Hello! I’m Adam Moskowitz

Background

I began teaching when I was twenty, as an intern at an elementary school in Pennsylvania. I had no idea what I was doing—but the sacred spark of shared insight and discovery that lit up the classroom felt like the most wonderful thing.

In 2007, I was teaching at a high school Oakland, CA, where I quickly noticed significant stress in my students’ lives. I saw how their school environment often overlooked their nervous system and what one mentor described as the human right of awareness.

My own struggles and the weight of long-buried anxiety pivoted my life toward healing and meditative practice. Time off turned into retreat; novels were replaced with strange spiritual texts. (I do miss those novels!) It was a seismic shift—excruciating and beautiful.

I eventually trained to share mindfulness-based practices in schools and developed a school-wide program that touched the lives of more than a thousand Bay Area students, educators, and parents. I am grateful for the privilege of witnessing youth learn, countless times, to rediscover what they call their anchor—the deep well of ease, safety, and uniqueness within. I believe this discovery is foundational for the work of repairing the world.

My work today

Trained with the Center for Mindfulness as an MBSR teacher, I serve as adjunct faculty at Antioch University, where I teach mindfulness and compassion-based practices to graduate students.

I offer teachings to the public, organizations, schools, and individuals. I design programs for groups that explore the transformative benefits of cultivating presence. I lead a wonderful online sangha called Rainbow Mind, teach an eight-week course, offer residential and daylong retreats, and work privately with clients.

My work centers on supporting individuals to develop an experiential relationship with loving awareness. I create safe, joyful containers where people can reconnect with themselves and each other, experiencing insights in the mind and shifts toward freedom in the heart.

My guidance is gentle yet precise, recognizing the subtle and multifaceted nature of individual experience and transformation. I believe we each possess a unique doorway to freedom and self-discovery, and that cultivating a kind and authentic relationship with the present moment is universally possible and essential for real development to occur.

I do not teach with an agenda to manufacture any particular state or spiritual experience, but as a way of relating to our human experience with greater awareness, kindness, and wisdom.

I have spent years practicing, studying, and deepening my relationship with multiple traditions from which my teaching draws. I am grateful to have practiced within the Sagaing Hills of Burma with Steven Smith and Michele McDonald—two huge-hearted humanitarians and pioneers who helped create a pathway for Westerners to authentically experience the dharma. My teaching is also deeply influenced by Thich Nhat Hanh, Advaita Vedanta, and the principles of Hakomi.

I am deeply grateful to my teachers—Megan Cowan, Chris McKenna, Steven Smith, Michele McDonald, Bob Stahl, Matthew Brensilver, David Weinberg, George Bertelstein, Lilo Reese, and Ryan Brandenburg—whose guidance and generosity continue to inspire my life and work.