Shinzen Young

Shinzen Young is an American mindfulness teacher and neuroscience research consultant with an extensive background in Buddhism and other traditions. As he puts it, “I’m a Jewish-American Buddhist teacher who got turned on to comparative mysticism by an Irish-Catholic priest and who has developed a Burmese-Japanese fusion practice inspired by the spirit of quantified science.” The author of The Science of Enlightenment: How Meditation Works, he has collaborated with Harvard Medical School, Carnegie-Mellon University and the University of Vermont. He leads residential retreats throughout North America and phone-based mini-retreats. We spoke about his personal background, his decades of teaching, the various forms of Buddhism and the adaptation of traditional practices to modern secular life. Learn more about Shinzen Young here.