Adyashanti

Adyashanti (/ˈædjəʃænti/; Sanskrit word meaning "primordial peace"; born Steven Gray in 1962) is an American spiritual teacher and writer from the San Francisco Bay Area who gives regular satsangs in the United States and also teaches abroad. He is the author of several books, CDs and DVDs and is the founder of Open Gate Sangha, Inc., a nonprofit organization established in 1996 which supports and makes available his teachings.

Life

Steven Gray was born in 1962 in Cupertino, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. At age 19 he found the "idea of enlightenment" in a book. Subsequently, he built a hut in his parents' backyard and started practicing meditation. As a teenager he had a passion for racing bicycles and worked in a bike-repair shop.

In his 20s, Gray studied Zen Buddhism under the guidance of his Zen teacher Arvis Joen Justi for fourteen years. Justi was a student of Taizan Maezumi Roshi of the Zen Center of Los Angeles. Gray was regularly sent by Arvis to Zen sesshin retreats, where he also studied under Jakusho Kwong Roshi of the Sonoma Mountain Zen Center. At age 25 he began experiencing a series of transformative spiritual awakenings. While sitting alone on his cushion, Gray had a classic kensho, or awakening experience, in which he “penetrated to the emptiness of all things and realized that the Buddha I had been chasing was what I was.” Besides his hours-long meditations and prayer, he also studied books about Christian mystics and the Gospels.