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

Dipa Ma Nani Bala Barua (25 March 1911 – 1 September 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 w ...

and is a co-founding teacher at Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Woodacre, California. She is also 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, Joseph Goldstein and Jacqueline Schwartz, and is rooted in the Th ...

Barre, Massachusetts Barre ( ) is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 5,530 at the 2020 census. History Located on the ancestral homeland of the Nipmuc, the area was first settled by Europeans in 1720 and referred to as th ...

Biography

All four of Boorstein's grandparents were

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

immigrants from

Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the Europe, European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural and socio-economic connotations. Its eastern boundary is marked by the Ural Mountain ...

. She grew up in

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

, and attended

Barnard College Barnard College is a Private college, private Women's colleges in the United States, women's Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college affiliated with Columbia University in New York City. It was founded in 1889 by a grou ...

. After moving to

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

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, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after the Anglo-Irish philosopher George Berkeley ...

in 1967 and a Ph.D. in Psychology from

Saybrook University Saybrook University is a private university in Pasadena, California. It was founded in 1971 by Eleanor Camp Criswell and others. It offers postgraduate education with a focus on humanistic psychology. It features low residency, master's, and ...

in 1974. 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 non-fiction 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 21st-century American women educators 21st-century American educators Educators from New York City American women religious writers {{US-reli-bio-stub