Gaylon Ferguson, PhD

Gaylon Ferguson, PhD

Soon after reading Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche’s Meditation in Action in the early 1970s, Gaylon began attending summer seminars with Rinpoche in Vermont. In 1973, Gaylon joined Tail of the Tiger Buddhist Community (now Karme Choling) where he worked in the garden, set the tractor on fire, and took people into retreat. After attending the 1975 Vajradhatu Seminary, Gaylon taught at The Naropa Institute. He later served as Executive Co-director of Karme Choling. From 1979 to 1983, Gaylon held several teaching and leadership positions within the Shambhala community, including at Berkeley Dharmadhatu and the Office of Three Yana Studies in Boulder.

Gaylon enrolled at Yale University (for a second time) in 1987 to finish his undergraduate degree in African Studies. In 1994, he was a Fulbright Fellow to Nigeria and completed a doctoral degree in cultural anthropology at Stanford University two years later. After several years teaching cultural anthropology at the University of Washington, Gaylon moved to Karme Choling as teacher in residence through 2005. In 2006, he was Visiting Professor in Religious Studies at Naropa University. He went on to teach Religious Studies at Naropa University for 15 years, and has written two books, Natural Wakefulness and Natural Bravery. His article, “Making Friends with Ourselves” (from the collection Dharma, Color, and Culture) was selected for inclusion in The Best Buddhist writing: 2005. Gaylon recently relocated to the Hudson Valley.