IMS Online Schedule

There comes a point when we realize—we’re the adults in the room. Whether we’re raising children or caring for parents, navigating career shifts, grief, relationships, or simply managing the quiet weight of daily life, these middle years ask a lot of us. And they rarely come with a roadmap.

Adulting Is Hard is a weekly Dharma practice group for people seeking steadiness, honesty, and insight in the midst of real life. Each week we gather around a core theme—mindfulness in the mess, letting go, speech as practice, nervous system regulation, spiritual friendship, and more.

Together, we reflect, practice, and remember: the path doesn’t start when things calm down. The path is right here, in the middle of everything.

Buddhist teachings name wisdom, paññā, as a faculty that all humans possess, but may not have developed deeply. Wisdom is essential for liberating the heart from suffering, and is naturally developed through Dharma practice. This class aims to help participants recognize and deepen the Dharma wisdom already present in their life so that it can be applied to benefit themselves and others. The world dearly needs more wisdom, both as basic clarity and discernment and because it is intimately connected to compassion.

During this mini retreat we will reflect on the four wise efforts as taught by the Buddha. Skillful effort is needed to bring any wholesome quality to fruition and to free us of the grip of qualities and patterns that undermine our well-being and freedom.  The teaching this day will reflect on how the Buddha described skillful effort and what effort is in the service of – an awakened heart.  There will be periods of formal practice, teaching and time for questions and responses. All are welcome.

“When learning about compassion, we often hear from students that cultivating it for themselves is the hardest part. But how can we cultivate compassion or loving-kindness for others if we cannot start with the person closest to us? During this year-long program, a variety of IMS Online teachers will guide us through the tender practice of turning our metta and karuna practices inward as the ground upon which we can cultivate those energies for all beings.

This online weekend retreat coincides with the months of longest nights and shortest days. Together, we’ll meet the darkness as both teacher and mirror—gently attuning to the stillness where craving settles and the agitated heart can soften. Through guided practice, Dharma reflections, and embodied rest, we’ll honor the descent and deepen our trust in the unseen path ahead.

From the first breath to the last, life continually reminds us of its fleeting, changing nature. The Buddha pointed to impermanence (anicca) as a central truth, a teacher always at hand. Over this weekend retreat, we will turn toward the full arc of human experience—birth and becoming, aging and change, illness and loss, death and release—as gateways to wisdom and compassion.

Joseph Goldstein will offer the opening, a Dharma talk or Q&A, and the closing session. Devon Hase will guide the weekend’s meditations, reflections, and dialogues. Together, we’ll explore how awareness, compassion, and letting go can transform the inevitabilities of life into profound opportunities for freedom.

“When learning about compassion, we often hear from students that cultivating it for themselves is the hardest part. But how can we cultivate compassion or loving-kindness for others if we cannot start with the person closest to us? During this year-long program, a variety of IMS Online teachers will guide us through the tender practice of turning our metta and karuna practices inward as the ground upon which we can cultivate those energies for all beings.

There are so many doorways into the dharma because the dharma is so many things. The Buddhist path is a process of self-understanding, dramatically refining the map of our inner landscape, simultaneously clarifying the inner life of others.  It is a path of love, beginning with our sincerity and culminating in our devotion to the welfare of others. Insight meditation responds to the vicissitudes of life – the ultimately ungovernable tides of pleasure and pain – by cultivating equanimity and a sense of inner refuge. It is a path of peace, and peace is the only thing that doesn’t fatigue the heart.

We will explore the foundations of mindfulness and the timeless wisdom of the Dhamma, with guidance for living in balance, presence, and awareness in daily life. Through meditation, reflection, and teachings, we will be supported in cultivating a tender and spacious heart—one that meets life with wisdom and kindness.

As we approach the darkest time of the year, we’ll make space for the quiet joy of presence in this online retreat. During this mini retreat, 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. All are welcome.

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.

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 2026. Space will be provided for participants to share practice intentions for the new year.

During this retreat, we will explore the heart of the Buddha’s teaching: suffering and its causes, and freedom and its causes. With the cultivation of our natural and relaxed awareness, we can become intimate with what it is like to be human.

This online experience will be a livestream of the Coming Home to Kind Awareness retreat with Bart van Melik, Devin Berry and Nakawe Cuebas Berrios. Meditation instructions and Dharma talks will be broadcast live from the IMS Meditation Hall.

Metta means goodwill or lovingkindness in the ancient Buddhist Pali language. Metta meditation cultivates our innate capacity for an open and loving heart. Said to have been taught by the Buddha himself, this practice develops concentration, fearlessness, a sense of belonging, happiness, and a greater ability to love. When well cultivated, metta practice also provides a secure foundation for resilience and wise engagement amidst uncertainty and pain.

This online experience will be a livestream of the Lovingkindness retreat with Oren Jay Sofer, Dawn Scott, Yong Oh and Jessica Morey. Meditation instructions and Dharma talks will be broadcast live from the IMS Meditation Hall.

