About
Paul Ciske holds a Ph.D. and maintains a private practice called Your Well-Being in Oakland. He has practiced Vipassana meditation since 1993 and completed the Senior Student, Dedicated Practitioner, and Advanced Practitioner programs at Spirit Rock Meditation Center. He is certified to teach Conscious Embodiment Courses, which integrate Aikido and mindfulness principles, and teaches T'ai Chi Chih. Ciske studies with Tsoknyi Rinpoche and participates in the Bay Area Pundarika group. His work focuses on nervous system communication to support functional participation in daily life.
Teaching focus
Paul Ciske's teaching focus, drawn from the source profile, sits in the Vipassana and Tibetan traditions. Several threads come up: embodied practice and the felt sense of attention;. On talks, the style is closer to thinking-along than presenting. Paul Ciske 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 advanced practice. The bigger move Paul Ciske 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. Paul Ciske'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. Paul Ciske'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
Paul Ciske teaches in the Vipassana and Tibetan traditions. The teaching home is East Bay Meditation Center. From the teacher's own profile: Paul Ciske, Ph.D., has a private practice in Oakland called "Your Well-Being." He uses methodologies for communicating with the nervous system to improve the capacity of his clients to fully participate in life. He has been a student of Vipassana meditation since 1993 and participated in the Senior Student program, Dedicated Practitioner Program, and Advanced Practitioner's Program through Spirit Rock Meditation Center. He is certified to facilitate Conscious Embodiment Courses based on the principles of Aikido and Mindfulness, and teaches T'ai Chi Chih, Joy through Movement. He is a student of Tsoknyi Rinpoche and participates in the Bay Area Pundarika group. In the Insight stream Paul Ciske 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. Paul Ciske'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. Paul Ciske'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. Paul Ciske'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. Paul Ciske'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. Paul Ciske'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. Paul Ciske'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. Paul Ciske'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
Paul Ciske teaches as a lay teacher in the Vipassana and Tibetan traditions. 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 Paul Ciske, 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.
