IMS Online Schedule

The winter solstice is the day with the shortest period of daylight and longest night of the year. In traditions around the world, it is around this time when we celebrate the light and settle into a quieter, darker season for introspection and reflection. During this special BIPOC Sangha program, we will sit together for meditation, dharma talks, music, poetry, and personal reflection on how the dharma can nourish us as we enter the winter season in the northern hemisphere.

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 2025. Space will be provided for participants to share practice intentions for the new year.

Teaching from her recently published book, Down to Earth Dharma: Insight Meditation to Awaken the Heart, Rebecca will lead us into mindfulness practice from a softer, more receptive orientation. From this perspective, we will explore the Buddha Dharma through intimacy with all of our experience, allowing ourselves to be touched by life and recognizing our deep belonging in this world. By practicing dropping out of our usual mind-oriented relationship with the world and down to earth into the body, we will nourish awakening from the heart.

This online mini retreat will reflect on the quality of joyfulness, a gladdened heart which the Buddha valued deeply in his teaching as a quality that inclines the mind towards awakening.

Join with the sangha on a journey into the heart of intimate relationships as a path of insight. While our spiritual lineage often draws from monastic traditions, this course delves into the practical application of Buddhist teachings within committed partnerships. Together, we will navigate the joys and challenges of intimate connections, focusing on cultivating the sublime qualities of mind highlighted by the Buddha, particularly through the lens of the Brahmaviharas. Through guided exploration, we will learn how to foster a deep sense of loving security within the context of impermanence and uncertainty, enriching our relationships with wisdom and compassion.

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 collective practice is primarily rooted in the Burmese and Thai Forest lineages through Mahasi Sayadaw and Ajahn Mun, and, is also influenced by many other traditions. We will build a virtual lineage image as we go along, to create a visual sense of our practice and its roots.

During this session, these beloved teachers will share stories of their beloved teachers from the Theravada Thai Forest Tradition as well as exploring how the Theravada and Mahayana traditions balance and support one another.  This session will also explore how our lineage and practice support wise and strong action in our world for climate, peace, and social justice.

This group offers a unique opportunity to read and explore with author and meditation teacher Rebecca Bradshaw from her newly released book, Down to Earth Dharma: Insight Meditation to Awaken the Heart. Practicing dropping down out of our usual mind- and action-oriented relationship with the world, our inquiry will emphasize the cultivation of softer qualities touched through the heart and body, such as receptivity, feeling, intuitive understanding, interconnectedness, and down-to-earth authenticity.  All students and adventurers are invited to this personal exploration of traditional Buddhist teachings navigated through the heart and embodiment. Each session we will investigate a section of the book through author reflections, guided meditation, and inquiry.

During this three day online retreat, we will explore how and why we conceptually impose internal and external boundaries upon a world that is naturally boundary free. Each time we draw a line of demarcation internally (my body, my mind, my persona) or externally (others, the external world, nature) we establish a narrowing definition of ourselves while increasing our psychic distance from others. We believe we gain control by establishing boundaries but are usually unaware of how it restrains and limits our freedom.  Since boundaries establish our sense of self and other, a life without boundaries would reveal a truly interconnected world.

Every human being who meditates is likely to face challenges in their practice. A seasoned guide is essential for developing the necessary skills to proceed on the path to liberation with balance and stability. In this on-demand program, IMS co-founder Joseph Goldstein supports meditators seeking to unlock the secrets of depth practice. The topics covered in these sessions include practicing with aging, illness and death, concentration, grief, karma, mindfulness, equanimity, impermanence, and the self.

This on-demand program, open to all, includes short guided meditations and Joseph’s responses to questions that students raised. The content in these sessions offers practical tools and techniques that can be used for your formal meditation or daily practice anytime, anywhere.

This program consists of previously recorded live sessions from the “Ask Joseph: Group Mentorship Program.”

Join IMS Online teachers who held community space for us to sit together, find our breath, and take refuge in each other and our practice. This program was recorded live on November 6 – November 9, 2024 and includes reflections and meditations from Kamala Masters, Tara Mulay, Chas DiCapua, and Sharon Salzberg.

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.