Advisory Board

The Community of Peace and Spirituality is
particularly blessed to have the support and guidance
of an extraordinary group of recognized leaders from the world's great spiritual traditions. We are deeply grateful for their wisdom, counsel, and encouragement.

Swami Atmarupananda joined the Ramakrishna Order in 1969 and spent seven years in India engaged in monastic and scholastic training. He combines a contemplative and mystical approach with a sharp intellect and the ability to explain difficult concepts of Hinduism to western audiences. He is the founder of the Vivekananda Retreat, Ridgely, New York.

Rev. Frank Jude Boccio is an ordained Interfaith Minister and was also ordained by Thich Nhat Hanh as a member of The Order of Tiep Hien (Order of Interbeing.) In 1999 he took Precepts from The Venerable Samu Sunim with whom he is in Dharma Training through The Maitreya Seminary program. He holds a diploma in Ayurveda through The International Open University of Complementary Medicine in Sri Lanka.

Dr. Shelley Brown was a leading hematologist in New York City before she retired to research and write Centered In Truth, The Story of Swami Nitya-swarup-ananda. A Vedantist since 1953, she became engaged in a spiritual dialogue with Swami Nitya-swarup-ananda in 1987 that went on unabated until the day he died. Dr. Brown is now a writer, editor, and publisher of books on Vedanta.

Joseph Fire Crow is a GRAMMY nominated and NAMMY award-winning flutist who has also received the Silver Arrow Award for Outstanding Achievement In Music and the Native American Music Awards’ Song Writer of the Year Award. He teaches from his unique perspective as a Cheyenne respecting the traditions of his people and living in the modern world. He has been described as “a national treasure."

Father Thomas Keating is one of the world’s most revered teachers of the contemplative and mystical dimensions of Christian spirituality. He is founder of the Centering Prayer Movement and Outreach and former chair of the Monastic Inter-religious Dialogue. He is the author of numerous books and articles.

Rev. Susan Alice Mufson is an Interfaith minister, psychotherapist and CSW in private practice in New York City. She is a faculty member of One Spirit Interfaith Seminary, the New Seminary, and the Center for Spirituality and Psychotherapy of the National Institute for the Psychotherapies.

Rev. Wayne Muller is an ordained minister, therapist, and a graduate of Harvard Divinity School. He is the founder of Bread for the Journey, a nationwide philanthropic organization serving the needy. He is the author of Legacy of the Heart (a New York Times bestseller), How Then Shall We Live?, Sabbath, and his latest, Learning to Pray.

MARK NEPO is a poet and philosopher who has taught for over thirty years. Nominated for the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize, his books include The Exquisite Risk; The Book of Awakening; Acre of Light; Fire Without Witness; God, the Maker of the Bed, and the Painter; Surviving Has Made Me Crazy, as well as a new book, Facing the Lion, Being the Lion: Finding Inner Courage Where It Lives.

Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf is the Imam of Masjid al-Farah in New York City. He is a prominent voice for moderate Muslims and an advocate of the spiritual dimensions of Islam. Imam Abdul Rauf founded the ASMA Society which is dedicated to creating bridges between Muslims and the West. He is the author of Islam: A Search for Meaning and Islam: A Sacred Law, What Every Muslim should know about the Shari`ah, and What's Right with Islam: A New Vision for Muslims and the West.

Sharon Salzberg is an acclaimed teacher of Buddhist meditation who studied for years with great teachers in India, Burma and Tibet. She is a co-founder of Insight Meditation Society and has written numerous books including the best selling Lovingkindness, Faith, and her most recent, The Force of Kindness.

Rabbi Zalman Schacter-Shalomi, the inspiration of the Jewish Renewal Movement, is widely recognized as perhaps the most important Jewish spiritual teacher of the second half of the twentieth century. Professor Emeritus at Temple University, he is also on the faculty of religious studies at Naropa University. His latest book is First Steps to a New Jewish Spirit.

Brother David Steindl-Rast, O.S.B has been a monk of Mount Saviour Benedictine monastery since 1953. He was one of the first Roman Catholics to receive Zen training and to participate in Buddhist-Christian dialogue. He is the author of numerous books including Gratefulness, the Heart of Prayer and A Listening Heart and he co-authored Belonging to the Universe with Fritjof Capra and The Ground We Share with Robert Aitken Roshi. His website www.gratefulness.org attracts more than 4,000 visitors daily from more than 200 countries.

Iyanla Vanzant is the founder and Executive Director of Inner Visions Spiritual Life Maintenance Network. An attorney, ordained minister, and TV personality, she conducts perennial workshops and lectures for thousands around the country hoping to inspire each listener to take a stand and create a better life, a better community, and a better world. Her many books include, Acts of Faith, The Value in the Valley, Faith in the Valley, In the Meantime and One Day My Soul Just Opened Up.