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About Jon Bernie
Jon Bernie, author of Ordinary Freedom and The Unbelievable Happiness of What Is, is a contemporary spiritual teacher who has devoted his life to inner consciousness development and to supporting others’ healing, growth, and transformation. He is deeply committed to Inspired Aliveness, an approach that has helped many cultivate more authentic, happy, and fulfilled lives that are rich in meaning and connection.
Jon has over five decades of practice and study in the Zen, Theravada Buddhist and Advaita traditions and was formally asked to teach by Adyashanti in 2002. A series of early awakening experiences as a teenager led Jon to ordain as a monk in the lineage of Shunryu Suzuki-roshi, and subsequently to the practice of retreat-based Vipassana (insight meditation) as an early student of Jack Kornfield.
In the late 1980s, Jon’s spiritual trajectory was profoundly altered by Jean Klein, an accomplished teacher of Advaita Vedanta and Kashmiri Yoga, with whom he studied intensively for an extended period.
Jon subsequently spent time with H.W.L. Poonja (Papaji) and Robert Adams, both direct disciples of Ramana Maharshi. Jon’s spiritual development was also greatly aided by his decades-long relationship with Brother David Steindl-Rast, who, along with Thomas Merton, was one of the first Christian monks to seriously practice in the Zen and Tibetan traditions and has since been instrumental in building interfaith networks worldwide.
In addition to his work as a spiritual teacher, Jon is also an experienced healer and teacher of somatic embodiment via his extensive training in the Alexander Technique, the Qigong system of Dr. Yu Penxi and the Zero Balancing system of Dr. Fritz Smith. He has been in private practice since 1981 and has given lectures and workshops on the Alexander Technique and other modalities at the Suzuki Method Teacher’s Conference, UCSF Medical School, JFK University, the Whole Life Expo and other conferences.
Jon offers online gatherings and retreats and special in-person events. He also offers private, one-on-one Zoom sessions with clients when his schedule permits.