Testimonials

​"As a Chinese-American, I often find it difficult to understand traditional Buddhist teachings my mother was so adamant about sharing. Through Doug's lectures, he not only acknowledges the dissonance between traditional and Western Buddhist approaches, but also frames it in a way that is much easier."
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​"The Guan Yin sessions were initially very confusing and I struggled to make sense of them. The chants, ceremonies, and rituals were unfamiliar to me. However, as I gradually opened myself up to the experience and focused on what was right about it rather than what was wrong, I began to feel lighter, more content, and even shed happy tears during meditations."

"Although the accommodation is basic and doesn't look like much, it's the most joyful and peaceful time I ever had in my life. I feel like I've found my true home." 
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"These retreats have transformed my life. It has given me an effective tool to manage the dramatic events of my life: the death of my mother and the miraculous recovery of my father’s COVID infection. " ​

"I am still unraveling the impact of a retreat I joined five years ago. I'm deeply grateful for how it has enabled me to live each moment with unshakable joy, ease, and wonder." 

"Learning more about the Bodhisattva Guan Yin and her compassion for all beings helped me to cultivate compassion for others and, most importantly, compassion for myself."

"It’s not easy to describe because it’s such a totality, an embodied experience of energy, sight, sounds, smells and touch. It's the same energetic quality that you feel in the meditation hall. Everyone in the room knows the feeling of Qi moving through the diaphragm in circular repetition. The sound resonates through the chest, throat, and head, up and down, around and around. It's not magical or philosophical or intellectual. it’s just a very real resonance produced by the intonations of a chant. When you're in the CTTB meditation hall with 200 people doing a recitation, the air and walls vibrate with the sound. It gets inside you and it takes up residence there. You leave the retreat and you're out in the world realizing, "Wow... it's still there. Still available." There's a broad shift in body and thought. No desire for entertainment, podcasts, television, or earpods. Instead, there's an urge to express generosity, a desire to be kind. It's a huge surprise that all four brahma viharas are arising of their own accord."

"The most valuable understanding I'm carrying forward is the recognition that dharma doors—opportunities for practice and awakening—are truly limitless. This insight has transformed my everyday life into a field of practice opportunities. I now see that mindfulness need not be confined to formal settings but can permeate all aspects of daily experience."