Karma Queen is Tricycle contributing editor Joan Duncan Oliver, author of Good Karma (Duncan Baird Publishers, 2006)

Sandra Weinberg, CSW, CASAC, is a psychotherapist and addictions specialist, and a co-founder of New York Insight Meditation Center, where she is a member of the Teachers Council.

Thanissaro Bhikkhu is abbot of Metta Forest Monastery, outside of San Diego, California. His most recent book is Meditations3, and his next book, Handful of Leaves 5, is due out this summer.

Lama Surya Das, one of the foremost American Lamas in the Buddhist tradition, has been an integral part of Buddhism's surge in popularity in recent years. From his first bestselling book, Awakening the Buddha Within (Broadway Books; 1997) to his newest release Buddha Is as Buddha Does (HarperSanFrancisco; April, 2007), he has made Buddhism accessible and inspiring to serious practitioners and neophytes alike. Now, Surya Das combines his extensive background and intense training in Buddhist practices with his remarkable knowledge of other religions, philosophies, and psychology.

Nagapriya is a long-standing member of the Western Buddhist Order based in the UK. Amongst other things, he currently teaches Buddhist Studies at the University of Manchester. He is the author of Exploring Karma and Rebirth and is currently working on a book on Mahayana Buddhism, due in 2008.

John Baker is a senior teacher in the Shambhala Buddhist Community. A student of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, he co-edited Trungpa’s books Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism and The Myth of Freedom. He was a co-founder and CEO of Naropa Institute (now Naropa University) in Boulder, Colorado, where he taught from 1974 to 1978.

Andrew Harvey is a renowned mystical scholar, poet, novelist, spiritual teacher, and architect of Sacred Activism (www.andrewharvey.net). Co-editor of Sogyal Rinpoche’s The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, he is the author of more than thirty books, including The Direct Path and A Journey in Ladakh, about his experiences with his teacher, Thuksey Rinpoche.

“Nudgie Lama” (aka David Nichtern) is a senior teacher in the Shambhala Buddhist lineage of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche. A former director of Karme Choling Meditation Center in Vermont, he has been Director of Expansion for Shambhala Training International, a program directed toward the interweaving of spiritual practice and everyday life (www.shambhala.org). Director of Buddhist Studies and Practice at OM Yoga Center (www.omyoga.com), he leads joint retreats worldwide with his wife, OM founder Cyndi Lee. A Grammy- and Emmy-award-winning composer, guitarist, and producer, Nichtern is the founder of Dharma Moon records (www.dharmamoon.com) and co-founder of the world-fusion band Drala.

Sharon Salzberg, co-founder of the Insight Meditation Society and The Barre Center for Buddhist Studies in Barre, Massachusetts, has been leading meditation retreats worldwide since 1974 (www.sharonsalzberg.com). She is the author of four books — The Force of Kindness; Faith; Lovingkindness; A Heart as Wide as the World — and co-author with Joseph Goldstein of the audio Insight Meditation, a Step-by-Step Course on How to Meditate. She edited Voices of Insight, an anthology of writings by vipassana teachers in the West.