What’s New At Insight Meditation Center
Mondays starting April 20, 2026: 7:00 – 8:30 pm In-person at Berkeley Finnish Hall Meeting Room: 1970 Chestnut St, Berkeley, CA Our IMC community is growing in the East Bay! We are starting a weekly sitting group in Berkeley. We will begin with a five-week Introduction to Meditation class taught by Yanli Wang and Lily Huang from April 20 – May 18. The weekly sitting group starts Monday May 25, after the intro class. Evenings will include a lightly…
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Awake Together: The Middle Way for the Middle of Life: 5-Month Series for People in their 30s and 40s Five Sundays – April 5, May 24, June 21, July 19, and August 23, 2026: 1:30 – 3:30 pm In-person only at IMC Offered by Mei Elliott and Kodo Conlin This five-month in-person program offers an opportunity for people in their 30s and 40s to practice together in community. Each session will include meditation, dharma talks, discussion and activities that support…
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Saturday April 11, 9:30 am – 1:30 pm In-person only at IMC Offered by: Tanya Wiser This half-day retreat offers a welcoming space for those who identify as LGBTQIA2S+. It’s a special opportunity for our community to come together in mindfulness, presence, and shared practice.The morning will include guided meditations, a silent sit, a short dharma talk, mindful activity, a group practice discussion, and time to enjoy lunch together in community. This is a chance to deepen your meditation practice,…
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Five Wednesdays: April 15 – May 13, 2026: 7:00 – 8:30 pm In-person at IMC Offered by: Lydia Ridgway and Lauren Silver Mindfulness meditation, also known as insight meditation or vipassana, is a simple technique that concentrates and calms the mind. At the heart of mindfulness meditation is the practice of moment-to-moment observation which cultivates a clear, stable and non-judgmental awareness. While mindfulness practice can be highly effective in helping bring calm and clarity to the pressures of daily life,…
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Six-Week Series: 4/16 – 5/21. Thursdays, 6:30 – 8:00pm In-person at IMC Registration encouraged — see below. Mindfulness practice teaches us to be present in the moment with non-judgmental awareness, creating more ease with what is. However, many of us are plagued by judgments, often quite self-critical. We may find it’s much easier to have compassion for others than for ourselves. In this course, we learn to turn our compassion inwards, cultivating the conditions that allow us to accompany overwhelming…
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Saturday, March 7, 9:00am – 1:00pm In-person only at IMC Offered by Matthew Brensilver Meditation is a subtle art, and even seemingly simple instructions are easy to misunderstand or misapply. We often repeat the same habits in meditation that operate in daily life. There is no endpoint at which we have finally understood the instructions and can simply go about implementing them. In other words, we are always discovering how to practice. During our time together, Matthew will provide a…
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Saturday March 14, 2026 8:30 am – 5:00 pm In-person only at IMC Offered by: bruni dávila Practicing mindfulness on retreat is one of the foundations for maturing insight meditation. The simplicity, silence and support of retreats contribute to letting go of many of the distractions that get in the way of clear seeing. Retreats also are a wonderful environment for developing a continuity of awareness for an extended period. This particular daylong retreat is meant for people who already…
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Friday, March 20, 2026: 11:10 am Where: Let’s meet in the Edgewood Park parking lot on Edgewood Rd, San Carlos at 11:00 am for a 3+ mile hike — approximately 3 hours. What: We will celebrate this celestial event walking through local ecosystems with some periods of silence bringing our awareness to the present, paying attention to our senses. There will be a time of sitting with a ritual and a gathering together. Join: Kristen Benson, anEco Buddist Chaplain through…
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Saturday, March 21, 9:30am – 4:00pm In-person only at IMC Part of a Series: Foundation in Freedom: Progressive Instruction in Mindfulness Meditation with Kodo Conlin and Ying Chen Offered by Kodo Conlin and Ying Chen Part and parcel of the Buddha’s path to liberation is the cultivation of mindfulness. Our Insight tradition is rich in ways to grow mindfulness in relationship with all aspects of our experience, no part left out. Let’s share in four Saturday daylong retreats for the…
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Saturday, March 28, 2026: 8:30 am — 10:00 am On Zoom Topic: Story Exchange Workshop Offered by: Eco-chaplains Shoshana Perry and Summer Payne The Goal: To experience the power of connection and Narrative 4’s core story exchange methodology. To prepare: Bring a story from your life you are willing to share. Below are prompts focused on earth and community from which to choose. The story should be no longer than 5 minutes. The story you bring to the workshop will…
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Saturday, March 28, 2026: 9:30am – 4:30pm In-person at IMC only Offered by: Kim Allen In a world of AI, virtual interaction, and constant information flow, it is easy to lose touch with what is reliable and what is spiritually nourishing. Meditation can help us attune to a natural intelligence that resides within and includes both wisdom and heart qualities. This day of practice will support cultivating this Dharma intelligence. Learning to trust it supports our engagement with both the…
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IRC 2026 Winter-Spring Newsletter is available online . You can read past newsletters in both HTML and PDF formats on the Newsletter page of the Insight Retreat Center website.
In 2026, I am bringing many areas of my long time interests and activity to focus on Buddhist Peace and Conflict Chaplaincy by starting two new programs through the Sati Center: Peace Chaplaincy Speaker’s Series for dialogues we people working in directly or indirectly in the field of Peace and Conflict Chaplaincy. It continuous the conversations I had with the Palestinian Dharma teacher Muna Shaheen and Israeli Dharma Stephen Fulder and with Mohsen Mandawi The next conversation will…
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Thursday, January 1, 2026: 9:00 am – 10:50 am In-Person at IMC Please join us in-person at IMC on New Year’s Day. The session will use a variety of asanas (poses) to focus and calm the mind, enhance breath and overall awareness, and develop flexibility, balance and strength. Beginners are always welcome. The class is a mixed level and everyone is encouraged to work in accordance with their own needs and abilities. Bring a large towel and sticky mat, if you…
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Saturday, January 24, 9:00am – 4:00pm In-person at IMC Offered by: Ying Chen, David Lorey, Diana Clark and Kim Allen Connection grows when our words are wise. In the passages on wise speech in the Pali Canon, the Buddha encourages us to speak from the heart – in ways that support our practice and our engagement with the world. This daylong retreat will include periods of sitting meditation, teachings, small group discussion, and Q&A. This event is intended for people…
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