Kondañña, or Barry Kapke, (b: 10/10/55) is a Libra, Aries rising, born in the year of the Sheep/Ram. Having lived in the greater San Francisco Bay Area for over 25 years, he is now residing in beautiful Thailand, while learning to live as harmoniously as he can with cancer. He loves cats, gardening, photography, and doing whatever he can to help make the world a healthier and happier place.

By profession, Kondañña is a massage & bodywork therapist and instructor. He is the originator of Insight Bodywork, a gentle form of healing and integrative bodywork that explores skillful ways of living consciously in the body; it is a nurturing yoga for both practitioner and recipient. In order to promote the development and teaching of Insight Bodywork, he founded The Bodhiwork Institute in 1997. Having been an integral part of the teaching staff at San Francisco School of Massage for over 15 years, Kondañña now teaches at various massage schools throughout California and organizes his own workshops in the Bay Area and Thailand for both bodywork professionals and anyone interested in getting to know their bodies better. If you'd like Kondañña to teach a workshop in your community, please contact him by email

Barry is a Certified Instructor with the American Organization for Bodywork Therapies of Asia (AOBTA) and Internationl Thai Therapists Association (ITTA), as well as a Certified Somatic Therapist with the Associated Bodywork & Massage Professionals (ABMP). He is a contributing writer and columnist for Massage & Bodywork Magazine, editor and publisher of the In Touch newsletter, and founder of the Bodywork Alliance of Northern California (BANC).

Kondañña's dream is the creation of a Budddhist healing retreat center, where meditation practice, therapeutic spa therapies and bodyworks, and a simple, natural lifestyle environment can be made available to people of all income levels. If you'd like to help realize this vision, please email

In 1991, Kondañña founded DharmaNet International. Originally, DharmaNet was an international network of BBS operators, making use of electronic mail to discuss Dharma and to publish electronic Dharma books and the e-journal Gassho. As DharmaNet grew, the technologies of the Internet became more and more central to DharmaNet's mission: helping people anywhere in the world to find access to Dharma teaching and teachers, and to explore uses of technology to support Dharma practice. DharmaNet's Gateways to Buddhism was one of the first to pioneer use of the World Wide Web as an informational clearinghouse for Buddhist resources. DharmaNet remains the most important central resource for Buddhist information of all traditions. Kondañña felt strongly that DharmaNet be a prominent model of dana and is offered freely in the Dhammic principle of supporting that which is worthy of support and refraining from supporting that which is not worthy of support.

Kondañña's own practice is Theravadin, in the Forest Monastic tradition of northern Thailand. He is closely associated with Abhayagiri Buddhist Monastery in Redwood Valley CA and is a founder of the Sanghapala Meditation Group which meets weekly in Berkeley. He has been trained as a Community Dharma Leader by Spirit Rock Meditation Center and is ordained as a lay minister through the Abhayagiri community.

Kondañña may be reached by e-mail