"Matteo Pistono is a writer and meditation teacher. His books include Meditation: Coming To Know Your Mind (Hay House, 2017), Fearless in Tibet: The Life of the Mystic Tertön Sogyal (Hay House 2014), and In The Shadow of the Buddha: One Man’s Journey of Discovery in Tibet (Dutton Penguin 2011). Pistono’s writings and photographs about Tibetan, Himalayan, and South East Asian cultural, political, and spiritual landscapes have also appeared in The Washington Post, BBC's In-Pictures, Men's Journal, Kyoto Journal, and HIMAL South Asia. Pistono was born and raised in Wyoming, completed his undergraduate degree in Anthropology from the University of Wyoming, and in 1997 he obtained his Masters of Arts degree in Indian Philosophy from the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London. After working with the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C. on Tibetan cultural programs, Pistono lived and traveled throughout the Himalayas for a decade, bringing to the West graphic accounts and photos of China’s human rights abuses in Tibet, which he wrote about in In the Shadow of the Buddha. He sits on the Executive Council of the International Network of Engaged Buddhists. Matteo and his wife Monica reside in Washington DC."