Howdy, I'm Claire
Meditator. Educator. Nerd.
I’ve been wondering about the nature of reality most of my life and practicing various forms of Buddhism since 1997. I’ve meditated my way around India, Nepal, and Thailand, with pilgrimages to Tibet. I completed a PhD on Tibetan Buddhism and contemplative ways of knowing in 2015 at Rice University, worked for Dawn Mountain Center for Tibetan Buddhism, and am now a digital nomad and meditation instructor. Things that blow my mind include science, great storytelling, and Spinning.
My story
I was raised fundamentalist Christian in a small town in North Texas, and by the time I left for Rice University in 1995 I knew that tradition didn’t suit me but hadn’t found something that did. When I stumbled across a course on East Asian civilizations co-taught by Anne Klein, I signed up because I’d always felt an affinity for Asian cultures.
But when Anne assigned Buddhist texts for us to read, I was immediately hooked on the dharma and added a Religious Studies major. I also started meditating with Ajahn Ken of Wat Buddhavas and sitting with Anne’s sangha, Dawn Mountain. I obsessed over Tibetan history and did a Tibetan Studies semester abroad with the School for International Training, which introduced me to travel in Asia.
After I graduated, I taught secondary English for a couple of years, trained in Wing Chun and tai chi chuan at Authentic Kung Fu for seven years, and left in 2003 for a long trip to Asia. After I got back, some friends asked me to teach them meditation, and that's how I got started, in 2004, as a meditation instructor.
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In 2007 I joined the doctoral program in Rice's Department of Religion and spent the next eight years learning, writing, and teaching about Tibetan Buddhism, contemplative ways of knowing, and how those can enrich modern Western life. After I earned my PhD in 2015, I joined the staff of Dawn Mountain Center for Tibetan Buddhism, where I became the Programs Director before leaving in 2019 to offer meditation and spiritual instruction online and in person.
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You can read my academic work here and find guided meditations and short dharma talks here.