Instructor
Brandon Thompson
Brandon Thompson is a poet, a scholar, a musician and a lover of music, and a Buddhist practitioner and teacher. He is an Associate Core Faculty Member in Sofia University’s Hybrid: Global Master’s program.
Brandon has been a student of Mahayana Buddhism since 1999, and has taught in this tradition since taking his bodhisattva vow in the summer of 2007. He finds his home practices in lojong (mind training) and tonglen (sending and taking) meditation, first prescribed by the Buddhist sage Shantideva in the 8th century. Brandon has published four collections of ecstatic poetry.
His most recent book “This is Not My Kingdom: Ecstatic Sovereignty” will be released Spring 2020. He regularly facilitates ecstatic poetry workshops across the United States.
Brandon’s current work involves bringing ecstatic poetry more fully into his life and into the world. Through his publications, scholarly writing, teaching, and workshops, Brandon is seeking to engage with ecstatic poetry as a visionary art: an art form with transformative potential and mystical underpinnings. Entering into this visionary art dialogue is at the forefront of Brandon’s work at present.
