LBA does not host any permanent residential Dharma Teachers at the Amitabha Village Retreat Center (our retreat grounds). However, we are very lucky to periodically host many renowned Dharma teachers who are very generous in sharing their time for certain retreats and lessons. Some of these teachers include:
 | Venerable Chi Chern | Born in Taiping (meaning serenity and peace in Chinese), Malaysia, in 1955, Venerable Chi Chern was ordained as a monk in 1978. He has been trained under many famous monks in Taiwan. In 1980, while taking a Chan retreat with Chan Master Sheng Yen, Venerable Chi Chern received verification of “seeing the true nature.” He received transmission from Master Sheng Yen in 1985. As a serious Buddhist practitioner, Venerable Chi Chern has once gone for a thousand-day solitary retreat. He also has been very active in the Malaysian Buddhist circle and has taken many important posts such as Chair of the Malaysian Young Buddhist Association, Dean of the Malaysian Buddhist Training School, etc. His articles can be seen in many publications. Venerable Chi Chern likes to share with people his knowledge of Dharma, so for the past sixteen years, he has been traveling across the US to teach Buddhism and basic methods of meditation. With no specific goals in mind, Venerable Chi Chern employs various teaching styles to expand the Dharma in accordance with the need of the students. |
 | Venerable Sayalay Susila | Born and educated in Malaysia, Sayalay Susila ordained as a Theravada Buddhist nun in 1991 at the age of 28, and has trained with two renowned Burmese meditation masters – the Venerable Sayadaw U Pandita and the Venerable Pa-Auk Sayadaw, under whose guidance she continues to practice today. Sayalay is well known especially for the clarity of her teaching of the Theravada Buddhist Suttas and Abhidhamma, which she taught initially in Taiwan, Malaysia, and Singapore, as well as in Buddhist centers across Canada, the United States, and Australia. Sister has two books in print: The Nine Attributes of the Buddha (in Chinese) and Unravelling the Mysteries of Mind and Body Through Abhidhamma (in English). She speaks fluent English, Mandarin Chinese, and Burmese, and has translated widely from English to Chinese for Venerable Pa-Auk Sayadaw in Malaysia and Taiwan. Several of Sister’s devoted disciples recently donated land on which she is building an international meditation center, Appamada Vihari. |
 | Ajahn Khemasanto | In 1970 – 1976 he went to live at various forest temples, training in that tradition. His teachers included Ajahn Maha Bua, Luang Pu Bua,Luang Pu dun, and Ajahn Saam. From 1976 to 1993 he worked with various non-profit international aid organizations, mostly on the Thai/Cambodian border, including two years in Cambodia. In 1993 he re-ordained at Wat Bovornives with the Supreme Patriarch Somdet Nanasanvara as his preceptor and given the name Khemasanto. Until 1999 he spent training under teachers in the Northeast of Thailand (Ajahn Tui and Ajahn Vanchai). Coming to America in 1999 at the request of his aging parents. While in the USA he was invited by the Asian and American community to remain and help to set up a Theravada monastery in the forest tradition. Venerable Khemasanto was approved as abbot of Wat Dhammasala by the Thai Council of Elders in 2001 |
 | Gilbert Gutierrez | Gilbert is one of five lay Dharma heirs of Venerable Chan Master Sheng Yen and the only one to teach in North America. Gilbert teaches in a very casual and accessible yet deep manner, drawing on every-day life situations as well as on the works of great masters. Gilbert Gutierrez is an attorney practicing in Riverside, California. Gilbert’s meditative practice began more than twenty-five (25) years ago. He studied various forms of meditation, martial arts and Chi Gong yet states that nothing that he has studied comes close to matching the simplicity and the beauty of the practice of Ch’an. Throughout his practice, Gilbert sought a master who was truly worthy of following. He found that in venerable Master Sheng-yen. He is deeply grateful for having had the opportunity to study under Master Sheng-yen, and hopes that one day he may be able to display even one percent (1%) of the wisdom and compassion that his master possessed. |
 | Venerable Kai Zhao | Venerable Kai Zhao (Bhikkhu Yuttadhammo) was ordained as a monk in 1987 under the tutelage of Venerable Boon Keng of Ang Hock Si Monastery, Penang. In 1990, he graduated from Malaysian Buddhist Institute. He founded Nibbana Vihara in 1999 and became the Abbot of the Vihara until his resignation in 2006. From 2007 till to-date, he travels widely throughout the world engaging in self-cultivation and preaches Dhamma in many countries. Bhante Kai Zhao learned meditation under the guidance of Venerable Boon Keng, Venerable Ji Cheng, Bhante Javana, Venerable Xiu Jing, Bhante Thongbai and Pa-Auk Sayadaw. He is currently a member of the Advisory Committee of the Elders at Santavana Forest Hermitage in Sabah and a religious counseling teacher in various prisons. Likewise, he was previously the religious advisor of Nibbana Dhamma Rakkha in Singapore. Under invitation, he frequently leads meditation retreats, dhamma courses, and conducting programs of Experiencing Monastic Life for laypeople. |
