IMS Online Schedule

Experts often say that addiction is a disease of isolation. We also know that craving is a dominant characteristic of addiction. In Buddhist teachings, it is taught that strong desire or craving is a hindrance to the path of awakening, and it is one of the main causes of dukkha or suffering. It also blocks the natural flow of lovingkindness (metta) and compassion (karunā). In this half-day program, Walt Opie and Dalila Bothwell will offer teachings related to the overcoming of craving, and how insight meditation practice, including the Brahmavihāras (Divine Abodes) practices, can help us cultivate a healing sense of deeper connection with others and ourselves. Together, we will look at ways to cultivate connection through establishing mindful awareness moment-to-moment, practicing the Brahmavihāras (Divine Abodes), generating generosity, developing gratitude, and through simplifying our lives via the practice of wise renunciation. There will be experiential exercises, guided meditations, poems, stories, and more! Please join us if you can.

As we approach the darkest time of the year, we’ll make space for the quiet joy of presence in this online retreat. Over these days, we will explore how continuity of simple awareness, supported by a schedule of sitting and walking meditation, can uncover joyful presence in the midst of the conditions of our lives. We’ll also bring in chanting to support the opening of the heart.

Can the qualities of friendliness, care, courage, joy and balance create the right conditions for the deepening of wisdom? Or are they simply beautiful expressions of it? Or both? While silently sitting and walking with meditative presence, and with guidance from the teachers, we can open more fully to the life both around us and inside of us. Through the quality of this connection, we can discover for ourselves how living with a sense of fullness and engagement might be possible.

This online retreat experience will be a livestream of the onsite Heartfelt Wisdom: Insight Meditation Retreat with Pascal Auclair, Devin Berry and Marjolein Janssen. Meditation instructions and Dharma talks will be broadcast live from the IMS Meditation Hall. There will also be an opportunity to attend practice group discussions with the online support teachers – Rachel Lewis and bruni dávila. (Note that there is no direct interaction, including practice discussion, with the onsite teachers.) This retreat is open to all.

Together we will welcome the New Year practicing in community, connecting with our shared aspirations to cultivate mindfulness, nourish our own hearts, and care for our world. We will also practice lovingkindness, opening to our highest intentions through guided reflections. An optional practice session will be offered through the midnight hour (Eastern Standard Time), as we approach 2023. Space will be provided for participants to share practice intentions for the new year.

The 30-Day practice will help you establish your practice by following IMS founding teacher Joseph Goldstein’s book The Experience of Insight: A Simple and Direct Guide to Buddhist Meditation, which offers one practice topic per day for 30 days. Our program begins at 7:00 PM EST on December 30, 2023, with a live talk from Joseph on starting, maintaining, and deepening a daily meditation practice. He will also respond to pre-submitted questions during this introductory session. Over the following days, IMS teachers Devon Hase, Rachel Lewis, and Tuere Sala will lead guided online meditations from 12:00-12:30 PM EST, beginning each session with instructions and a reflection from the book. To support your practice, there will also be an opportunity to participate in a community forum.

During the Buddha’s first sermon at Deer Park (the Dhammacakkapavattana Sutta), he shared his realization of the Four Noble Truths, the formula that addresses the truth of suffering, the causes of suffering, and the eight steps to ending suffering.

Throughout the Sutta series, we will explore narratives about and discourses by the Buddha, which have been passed down for over 2,500 years, and directly apply them to practice in our modern lives.

Our vision is to have our teachers share stories about their teachers, to honour our gratitude to the Asian roots of the practice; to give a sense of these teachings being handed down, generation to generation; and to give current practitioners a sense of carrying this precious gift forward.

The Buddha helped us to understand the ways our bodies and minds trap us in clinging, which causes suffering. In the Anattalakkhana Sutta, he taught us that our very experience is subject to no-self and impermanence, the realization of which will relieve us from suffering.

Throughout the Sutta series, we will explore narratives about and discourses by the Buddha, which have been passed down for over 2,500 years, and directly apply them to practice in our modern lives.

Is it possible to be a parent and still be fully committed to the Buddhist path? Can parents have a deep practice? The lack of sleep, the constant attention to others, the ongoing household chores, and the obstacles to going on retreat all might lead one to feel that being a parent is a hindrance to real insight. But what if the opposite were true? What if parenting could actually be an awakening experience, in and of itself? This program, taught by two parents, will explore and celebrate the many ways that being a parent has the potential to be its own path to awakening. We will gather inspiration through sharing stories; we will practice, reflect, and play together; and we will remember the wisdom of parents walking the path before us.

In what is commonly known as “The Fire Sermon” (The Aditta-Pariyaya Sutta), the Buddha explains how we can be relieved of suffering by letting go of the attachments that trap us.

