Z

Portland, OR

Zanette’s Buddhist journey began at age 13, when she first encountered the Dharma through a high school world religions class. Raised in a Christian family, she was drawn to Buddhism not as a replacement identity, but as a language of inquiry, ritual, and embodied presence. Over time, her path moved from intellectual curiosity into lived practice through meditation, Plum Village, the Order of Interbeing, Vipassana, Zen, and eventually Vajrayana.

For Zanette, the Dharma is not confined to the cushion. It appears in how she communicates, how she listens, how she meets intimacy, and how she returns to the body during moments of fear or uncertainty. Her practice is rooted in presence: the ability to pause, feel, and respond with awareness rather than habit. Through teachers such as Anam Thubten and Pema Khandro Rinpoche, she found a path that honors both insight and structure, especially through non-monastic Vajrayana practice for householders.

Her story also explores Buddhism in the West, the limits of secular mindfulness, the importance of sangha, and the role of ritual in facing death and honoring the preciousness of life. As an experience designer, Zanette brings contemplative practice into professional spaces without relying on Buddhist language, showing how Dharma can quietly shape communication, collaboration, and collective transformation.

Zanette’s profile offers a deeply personal look at what it means to live the Dharma beyond the cushion—with honesty, embodiment, compassion, and a continual return to the present moment.

Experience

15-30 Years XP

Tradition

Vajrayana

Background

Zanette is a longtime Dharma practitioner whose path began with an early curiosity about world religions and a deep need for ritual, inquiry, and embodied presence. Raised in a Christian family, she first encountered Buddhism at age 13, but her practice became real through meditation, mindfulness, and her time at Plum Village.

Over the years, Zanette explored several contemplative traditions, including the Order of Interbeing, Quaker practice, Vipassana, Zen, and Vajrayana. She eventually found resonance in teachers such as Anam Thubten and Pema Khandro Rinpoche, whose teachings helped her understand Buddhism not simply as an identity, but as a living practice of awareness.

For Zanette, the Dharma shows up most clearly in daily life: in communication, relationships, intimacy, grief, death, and work. As an experience designer, she brings contemplative principles into professional settings by helping people return to presence, compassion, and shared purpose. Her story reflects a deeply embodied path—one rooted in practice beyond the cushion.

"Every human being needs contemplative practice."

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Zanette’s story opens into a deeply embodied understanding of the Dharma—one shaped by curiosity, practice, cultural complexity, and a lifelong search for presence. After first encountering Buddhism as a teenager, she gradually moved from intellectual interest into lived experience through meditation, mindfulness, and the influence of teachers who helped her see the path not as an identity, but as a way of returning to the body, the heart, and the present moment.

In the full profile, Zanette reflects on how practice becomes real in ordinary life: in communication, intimacy, work, grief, and the quiet moments when fear or reactivity begins to arise. She speaks honestly about the need for embodied presence in relationships, the role of mantra and ritual as “technologies for returning,” and how Buddhist practices helped her stay present with death and the preciousness of life.

Her journey also explores the complexity of Buddhism adapting to the West, including her reflections on secular mindfulness, generational gaps in sangha, and the discomfort some practitioners feel around the label “Buddhist.” For Zanette, the Dharma is less about belonging to a fixed identity and more about cultivating awareness, compassion, and right action wherever life unfolds.

As an experience designer, she brings contemplative principles into professional environments, showing how integration can happen far beyond formal meditation spaces. Her full conversation touches on sangha, teachers, death, and the living question of how practice can transform the way we meet ourselves and one another.

Register to explore Zanette’s full profile and hear how her path reveals the Dharma as a living practice of presence, compassion, and return.