Click on each event title to access the audio recordings
Intro to Insight Meditation
A series of talks for beginning meditators, given to the Mahurangi West community
October-November 2020
Mahurangi West, Auckland, New Zealand
Practising in Challenging Times
A series of talks given for Auckland Insight
March-April 2020
Auckland, New Zealand
(photo from Project Another Country by Alfredo and Isabel Aquilizan at Auckland Art Gallery)
Five-day metta retreat – IMS
co-teaching with Oren Sofer, nakawe cuebas and Jessica Morey
14-19 February 2020
Insight Meditation Society, Barre, Massachusetts USA
Four-week insight meditation retreat – Forest Refuge
co-teaching with Caroline Jones
1-30 November 2019
Insight Meditation Society – Forest Refuge, Barre, Massachusetts USA
Six-week insight meditation retreat
co-teaching with Guy Armstrong, Carol Wilson, Annie Nugent, Brian LeSage, assisted by Dawn Scott and Devin Berry
10 September – 22 October 2019
Insight Meditation Society – Retreat Centre, Barre, Massachusetts USA
Nine-day insight meditation retreat
Freedom Here and Now
August 2019
Te Moata Retreat Centre, Tairua, New Zealand
Nine-day insight meditation retreat
Strengthening the two wings of Awakening: Wisdom and Compassion
August 2019
Blue Mountains Insight Meditation Centre, NSW Australia
Six-week study and practice course
Transforming Fear into Fearlessness
The Four Noble Truths that form the heart of the Buddha’s teaching invite us to examine our relationship to dukkha: stress, distress, unsatisfactoriness, suffering. Most of us though, have an instinctive resistance to suffering, so we need to practice working skilfully with the different levels of fear that often show up along the path to freedom. As we learn how to release ourselves from the confines of these fears, we’re able to live with greater ease, happiness, and peace, and to connect with the wisdom and compassion that are our true nature.
June – July 2019
Sydney and Blue Mountains Insight Meditation Centre, NSW Australia
Weekend workshop
Befriending the Mind
8-9 June 2019
Mariposa Sangha, Austin TX
Four-week insight meditation retreat
co-teaching with Caroline Jones
5-31 December 2018
Insight Meditation Society – Forest Refuge, Barre, Massachusetts, USA
Six-week insight meditation retreat
co-teaching with Rebecca Bradshaw, Greg Scharf, Winnie Nazarko, Brian LeSage, DaRa Williams, assisted by Dawn Scott
23 October – 4 December 2018
Insight Meditation Society – Retreat Centre, Barre, Massachusetts, USA
Wisdom and Compassion
Nine-day insight meditation retreat
3-12 August 2018
Te Moata Retreat Centre, Tairua, New Zealand
This nine-day insight meditation retreat offers an opportunity to strengthen both the wisdom and the compassion wings of awakening. We will explore a variety of different practices taken from the Four Foundations of Mindfulness, alongside the four brahma-vihara heart practices of kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity.
Six-week study and practice course
5 May – June, 2018
Sydney and Blackheath, NSW
Exploring Anatta: constructing and de-constructing the sense of self
Over the course of six classes, we will explore what the Buddha was pointing to when he stated that all experience is impermanent (anicca), unsatisfactory (dukkha), and not-self (anatta). Focusing particularly on the aspect of anatta, we will approach this key teaching in a variety of ways, to help understand how it leads to greater ease, happiness, and freedom in our lives.
Five-day insight meditation retreat
23-28 March, 2018
Auckland Insight, Huia
What is Insight?
Within the Buddha’s teachings, mindfulness is practised as a means to insight, the wisdom that leads to the deepest freedom of heart and mind. In this five day retreat we will explore different ways of understanding and experiencing insight, so that we can live our lives with greater calm, clarity and compassion.
Seven-day insight meditation retreat with Gil Fronsdal
24 February – 3 March 2018
Insight Retreat Center, Scotts Valley California, USA
A silent mindfulness retreat exploring the Four Noble Truths, with alternating sitting and walking meditation, instruction, dharma talks, work meditation, and practice discussion with the teachers – Gil Fronsdal, Jill Shepherd, and Oren Sofer.
Nine-day insight meditation retreat with Joseph Goldstein
2-11 February 2018
Insight Meditation Society, Barre Massachusetts, USA
The Path to Awakening: Insight Meditation retreat
Insight meditation (vipassana in Pali, the language of the original Buddhist teachings) is the simple and direct practice of moment-to-moment mindfulness. Through careful and sustained observation, we experience for ourselves the ever-changing flow of the mind/body process. This awareness leads us to accept more fully the pleasure and pain, fear and joy, sadness and happiness that life inevitably brings. As insight deepens, we develop greater equanimity and peace in the face of change, and wisdom and compassion increasingly become the guiding principles of our lives.
Seven-day insight meditation retreat
28 December 2017 – 4 January 2018
Sydney Insight Meditators, Katoomba NSW Australia
Releasing and renewing: strengthening the two wings to Awakening
Traditionally, the New Year is a time to take stock of our lives, to let go of what no longer serves, and to reconnect more fully with what inspires us.
In service of this, SIM’s annual seven-day retreat will provide an opportunity to deepen an experiential understanding of insight meditation, exploring a variety of different practices taken from the Four Foundations of Mindfulness as well as the four brahma-vihara heart practices, of kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity.
Six-week insight meditation retreat
24 October – 5 December 2017
Insight Meditation Society, Barre Massachusetts
Noble Eightfold Path study course
Six-week study course
15 January – 19 February 2017
Blue Mountains Insight Meditation Centre, NSW Australia
The path to freedom laid out by the Buddha is a very holistic one, comprising ethical action, meditative development and wisdom. Although the Buddha emphasised the importance of developing all three of these aspects together, meditation practice is often given the most importance and the other two aspects are sometimes overlooked.
During this six-week course, we explored the Noble Eightfold Path as a comprehensive training to integrate dharma understanding into our daily lives. This integration then supports the deepening of insight and wisdom, which in turn, refines our capacity to live skillfully in the world, with greater ease and freedom.
Recordings plus recommended reading list
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Support Jill Shepherd
To offer dana* to Jill Shepherd, you can send money in various currencies via Transferwise, using Jill’s email address. Please contact her here to set this up.
You can also use her PayPal account but the fees are more expensive.
(Please note: you can change the donation currency on this link. I can accept donations in Australian or US dollars. To make donations in other currencies, please contact me for other payment options)
* Dana is the Buddhist word for offering generosity. Traditionally, the Buddha’s teachings are given freely, and people are invited to contribute to the teacher and/or meditation centre to help support the continuation of the teachings.
