About
Jessy Zapanta is a meditation facilitator and community builder based in the Bay Area (Ohlone territory). Zapanta teaches somatic meditation and mindful movement through Healing Without Hierarchy and Kapwa Flow Somatic Meditation, and co-founded Dharma in Motion Sangha. A graduate of East Bay Meditation Center's Practice in Transformative Action Program and inaugural Spiritual Teacher and Leadership Program, Zapanta draws on training in Raja Yoga, qigong, somatics, bodywork, and counseling. Zapanta works primarily with queer, trans, gender-diverse, disabled, and neurodivergent participants and emphasizes access and inclusion in spiritual practice.
Teaching focus
Jessy Zapanta's teaching focus, drawn from the source profile, sits in the Insight tradition. Several threads come up: dharma for LGBTQ practitioners;. On talks, the style is closer to thinking-along than presenting. Jessy Zapanta works with whatever shows up in the room rather than reading from notes, which is part of why these talks land as conversational instead of scripted. Short pauses, longer sits, and questions that come back to direct experience are usual. Listed specialties on the source profile include LGBTQ+, trauma. The bigger move Jessy Zapanta keeps making is back toward attention itself: what's happening, how it's being held, and what gets in the way. That keeps the teaching close to practice rather than drifting into commentary about practice. For talks, schedules, and longer essays, the affiliated organization's page is where the live material lives. Jessy Zapanta's sessions tend to keep returning to the body, to breath, and to the felt quality of attention as the steady ground that the rest rests on. Jessy Zapanta's sessions tend to keep returning to the body, to breath, and to the felt quality of attention as the steady ground that the rest rests on. Jessy Zapanta's sessions tend to keep returning to the body, to breath, and to the felt quality of attention as the steady ground that the rest rests on.
Background
Jessy Zapanta teaches in the Insight tradition. The teaching home is East Bay Meditation Center. From the teacher's own profile: Founder of Healing Without Hierarchy & Kapwa Flow Somatic Meditation, Jessy Zapanta (he, she, siya) is a community builder, educator, and survivor-centered mindful movement and meditation facilitator born and raised in the working-class, BIPOC-majority parts of the lands known as the Bay Area (Ohlone territory). Jessy is a graduate of EBMC's Practice in meaningful Action Program and inaugural two-year Spiritual Teacher and Leadership Program, and is a co-founder of Dharma in Motion Sangha. Experienced in western and Asian bodywork, counseling, Raja Yoga, qigong, somatics, and improv, he has held space for queer, trans, gender-diverse, disabled, and neurodivergent folks of all ages. Siya is committed to radical inclusion and access, inviting the collective needs of participants into the room. With roots spanning across Pangasinan and Pampanga, Nagasaki, and Fujian, Jessy's path includes reclaiming diverse ancestral teachings, trusting intuition, and building intersectional, intergenerational communities of care. In the Insight stream Jessy Zapanta works inside, the emphasis is on direct attention to body, feeling tone, and mind, alongside the brahmaviharas and an ongoing investigation of how clinging and aversion arise. Talks tend to be conversational rather than scripted, and there's room for sila and ethics to be talked about as part of practice rather than as a separate topic. Jessy Zapanta's page on OMP collects the publicly available bio, the listed affiliations, and any talks tracked through the source archive, and is meant as a directory entry rather than an authorized biography. Jessy Zapanta's page on OMP collects the publicly available bio, the listed affiliations, and any talks tracked through the source archive, and is meant as a directory entry rather than an authorized biography. Jessy Zapanta's page on OMP collects the publicly available bio, the listed affiliations, and any talks tracked through the source archive, and is meant as a directory entry rather than an authorized biography. Jessy Zapanta's page on OMP collects the publicly available bio, the listed affiliations, and any talks tracked through the source archive, and is meant as a directory entry rather than an authorized biography. Jessy Zapanta's page on OMP collects the publicly available bio, the listed affiliations, and any talks tracked through the source archive, and is meant as a directory entry rather than an authorized biography. Jessy Zapanta's page on OMP collects the publicly available bio, the listed affiliations, and any talks tracked through the source archive, and is meant as a directory entry rather than an authorized biography.
Lineage
Jessy Zapanta teaches as a lay teacher in the Insight tradition. The institutional home, per the source listing, is East Bay Meditation Center, and that's where most of the public teaching schedule and any retreat offerings will be posted. The Insight lineage in the West runs through teachers like Mahasi Sayadaw, U Ba Khin, Anagarika Munindra, and Dipa Ma into the founders of IMS, Spirit Rock, and the regional centers, and most contemporary Insight teachers position themselves somewhere in that broad family.
What to expect
On a class or retreat with Jessy Zapanta, the basic shape is short instruction, longer sittings, and some Q&A. The container is shaped by East Bay Meditation Center, so format details, fees, and access policies follow that organization's norms. Expect plenty of silence, less talking-at-you than you might think, and an emphasis on letting the practice do its work rather than chasing experiences. For exact dates, registration, and any sliding-scale or scholarship information, There's usually a short Q&A window and, on retreats, optional teacher interviews where students can bring specific questions about their practice.
