Keri Pederson began meditating in 1998, inspired both by a deepening yoga practice and by a sincere wish to better understand suffering. She first attended retreats in the tradition of S.N. Goenka and has since practiced with a wide range of lay and monastic teachers in the United States, Thailand, and India. In 2007, Rodney Smith invited her to teach, and she began leading classes, groups, and individual mentorship through Seattle Insight Meditation Society. She has also completed the four-year Teacher Training program at Spirit Rock and IMS.
Keri’s teaching is grounded in the understanding that awakening is a natural process available to each of us. While practice asks for steady, heartfelt commitment, she emphasizes that we do not need to strain to become anyone other than who we already are. Deeply inspired by the nuns, monks, and teachers in the Ajahn Chah lineage of the Thai Forest tradition, she invites students to return again and again to simplicity, stillness, and direct experience. Rather than treating practice as a burdensome task or personal project, Keri brings a gentle and creative approach to meditation—one that can become genuinely enjoyable. Drawing from the essential teachings of early Buddhism, she also encourages students to find their own doorway and trust their innate capacity for freedom in the present moment.
With a humble awareness that much of our suffering arises in relationship with others, Keri has spent many years as a student, practitioner, and occasional facilitator of Insight Dialogue, an interpersonal meditation practice created by Gregory Kramer. She has also been deeply influenced by the psychospiritual inquiry work of Jennifer and John Welwood, which has strengthened her dedication to awakening for the benefit of all beings, and with the support of all beings.
An experienced yoga practitioner for many years, including one teacher training, Keri continues to value the ways resistance and release appear in both body and mind. She regularly offers mindful movement practices to students both on retreat and off retreat as a complement to, support for, and deepening of insight practice.
Another important part of Keri’s Dhamma service over the past fifteen years has been her ongoing work in eldercare, including with people living with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. She has had the honor of accompanying many individuals through the profound shifts in identity and relationship that can arise as they approach death.
Her fiercest and most inspiring teacher continues to be her young son, Jasper.