Jessica Kross has been a member of this congregation for almost 50 years. A retired Professor of History at USC she specialized in the Atlantic World between 1500 and 1800 CE. Always interested in the way that people thought about reality and attempted to navigate their lives within that understanding, she began a Buddhist sitting practice in 1984 and has sat some 50 week-long or longer retreats. She was a co-lay teacher of the Insight Meditation Community of Columbia during the seven years of its existence and more recently taught a nine-week course on Buddhism for the Trenholm Road Shepherd’s Center.