Eli Talen

Eli Talen has practiced insight meditation for two decades and has taught meditation in prisons and community settings for the past decade. For him, mindfulness is an innate capacity to awaken to the present, a natural refuge from fear and self-centeredness. He lives in Berkeley, Calif., where he works as a psychotherapist and organist. He previously practiced professionally under the name Brett Wheeler.

As a teacher and therapist, he is especially inspired by relational practice: engaging with others in ways that support trust in the here and now, ethical care, and greater intimacy with one another and the world as a pathway to freedom. In earlier chapters of his life, he also worked as an attorney and professor of German literature.