 | Venerable Guo Xing | Venerable Guo Xing, one of Chan Master Sheng Yen's Dharma heirs, was born in Taiwan in 1953. After studying yoga and meditation, Guo Xing Fashi began to study Chan under the guidance of Chan Master Sheng Yen in 1984, and became ordained under him two years later, in 1986. After years of service in the Dharma Drum Mountain sangha, he was sent to Thailand in 1991 to enter into solitary retreat, studying Theravadan meditation. Upon returning to DDM, he continued to assist the Master in leading meditation retreats in Taiwan, Southeast Asia, and the United States, for a period of 20 years, totaling over more than 50 retreats, including the first 49-Day retreat at the Dharma Drum Retreat Center in 2000. He previously served for eight years as the counselor for the DDM Chan Meditation Group of Nong Chan Monastery, six years as the guiding instructor for the DDM Sangha University Chan practice curriculum, as well as two years as the director of DDM's Chan Practice Center, the Director of the Chan Hall, as well as the supervisor of the Department of Transmitting the Lamp. Venerable Guo Xing is now a new resident teacher at the Dharma Drum Retreat Center. He speaks Taiwanese, Mandarin, and English. |
 | Venerable Wuling | Venerable Wuling (Shi Wuling) was born in 1946 in New York state. As a student of Venerable Master Chin Kung, she became a nun in Texas in 1997 and received full ordination in Taiwan. Venerable follows the Pure Land school of Mahayana Buddhism. From 1998 to 2001, Venerable lectured in Singapore and Malaysia. In 1999, she was appointed Head of the Silent Voices translation team, which is now called the Pure Land Translation Team. She relocated to Australia in 2001. In 2004, she became Director of the Amitabha Buddhist Retreat Centre in Nanango, Australia, and was appointed Vice President of the Pure Land Learning College Association Inc. in Toowoomba, Australia. From 2004 to 2007 Venerable was based primarily in Elkhart, Indiana, so she could help look after her mother who had recently moved here. During that time she also lectured in Australia, Asia, and North America. After living in Australia from 2008 to late 2010, Venerable returned to the Buddhist Society of Elkhart for an extended visit. She continues to serve as the Resident Teacher of the Buddhist Society of Elkhart, Spiritual Advisor to the Amitabha Buddhist Retreat Centre, and Vice President of the Pure Land Learning College Association, Inc., as well as the Guiding Teacher for the Amitabha Pureland and Amitabha Gallery websites. |
 | Bhikkhu Bodhi | Bhikkhu Bodhi is an American Buddhist monk from New York City. Born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1944, he obtained a BA in philosophy from Brooklyn College (1966) and a PhD in philosophy from Claremont Graduate School (1972). Drawn to Buddhism in his early 20s, after completing his university studies he traveled to Sri Lanka, where he received novice ordination in 1972 and full ordination in 1973, both under the late Ven. Ananda Maitreya, the leading Sri Lankan scholar-monk of recent times. He was appointed editor of the Buddhist Publication Society (in Sri Lanka) in 1984 and its president in 1988. Ven. Bodhi has many important publications to his credit, either as author, translator, or editor, including the Buddha — A Translation of the Majjhima Nikaya (co-translated with Ven. Bhikkhu Nanamoli (1995), The Connected Discourses of the Buddha — a New Translation of the Samyutta Nikaya (2000), and In the Buddha’s Words (2005). In May 2000 he gave the keynote address at the United Nations on its first official celebration of Vesak (the day of the Buddha’s birth, enlightenment, and passing away). He returned to the U.S. in 2002. He currently resides at Chuang Yen Monastery and teaches there and at Bodhi Monastery. He is currently the chairman of Yin Shun Foundation. |
 | Ajahn Sucitto | Ajahn Sucitto is a British-born Theravada Buddhist monk. He was, between 1992 and 2014, the abbot of Cittaviveka, Chithurst Buddhist Monastery. He was born in London, and was ordained in Thailand in March 1976. He returned to Britain in 1978 and took up training under Ajahn Sumedho at the Hampstead Buddhist Vihara. In 1979 he was one of the small group of monks, led by Ajahn Sumedho, who established Cittaviveka, Chithurst Buddhist Monastery, in West Sussex. In 1981 he was sent up to Northumberland to set up a small monastery in Harnham, which subsequently became Aruna Ratanagiri. In 1984 he accompanied Ajahn Sumedho in establishing Amaravati Buddhist Monastery in Hertfordshire. In 1992 he was appointed abbot of Cittaviveka. On October 26, 2014, he resigned the post, but intends to continue teaching as before. Ajahn Sucitto's main work has been in teaching, editing and writing, although he was also largely responsible for the creation of the protocols and standards that flesh out the ten-precept training of the sīladharā (nuns) Order. |