Hello
I’m Mei Elliott
I’m a Dharma teacher in the Western Insight tradition, dedicated to realizing the potential of Buddhist practice and guiding others along the path. My teachings are influenced by the Zen and Theravāda traditions, shaped by my training as a Zen monk in Soto temples and as a resident in Western Insight sanghas. Grateful for the benefits I've received from practice, I aim to support others in their own pursuit of happiness.
My spiritual path began when I discovered a slim Dharma book on my parents’ bookshelf at age 12. Reading it was monumental—I was awed by the simple truth it offered, and more so by the way it illuminated my own mind. This initial spark lit a fire that has brightened my inner life ever since. Over time, I learned to tend this fire in many ways: at first by writing poetry, later, with a one-way ticket to India, and eventually, through practice in the Zen and Theravāda traditions. Gradually, I found that what fueled the fire most was my own suffering. Chronic illness was a profound teacher. The education was a lesson in loss. As activities and abilities dissolved, there was one thing I could still do: I could meditate. Though I went to India for the yoga asanas, I sat retreats instead. In the stillness, through being intimate with suffering, a wellspring of compassion became available, which began to clarify my wish to support others on the path.
This form of alchemy took time. I immersed myself in long Vipassana retreats, frequented a Zen sangha, and was eager to put the Dharma at the center of my life. This wish came to fruition in 2014, when I began training as a Zen monk at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center. I spent 8 years living at Zen temples and monasteries in the Suzuki Roshi lineage. My aim was to learn how to integrate the teachings into daily life– into my actions and interactions– such that everything could be held by the gravity of practice and aligned with the bodhisattva vow. This vow to benefit others inspired me to receive lay ordination from my Zen teacher, Linda Galijan, and to serve as the director of San Francisco Zen Center. This form of service carried me into my current role as the resident co-director of Insight Retreat Center. Sometimes practice is chopping wood and carrying water, but more often, it’s writing emails, mediating conflicts, and balancing the temple budget. Sometimes it’s teaching. This opportunity became more abundant in 2016 when I served as the guiding facilitator for Young Urban Zen, a lively group of practitioners in their 20s and 30s. During the five years I spent guiding this community, I discovered the great joy of offering the Dharma to others.
A Life of Practice
Throughout my Zen training, I continued to practice in the Western Insight tradition. My appreciation for sharing the Dharma continued, and in 2023 became formalized when I was authorized to teach by James Baraz. Shortly thereafter, I was empowered by Guy Armstrong and Sally Armstrong to teach the Still Heart of Awareness practices, and later completed Insight Meditation Center’s four-year Dharma Teacher Training under the guidance of Gil Fronsdal and Andrea Fella. Throughout these trainings and authorizations, I was steeped in the Burmese and Thai Forest Traditions, which together, along with my Soto Zen training, became the foundation for my teachings.
Garden at Tassajara Zen Center
My Dedication & Offerings
Currently, I offer talks, classes, and retreats at Insight Meditation Center, Insight Retreat Center, Spirit Rock and other sanghas on the West Coast. To support dedicated practitioners, I provide one-on-one practice discussions, which focus on guiding students to grow in kindness, clarity, and virtue through traditional mindfulness training, mettā practice, and embodying the ethical precepts.
These different offerings focus on supporting practitioners to deepen and widen their practice. Often, deepening happens on retreats, where meditators develop enough stillness for liberating insight. Widening frequently occurs in daily life: through integrating the teachings into one’s work, relationships, hobbies and habits. Growth in wisdom and compassion can happen in more than one way— it might be during retreat, while facing a chronic illness, or through a chance encounter with a Dharma book. There are many ways to fuel a fire, to light the way towards liberation of the heart. With whatever tinder might be at hand, my hope is to support practitioners in transforming their difficulties into blessings, such that they can wake up right where they are.
May the light of the Dharma brighten the way,
so we can travel the path to peace together.
