Meditation Teachers

Guiding Teacher, John M. Travis
The guiding and founding teacher of Mountain Stream Meditation Center, John M. Travis, has been a student of meditation since 1969. His vision and teaching have been very important in the growth and development of Buddhism and meditation in the Northern Sierra Nevada region.

His background and many years of training ideally suited him to this role, having spent many years with recognized Asian Buddhist masters. Initially he studied Tibetan Buddhism, first taking Initiation with His Holiness the 16th Karmapa, who then became his primary teacher. Next, John studied with Lama Thubten Yeshe and later with the Venerable Kalu Rinpoche. To complement his Buddhist training, John traveled to the ashram of Bihar School of Yoga under Swami Satyananda Saraswati where he took full Hindu monastic ordination for a short period. In 1970 he began his studies in the vipassana tradition with Anagarika Munindra, later becoming a student of S. N. Goenka. Next, John had the opportunity to travel with Baba Ram Das and connect with Maharajji-Neem Karoli Baba. In 1979, John took full monastic ordination under the Venerable Taungpulu Sayadaw for a short period of time.

In 1986, as John began teaching at a weekly meditation group in Nevada City, CA. From 1989 to 1993, John devoted himself to Senior Teacher Training with Jack Kornfield at Spirit Rock Meditation Center. After completion of his training he was ordained and given Dharma transmission in the vipassana tradition of Mahasi Sayadaw and Achaan Chaa, and authorized to teach vipassana.

John co-founded Mountain Stream Meditation, Nevada City Insight Center, and continues to be the resident teacher. He has a private practice as a meditation counselor and has trained in Hakomi body-centered therapy and Alchemical Hypnotherapy. For appointments call (530) 263-4096. He also travels extensively, leading retreats all over the United States.

Because John has spent a cumulative ten years living in Asia, he enjoys sharing it with others. Over the last decade, John has co-lead a number of pilgrimage trips to Buddhist sacred sites including" In the Footsteps of the Buddha" —birth, enlightenment, teaching, and death—in India and Nepal, and pilgrimage to Mount Kailash in Tibet.

During the year 2006, John lived in Asia. Some of that time was spent with His Holiness The Dalai Lama in Dharmsala. He also spent time in solitary retreat in the caves of Ladakh. During the year 2010, John spent seven months in Asia, traveling to Thailand, India, and Nepal. He spent much of that time studying with Buddhist teachers or in retreat.

Mountain Stream Teachers Council

Mountain Stream has an active Teachers Council that meets frequently to discuss our overall teaching programs. In addition to John Travis, Marcia Craighead, Mary Helen Fein, Maeve Hasses, Dennis Warren, Ken Bradford, Bruce Pardoe and Kirsten Rudestam are active Teachers Council members. Each teacher has extensive training and teaching experience that they bring to our community.

Mary Helen Fein
Mary Helen has been practicing meditation since 1992. Her first studies were with John Fitzgerald Preston in Philadelphia. In 1993, she moved to California and met her primary teacher, John Travis. She has worked with his guidance and support since that time. She is a graduate of the Spirit Rock Community Dharma Leader program. In addition she has completed two other long-term Spirit Rock programs, the Dedicated Practitioners Program and the Advanced Practitioners Program. Mary Helen has sat many silent 10-day retreats, as well as the month-long retreat at Spirit Rock.

Since 2003, she has been teaching meditation classes, holding daylongs, and mentoring others. She is a co-leader of the Auburn Insight Meditation sitting group, and also co-founder and co-leader of the Rocklin Meditation Group. She often gives Dharma talks at sitting groups in Auburn, Rocklin, and at Mountain Stream’s Nevada City Insight Center. One of her most powerful experiences was being invited to teach the Buddhist Meditation group at Folsom Prison. Mary Helen hopes to again visit this powerful group. Mary Helen is semi-retired from her web design business in Auburn, and is a Certified Zentangle Teacher. She has two published novels that you can find on Amazon. You can contact her at maryHelen@mtstream.org.

