Teachers

Who teaches at IMS?

Each year, IMS hosts over 50 highly trained lay and monastic Buddhist teachers from around the world, offering meditation teachings and guidance at our Retreat Center and Forest Refuge facilities.

IMS Meditation Center

Retreat Center Teachers

Forest Refuge Teachers

A group of senior teachers, known as the Guiding Teachers, provides regular guidance and direction for both centers. They determine IMS’s annual retreat programming as well as the selection of retreat teachers.

The meditation practices taught at IMS are rooted in the Theravada tradition – the oldest surviving school of Buddhism. Today, this lineage is found throughout many parts of Southeast Asia. Insight meditation (vipassana) is a central part of this tradition.

Many revered Asian masters have visited or taught at IMS. These include Ven. Mahasi Sayadaw, Ven. Sayadaw U Pandita, Pa Auk Sayadaw and Sayadaw U Tejaniya from Burma, Ven. Ajahn Chah from Thailand, Dipa Ma and Anagarika Munindra from India, and His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Senior teachers from Asia continue to visit and offer teachings at both centers.

Becoming an IMS Guiding Teacher

Becoming an IMS Teacher

Becoming an IMS Teacher Trainee

Dipa Ma at IMS

Dipa Ma (March 25, 1911 – September 1989) was a Bangladeshi meditation teacher from Theravada Buddhism, a student of Anagarika Munindra. She also taught in the United States, influencing the so-called Vipassana movement.

Teacher dana

Here in the midst of contemporary Western culture, our teachers are continuing the ancient Buddhist monastic tradition of freely offering the teachings. What this means is that most Retreat Center teachers receive no compensation for teaching at IMS, and instead rely on the generosity of course participants for a sustainable income. At the Forest Refuge, where retreatants often stay for long periods, IMS supplements teacher dana as needed to provide an adequate offering.

At both the Retreat Center and the Forest Refuge, there is an opportunity to offer donations to the teachers at the end of retreats.

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