Click on each event title to access the audio recordings
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.
Each two-hour class will include a short dharma talk, some silent meditation practice, dyad (pairs) practice, and small group discussion.
During the six weeks of the course, you will be invited to maintain a regular sitting practice and keep a practice journal, to help inform the discussion during each meeting.
The course is best suited to people who have an established meditation practice, have sat at least one seven-day silent insight/vipassana retreat, and have some familiarity with the core Buddhist teachings (eg the Four Noble Truths, the Noble Eightfold Path, and the Four Foundations of Mindfulness).
Wisdom and Compassion
Talk given at the Buddhist Library
1 May 2018
Sydney NSW
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.
sunrise at Huia camp
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.
Left to right: nakawe cuebas (assistant), George Mumford, Joseph Goldstein, Jill Shepherd, Eowyn Ahlstrom (yoga teacher), Devon Hase (assistant)
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
Awakening our Natural Wisdom 1
One-week insight meditation retreat co-taught with Greg Scharf
23-30 September 2017
Te Moata Retreat Centre, Tairua, New Zealand
Vipassana or insight meditation is the simple direct practice of moment-to-moment observation of the mind/body process with relaxed, open and careful attention. Awareness infused with clear seeing reveals that whatever arises in our experience, is simply the natural display of impersonal conditions. As we learn to observe our experience from a place of stillness and balance supported by wise view, reality is accurately seen and liberating insight arises as a natural result. Loving-kindness or Metta meditation develops the heart’s capacity for patience, acceptance, and forgiveness as we connect with and care for ourselves and others.
Awakening our Natural Wisdom 2
Two-week insight meditation retreat co-taught with Greg Scharf
1-15 September 2017
Blue Mountains Insight Meditation Centre, NSW, Australia
Vipassana or insight meditation is the simple direct practice of moment-to-moment observation of the mind/body process with relaxed, open and careful attention. Awareness infused with clear seeing reveals that whatever arises in our experience, is simply the natural display of impersonal conditions. As we learn to observe our experience from a place of stillness and balance supported by wise view, reality is accurately seen and liberating insight arises as a natural result. Loving-kindness or Metta meditation develops the heart’s capacity for patience, acceptance, and forgiveness as we connect with and care for ourselves and others.
Strengthening the Heart, Cultivating Kindness
Five-day Metta meditation retreat co-taught with Oren Sofer
17-22 March 2017
Insight Meditation Society, Barre, Massachusetts
Metta, sometimes translated as unconditional kindness or universal friendliness, grows from our capacity for basic human warmth. It is the first of four sublime states that can be cultivated as a powerful support for well-being, concentration and the deepening of insight practice.
left to right: Devin Berry, Jill Shepherd, Oren Sofer, Leslie Booker
Noble Eightfold Path insight meditation retreat
Seven-day insight meditation retreat
19-26 February 2017
Blue Mountains Insight Meditation Centre, NSW Australia
A seven-day insight meditation retreat exploring the Satipatthana Sutta (Four Foundations of Mindfulness) in conjunction with the Noble Eightfold Path: Right View, Right Intention, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, Right Concentration.
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
Intro to Insight Meditation
One-day insight meditation workshop for beginners
20 November 2016
Newcastle, NSW Australia
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