We are passionate about creating a community for people who want to know themselves more deeply and live their lives more fully. Our teachers have a variety of backgrounds, and bring different perspectives into their meditation classes.
We believe that the more we reflect the diversity of the world around us, the more the WITHIN community will diversify, as students find teachers who understand where they come from and connect with them on their journey.
We actively seek out and welcome new teachers and staff who help expand the diversity of the studio, whether that is in terms of their race, their ethnicity, their background, their gender identification, or their sexual orientation.
Hannah Knapp
Hannah has been meditating since 2012, when she dove in head-first with a 10-day Vipassana retreat. It was during that retreat that she realized she was ready for the adventure of pregnancy and parenting. Coming out of that experience, she knew she needed a community to practice with: there was just nothing like meditating with other people. Her passion for sharing the power of mindfulness has led her to launch (and lead) group meditations wherever she’s worked, and to start WITHIN Meditation.
Through mindfulness, she’s developed a deep resilience, focus, and capacity to love that she draws on every day, both as the mom of two children and as a start-up founder. She’s delighted to be leading meditation sessions in our online studio and in companies throughout the San Francisco Bay Area and across the country, while building an amazing team of teachers at WITHIN.
Watch this video to hear from Hannah what her classes are like!
Shundo David Haye
Shundo is an ordained Zen priest. He came from England in 2000 to live at the San Francisco Zen Center, and spent fifteen years in residential training, including five years of monastic practice at Tassajara. He helped found and run the successful Young Urban Zen practice group at the Zen Center. Although he loves the robes and the formal rituals, he is interested in reaching people who will never set foot inside a Zen temple. He has taught at tech companies, schools and colleges, yoga studios, retreat centers, and the county jail. He loves being outside, especially on a bike, and leads regular mindful hikes around San Francisco, as well as a weekly outdoor meditation.
Watch this video to hear from Shundo what his classes are like!
Amanda Pandey
Amanda was first introduced to meditation 10 years ago and has studied and cultivated a practice of her own over the years. She has practiced a variety of different techniques, taken courses, worked with experts, and has also assisted with research at the Clinically Applied Affective Neuroscience Lab at the University of California, Davis to prove the effectiveness of meditation on mental health. Amanda is now a certified yoga and meditation teacher and is passionate about sharing just how impactful mindfulness and meditation can be with others to help them lead more centered and balanced lives.
A core part of the meditation work Amanda does involves grounding one’s self in the body. Her goal is for others to be able to best help themselves as their body always knows what it needs, and if they can learn to give themselves enough space to hear these answers, they’ve already conquered the hardest step. Amanda’s focus is on empowering others to reconnect with themselves and their bodies so that they are able to work through any internal blocks and limiting beliefs with more confidence and ease.
Herky Chopra
Herky had a deep meditative upbringing growing up in India with exposure to wisdom teachings, and the guidance of an enlightened master. She immigrated to the US at the age of 20 and even though Herky held a successful corporate career as a Project Manager, her deepest passion is in practicing and teaching meditation. She is also a life coach for women and helps them find well-being by creating an inward shift & tap into higher levels of self-compassion, self-worth, joy, and inner peace. She uses a variety of techniques in her practice but her core message is that we all have accessibility & must learn to tap into the inner dimensions of calm and presence amidst all the chaos we often experience in our outside world.
For the past 12 years, Herky has deep-dived in various modalities and practical applications in personal development, positive psychology, career and life coaching, mindfulness, and spirituality integrating east-west wisdom teachings.
In her own personal journey raising three children as a single mom and a full-time career, Herky has found meditation to be her constant companion to not only get grounded and overcome the stresses of modern living but also find meaning, joy, and beauty in her daily life.
Watch this video to hear from Herky what her classes are like!
Javier García Sánchez
Javier is an artist and educator passionate about bringing ancient wisdom to the present day, inspired by his upbringing in a medieval Spanish town of golden stones. After a decade of practice, he believes that meditation can transform the experience of life and is driven to share that power with others.
Students appreciate his gentle directness, poetic imagery, and the infusion of art into his meditations, which he can lead in Spanish and English.
