Just letting you know that the Insight Meditation SOciety in Barre, Massachusetts, has just announced its 2020 retreat schedule and registration is now open. Based on previous years, most retreats tend to get fully booked within a few days, so if you're interested in practising at IMS, best to register as soon as you can …
Continue reading Insight Meditation Society 2020 Registration Now Open
Resisting the tyranny of productivity Over the last few months, I've been having conversations with students - and with myself! - about what feels to be the increasingly relentless busyness of our lives. People often say to me that they don't have time to meditate every day, and they certainly don't have time to go …
Before and after A couple of years ago, I wrote a post titled "Retreat and pre-retreat practice", which explored ways to navigate some of the anxiety and other challenges that often come up before we go on retreat. This month, I'm writing about another aspect of retreat practice that doesn't always get a lot of …
Continue reading April 2018 full moon – Retreat and post-retreat practice
Sydney Insight Meditators 2018 New Year's retreat Making positive changes The New Year is traditionally a time to try to make positive changes for the year ahead. And yet most of us have had the experience of starting out with a rush of good intentions, only to find ourselves collapsing back into old habits very …
Impermanence This month's full moon post is a little late, because just this morning, I finished co-teaching the last six weeks of the three-month retreat at IMS in Barre, Massachusetts. The ending of any period of intensive meditation practice is poignant, but even more so when it's been a longer retreat. As this retreat was …
Continue reading December 2017 super moon – impermanence, vastness, and intimacy
Just last week, I finished a one-month retreat at the Insight Meditation Society's Forest Refuge in Barre, Massachusetts, led by Sayadaw U Vivekananda. What a relief it was, to temporarily put down some of the burdens I didn't even know I was carrying, and to have such a powerful opportunity to "disentangle the tangle" (as …
Rainstorm near Te Moata Retreat Centre, Coromandel, New Zealand Exactly two years ago in July 2014, I wrote a post based on some well-known lines from the Dhammapada: Hatred never ceases by hatred, but by love alone is healed. This is an ancient and eternal law. 1 Lately, that same post has been getting some …
Continue reading July 2016 full moon – Hatred STILL never ceases by hatred …
Planning to go on retreat? I've had a few conversations recently with people who are planning to go on retreat soon, and at some stage in the discussion, there's often an embarrassed acknowledgement of feeling some anxiety about it. Even for people who have been on retreat before and have some familiarity with the set-up, …
Continue reading March 2016 full moon – Retreat and pre-retreat practice
The rewards and challenges of technology Earlier this evening, I gave my first dharma talk via video-link, from the YHA in Sydney to Auckland Insight in New Zealand. Nothing too remarkable about that these days; but still, it was a delight to be able to connect with the group in this way, and I felt …
Continue reading February 2016 full moon – Motivation, Respect, Resolve
Sea anemone by Virginia Draper http://www.virginiadraper.com/p822038089 Opening, closing, opening, closing ... Everything has its natural rhythm, including the human heart. I'm not sure why it took me so long to understand this, but a childhood memory - of exploring rock-pools with my father while on holiday in Scotland - helped. On family visits to chilly …
Jill Shepherd: insight meditation 