Sylvia Boorstein is an American author, psychotherapist, and Buddhist teacher. Boorstein studied with

Dipa Ma Nani Bala Barua (March 25, 1911 - September 1, 1989), better known as Dipa Ma, was an Indian meditation teacher of Theravada Buddhism and was of Barua descent. She was a prominent Buddhist master in Asia and also taught in the United States where ...

and is a co-founding teacher at

Spirit Rock Meditation Center Spirit Rock Meditation Center, commonly called Spirit Rock, is a meditation center in Woodacre, California. It focuses on the teachings of the Buddha as presented in the vipassana, or Insight Meditation, tradition.Van Biema, David, "Buddhism in A ...

in Woodacre, California and a senior teacher at the

Insight Meditation Society The Insight Meditation Society (IMS) is a non-profit organization for study of Buddhism located in Barre, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1975, by Sharon Salzberg, Jack Kornfield, and Joseph Goldstein and is rooted in the Theravada tradition ...

Barre, Massachusetts Barre ( ) is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 5,530 at the 2020 census. History Originally called the Northwest District of Rutland, it was first settled by Europeans in 1720. The town was incorpora ...

Biography

All four of Boorstein's grandparents were

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

immigrants from

Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic connotations. The vast majority of the region is covered by Russia, wh ...

. Boorstein grew up in

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, behi ...

, and attended

Barnard College Barnard College of Columbia University is a private women's liberal arts college in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1889 by a group of women led by young student activist Annie Nathan Meyer, who petitioned Col ...

. After moving to

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the ...

in 1961, Boorstein earned a master's degree in social work from the

University of California Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

in 1967. She has written numerous books such as ''It's Easier Than You Think: The Buddhist Way to Happiness'', ''That's Funny, You Don't Look Buddhist'', ''Don't Just Do Something, Sit There'' and ''Pay Attention for Goodness' Sake''.

References

External links

Official websiteDharma talks by Boorstein
Living people Jewish American writers Buddhist writers Barnard College alumni UC Berkeley School of Social Welfare alumni Writers from Brooklyn American psychotherapists American spiritual writers American women non-fiction writers 20th-century American non-fiction writers 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American women writers Writers from California Students of Dipa Ma Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century American Jews American women educators Educators from New York City Women religious writers {{US-reli-bio-stub