Derek Rasmussen graduated from the three year Buddhist minister's training program at the Kinmount Academy and Seminary, whose faculty included David Bohm, David Peat, Tarchin Hearn, Sonam Senge, Karma Chime Wongmo, Cecilie Kwiat, Sayadaw U Thila Wanta and Namgyal Rinpoche.

Derek's PhD focuses on how the Buddha taught the "four immeasurables"-- loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy and equanimity-- meditations which “give us a foretaste of the final goal...the way a fully awakened person relates to others”, according to Ven. Bhikkhu Anālayo.  

Unfortunately, how the Buddha taught these meditations is almost never taught today. This retreat will focus on this method, and how it supports insights into anatta (non-self) and sunyata (emptiness) and can be a helpful support to those working for social and ecological justice. 

Derek loves to weave humour and storytelling into meditation teaching; and he has served as a retreat facilitator at the Queenstown Dharma House (NZ), Dharma Gate Buddhist College (Budapest), Monday Night Meditation Group (Vancouver), Tampere University (Finland), Morin Heights Dharma House (Quebec), and Ecojustice retreats (Michigan).  Derek is a co-founder of Buddhists Against Genocide.

Derek has a history as a civil disobedience trainer and organizer, co-founding the first Canada-wide East Timor group, the Alliance for NonViolent Action (ANVA), and organizing a Toronto-NYC peace walk.He lived in Iqaluit, Nunavut, for twelve years, working for Inuit organizations, with whom he attended the COP 11 UN Climate Change Conference (2005). As a legal researcher, he supports lawsuits against Canada's violation of Inuit and Palestinian rights.

Derek authored/co-authored chapters in 7 books, as well as numerous magazines and journals. He's been an invited speaker at Eastern Michigan University, Concordia University, McGill University, Trent University, University of British Columbia, Carleton University, University of Ottawa, the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), Tampere University (Finland), Nunavut Arctic College, University of Texas, Harvard University, and Yale University.

His writings are archived at: https://sfu.academia.edu/DerekRasmussen

Linktree: https://linktr.ee/Buddhactivist2