Programs

Start Your Week Well - Monday Morning Online Sitting

Open Dates
Start your week well by joining the BMIMC online for a regular Monday morning Zoom sitting hosted by Jill Shepherd and others from the BMIMC community.

Dhamma Talk - A Genealogy of Insight (Online)

with Patrick Kearney

September 6, 2023

The practice of insight meditation (vipassana bhavana) is something many meditators in the west take for granted. It is easy to forget or overlook just how revolutionary the modern form of practice developed by the late Mahasi Sayadaw has been, and the importance of the Mahasi lineage in the propagation of Insight practice among lay people. […]

Dhamma Talk - Contemporary Theravāda (Live Stream)

with Patrick Kearney

September 13, 2023
Online
In the modern Burmese insight movement students are trained in classical insight meditation (vipassanā bhāvanā). They attain a level of understanding (ñāṇa) and return to their normal lives. If the students are Burmese Buddhists, they enter the meditation centre from a deep intuitive understanding of their own tradition and return to this tradition, where they can now make sense of what happened to them inside the centre. But what about students from outside the world of Theravāda Buddhism?...

Wednesday Night Talks - Livestream

with Patrick Kearney

January 15 - February 12, 2025
Over four Wednesday nights Patrick will explore the project of insight meditation as understood and practised in the lineage of Mahāsi Sayādaw. The teaching that animates our practice originates in ancient India, while the practice itself comes to us from a very different culture with its own assumptions and ways of communicating. These talks represent an attempt to understand mindfulness meditation and the insight that emerges from it in terms of our own time and culture. The talks are experimental and tentative, and far from a finished project.

Three-week Vipassana Retreat

with Ariya Baumann

March 7 - 30, 2025
Blue Mountains Insight Meditation Centre
The practice of vipassanā meditation leads to a profound understanding of reality and ultimately to complete liberation. Through 'seeing clearly' (vipassanā) all experiences and processes in body, heart and mind, false views and concepts are exposed and right view is established...

Three-week Vipassana Retreat

with Sayādaw U Vivekananda

April 12 - May 2, 2025
Blue Mountains Insight Meditation Centre
Due to the especially high demand for Sayadaw's teaching, registration for this retreat will be by ballot. Click through to register for the ballot. The ballot will be drawn 27 June. 

Seeing clearly, finding freedom

with Jill Shepherd

May 9 - 18, 2025
Blue Mountains Insight Meditation Centre
This nine-day retreat for experienced meditators will focus on deepening insight into the three universal characteristics of impermanence, unsatisfactoriness and not-self, because directly experiencing the truth of these three characteristics is the key to living our lives with more ease, peace, and freedom.

Foundations of Buddhism & Meditation

with Danny Taylor

June 6 - 8, 2025
BMIMC & The Buddhist Library (Camperdown)
This integrated process is for people interested in the foundations of Buddhism and its relationship to meditation & life.  It consists of three events, starting with a weekend at BMIMC, and two afternoon (half-day) sessions in Sydney.  Meditation will be central but explored in its Buddhist context as a foundation for living. The format will allow us to experiment with integrating meditation into our everyday lives while appreciating the Buddha’s core messages.  This process is open to complete beginners and more experienced meditators.

Introduction to Metta - Weekend

with Venerable Virañani and Tara Frances

August 1 - 3, 2025
Blue Mountains Insight Meditation Centre
The practice of loving-kindness (mettā bhāvana) aims at the cultivation of a loving, benevolent attitude towards all living beings. Since the time of the Buddha, this form of meditation has been used as a practice in itself, and as a support for the development and deepening of insight. ***This weekend retreat is ideal for first time meditators***

Two Week Metta Retreat & Introductory weekend

with Venerable Virañani and Tara Frances

August 1 - 17, 2025
Blue Mountains Insight Meditation Centre
The practice of loving-kindness (mettā bhāvana) aims at the cultivation of a loving, benevolent attitude towards all living beings. Since the time of the Buddha, this form of meditation has been used as a practice in itself, and as a support for the development and deepening of insight. ***This course starts with the introductory weekend and is followed by two weeks of intensive practice. It is ideal for experienced meditators new to metta practice, but is also suitable for yogis with metta experience as well as first time meditators.***

Two Week Metta Retreat

with Venerable Virañani

August 4 - 17, 2025
Blue Mountains Insight Meditation Centre
The practice of loving-kindness (mettā bhāvana) aims at the cultivation of a loving, benevolent attitude towards all living beings. Since the time of the Buddha, this form of meditation has been used as a practice in itself, and as a support for the development and deepening of insight. *** This course is ideal for experienced metta practitioners, but is open to people new to metta practice or to meditation generally***

The Way of Insight

with Patrick Kearney

September 12 - 21, 2025
Blue Mountains Insight Meditation centre
In this nine-day retreat we will practise mindfulness and explore its application to the discovery of insight. For the Buddha, “insight” means seeing into the three universal characteristics of impermanence or change (anicca), pain or dis-ease (dukkha) and not-self (anattā)...

Long Weekend Retreat

with Michael Dash

October 4 - 6, 2025
Blue Mountains Insight Meditation Centre

The focus of this retreat is on realistic and practical understanding of Buddhism and Buddhist meditation with an emphasis on personalising the practice and using it in everyday life.