James Baraz

James Baraz has taught insight meditation since 1978 and helped found Spirit Rock, the Marin County meditation centre, as one of its first teachers. Before meditation became his work he spent twelve years as a primary school teacher, and that ease with explaining things plainly shows in how he teaches. He is the guiding teacher of the Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley, which meets every Thursday evening at the Berkeley Buddhist Monastery and on Zoom, and he advises One Earth Sangha, an online community exploring Buddhist responses to the climate crisis.

He is best known for Awakening Joy, an online course he has run each year since 2003 that takes the Buddhist teachings on wholesome states and turns them into ten monthly themes, from gratitude and integrity to letting go and compassion. More than twenty thousand people in some thirty countries have taken it, and a teacher training lets graduates lead it themselves. With Shoshana Alexander he wrote a book of the same name, and with the teacher Michele Lilyanna a companion guide for parents and educators. He leads silent retreats at Spirit Rock and the Insight Meditation Society, and weekend workshops at Esalen, recently with his son Adam. He lives in Berkeley with his wife, Jane.