Tara Mulay has practiced Insight Meditation since 2003. She has undertaken numerous intensive retreat practice periods in the United States and Myanmar. She is a graduate of Spirit Rock Meditation Center's Community Dharma Leaders Program and is currently participating in Insight Meditation Society’s 2017-2021 teacher training program. In 2016, she co-founded the San Francisco People of Color Insight Sangha. She remained a core teacher with the group until the spring of 2019, when she relocated to Western Massachusetts. Her root tradition stems from the teachings of Mahasi Sayadaw.
She has gratefully drawn influence from many other teachers within and outside of the Mahasi lineage, including Howard Cohn, Kamala Masters, Gil Fronsdal, Joseph Goldstein, Sayadaw U Tejaniya, and Ayya Anandabodhi. Tara practiced criminal defense law in California for over 20 years, and her dharma offerings often reflect a focus on daily life practice, including in the realms of work and livelihood. Tara is of South Asian (Indian) descent. She felt initially drawn to dharma practice upon encountering the Buddha’s teachings rejecting social caste as a measure of worth and of capacity for awakening. She believes classical Buddhist practices, designed to cultivate compassion, non-greed, non-hatred, and non-delusion, are uniquely potent vehicles for empowering people in marginalized communities and effecting social change.
