Start Your Week Well
Online with the Blue Mountains Insight Meditation Centre community
Mondays 7:30-8:00 am AEST
Mondays 9:30-10:00 am NZT
Sundays 2:30-3:00 pm US PST
Sundays 5:30-6:00 pm US EST
Please register here to get the Zoom link
Starting The New Year Well …
Cultivating calm, compassion and clarity in the midst of it all
A seven-day retreat for Sydney Insight Meditators
As we end one year and begin a new one, this seven-day retreat offers an opportunity to take stock of our lives, to let go of what no longer serves, and to reconnect more fully with our deeper aspirations.
Through cultivating the two wings to awakening, wisdom and compassion, we strengthen the inner resources to meet life’s ever-changing challenges and rewards with more balance and ease.
During the retreat we will explore a variety of foundational Buddhist practices, including the Four Establishments of Mindfulness, the four Brahmavihāra heart practices of kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity, and some relational practice meditating together in pairs or small groups.
Each day will include a mix of guided and silent sitting meditation, walking meditation, optional mindful movement, small group discussion and individual meetings with the teacher.
Dates: Sunday 28 December 2025 to Sunday 4 January 2026
Location: Brahma Kumaris Centre, Wilton NSW
Cost for accommodation and all vegetarian meals:
– Twin share room $1140
– Single room $1540
– Concession (Twin share room) $970. For full time students, pensioners and unemployed.
More info and to register: here
Wise Speech: Insight Dialogue one-day workshop – Melbourne
Insight Dialogue is an interpersonal meditation practice that brings the mindfulness and stability of traditional silent meditation directly into our interactions with others. Resting on the foundation of traditional Buddhist teachings, it offers a way to integrate wisdom and compassion into our relational lives through understanding the habits of heart and mind that lead to stress and distress, and how to free ourselves from those habits so that we can live together with greater ease and happiness.
This workshop includes a mix of silent and relational meditation practice, engaging in dialogue to actively cultivate skilful speaking and listening. It is best suited to people who have some experience of mindfulness / insight / vipassanā meditation, but previous Insight Dialogue experience is not required.
For more information about the practice of Insight Dialogue, please https://insightdialogue.org/
Times and day: 9:30-4:30 pm Sunday 18 January 2026
NOTE: In support of our group practice, please arrive 15 minutes early for a prompt start, and make a commitment to stay for the full day (barring emergencies)
Location: Ceres Environment Park, East Brunswick, Melbourne
Food: Please bring your own lunch. Tea and herbal teas will be provided.
Cost: $80 registration fee + dāna/donation* to the teacher
To register: here
Weekend workshop – Melbourne
Rest, resilience, renewal, release:
Exploring the four brahmavihāra heart qualities in daily life
The four brahmavihāra heart practices of kindness, compassion, appreciative joy and equanimity are powerful tools that strengthen our inner resources, helping us to navigate the individual and collective challenges of our times.
Although the brahmavihāra are often taught as formal meditation practices to develop concentration, in this weekend workshop, we will explore a range of different approaches aimed at cultivating these skillful qualities in the midst of everyday life. Through a mix of guided meditations, dharma talks and small group discussion, we will develop the capacity to rest in kindness, strengthen resilience through compassion, orient to appreciative joy for renewal of our energy, and experience the peace of equanimity that comes through the release of reactivity.
Times and date:
9:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. Saturday 24 and Sunday 25 January 2026
NOTE: In support of our group practice, please arrive 15 minutes early for a prompt start, and make a commitment to stay for the full day, both days (barring emergencies)
Location: Augustine Hall, Hawthorn, Melbourne
Food: Please bring your own lunch. Tea and herbal teas will be provided.
Cost: $150 registration fee + dāna/donation* to the teacher
To Register: here
Friends on the Path: The seven factors of awakening
FULL – please apply to be on the waiting list
A two-week retreat for BMIMC
This two-week residential retreat for experienced meditators will focus on cultivating the Seven Factors of Awakening, those seven highly skilful qualities of mind that when balanced, support the development of transformative insight.
The Seven Factors are: Mindfulness, Investigation, Energy, Joy, Tranquility, Absorption and Equanimity. These seven are sometimes referred to as our friends on the path, because they help overcome the hindrances, harmful states of mind that keep us stuck in delusion.
As the Seven Factors come into balance with each other, we experience the release of all afflictive states and the heart and mind naturally settle into a state of profound peace.
Each day will include a mix of guided and silent sitting meditation, walking meditation, optional mindful movement, occasional small group discussion and individual meetings with the teacher.
Experience level: This retreat is best suited to people who have done at least three previous insight meditation retreat of one week or longer.
Dates: Saturday 1 August to Saturday 15 August 2026
Location: Blue Mountains Insight Meditation Centre, Medlow Bath, NSW
More info and to register: here
Jill Shepherd: insight meditation 