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Mark Webber is a Resident Teacher for the Crystal Mountain Retreat Centre, Galiano Island, B.C. and was the Resident Teacher at the retreat property of the Dharma Centre of Canada in Kinmount, Ontario, and teaches at other centres in Canada and internationally. He is the author of the book Why Meditate? A Heart Song of Vast Release and editor of the booklet, A Basket of Gems. Mr. Webber's style of teaching is non-sectarian and universalist in nature, displaying for beings the wondrous unity, uniqueness and intrinsic freedom of all life. His teaching is classically founded, but well integrated with science, art and nature. Mr. Webber's work with people demonstrates a profound commitment to freeing beings from innumerable suffering states, whether through meditation, study, art, travel or science. Mark Webber has been studying and teaching Buddha Dharma (the Teachings of Liberation) and meditation for twenty-seven years. He was born in 1956 in Toronto and he started practicing meditation at the age of 16, through a strong interest to understand consciousness, primarily using the mind to study the mind. In the following year he began formally studying Buddhist meditation with his first teachers Chorpel Dolma (Beatrice Raff) and Karma Thinley Rinpoche and in the same year he met his principle teacher the Venerable Namgyal Rinpoche. He spent the next ten years, between University studies and summer work, traveling and studying with Namgyal Rinpoche. |
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He was instructed by Namgyal Rimpoche to begin teaching Abhidharma in 1975. In 1976 he was ordained, and since 1980 he has
held a lay ordination. He has also studied with many other outstanding teachers from Eastern traditions, including H.H. the 16th
Karmapa, H.H. the 14th Dalai Lama, and H.E. Chogye Trinchen Rimpoche. Mr. Webber has done extensive meditation retreats
and periods of study. During the 1980's he was a resident teacher at The Academy, a three-year seminary program at the Dharma
Centre of Canada, Kinmount, Ontario. He has authorization to bestow empowerments (wong-kur) in the Vajrayana tantric tradition.
Mr. Webber's background also includes research in molecular biology and chemistry, as well as training in fine arts and crafts. During his teens, he spent a year studying organic chemistry in Dr. Wright's (Professor Emeritus of Chemistry, University of Toronto) private laboratory. His mentors in molecular biology at the Ontario Cancer Institute were Dr.'s Alan Bernstein, Andrew Becker and Barry Rolfe. He spent a year studying at the Toronto School of Art and he was a member of the Art Institute at Capilano College, North Vancouver, having studied bronze casting under the guidance of George Rammell. He holds a Masters degree in Anthropology, working with Dr. Charles Laughlin, to investigate the interconnections between meditation and neurophysiology. Mr. Webber is also a professional gemstone cutter, having cut gems for jeweller's across Canada. He has taught quarry operations in Canada's Arctic and is a sculptor in stone and clay. While in the Arctic he learnt stone sculpture under the guidance of George Pratt, Sam Pitsiulak, Phillip Pitsiulak and John McKinnon and during this time he was able to collaborate on some major sculptures. In the mid 1980's he was an economic planner for the Government of the Northwest Territories, an economic and arts consultant in Canada's Eastern Arctic, and for seven years he was the Co-ordinator and Senior Instructor of the Fine Arts and Crafts Programs at Nunavut Arctic College in Iqaluit, Nunavut, Canada. In 1997, Mr. Webber moved to Nelson, British Columbia where he became the Executive Director of the Kootenay School of the Arts, Centre of Craft and Design. During this period, as he had done for many years in the Arctic, he combined work with teaching Dharma, leading meditation retreats and cutting gems. One of his interests is distilling essential oils and floral/plant waters from wild crafted plants. And with the recent purchase of a portable field microscope, stereo microscope and digital camera he is currently photographing and exploring the microscopic world; with a particular emphasis on fresh water and marine algae. Photos, microfari's (micro safaris) are to be found in the photo gallery. Here is one of Mark's recent poems available for download:
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