Victoria Insight Meditation Society
Victoria, BC
E-mail: victoriainsight@gmail.com
Contacts: We are lay led. Heather Martin from Salt Spring Island is our sangha’s guiding teacher.
Lineage: We are a Theravada group that is rooted in the Vipassana tradition as brought to the west through teachers such as Joseph Goldstein, Sharon Salzberg, Jack Kornfield. We have many teachers and now generations of teachers’ teachers. Ajahn Chah, U Pandita, Dipa Ma, could be considered some of the first western Theravada (also known as Vipassana) teachers’ teachers. There are many western lay teachers who have trained and are currently training teachers with whom we study. To date our visiting monastics are from the Thai Forest tradition.
Practices: Chanting sutras, discussion groups, meditation, retreats, sutra study, study groups using different books by Theravada monks and lay teachers.
Meditation: Insight (vipassana), loving kindness (metta) walking, other
Public activities: Sunday night 2 hour session – first 45 minutes is for silent meditation; the second hour we spend listening to a dharma talk given by a sangha member or we listen to a taped talk. Sangha members offer their homes for meditation gatherings. We currently have 2 active meditation home sit groups. We have a monthly study group led by a visiting teacher, Heather Martin. We offer non-residential weekend retreats – 2 day and one day duration, led by local and visiting monastics and lay teachers. We have also begun offering a Nature themed residential retreat led by a visiting teacher.
Associated in Canada with: Canadian Theravada organizations such as Salt Spring Island Vipassana, West Coast Dharma, British Columbia Insight Meditation Society, Sitavana – Birken Forest Monastery.
Associated internationally with: dhamma centers in North America such as Spirit Rock Meditation Center, Insight Meditation Center, Bellingham Insight Meditation Center, Insight Meditation Society.
Language: English (We have participants whose first language is not English. i.e. French, Thai, Khmer, Chinese.)
Listing updated: March 2022