Dr. Nikki Mirghafori

Nikki Mirghafori is a Buddhist meditation teacher in the Theravada tradition and, in a parallel career, an artificial intelligence researcher with a doctorate in computer science from UC Berkeley. Born in Iran, she moved to the United States as a teenager, began meditating in 1991 and came to Theravada practice in 2003. With the Burmese master Venerable Pa Auk Sayadaw she trained in the jhānas, the deep absorptions of concentration, and in a detailed analytical style of insight meditation, and in 2008 he asked her to teach. She later completed the four-year joint teacher training of Spirit Rock and the Insight Meditation Society, and is a certified instructor of Stanford's compassion cultivation course.

Today she is a stewarding teacher and board member at Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Woodacre, California, and a regular teacher at Redwood City's Insight Meditation Center, where she leads Happy Hour, a free weekday evening class on loving-kindness and the other heart practices, streamed on Zoom and YouTube. Students describe a style that joins a scientist's precision with warmth and humour; recurring themes include mindfulness of death, concentration and kindness. A keen improviser, she also brings theatre games into her playful Mindful Improv weekends at Esalen. Her teaching is offered on a donation basis.