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:
A Day of Stillness: Insight Meditation Workshop
Enjoy some time away from the busyness of life to sit quietly with others and reconnect with yourself through a full day of meditation practice with the Auckland Insight community and our guiding teacher, Jill Shepherd.
Whether you’re new to meditation or have an established practice, this day offers an opportunity to deepen your understanding of the foundations of insight meditation.
Over the course of the day, we’ll explore mindfulness of breathing, mindfulness of the body, and mindfulness of thoughts and emotions to help cultivate more calm and spaciousness, no matter what life brings.
The day will also include some small group discussion and informal conversation, offering a chance to connect with each other and strengthen our sense of community.
We hope you can join us.
Time and date:
9:30-4:30 pm, Sunday 18 October
Food:
Please bring your own lunch. Morning and afternoon tea will be provided
Location:
175 Garnet Road, Westmere 1021
Entry through the green gate off Faulder Avenue
Cost: $50 plus dāna* for the teacher
To register: here
2027
Nine-day Insight Meditation retreat – Coromandel
Friday 19 March – Sunday 28 March 2027
Finding the Heart of Wisdom
Cultivating calm, compassion and clarity in the midst of it all
This nine-day insight meditation retreat offers a powerful opportunity to strengthen the two wings to awakening: wisdom and compassion. Together, they give us a greater capacity to meet life’s ever-changing challenges and rewards with some degree of balance and ease.
During the retreat we will explore a variety of foundational Buddhist practices, including the Four Establishments of Mindfulness and the four Brahmavihāra heart qualities of kindness, compassion, gladness and equanimity.
Each day will include a mix of guided and silent sitting meditation, walking meditation, some relational practice meditating together in pairs or small groups, individual meetings with the teachers, plus optional mindful movement.
*Prerequisites
This retreat is best suited to people who have done at least one silent retreat of two days or longer. Please contact Jill if you have any questions about this.
Teachers:
Jill Shepherd and Di Robertson
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.
Retreat fees:
We are committed to making our events available to everyone regardless of financial circumstances, so if money is a barrier to you attending the retreat, please let us know and we’ll see what scholarship funds we could offer.
Sliding scale $1390-$990 + dāna*
More info 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
Registration has now closed, but please contact info@kalyanamitta.nz to be added to the waiting list