Ongoing: Monday Morning Online Sitting
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- 8:15 am NZT. Everyone is welcome.
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/3011573331 Meeting ID: 301 157 3331
Ongoing: Thursday Evening Sitting 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)
You can find previous talks in this series given by Jill to Auckland Insight here:
https://aim.dharmaseed.org/talks/
Please email aucklandinsight@gmail.com for any questions.
Opening to the flow of vedanā (feeling tone): A day of online meditation
with Willa Reid, Elizabeth Day and Jill Shepherd
You are warmly invited to join our international sangha for a day of online meditation practice together, to strengthen our capacity for an embodied wise response to the vedanā (feeling-tone) that arises in response to our experience of the world.
We will offer regular 30 minute meditation sessions every hour between 9:00 am and 5:00 pm NZT (see below for other time zones).
Each session will begin with a few minutes of guidance followed by silent meditation for 30 mins, then a half hour break before the next session begins. There will be a break in the middle of the day, with an optional session of relational practice in the afternoon, where you can connect with other meditators in breakout rooms to contemplate a dharma theme together.
You’re welcome to join as many of these sessions as you like, and as suits your time-zone.
This event is offered on a dāna / donation basis and is free to register.
Times and date
Meditation Sessions at hourly intervals throughout the day
Auckland 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. Sunday 25 June 2023
Sydney 7:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. Sunday 25 June 2023
Singapore 5:00 a.m. – 1:00 pm Saturday 24 June 2023
San Francisco 2:00 p.m. – 10:00 pm Saturday 24 June 2023
New York 5:00 p.m. – 1:00 am 24 June – Sunday 25 June 2023
Cost: $0 + dāna*
To register: here
*There is no registration fee for this event.
Two-week retreat for experienced students
Dates: August 19 – September 2, 2023
Location: Te Moata Retreat Centre, Coromandel
Auckland Insight, together with teachers Jill Shepherd, Willa Thaniya Reid and Elizabeth Day, is planning to offer a two-week retreat for experienced meditators at Te Moata Retreat Centre in August 2023. This will be a rare opportunity to do a longer meditation retreat in New Zealand.
Led by three highly experienced meditation teachers, it will combine approaches from the Thai Forest and Western Insight traditions. Together, these will provide retreatants with an in-depth exploration of a variety of Buddhist teachings and practices, including the Four Establishments of Mindfulness that orient us to deep freedom, and the four Brahmavihāra practices of kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity that open the heart and mind. At the beginning and end of the retreat, there may also be some relational practice meditating together in pairs or small groups, to strengthen our sense of sangha/community. The rest of the retreat will be held in Noble Silence.
Teachers: Jill Shepherd, Willa Thaniya Reid and Elizabeth Day (partial)
Willa Thaniya Reid spent 18 years in Ajahn Chah monasteries in Thailand and the UK extending her practice of meditation and Buddhist contemplation. As the senior nun of the Chithurst community in England for eight years, she supported both the lay and monastic communities. She has taught retreats in Europe, America, Australia and the UK, and continues to teach in the US and NZ. She has a Masters of Counselling, and clinical pastoral training.
Dr Elizabeth Day has been practising meditation and yoga for over 30 years, including as an ordained monastic within the Ajahn Chah monasteries in the UK. She has held leadership positions in the Health and Higher Education sectors, including as Head of Department of Psychotherapy and Counselling at AUT in Aotearoa New Zealand. She has a Doctorate in intersubjectivity, and is a qualified yoga teacher and Gestalt psychotherapist. She teaches meditation retreats locally and internationally.
Jill Shepherd began practicing insight meditation in Thailand in 1999, and since that time has lived and worked at several meditation centres and monasteries in the US, Australia, England, and Thailand. She spent seven years on staff at the Insight Meditation Society (IMS) in Barre, Massachusetts, and is a graduate of the IMS / Spirit Rock teacher training program in the US, under the guidance of Joseph Goldstein and Gil Fronsdal.
Experience level: This retreat is best suited to people who have done at least two previous insight meditation retreats of five days or longer.
Retreat fees: sliding scale $1600-$1200 + dāna*
To register: here
The retreat fee covers only the cost of food and accommodation. The teaching is freely offered, and there will be an opportunity to give dāna* to the teachers at the end of the retreat.
*Dāna: In most Buddhist traditions the teachers are not paid to teach. Instead, the teachings are given on a ‘dāna’ basis – dāna being the Pali word for generosity or giving freely – so there will be an opportunity to offer a donation for the teaching at the end of the event.
Jill Shepherd: insight meditation 