He’s completed over 240hrs of meditation teacher trainings with Hector Marcel and Three Jewels, regularly goes on silent retreats, and has stayed at Zen monasteries in Japan in order to deepen his practice. He’s currently studying Eastern Philosophy through the Asian Classics Institute.
Javier is also a breathwork facilitator, certified coach, and design leader. He teaches aikido, the art of peace, to kids at the New York Aikikai, and is a perennial student of the art of Japanese tea ceremony.
He studied Art & Design at Central Saint Martins, International Commerce at the University of Salamanca, and Management at Gothenburg University. He has consulted for large organizations on topics ranging from vision to strategy, and his art has been commissioned by publications like The New Yorker.
Devon Pipars
Devon Pipars is a teacher and blogger for WITHIN Meditation, who also works with companies via wellness workshops, meditation sessions, and mindful communication coaching. She is a featured voice for Hyperice’s meditation training device Core, as well as a senior instructor on the Core app (hellocore.com).
Meditation is Devon’s passion and purpose. A meditator since 2002, the practice has been deeply transformative for her. After devoting four years to the study and practice of meditation under the guidance of a master teacher in the Indian Himalayas, Devon’s sessions incorporate multiple traditions and techniques including mindfulness, breath work, mantra, gratitude practice & loving kindness.
Devon is masterful at translating all she’s learned into simple terms, making her classes appropriate for first-time meditators as well as experts. No matter what your experience level, her approach effectively reduces stress and promotes well-being.
Watch this video to hear from Devon what her classes are like!
Sonal Kalra
Sonal is a certified meditation teacher and founder of CONNECT Meditation. She grew up in India and is now based in Boston, Massachusetts. She has a background in human resources, learning & development and life coaching. Her background in corporate human resources, learning & development, and experience as a life coach, help her connect with people in a corporate setting as well as on an individual basis. This builds a strong foundation for the meditation programs she facilitates for organizations and groups as well as for individuals.
In addition to her meditation offerings, Sonal has led participants in corporate training workshops, as well as clients in coaching sessions through meditation, an easy and effective way of connecting to the insight and clarity within. Her diverse background helps her in blending eastern and western philosophies that she feels thrilled to be sharing through the meditation offerings she guides.
Sonal holds a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and a Postgraduate Degree in Business Management specializing in Human Resource Development. She also holds a Master's degree in Labor Laws and Labor Welfare, and a Diploma in Training and Development. Her Somatic EMDR training helps her in offering trauma-sensitive mindfulness. Sonal finds meditation very self-empowering and feels extremely honored to share it and its benefits with others. It brings her immense joy.
Rafael Amar
Rafael’s yoga and meditation journey began in 2013 after he served as a combat soldier in the middle east. Yoga and meditation provided tools to deal with the difficult emotions he experienced during his tours.
In 2020, he completed studies to become an emergency room nurse and worked at a busy downtown hospital in New Mexico during the pandemic. After 3 years working in the hospital, Rafael left nursing due to burnout and compassion fatigue. He set off to India and completed 500 hrs of training from Master Teacher Anand Mehortra at The Sattva Yoga Academy.
He currently works part time as an emergency room nurse in San Francisco and teaches meditation in small group settings to primarily nurses and veterans helping them process complex emotions through breathwork.
Jonathan Borella
Suffering shared is half the suffering. Joy shared is twice the joy. Jonathan is inspired by sharing mindfulness practices with people seeking to develop their innate resilience and live integrated lives with kindness and wisdom.
Jonathan was ordained by Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh into the Order of Interbeing in 2013. In his 15 years of practice, he has been a community builder for local Sanghas, organized monastic tours, offered practices and teaching at several monasteries and practice centers around the U.S. and Vietnam, and created mindfulness programs for college students, teens, families in crisis, prisoners, social workers, and corporate employees.
Following a year long training at Deer Park Monastery, Jonathan moved to Ukiah, California to start the Sugarplum Sangha, a residential mindfulness community that offers daily meditation sessions and retreats on campus and online. Jonathan's favorite mindfulness practices are pottery, tea, aikido, and eating.
Watch this video to hear from Jonathan what his classes are like!