Through the natural unfolding of mindfulness, we learn to rest in presence and attune to the rhythms of body, heart, and mind. As clarity deepens, we begin to recognize the ways we turn away from connection within ourselves, with one another, and with the world.

This silent retreat offers a refuge for practice and a space to remember what truly sustains us. Together, supported by sangha and the rhythm of retreat, we explore how mindfulness and insight illuminate both our inner landscape and the challenges of daily life. Rooted in simplicity, this retreat invites us to meet our experience with devotion, curiosity, and kindness—and to walk the path of insight with steadiness and faith.

This online experience will be a livestream of the Rooted in Presence retreat with Devin Berry, Shinmu Tamori Gibson and Neesha Patel. Meditation instructions and Dharma talks will be broadcast live from the IMS Meditation Hall.

The Buddha first taught vipassana over 2,500 years ago. The various methods of this practice have been well preserved in the Theravada tradition of Buddhism. This silent weekend course, suitable for both beginning and experienced meditators, is rooted in this ancient and well-mapped path to awakening, and draws on the full spectrum of this tradition’s lineages.

This online retreat experience will be a livestream of the onsite Your Life Is Your Practice: Insight Meditation Weekend Retreat with Narayan Helen Liebenson. Meditation instructions and Dharma talks will be broadcast live from the IMS Meditation Hall. There will also be an opportunity to submit questions to Narayan.

In this five-session online course, Bonnie Pitman, former Director of the Dallas Museum of Art, and Sharon Salzberg, explore these questions, and many more, as they tour the works of art at IMS’s two centers. Although this program looks at the art of IMS within the larger history of Buddhist art, as well as how Buddhism has influenced contemporary art more broadly, the focus of the program is practical—how these objects can deepen our understanding of the Dharma and help us in our practice on the path to liberation.

Inspired by the spontaneity she experiences on stage before a live audience, Sharon brings that same energy to these personal, unscripted conversations. Together, they explore the influences that shaped their dharma paths, share stories from their meditation journeys, and reflect on how they meet the challenges of modern life with clarity, humor, and compassion.

Join us for a rare opportunity to tune in to a week of evening Dharma talks from the Insight Meditation Society’s Retreat Center. Each night, dharma talks were livestreamed directly from the IMS meditation hall, where our residential retreat, Coming Home to Kind Awareness, took place.

Some of the topics explored during this retreat included the key insights on mindfulness (sati), heart qualities (brahmaviharas), hindrances to practice, and feeling tones (vedana).

Whether you’re looking to reconnect with the spirit of retreat, deepen your daily practice, or simply sit in good company, these recordings offer a powerful way to ground yourself in the Dharma.

Metta is the practice of offering positive intentions for the safety, peace and wellbeing of ourselves, others and ultimately all beings. Join us for this weekend of cultivating deeper connection to ourselves and all of life.

This retreat is open to practitioners of all levels, and included periods of guided, sitting and walking meditation, as well as dharma talks and a suggested schedule. Students are encouraged but not required to create a home retreat container, giving themselves the gift of quiet practice for the weekend.

Equanimity is not indifference; it represents inner strength. It is the calm at the center of the storm, providing the spaciousness necessary to meet life’s beauty and pain with balance and clarity. In the teachings of the Buddha, equanimity serves not only as a protection for the heart but also as a path to awakening itself, described as inseparable from Nibbāna (nirvāṇa). Learn to steady the heart—not by shutting down, but by opening wide.

This retreat includes four guided meditations, four Dharma talks, and a suggested schedule. This framework can be integrated into your daily practice or applied throughout the days to come, allowing you to shape your practice as you see fit. The retreat is open to both beginning and experienced meditators.

As we learn to meditate, we can more easily bear witness to our experience and observe the true nature of these fluctuating phenomena and our human experience. Eventually, we may learn to see the beauty and harmony of impermanence, and the value of ongoing transformation. Ultimately, by noticing and embracing change, knowledge, wisdom, peace, and stability can take root in our hearts.

This retreat includes 3 meditations with guided instructions, a Dharma talk, a metta practice, and a suggested schedule. This framework can be integrated into your daily practice or sprinkled throughout the days to come, giving you the opportunity to shape your practice as you wish. The retreat is open to both beginning and experienced meditators.

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 Christina Feldman for a mini retreat focused on the quality of joyfulness—a gladdened heart that the Buddha valued deeply in his teachings as a quality that inclines the mind toward awakening. Christina describes joyfulness as a resilient ally that brings empathy, compassion, and light during difficult times. She emphasizes the importance of cultivating joyfulness, especially in challenging moments, and shares teachings from the Buddha about joy and appreciation.

The retreat includes two hours of guided meditations, Dharma talks, reflections, and a suggested schedule. This framework can be integrated into your daily practice or sprinkled throughout the days to come, giving you the opportunity to shape your practice as you wish. The retreat is open to both beginning and experienced meditators.

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.