Throughout the Sutta series, we will explore narratives about and discourses by the Buddha, which have been passed down for over 2,500 years, and directly apply them to practice in our modern lives.

Embracing our life’s impermanence can give rise to letting go and a sense of freedom so that we can face our death with a growing calm. We can harness the power of reflecting on mortality to stay aligned with our deepest values, to love more fully, and be happier and more present for this miraculous, passing show called our life. Together, we will turn towards fear of death to support ourselves and loved ones to be as prepared as we can for the transformational process of dying and the moment of death.

In the “Breath-Mindfulness Discourse” (the Anapanasati Sutta), the Buddha gives step-by-step guidance on resting our mind on the breath (anapana) as the object of focus in meditation.

Throughout the Sutta series, we will explore narratives about and discourses by the Buddha, which have been passed down for over 2,500 years, and directly apply them to practice in our modern lives.

In the “Discourse on Establishing Mindfulness” (the Satipatthana Sutta), which is one of the most widely studied teachings of the Buddha, he stresses the practice of mindfulness as the path to overcoming sorrow, lamentation, suffering, and grief. He then offers a step-by-step path to realizing the truth that will set us free.

Throughout the Sutta series, we will explore narratives about and discourses by the Buddha, which have been passed down for over 2,500 years, and directly apply them to practice in our modern lives.

Speaking to a lay disciple in the Mahanama Sutta, the Buddha suggests six reflections and five qualities that a non-monastic person can cultivate from home.

Throughout the Sutta series, we will explore narratives about and discourses by the Buddha, which have been passed down for over 2,500 years, and directly apply them to practice in our modern lives.

Our vision is to have our teachers share stories about their teachers, to honour our gratitude to the Asian roots of the practice; to give a sense of these teachings being handed down, generation to generation; and to give current practitioners a sense of carrying this precious gift forward.

Our vision is to have our teachers share stories about their teachers, to honour our gratitude to the Asian roots of the practice; to give a sense of these teachings being handed down, generation to generation; and to give current practitioners a sense of carrying this precious gift forward.

Free Audio Program. Open to all. Welcome to The Way of the Buddha, an immersive audio learning experience from IMS Online. For 45 years, IMS has been a leader in Dharma education rooted in the foundational principles of Early Buddhism. Now, for the first time, our teachers offer the profound insights of the Buddha in a comprehensive practice and study program delivered directly to you in your own online practice space. Each module features IMS teachers from many generations and backgrounds who will guide you on the path.

During this daylong on-demand recording, we’ll dive into the practice of Metta, or loving-kindness, as taught in the Visuddhimagga. Using phrases, images and felt sense, we’ll cultivate the unconditional heart that wishes goodness for ourselves, others, and even those most difficult to love. In developing the natural kindness of the heart, we can trust that we’re building the skills to wisely respond to our own challenges, as well as our collective challenges of these times.

Appropriate for beginning and seasoned meditators alike. All are welcome. This on-demand retreat includes dharma teachings and meditation instructions for both sitting and walking meditation.

A film about the early days of IMS and how this revered Buddhist meditation retreat center came into being. Made in partnership with long-time yogis Eddie and Jan Hauben and filmmakers Joe and Elizabeth Seamans, the documentary offers a behind-the-scenes look at the discovery and creation of IMS’s permanent home—where it sits today—in Barre, MA. It includes personal, heartwarming interviews with co-founders Joseph Goldstein, Sharon Salzberg, and Jack Kornfield, and other early teachers, board members, and staff as well as photos and archival footage from the beginning days of IMS.

This March, we honor Nani Bala Barua (1911-1989), the beloved teacher known as “Dipa Ma”—mother of Dipa. Born in East Bengal (now Bangladesh), Dipa Ma broke barriers as a married householder committed to the path of enlightenment. Following her training in Burma, she settled in Calcutta, where her reputation as a Buddhist teacher and realized meditator quickly inspired other women to begin spiritual training as part of everyday life. Eventually, her mastery and modesty attracted many Westerners as well, including IMS co-founders Sharon Salzberg, Joseph Goldstein, and Jack Kornfield. Dipa Ma is said to have encouraged relationships with people near and far, saying, “They are hungry for the Dhamma, so let them come.” In 1980 and again in 1984, Dipa Ma came to teach at IMS, establishing a connection that remains in our hearts today.

Through personal stories and the transmission of practices held sacred by Dipa Ma herself, Sharon Salzberg lead three sessions honoring Dipa Ma’s life, legacy, and teachings. Together, we will contemplate her influence and bathe in the maternal love that Dipa Ma represented through her thoughts, words, and actions. We hope you will join us for this special IMS event; the first of several explorations into the lineages and legacies that shaped the Insight Meditation Society and that continue to inspire our work and practice.