Prajna Faculty

ROSHI JOAN SUTHERLAND

Joan Sutherland, Roshi is the founder of Awakened Life. She is deeply involved in re-imagining the koan tradition and exploring its relationship to creativity, and she also integrates mythopoetics and contemporary mind and consciousness discoveries with meditation. She holds frequent koan and meditation retreats, and her work appears regularly in Shambhala Sun and Buddhadharma.

She lives and teaches in Santa Fe, New Mexico and is also the holding teacher for The Open Source, a network of communities that includes Springs Mountain Sangha in Colorado Springs, Colorado, Wet Mountain Sangha in Pueblo, Colorado, The Open Source in Northern California, and the Desert Rain Zen Group in Tucson, Arizona. She is one of the founders of the Pacific Zen School, an innovative contemporary koan school.

She is also a writer, and a translator from Chinese and Japanese. She is currently working on a philosophical memoir and collaborating with John Tarrant on a new translation of three major koan collections. Before becoming a Zen teacher, she worked as a scholar and teacher in the field of archaeomythology, and for nonprofit organizations in the feminist antiviolence and environmental movements.

Roshi Joan’s website is: awakenedlife.org.

NICOLAI BACHMAN

Nicolai Bachman has been teaching Sanskrit and related topics since 1994.
He studied extensively at the American Sanskrit Institute, the Ayurvedic Institute,
the American Institute of Vedic Studies and the Vedic Chant Center.

He holds a B.A. in Computer Science, an M.A. in Eastern Philosophy and an M.S.
in Nutrition. He produced several Sanskrit book/CD learning tools including 108
Sanskrit Flash Cards, The Language of Yoga, The Language of Ayurveda, and
Vedic Astrological Terminology. Nicolai currently teaches Sanskrit, Chanting,
Yoga Philosophy and Ayurveda locally and nationally wherever there are eager
and interested students. He is registered with Yoga Alliance at the 500 hour level.

Nicolai’s website is at: www.SanskritSounds.com

LINDA SPACKMAN

Linda Spackman began teaching with Tias and Surya Little when they first opened Yoga Source in 2000. Her classes include general asana, prenatal/post partum, yoga sutra philosophy and chanting. With close attention to precise alignment and the use of props, Linda strives to impart her joy and underlying reverence for all aspects of yoga. Her classes are upbeat, lively, and embracing.

Along with prenatal and postpartum, she specializes in yoga for all phases of a woman’s life. She conducts the Prenatal Yoga Teacher Training Intensive, and co-teaches with Surya Little, the Yoga and Women’s Health Program for Prajna Yoga.

In January/February 2003, Mothering Magazine featured Linda’s prenatal yoga teaching. The article includes a thorough description of appropriate yoga poses that students may practice while pregnant.

Linda treasures the opportunity to study in the Iyengar tradition with Patricia Walden, and has done so since 2005. She began her yoga studies in this lineage in 1984 with Manouso Manos. She was a certified teacher from 2005 through 2010.

Linda is also a dedicated student of Sonia Nelson, with whom she has studied the Yoga Sutras, the Inner Limbs of Yoga, and Vedic Chant since 2005. Sonia is a senior student of TKV Desikachar.

In addition to public classes and intensives, Linda enjoys working one-on-one with students in private settings. With a keen eye for alignment and broad understanding of yoga practices, Linda supports students progress step by step through structured self-practice.