InsightLA

Community is a refuge 🌻

InsightLA BIPOC Sangha will gather Thursdays starting this evening, September 12th, at Santa Monica Meditation Center and hybrid online 6:30-8pm PT.

Join us for meditation in a supportive community of self-identified, black, Indigenous, and people of color peer practitioners.

Register online at the link in our bio ☺️

Post written by Alexis Moore

Can you feel these words in your body? 🤍

Let’s sit together 🪷

Teaching this week:

Community Dharma Nights Wednesdays 6:30pm-8pm
with James Rosser

Sunday Sitting Group
Sundays 10am-11:30am
with Trudy Goodman
Trudy will join online, and the sit will be moderated in person by Alexis Moore

Youngish Adults Practice Group Sundays 7pm-8:30pm
with Eileen Ybarra

Hollywood Monday Meditation Group
7pm-8:30pm
with Lisa Kring

We look forward to practicing together!

Register on our website at the link in our bio 🔗

💭

~ time for me to wake everyone up ~

Let’s sit together 🪷

Teaching this week:

Community Dharma Nights Wednesdays 6:30pm-8pm
with Christiane Wolf

Sunday Sitting Group
Sundays 10am-11:30am
with Lisa Kring

Youngish Adults Practice Group Sundays 7pm-8:30pm
with Eileen Ybarra

Hollywood Monday Meditation Group
7pm-8:30pm
with Lisa Kring

Sangha is not just an intellectual concept, it’s something to be experienced…🌻

When I first heard the word sangha translated and described, I thought “community - got it.”

I filed it away under the “this thing is good” category of things in my head, and didn’t think there was anything more to it then that.

However lately, I’ve had a realization that seems so simple, and yet at the same time it feels revolutionary.

Going to Hollywood Monday Meditation Group this week and hearing Lisa Bring talk about Sangha helped put it into words.

She talked about how when we come together to practice meditation, we are supporting each other’s practice.

In doing so, we are supporting each other in developing positive qualities of heart and mind, such as loving-friendliness, concentration, and compassion for ourselves and others.

That’s when it clicked for me that when we support each other by practicing meditation in community with one another, at the same time we are supporting the creation of a safe community to be a part of from the inside out.

And wow, that is something beautiful to feel and experience.

This is a long way of saying, a group of us who met in the Youngish Adults group had a delightful time getting together to go to LACMA Jazz last Friday 😆🎺

Also, we collectively decided to begin to self-identify as the Basic Buddhas.

There’s a t-shirt in our future. If anyone has graphic design or printing experience, let us know 😏

- Alexis, Events Adminstrator

It will lead you home.

“Mitta” - friendship ☺️

Poetry from The First Free Women: Poems of the Early Buddhist Nuns

Upcoming Multi-Day Online Retreats this Fall & Winter 🍁

Practicing “alone together” while in our own spaces presents a unique and powerful new kind of retreat container to deepen our practice and the integration of mindfulness into how we’re living during these times.

These retreats also meets the requirements for participants in Jack Kornfield + Tara Brach’s Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification program through Sounds True. 

🪟Seeing Clearly, Deepening Practice with Celeste Young and Nico Hase 

Thursday September 26th - Monday September 30th
4 Nights

—-

🪷Mindfulness as the Foundation with LC Tran & Kim Allen

Sunday October 20th - Saturday October 26th 
6 Nights

——

📿4th Annual International Insight Retreat
With Christiane Wolf, Celeste Young, and Jake Darrington

Friday November 15th - Wednesday November 20th
5 Nights

——

❤️Cultivating the Wise Heart on the Cushion and in the World
With Donald Rothbert and Kaira Jewel Lingo

Sunday December 1st - Saturday December 7th
6 Nights

——

Are finances a barrier to attend? We strive to make retreats as accessible as possible to anyone.

Contact us if finances are a burden in any way, we have several options to make these retreats financially accessible to you: [email protected]

May all beings be safe, happy, healthy, and peaceful 🪷

Let’s sit together 🪷

Develop what is skillful ☮️

“Abandon what is unskillful”

Dharma medicine for these times.

Excerpts from the Kusala Sutta: Skillful
& Cunda Kammaraputta Sutta: To Cunda the Silversmith, translated from the Pali by
Thanissaro Bhikkhu

Big Bear Retreat Center: Upcoming Residential Retreats 🐻

Big Bear Retreat Center is a restorative space for healing and creativity.

