Mirka Knaster

Mirka Knaster is an independent scholar and freelance writer and editor who applies a cross-cultural perspective to her work, whether on women, healing arts, or spiritual traditions. She holds an MA in Latin American studies and a PhD in Asian and comparative studies. Knaster’s writings on loving-kindness meditation, the body and spirituality, interreligious dialogue, and ethical speech as a spiritual practice appear in magazines, anthologies, and encyclopedias, and at Beliefnet.com.

Knaster has organized and moderated international interfaith panels on respectful communication as a pathway to peace, as well as on the interface between Judaism and Buddhism. Though born in Europe and raised in the United States, she has been practicing in the Theravada tradition of Buddhism since attending her first vipassana retreat in India in 1981. She lives on a bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean in Northern California.