Venerable Sumati Marut

(Brian K. Smith) has been teaching Asian Classics Institute courses, guided meditations, and informal talks and workshops in Tibetan Buddhism in Los Angeles, Tucson, New York, Ireland, Canada, and elsewhere since 2000. He is the founder and spiritual director of the Asian Classics Institute, Los Angeles (www.aci-la.org), and is also a founding Board member and currently president of the Yoga Studies Institute. As a YSI staff teacher, he teaches courses in yoga philosophy around the world. He is on the faculty of Diamond Mountain University in Arizona as a professor of Sanskrit and Buddhism, and also has taught courses for Loyola Marymount University’s Yoga Philosophy Program. Ven. Marut is Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies at the University of California, Riverside. He received his Ph.D. in the History of Religions from the University of Chicago in 1984, where he studied with Mircea Eliade, Wendy Doniger O’Flaherty, and other world-renown scholars of Indian and Comparative Religions. He taught courses in Indian, Eastern, and Comparative Religion for over twenty years–first at Barnard College, Columbia University, and then as a tenured Professor at the University of California, Riverside–before retiring in 2004. He has spent several years in India studying and is the author of two books based on ancient Sanskrit materials (published with Oxford University Press), many articles (academic, as well as popular pieces for encyclopedias), and is the co-translator of a Sanskrit law book, THE LAWS OF MANU (published by Penguin).

Camilo Cerro

Camilo Cerro has a Masters of Architecture from Columbia University in NYC and has been studying Buddhism for thirteen years under Arya Sumati Dharmadhara (Geshe Michael Roach), Kensur Lobsang Tarching Rimpoche, Geshe Tupten Rinchen, and other teachers.

Maria Cutrona

Maria Cutrona is deeply honored to be a graduate of Kelly Morris Conquering Lion Yoga Teacher Training Program. This unprecedented training has illuminated for her the true purpose and power of yoga; to help transform our selves and our world completely. She is profoundly grateful to her teachers for inspiring her practice in the service to others; most notably Lama Kelly Morris, Lady Ruth Laurer Mannetti, Barbara Verrochi, Kristin Leigh, and Rima Rabbath. Maria humbly bows down in gratitude to the Holy Beings who have graciously shared their wisdom and opened her eyes to the path of ultimate transformation and liberation: Geshe Michael Roach, Lama Christie McNally,Lama Sumati Marut, Lama Mercedes Bahleda,Lama Kimberly Theresa, Lama John Brady, Kristina Pao Cheng, John Stilwell, Will Duncan and Amma.

Susanna Eckblad

Susanna, a clinical social worker and native Wisconsinite, was drawn to New York City for a job but thinks it’s fair to say she stayed for the yoga. Noticing the therapeutic effects of a regular yoga practice, she developed a deep wish to bring this healing method to nontraditional settings. Susanna completed Conquering Lion Yoga Teacher Training in 2008 and since then, has taught yoga and meditation in prisons, psychiatric units, and agencies that serve the homeless. She completed her prenatal yoga training with Mary Barnes in 2011 and believes that the inner and outer methods of yoga provide an incredible wealth of tools for pregnant women.

Susanna teaches a prenatal class that focuses on building strength while finding ease and fluidity. Women will practice using the breath, body, and intention to prepare for birth as well as to elevate the mind and heart. She offers boundless gratitude to all of her Teachers for continuing to light the path, especially to Kelly Morris and Lama Sumati Marut.

Rachel Feinberg

Rachel Feinberg started out as a dancer, dance teacher and choreographer. She holds a BFA in dance from Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle, WA. She was certified to teach vinyasa in 2004, and has been teaching full-time ever since. She’s taught in private studios, corporations, and hospital settings in addition to maintaining a private practice. She’s led workshops on the effects of stress, and stress reduction through yoga, for the Legal Aid Society and Group Health, Inc. She has experience working with individuals suffering from chronic illness, disease and mental health issues. Rachel studies and teaches Iyengar Yoga, and is enrolled in a two-year, intensive teacher training program at the Iyengar Institute in NYC. She graduates in 2011. Rachel’s love of yoga and passion for teaching is evident. She gives clear, dynamic instructions and demonstrations. She emphasizes healthy alignment, attention and breath awareness. Her students range in age from 12 to 78, and Rachel believes that people of all ages, levels of fitness and body types can practice and deeply benefit from yoga.

Ava Gerber

Ava Gerber’s fascination with multi-cultural religious ritual and ceremony and its expression has spanned the past two decades. She has studied religions in Nigeria, Haiti, Siberut, and Venezuela, and she has traveled to India and bathed in the Ganges River.  She has spent 17 years studying the traditional dances of Africa (Woolof, Susu,Yoruba) and its Diaspora (Voodou, Garfunia). In addition to her studies of religion and dance, she has an M.F.A. in Art. She sees all these genera as material or vehicles for reaching enlightenment and serving all beings. She is a Yoga Alliance certified teacher, has competed all 18 Asian Classics Institute courses & passed her Maroke. Ava would like to thank all those who have helped to bring about Lucky Lotus Yoga and bows to the feet of her teacher Lama Marut.

Michael Hewett

Michael Hewett has been teaching yoga and dharma full time since 1997. Reflecting his extensive training and creativity, Michael’s heat-building vinyasa classes emphasize breath, meditation and yogic philosophy. Over the past fourteen years, he has studied with Alan Finger, Cyndi Lee, David Nichtern, Sharon Gannon and David Life. In 2004, he met his root teachers, Geshe Michael Roach and Lama Christie McNally, and began studying Tibetan Buddhism in the lineage of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. In 2010, Michael founded Sarva Yoga Academy out of a deep sense of gratitude and respect for the power of the ancient practices and teachers who’ve dedicated their lives to passing wisdom to us. Sarva Yoga Academy’s mission is to transmit the knowledge and practices of the great Indian and Tibetan yogic lineages, which teach students the difference between power and force, participation and manipulation, and how to transmute every moment of their life into spiritual practice. Michael is also an accomplished composer, guitarist of over twenty five years, and recording artist who has released four full-length albums and numerous singles. He plays lead guitar in the hit Broadway Musical, “Wicked” and tours internationally with his own project. Preview his catalog of music on itunes and http://www.michael-hewett.com/