They offer a supportive environment to gather in community for movement, stillness and practice, trusting in the power of embodied mindfulness and authentic connection.

Register for the above offerings on our website under “Residential Retreats” 🔗

Meditation and Buddhist Practice Yearlong Program 📿

Join InsightLA teachers Lienchi Tran, Celeste Young, Gullu Singh, and Melissa McKay for a year-long study program on meditation and Buddhist practice.

This program is tailored for laypeople, focusing on integrating these practices into our daily lives—within our communities, families, jobs, relationships, and the world.

The program will consist of one daylong of practice and study per month along and meetings with smaller groups in order to support you in putting the various themes into practice in your life.

We would love for you to join us for what we know will be a fruitful experience.

If you would like to receive updates about this program as it approaches, please comment on this post, or send us a message saying “BPP,” and we will be happy to keep you in the loop.

Register on our website at the link in our bio🔗

Be well🪷

Let’s sit together 🪷

Additional Weekly Classes not listed above:

Online Weekly Classes 

Sundays | 10a -11:30a 
Long Beach Sunday Practice Group

Mon & Fri | 7:30a -8a 
Just Show Up Zen

Mondays-Fridays | 7:30a-8a Morning Community Sit 

Mondays | 5:30p-6p 
Mindful Support: Nurturing the Heart 

Tuesdays | 5:30p-6p 
Stillness in a Chaotic World: Surfing The Waves of Experience

Tuesdays | 7:30-9p 
Tuesday Evening Practice Group 

Thursdays | 7a-8:30a 
Deepening Your Practice

Fridays | 12p-12:45p 
Calm the Mind

Online Ongoing Affinity Groups 

2nd Sundays 1p-2:30p 
LGBTQueer+ Mindfulness 

Mondays |  7p-8p 
Meditación Mindfulness en Español

Wednesdays | 10:15a-11:45a 
Mindful Aging 

First Fridays 6-8pm Mindfulness of Whiteness Anti-Racist Practice Group

Please find all our programs and register at the link in our bio 🔗

Going for Refuge: A Daylong Retreat 📿

This Sunday, July 14th, join Eileen Ybarra and community at Benedict Canyon for a day of practice.

The container of a daylong retreat offers a unique opportunity to slow down and connect to our own experience.

Deepen your practice in this community setting through the cultivation of mindfulness and lovingkindness.

This retreat offers you a chance to gift yourself with a day spent quieting the mind and heart, thus allowing an innate wisdom to grow and be nourished.

This day of practice together will include sitting meditation, walking meditation, dharma talks on exploring what it means to “go for refuge,” and relational practices involving mindful speaking and listening.

Most of the day will be held in noble silence.

This retreat will be supportive for both beginning and more experienced meditators.

Donation based, and everyone is welcome.

Register on our website at the link in our bio. 🔗

Breaking the Spell of Anxiety Course 🪄

4 Tuesdays
6PM - 7:30 PM
July 9th - 30th
📍Benedict Canyon Retreat House & Hybrid Online

This is a powerful class that skillfully incorporates the best of  mindfulness, neuroscience and cutting-edge psychology.

Donation based, pay what you can.

Register on our website at the link in our bio 🔗

🌻💐🪻🌸🌷🌺

Loving Awareness: a Day of Metta and Mindfulness Meditation ❤️

Awareness at its best is loving.

It can hold all of our experiences; all of our thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations and sensory experience without judgement or shame, good or bad, right or wrong.

We already have this awareness in us.

As the Buddha has said, the mind is naturally luminous, and it is because of visiting negative states of consciousness that that luminosity gets covered over.

Join Melissa McKay for a day of healing and restorative practice and connecting with our naturally luminous and loving awareness.

In that space, you will have a chance to heal burdens of the psyche, find forgiveness for yourself and others, clear resentments and let go of anything that is no longer serving you.

This event will take place in person at the Santa Monica Meditation Center.

Sign up on our website at the link in our bio🔗

Let's sit together.🚶🏾‍♀️

Join us this week:

Community Dharma Nights | Wednesdays 6:30pm-8pm

Join us for meditation, Dharma and Community with some of InsightLA’s most senior teachers.

