Ongoing: Monday Morning Online Meditation
Start your week well by joining Auckland Insight for a regular Monday morning Zoom sitting hosted by our Guiding Teacher, Jill Shepherd or regular facilitators from the group.
Mondays 7:30- 8:00 am NZT. Everyone is welcome.
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/3011573331 Meeting ID: 301 157 3331
Ongoing: Thursday Evening Meditation and Talk
Feel free to join Auckland Insight for a regular Thursday evening sitting and talks by our Guiding Teacher, Jill Shepherd or regular facilitators from the group.
Time and date: Thursdays 7:00-8:45 pm NZT. Everyone is welcome.
Location: 175 Garnet Road, Westmere 1022 Auckland (entry off Faulder Ave)
Please email aucklandinsight@gmail.com for any questions
You can find previous talks given by Jill to Auckland Insight here:
2025
2026
Nine-day retreat Te Moata
February 20 – March 1, 2026
Te Moata Retreat Centre, Coromandel
Requisites for the journey: The seven factors of awakening
Insight meditation harnesses the power of mindfulness to develop understanding in all aspects of our lives, which leads to greater ease, happiness, and freedom.
In this nine-day residential retreat we will explore the Seven Factors of Awakening, those seven highly skilful qualities of mind that when fully 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 us to overcome the hindrances, harmful states of mind that keep us stuck in delusion.
Mindfulness is the starting point. With mindfulness firmly established, we learn how to balance the agitated, anxious mind through developing Tranquility, Absorption and Equanimity, and the flat, dull mind through developing Investigation, Energy and Joy.
As all Seven Factors come into balance, 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 teachers.
Prerequisites
This retreat is best suited to people who have done at least two silent retreats of seven days or longer. Please contact Jill if you have any questions about this.
Teachers:
Jill Shepherd is the guiding teacher for Auckland Insight and is a graduate of the IMS / Spirit Rock teacher training program in the US, under the guidance of Joseph Goldstein and Gil Fronsdal. She lives in Aotearoa / New Zealand and teaches internationally, offering insight / vipassanā and brahmavihāra retreats as well as ongoing study and practice groups focused on bringing the dharma into daily life. She also leads courses and non-residential workshops exploring the relational practice of Insight Dialogue, as developed by Gregory Kramer and colleagues.
Di Robertson has 30 years’ experience in insight meditation. She has taught courses since 2000, and retreats since 2015. She lives in Ōtautahi / Christchurch and is a co-founder and trustee of Southern Insight Meditation. Di also works as an ecologist and counsellor and is a stepparent and grandparent.
More information and to register: here
2027 six-week retreat
Dates: 3 April – 15 May 2027
Teachers: Jill Shepherd and Willa Thāniyā Reid, with Elizabeth Day
Kalyāna: Cultivating the Beautiful in the Spiritual Life
The Buddha has pointed out the way:
beautiful in the beginning, beautiful in the middle,
and beautiful in the end.
Supported by spiritual friendship and seclusion, this six-week retreat offers the ideal conditions for establishing the heart-mind (citta) in kind, steady knowing. Here, we attune to the presence of the beautiful—profoundly skillful mental states such as the Seven Factors of Awakening, the brahmavihāra heart qualities, and awareness itself.
Through an integrated approach that weaves together Satipaṭṭhāna (The Four Foundations of Mindfulness) and Ānāpānasati (Mindfulness of Breathing), the teachings and practices will support a sustained focus and deep inquiry into the nature of experience, guiding the citta toward liberative transformation.
This retreat is intended for experienced meditators and includes alternating periods of sitting and walking meditation, guided instructions, Dhamma talks, and one-on-one practice discussions with the teachers.
The teachings will be rooted in Early Buddhism, drawing inspiration from the Western Insight tradition and the Thai Forest lineage.
Cost
Our retreats are offered freely, with no fixed fee for participation.
Most of the financial support for our collective comes through dāna—the voluntary donations offered by participants at the end of each retreat. This generosity sustains our work and enables future retreats.
Location
Mahamudra Centre for Universal Unity
Colville, Coromandel Peninsula
Registration
Official registration is not yet open. However, if you are interested in attending the retreat as a retreatant we invite you to express your interest here. This will help inform our planning and will allow us to contact you when registration has opened.
We hope you can join us!
Jill Shepherd: insight meditation 