IMS Online Schedule

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.

A silent mindfulness half-day retreat for the LGBTQIA+ community. This is an opportunity to come together in the safety of our beloved sangha, embracing all of ourselves, as we cultivate wholesome qualities of our hearts and minds. There will be alternating sitting and walking meditation, instruction, and relational practice.

This retreat is open to both experienced and beginner meditators who self-identify as queer, questioning, trans, nonbinary, genderqueer, bisexual, lesbian, gay, agender, intersex, or two-spirit.

Each posture offers unique possibilities to support mindfulness. Standing invites you to explore gentle and flowing movements that anchor your attention in the present moment and cultivate a deeper connection with body, breath, and environment while investigating the elemental nature of experience. Gentle sitting sequences offer preparation and support for seated meditation. During reclining practices, there’s a chance to experience a fuller connection with the earth and the natural rhythms of breath while integrating the wholesome qualities of wakefulness and calm, moment to moment. All of the postures contribute to our practice in daily life. Throughout this online course, you will be encouraged to approach your experiences with self-compassion, curiosity, and an open-hearted attitude.

Join us in this daylong retreat exploring dana, the Buddha’s path of generosity, as a source of freedom and connection. Through guided and silent meditations, relational exercises and Dharma reflections, experience dana as an act of letting go and kindness. Deepen your understanding of generosity’s transformative power, cultivating joy and interdependence. This program offers practical insights, community connection, and opportunities to integrate dana into everyday life. All are welcome.

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.

When teaching Metta, we often hear from students that cultivating loving-kindness for themselves is the hardest part. But how can we have Metta 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 inward as the ground upon which we can cultivate loving-kindness for all beings.

Exploring deeply the Buddhist teachings of mindfulness infused with lovingkindness, this silent meditation retreat, open to all, will cultivate our connection to ourselves and to life itself through body-centered awareness. Developing intimacy with our physical, energetic, and emotional bodies, we will touch essential truths about life and gain the stability of heart that helps us move through this world with greater wisdom and compassion.

There are endless ways to engage lovingly with a world in need, and this class is meant to support people in finding their own natural way of doing so. The world needs each and every one of us to show up and engage, to do what is ours to do. Together, we will let the Dharma move us to act from a place of love in the face of so much pain. All are welcome.

Come join us for the BIPOC – Black, Indigenous, People of Color online retreat weekend. Together we will explore our spiritual path through guided silent meditation, and relational practice. Together we will explore the  teachings of the Buddha, honoring our shared experience, while cultivating mindfulness, wisdom, and joy in our day to day lives while living and navigating challenging times.

When teaching Metta, we often hear from students that cultivating loving-kindness for themselves is the hardest part. But how can we have Metta 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 inward as the ground upon which we can cultivate loving-kindness for all beings.

Through natural and relaxed awareness, we train to see the habits of mind and the ways we separate, distract, and isolate ourselves from the world. Compassion and equanimity allow us to be present and connected, softening our hearts and revealing with clarity what it’s like to be human while enabling us to maintain balance as we navigate the challenges of the times.

When teaching Metta, we often hear from students that cultivating loving-kindness for themselves is the hardest part. But how can we have Metta 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 inward as the ground upon which we can cultivate loving-kindness for all beings.

In this special group mentorship program, IMS co-founder Joseph Goldstein offers support to meditators seeking to unlock the secrets of deep practice. The  program offers a rare opportunity to ask questions that may be shared by others and to receive customized instruction while being in community and learning from each other.

When teaching Metta, we often hear from students that cultivating loving-kindness for themselves is the hardest part. But how can we have Metta 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 inward as the ground upon which we can cultivate loving-kindness for all beings.

During this daylong retreat for experienced practitioners, we will explore qualities of attention that refine our mindfulness practice and provide the ground for insight into the truth of the way things are.  Inclining our minds towards a deeply restful, allowing attention opens us to joy and ease.  Clear perception of moment-to-moment experience unclouds our attention.  Letting go of a mistaken sense of ownership of passing experience deepens our understanding of the truth. These capacities of mind are available to all of us, and they are the seeds of awakening.

Many of the teachings throughout this retreat will draw from the path to awakening as described in the late Mahāsi Sayadaw’s Manual of Insight. We’ll explore the steps laid out by the Buddha that lead to the sure heart’s release: the purification of conduct, the purification of mind through concentration and insight, the understanding of absolute and conventional reality, and the stages of insight that lead to nibbana (liberation).

When teaching Metta, we often hear from students that cultivating loving-kindness for themselves is the hardest part. But how can we have Metta 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 inward as the ground upon which we can cultivate loving-kindness for all beings.

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.

When teaching Metta, we often hear from students that cultivating loving-kindness for themselves is the hardest part. But how can we have Metta 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 inward as the ground upon which we can cultivate loving-kindness for all beings.

Over decades, we have been delighted to walk the path of awakening with other women through the annual women’s retreat at IMS. The community of women who have participated in this retreat over time have been a source of inspiration and refuge for us and so many of our alumni. It has been a rich and enlivening journey, and we have been honored to have been part of your lives through this extraordinary retreat. To create even more space for women who wish to join our community, we are now committed to continuing this offering through the addition of an annual online retreat, open to all those who have participated in the women’s retreat in the past and to any new students who feel called to add their voices and hearts to the circle.

When teaching Metta, we often hear from students that cultivating loving-kindness for themselves is the hardest part. But how can we have Metta 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 inward as the ground upon which we can cultivate loving-kindness for all beings.

When teaching Metta, we often hear from students that cultivating loving-kindness for themselves is the hardest part. But how can we have Metta 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 inward as the ground upon which we can cultivate loving-kindness for all beings.

When teaching Metta, we often hear from students that cultivating loving-kindness for themselves is the hardest part. But how can we have Metta 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 inward as the ground upon which we can cultivate loving-kindness for all beings.

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.