About Us
The Binghamton Buddhist Meditation Group
Our Story
The Binghamton Buddhist Meditation Group (BBMG) originally started in the early 2000s. Through the years it has taken on many different forms (as things tend to do). The current incarnation of the group re-formed in the Spring of 2023.
Meet The Sangha Coordinators and Teachers
Dr. Tara Belsare
Group Coordinator and Teacher
Dr. Belsare is a psychiatrist in private practice in Endwell, New York. She grew up Hindu in the Bible Belt of small town Iowa. Her mother taught her to meditate when she was 13 years old. She converted to Baptist for a short period of time. And then went on a long and broad search for answers to her spiritual questions. This eventually lead her to Unitarian universalism. However, she experienced some higher states of consciousness in 2004. After which Buddism became a central part of her life.
Deirdre Eberhart
Group Coordinator, Website Administrator
Deirdre is Licensed Clinical Social Worker in private practice in Endwell, NY. She grew up as a practicing Catholic and through a series of difficult life events fell into learning about the benefits of mindfulness meditation, and how it could relieve her suffering. This led Deirdre to explore further into the origin of meditation, its benefits, and the religions from which they came from. Both suffering and curiousity pulled Deirdre toward learning about the Buddhist teachings and, not long after, she began following the teachings of the Buddha (to the best of her ever-changing abilities).
Mateo Mortellaro
Nagpa (Ordained Buddhist Practitioner & Teacher)
Here is a link to his teaching schedule:
Dr. Charles Goodman
Charles Goodman is a Buddhist scholar, philosopher, translator and meditation teacher. He has a BA in Physics from Harvard University and a Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Michigan. He is Professor in the Philosophy Department and the Department of Asian and Asian American Studies at Binghamton University. He has studied Korean Zen and Tibetan Buddhism in the United States and India. Charles Goodman is the author of Consequences of Compassion: An Interpretation and Defense of Buddhist Ethics, and of numerous translations from Sanskrit and Tibetan, including The Training Anthology of Śāntideva: A Translation of the Śikṣā-samuccaya.
Randy Jack
Treasurer
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"I found my way to the dharma, including a consistent zazen practice, after stumbling through the first thirty years of my life not-so-blissfully unaware that it was an integral part of developing patience, tolerance, love, and equanimity. My life has changed fundamentally by observing the Buddhist dharma and continuing to practice meditation, and it is something I am immensely grateful for."