Sunday Sitting Group | Sundays 10am-11:30am

Expect a meditation with some guidance, followed by a Dharma talk and dialogue. Optional break-out groups give you a chance to get to know others and explore your practice experiences together.

Youngish Adults Practice Group | Sundays 7pm-8:30pm

Mindfulness meditation in a supportive hybrid in-person/online community of peer practitioners. Share the collective wisdom related to sitting meditation practice.

Taking place at Santa Monica Meditation Center, and hybrid online.

Hollywood Monday Meditation Group

Expect experiential meditation, relational practices, community support and sharing, immediately followed by a relaxed and wholesome social time.

Come and build a mindful community with us!

Sign-up on our website at the link in our bio 🔗

June class series 🥳

Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction w/ Alex Maizuss

📍 9 weeks starting June 10th | 4:30pm-7pm | Online

Two decades of published research indicate that the majority of people who complete the eight-week program report greater ability to cope more effectively with both short- and long-term stressful situations.

By learning to actively participate in the management of health and well being, many participants report they are better able to manage stress, fear, anger, anxiety and depression both at home and in the workplace.

__________

Liberating Ways of Looking: The 3 Characteristics Dharma w/Celeste Young

📍 4 weeks starting June 10th | 6:30pm-8:15pm | Santa Monica Meditation Center and Hybrid Online

In the Living Dharma class series, we study the traditional Buddhist teachings from the Insight meditation tradition and learn how to apply them to daily life for greater ease, clarity, and well being.

There will be time for longer meditations, instruction, Dharma talks, small group work, reflections and discussion to deepen learning together in community.

sign up on our website at the link in our bio.🔗

Let’s sit together 🪷

Our programs are hosted at Santa Monica Meditation Center (SMC), Benedict Canyon Retreat House, and hybrid online.

Additional Weekly Classes not listed above:

Online Weekly Classes 

Sundays | 10a -11:30a 
Long Beach Sunday Practice Group

Mon & Fri | 7:30a -8a 
Just Show Up Zen w/ Ava Louise Stanton

Mondays-Fridays | 7:30a-8a Morning Community Sit w/ Beth Sternlieb

Mondays | 5:30p-6p 
Mindful Support: Nurturing the Heart with JD Lloyd
**this event is hybrid and is hosted in-person weekly at SMC**

Tuesdays | 5:30p-6p 
Stillness in a Chaotic World: Surfing The Waves of Experience **this event is hybrid and is hosted in-person weekly at SMC**

Tuesdays | 7:30-9p 
Tuesday Evening Practice Group w/ Maureen Chapple & Eric McCullum

Thursdays | 7a-8:30a 
Deepening Your Practice
Peer led

Fridays | 12p-12:45p 
Calm the Mind w/ Izumi Tanaka

Online Ongoing Affinity Groups 

2nd Sundays 1p-2:30p 
LGBTQueer+ Mindfulness w/ Elliott Law & Robert Lurye

Mondays |  7p-8p 
Meditación Mindfulness en Español

Wednesdays | 10:15a-11:45a 
Mindful Aging w/ Wendy Schmelzer

First Fridays 6-8pm Mindfulness of Whiteness Anti-Racist Practice Group

Please find all our programs and sign-up at the link in our bio 🔗

Special Events this June 🌼

🧘🏾‍♀️Yoga for Radiant Health

Come join us and experience the transformative power of mindful movement on both body and mind.

🪞Who is the Self in Self-Compassion?

Friday, June 7th 7p-9p
Saturday, June 8th 10am-5p

Come join Kristin Neff and Caverly Morgan for an experiential workshop that will begin to explore self compassion as a practice for emotional resilience.

🌷Real Life: A Day of Practice with Sharon Salzberg

Saturday, June 15th
10:00 AM - 1:00 PM PT

In this workshop, through discourse, dialogue, and meditation exercises, we’ll explore changing the dynamics that have us feeling most contracted to abide in the spaciousness that expansion enables.

This is a journey of:

🔹Moving from craving/endless searching to greater peace

🔹Moving from anger and fear to more inclusive compassion

🔹Moving from confusion to vibrancy and connection

The Path of Forgiveness

Thursday, June 27, 2024
7:00 PM - 8:15 PM PT

The Path of Forgiveness

Join Venerable Dhammananda Bhikkhuni, Thailand’s firstfully ordained Theravada Buddhist nun in conversation with her student, Cindy Rasicot, as she discusses her journey to healing and forgiveness.

