Ruth Denison
Ruth Denison was the first Buddhist teacher in the United States to lead an all-women's retreat for Buddhist meditation and instruction. Her center, Dhamma Dena Desert Vipassana Center is located in the Mojave Desert, in Joshua Tree, California. She was also a teacher at the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts. She sometimes taught at Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Woodacre, California.
After spending her youth in Germany, she immigrated to the United States. In the 1960s and 1970s, she was part of the alternative and counterculture scene.
She was one of four Westerners to receive permission to teach from Burmese master U Ba Khin, a layperson known for a particular method of awareness practice called vipassana, in which the meditator closely observes bodily sensations.
Denison died on February 26, 2015, after suffering a stroke. She was 92.
