teacher.

Alongside his work for CCN, David serves as a meditation guide and retreat leader in the UK through his organisation, Samadhi. Since 2015, David has taught classes and workshops internationally in the UK, Spain, and Gibraltar, and across the world online. He spent two years in Spain focusing on his own study and engaging in retreat before returning to teach at the request of close friends.

Detailed biography: https://www.samadhi.org.uk/meet-our-team/#david

Meet

Clara Seeger, PhD

Clara Seeger, Founder of Enlightened Leaders, is an experienced mindfulness, neuroscience and mental balance coach and the author of Mindfulness at Work in a Week (Hachette, 2016). She holds a PhD in Literature and an M.Sc in Mindfulness: Neuroscience and Clinical Applications.

As a long-term meditation practitioner and student of Lama Alan Wallace, on whose teachings she draws, she is well-versed in contemplative wisdom and meditation practice. With her commitment to enhancing people’s wellbeing, the clarity of her material and her enthusiasm for the practical benefits of meditation practice, Clara guides her clients insightfully and compassionately and supports the integration and application of their insights and learning.

Meet

Michael Lobsang Tenpa

Michael Lobsang Tenpa (he/they) is a Tibetan Buddhist translator, meditation instructor, Cultivating Emotional Balance (CEB) teacher and student of EcoDharma. Born in Siberia, he earned BA and MA degrees in South Asian studies, worked in social media and eventually received ordination in Nepal, spending nine years as a Tibetan Buddhist monastic before switching to the path of a lay teacher/practitioner. In addition to years of Buddhist studies and translator work, he also trained as a secular ethics and mindfulness instructor in the Netherlands, the UK and the US.

Detailed biography: https://lobsangtenpa.com/about