Sign up for these offerings on website, under special events…link in our bio 🔗

Let's sit together.

Join us this week:

Sunday Sitting Group | Sundays 10am-11:30am

Expect a meditation with some guidance, followed by a Dharma talk and dialogue. Optional break-out groups give you a chance to get to know others and explore your practice experiences together.

Youngish Adults Practice Group | Sundays 7pm-8:30pm

Mindfulness meditation in a supportive hybrid in-person/online community of peer practitioners. Share the collective wisdom related to sitting meditation practice.

Taking place at Santa Monica Meditation Center, and hybrid online.

Sign-up on our website at the link in our bio 🔗

Let's sit together.

Join us this week:

Sunday Sitting Group | Sundays 10am-11:30am

Expect a meditation with some guidance, followed by a Dharma talk and dialogue. Optional break-out groups give you a chance to get to know others and explore your practice experiences together.

Youngish Adults Practice Group | Sundays 7pm-8:30pm

Mindfulness meditation in a supportive hybrid in-person/online community of peer practitioners. Share the collective wisdom related to sitting meditation practice.

Taking place at Santa Monica Meditation Center, and hybrid online.

Sign-up on our website at the link in our bio 🔗

The “24-Hour Retreat” follows the teachings of Sayadaw U Tejaniya and serves as a continuation of Lienchi Tran’s 7+ Day Retreats.

“Seeing and thinking have similar natures.

Just as we want to notice not what we are thinking about, but rather that we are thinking, we want to be able to observe and learn about the process of seeing, in particular in relation to liking, disliking, and ignoring.”

– Sayadaw U Tejaniya

In this retreat, practitioners will spend the day alternating between sitting and walking meditation, continuing to apply mindfulness (which you have learned from Lienchi Tran’s  7+ Day retreats) to daily activities like eating, bathing, and sleeping while exploring deeper into the nature of the mind and the practice.

There will be Dhamma talks and instructions, as well as opportunities for questions and discussion in group and individual.

Prerequisite: Attendance at one of Lienchi’s retreats (in Sayadaw U Tejaniya’s Style Retreat) or experience with Sayadaw U Tejaniya’s style of practice are a prerequisite for this retreat.

Sign up on our website at the link in our bio 🔗

Confiando y Descansando en Tu Propio Corazón ❤️🪶

¡Únete a nosotrxs en este retiro presencial diseñado especialmente para la Comunidad de Habla Hispana!

Experimenta un día de restauración para el cuerpo y la mente, conectando con tu verdadera naturaleza.

¿Anhelas paz, libertad y una conexión más profunda contigo mismx, con lxs demás y con el mundo que te rodea?

Entonces, este retiro en silencio de un día es para ti. Practicaremos técnicas para calmar la mente y el cuerpo, cultivaremos la tranquilidad y exploraremos la atención plena y la compasión.

Aprenderemos a prestar atención al momento presente, cultivar la serenidad y abrir nuestros corazones hacia nosotrxs mismxs y los demás con amor y compasión.

Tendrás la oportunidad de desconectar del ajetreo diario y reconectar con tu verdadera esencia, experimentando un mayor sentido de paz, libertad y bienestar.

El retiro incluirá meditaciones guiadas, tiempo para una comida en silencio, oportunidades de reflexión y preguntas, y tiempo para estar y caminar en la naturaleza.

Abierto a todxs los niveles de experiencia, ¡no se requiere experiencia previa en meditación! ¡Te damos la bienvenida a unirte en este viaje de transformación y crecimiento!

Detalles:

Sábado Mayo 11, 2024
10-4 pm PST
Benedict Canyon Retreat House

Regístrate en nuestro sitio web en el enlace de nuestra biografía🔗

Let’s sit together ☯️

InsightLA offers classes, retreats, and special events that cater to both beginning meditators and those looking to deepen and sustain their practice.

InsightLA was one of the first organizations of its kind offering secular, evidenced-based mindfulness training and traditional Buddhist teachings within the Vipassana or Insight tradition.

What will you be joining us for this month?

Let us know below ⬇️

Register for our offerings online at the link in our bio 🔗