Toby Sola

Toby’s interest in mindfulness began with Yom Kippur fasting, wood wandering, and Shamanic sweat lodges. In 2011, Toby met Shinzen Young and began practicing, teaching, and researching mindfulness more seriously.

As a practitioner, he enjoys mining his emotional body sensations as a source of wisdom and using his physical senses to – like a ninja – be hyper aware of his surroundings. Toby spent a year-and-a-half at the Center for Mindful Learning, which is a socially-engaged monastery that Shinzen advises.  

As a teacher, Toby specializes in Self Actualization and working with people who suffer from anxiety. He has taught mindfulness in after school programs, in-person and phone-based retreats, and college campuses.

While at Vassar College, Toby conducted a Social Studies research project entitled Reflection, Reproduction, and Challenging at the Brooklyn Zen Center and a Cognitive Science research project that Shinzen consulted on entitled Breath, Self, and World: Pioneering Meditation Pedagogy.   

Toby’s sense of social responsibility includes entrepreneurship, Social Justice, Political Geography, and the power of live music.