Larry Birkett, MMT-100, RYT-200

Larry is Mindfulness Meditation Teacher, and discovered meditation in 2010 at a Yoga Journal Conference with David Nichtern – senior Buddhist teacher and one of the initial American students of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche. He has been practicing meditation for more than 10 years and has studied many Buddhist lineages and forms including Theravadin [Vipassana], Soto Zen [Mahayana] and Tibetan [Vajrayana].

From 2012 until 2017, Larry studied meditation and yoga extensively with Michael Stone. During the pandemic, he completed a 40-week year long Buddhist studies program with Ethan Nichtern, whom he continues to study with today. In 2022, Larry auspiciously came full circle and completed a 100-hour mindfulness meditation teaching certificate with David Nichtern, through Dharma Moon and Tibet House – the cultural home of the Dalai Lama in the United States – where he continues his Buddhist studies. Larry’s classes are centered around the foundational meditation practices of focus & discovery and are accessible to all. Through these core practices, we become more synchronized in body and mind, and we begin to relate to our world in a less distracted and more wakeful way. His teachings recognize and honor the Buddhist lineages, traditions, and wisdom that all mindfulness meditation is deeply rooted in today.

Larry has a degree in theater performance and design and came to Milwaukee in 1988 to work as an actor with the Milwaukee Rep. There, he met his husband, Shawn, and together, they worked as theater professionals in Milwaukee for the next twenty-some years. Since 2012, Larry has been teaching mindfulness meditation to incarcerated people in jails and prisons throughout Milwaukee; yoga teachers; as well as students, student athletes, faculty, and staff at Marquette University where he now serves as the Director of Retail & Licensing for Intercollegiate Athletics. Off his cushion, Larry strongly believes in travel, live music, hiking, craft cocktails and his spirit animal – pizza!

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