Insight Meditation
The sangha’s approach to Insight Meditation (Vipassana) was brought to the Western world by teachers like Joseph Goldstein, Jack Kornfield and Christina Feldman. Its foundation is mindfulness practice the way it was taught by the Buddha.
When our mindfulness gets stronger, we are less prone to being carried away by our minds. This then allows us to gain meditative insight in the nature of our experience, for instance by investigating the impermanent nature of all phenomena.
It also forms the perfect ground for adding other meditation techniques. These include developing beautiful mind states like loving kindness and compassion, a variety of concentration techniques and ways to open one’s mind to a vast, open awareness.
Wisdom
& Love
“Just as a bird needs two wings to fly,
so a practitioner needs
the two wings of wisdom and love.”
(Tibetan saying)
While meditation practice brings us together as a sangha, we know that in Buddhist practice the development of wisdom, ethics and beautiful and wholesome heart qualities are equally important. The traditional Buddhist teachings give us lots of guidance in these areas. This is why they form a firm foundation for the teachings that are offered during our sangha gatherings.
In each session we explore a topic. At times they might link to current events, and even be delicate, like euthanasia or white privilege.
We aim at understanding how the traditional teachings might give us guidance, often with help from interpretations by modern teachers from across all Buddhist traditions.
However, we are lay practitioners living in a complex and often messy modern world. Inquiry and sometimes even challenging those traditional teachings is therefore also important to us. After all, the Buddha himself taught us not to take his word for absolute truth, but to know for ourselves.
Through reflection we deepen our understanding. This helps each of us to arrive into our own unique expression of Buddhist practice, both in formal meditation and in daily life. A life that is one of balance and loving connection with self, other and the world.
Dana
The Buddha emphasised that practising generosity (dana) brings great joy and it is seen as an essential practice. Over the millenia, listening to the Buddhist teachings has been an opportunity to bring this into practice. The teachings have always been offered for free, as they are deemed to be priceless. To make this possible, students have offered dana to their teachers.
To honor this ancient practice and the generosity of foregone teachers and students, our sangha also operates on this basis. Sangha nights are free of charge, events are offered for a small fee to cover the costs of logistics. It is therefore hoped that practitioners embrace the practice of dana and keep supporting the teachers.
For practical details on how to offer dana, please refer to the section below.
Credits for images:
Stones – Photoholgic on Unsplash
Quan Yin – iStock
Flower – Irene Kredenet on Unsplash
Contact details
For any enquiries, or to be added to our mailing list, please contact Landa:
email: welinsight.landa@gmail.com
text: 021 985 334
All dana (donations) is gratefully accepted on Kiwibank account # 38-9010-0244181-00 of Wellington Insight Meditation Community.
Please use reference 'dana'