IMS’s Retreat Center first opened its doors in 1976. It offers a yearly schedule of meditation courses, lasting from a weekend to three months. Most retreats are designed for both new and experienced meditators. Recognized insight meditation teachers from all over the world offer daily instruction and guidance in Buddhist meditations known as vipassana (insight) and metta (lovingkindness). While the context is the Buddha’s teachings, these practices are universal and help us to deepen awareness and compassion.
(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center) How attuning to change can bring the greatest happiness
(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center) How kindness and the breath can be used when feeling fear.
(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center) Exploring how the 5 hindrances can become opportunities for growth.
(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center) Touching in to normalize the hindrances, then guidance on sense doors, internal/external awareness and curiosity of sensations and experience
(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center) An brief over view of the Bramaviharas, focusing on Metta for easy being, neutral being and self
(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center) Reflections on how kindness manifests as generosity, friendship and a willingness to learn.
(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center) A variety of interesting dharma topics
(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center) Using the power of kindness and relaxation when feeling afraid
(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center)
(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center)
(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center)
(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center) Instructions on being with thoughts and emotions.
(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center)
(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center)
(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center) Exploring the implications of 'Mind is the forerunner of all things:' steadying the attention, importance of motivation, how insights into impermanence, dukkha, and non-self impact our lives.
(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center)
(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center)
(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center)
(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center) In this guided practice period, we explore two aspects of equanimity - non-reactivity towards our moment-to-moment experience and acceptance and non-control towards the experiences of those we love.
(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center) After some comments on the relationships among the Brahmaviharas and how an understanding of non-self supports the natural expression of the Brahmaviharas, we practice mudita with respect to several categories of beings. This session ends with a brief Q&A.
(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center)
(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center)
(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center)
(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center)
(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center) Intro and guided meditation.
(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center) Exploration of Equanimity Brahmavihara and guided meditation.
(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center) Practicing with mudita for an ease being and joy for self
(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center) Inviting faith and wise effort to inspire our practice.
(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center) Instructions and guided meditation.
(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center) Inviting this warmth in meeting all that we are and cultivating kindness
(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center) Finding a home base to steady our heart.
(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center) Learning to live life graceful poise.
(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center) Bodhicitta—the mind of awakening—is the aspiration to attain awakening for the benefit of all. Seeing our practice in this light can be a source of inspiration and counteract the tendency to self-centeredness. The talk discusses the historical development of the concept and explains what it means.
(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center) Upādāna in different Buddhist Teachings: – Clinging as fuel for renewed becoming (punabbhava) – Clinging in the 5 aggregates (khandha) – Clinging in Dependent Arising (paṭiccasamuppadā) – Clinging as four specific forms: (i) kāmūpādāna – clinging to and identification with sensuality (“Seeking” experiences) (ii) diṭṭhūpādāna – clinging to and identification with views (“Being right, being competent“) (iii) sīlavaṭūpādāna – clinging to and identification with virtue, practices and ritual (“Having the right technique“) (iv) attavādūpādāna – clinging to and identification with doctrines of a self / Self (“Being someone”)
(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center) Introduction and guided meditation
(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center) Training and understanding the mind happens with the mind already affected by the very states it wishes to understand and transform
(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center) Thimo, Yuka and Akincano respond to practitioner's questions.
(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center) How wonderful you are in your being! I delight that you are here! I take joy in your good fortune! May your happiness continue and increase! (From a Sinhalese Ms of the 19th century. Monks' and nuns‘ practice upon receiving alms).
(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center)
(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center) Saddhā - trust or confidence - is a fundamental quality that we need on our path. Why can it be difficult to trust? What is actually trustworthy? How does it manifest in our mind and in our actions?
(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center)
(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center)
(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center) To bring attention to the right things in the right way is crucial for our path. Through the mindful contemplation of our experience we can gain insight and develop liberating wisdom.
(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center) Calming and collecting the mind
(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center) This meditation explores upekkhā, or equanimity—the deep steadiness of heart that meets life's joys and sorrows with wisdom and care. Through reflections, guided phrases, and a progression of categories (from self, to loved one, neutral person, difficult person and finally all beings), we cultivate balance and spaciousness in the face of life's ever-changing conditions. Rooted in the Brahmavihārā tradition, this practice invites us to rest in the truth that all beings are moving through causes and conditions beyond our control.
(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center) In this talk, we explore mindfulness of thoughts as part of the third foundation of mindfulness—learning to meet thoughts not as distractions or enemies, but as present-moment experiences to observe with curiosity and care. Through guided practice and teachings, we investigate the nature of thinking, including how to relate to repetitive or difficult thoughts with clarity and compassion. By developing this skill, we discover a deeper steadiness and freedom in the midst of the mind's activity.
(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center) We begin with a song and for the first half hour Kaira Jewel gives a brief overview the Four Brahmaviharas followed by an introduction to the practice of metta: what it is, how it can transform our lives, what some of the challenges are and then how to practice with the categories and the phrases. Then in the second half hour Kaira Jewel leads a guided metta meditation offering metta to ourselves, our benefactor and a dear friend.
(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center) In this talk we explore the power of equanimity to help us remain steady and spacious in the face of life's ups and downs. Trusting, relaxing and letting go all help us to see we don't have to hold the challenges of life alone, we can open to the larger mystery holding us all. We also look at how to engage with the suffering and injustice of our world, to practice sacred criticism, and depolarizing ourselves and our communities. We take inspiration from the Civil Rights Movement and their practices of self-emptying and how we can give our whole hearts to the task and then let go of attachment to the outcome. Kaira Jewel ends by singing the poem Recommendation by Thich Nhat Hanh.
(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center)
(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center)
(Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center)
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