Jess McNally has devoted much of her adult life to Buddhist study and practice. After earning Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Earth Systems at Stanford University, she lived at Zen Mountain Monastery for over three years, completing more than forty week-long sesshins and exploring a wide range of Buddhist teachings. She was later ordained by Thrangu Rinpoche and began studying with Mingyur Rinpoche and Tsoknyi Rinpoche. Under Mingyur Rinpoche’s guidance, she undertook several months of solitary retreat in Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo’s cave in the Himalayas. Now based in Alberta, Canada, Jess is in medical school at the University of Calgary and looking forward to a career as a medical doctor.   

Myoshin Kelley attended her first meditation retreat in 1975. Through the ensuing years she has received dharma instructions from several renowned Buddhist meditation masters in the Theravada, Zen, and Vajrayana traditions. In 2003, she was appointed the teacher in residence at the Forest Refuge, the long-term practice center at the Insight Meditation Society in Massachusetts. Myoshin was introduced to Vajrayana teachings in 1993 and met Mingyur Rinpoche in 1998 when he first visited the US with his brother, Tsoknyi Rinpoche. Since then she has practiced with Mingyur Rinpoche in North America and Asia benefiting from his skillful, lucid instructions on the profound teachings of Mahamudra. She moved to Minneapolis in 2010 to help support Mingyur Rinpoche in his worldwide vision and leads programs internationally and locally.

Edwin Kelley first became interested in Buddhism in 1975 when he attended a meditation retreat near Perth, Australia. He later pursued a career as a public accountant and in 1992 went to Burma to undertake a six-month period of intensive retreat with the renowned meditation master Chanmyay Sayadaw. While practicing in Burma he ordained temporarily as a Theravada Buddhist monk. In 1994 he was hired as Director of Operations by one of America’s best known meditation retreat centers, the Insight Meditation Society (IMS), in Barre, MA. Eighteen months later he was appointed Executive Director of IMS and served in that capacity until 2003 when he resigned to pursue further long-term intensive meditation practice. Edwin first encountered Vajrayana Buddhism in Dharamsala, India in 1993 and became a student of Mingyur Rinpoche in 1998. He has a post graduate diploma in Buddhist Studies from the University of Sunderland in the UK. He moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota with his wife Myoshin in 2009 to help establish the global Tergar Meditation Community. In addition to his work as an instructor, he recently served as co-executive director for Tergar International, and he is currently the Interim Chief Financial Officer.