Allan Lokos is the founder and guiding teacher of the Community Meditation Center. He is the author of Pocket Peace: Effective Practices for Enlightened Living, and Patience: The Art of Peaceful Living (Tarcher/Penguin, 1/2012). His writing has appeared in Tricycle magazine (for whom he also led a month long online retreat), Back Stage newspaper, and the anthology, Audacious Creativity. Among the many places he has taught are Columbia University Teacher's College, The Rubin Museum, Marymount College, New York Insight Meditation Center, The New York Open Center, and Insight Meditation Community of Washington. He began his study and practice of meditation with Thây Thich Nhat Hanh in the nineties and his teachers have included Sharon Salzberg, Joseph Goldstein, Larry Rosenberg, Andrew Olendzki, Stephen Batchelor, Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, and Tsoknyi Rinpoche. He has attended numerous retreats at Insight Meditation Society in Barre, MA and classes and workshops at the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies. Allan has also attended a number of weeklong teachings with His Holiness, The Dalai Lama. Earlier in this life Allan was a professional singer appearing in the original Broadway productions of Oliver! and Pickwick, as well as the Stratford Festival/Broadway production of The Pirates of Penzance.

Allan was selected as one of "50 Inspiring Religous Leaders You Should follow on Twitter."

Email Allan: allan@pocketpeace.com