Mary Helen has created a free online beginning meditation course at www.beginningmeditationonline.com

Maeve Hassett
Maeve has been practicing and studying the Dharma since 1993 under the guidance and support of her primary teacher John Travis. She is a graduate of the Spirit Rock Meditation Center’s Community Dharma Leaders Program and Dedicated Practitioners Programs. She has been teaching meditation classes since 2003. She co-leads the Auburn Insight Meditation Group, and also co-founded and co-leads the Rocklin Meditation Group, and frequently offers dharma talks in Auburn, Rocklin, and Nevada City. Maeve also practices as a psychotherapist using mind/body awareness and Buddhist philosophy as guiding principles in her work with individuals.

You can contact Maeve at maeve@mtstream.org.

Ken Bradford
Ken is a contemplative yogin, author and Dharma teacher integrating a wide arc of Buddhist, Dzogchen and psychological thought and practice. His heart teachers include Chögyal Namkhai Norbu, Joseph Goldstein, Ruth Denison and Tsoknyi Rinpoche, among others. Formerly, he maintained a psychotherapy practice in the San Francisco Bay area and was Adjunct Professor at John F. Kennedy University and CIIS. His publications include Opening Yourself: The Psychology and Yoga of Self-liberation (2021); The I of the Other: Mindfulness-Based Diagnosis & the Question of Sanity (2013); and Listening from the Heart of Silence: Nondual Wisdom and Psychotherapy, Vol. 2 (2007, with John Prendergast); as well as numerous peer-reviewed articles intertwining psychology and spirituality. Website: www.authenticpresence.net

Marcia Craighead “For me it all started in 1993. I attended a 9-day retreat at Spirit Rock in Yucca Valley with Jack Kornfeld and Gil Fronsdal. This was the formal beginning of my practice.” Marcia lived in Jackson, WY, and Mary Orr conducted retreats there in the mid-1990s which she attended. She met John Travis in 1996 and considers him to be her root teacher. She became registrar, manager and organizer for John as he offered retreats in the Jackson area. In 2014, she came to Mountain Stream and was our Executive Director, and later Program Manager before joining the board. She completed 5 years of training at Spirit Rock and is a Community Dharma Leader for Mountain Stream. Her eclectic backstory also includes: raising two kids (as a single Mom), producing nature documentary films (10 years), serving as Executive Director of the Teton Wellness Institute (11 years), freelance editor for still photography, Hospice volunteer (12 years), and becoming a certified Hakomi therapist (a form of body-centered psychotherapy). Contact by email: marcia@mtstream.org.

Dennis Warren Dennis is the founding teacher of Sacramento Insight Meditation. He has been teaching in community and retreat settings for over 20 years. This includes guiding and teaching two month-long pilgrimages in Thailand, India and Nepal. He served as an adjunct clinical professor in the Division of Pain Medicine at the UC Davis School of Medicine for more than a decade focusing on the use of contemplative practices for working with physical, emotional and psychological suffering. 

Bruce Pardoe
Bruce has been offering Dharma talks at Mountain Stream since 2010 and leading the 6-week Insight Meditation & Mindfulness Course series twice a year since 2011. He is a graduate of the 2-year Community Dharma Leadership training at Spirit Rock and has sat numerous 1 to 3-month long retreats. All combined, Bruce has spent over two years in silence and has developed essential insights into the teachings of the Buddha. You can contact Bruce at bpardoe@heartfluency.com

Kirsten Rudestam
Bio: Kirsten Rudestam has been practicing vipassana meditation in the Theravadan tradition since 2001 and teaching since 2005. She has a PhD in Environmental Sociology from the University of California, Santa Cruz where she studied climate resilience and environmental justice. She has twenty years of experience offering field-based and classroom-based college courses in environmental studies and sociology, and is a facilitator for Joanna Macy's Work that Reconnects. She, Gil Fronsdal, and Susie Harrington are the co-founders and core faculty for the Sati Center's Buddhist Eco-Chaplaincy training program.