In some recent episodes of Treasure Mountain Podcast we’ve heard about the importance of samatha - or stillness, tranquillity - meditation. But what about vipassana - insight meditation? The vipassana meditation movement has had a huge impact upon meditation practice in both East and West, and has shaped modern understandings of what meditation is about and for. So what is vipassana meditation? What is its heritage? What is its basis within Buddhism? And how does it work?

To answer these questions and more we have as our guest today Patrick Kearney.

Patrick has practised mindfulness meditation since 1977. At that time there was little or no Buddhist meditation training available in Australia, so he spent years travelling in Asia and the USA working with teachers from different Buddhist traditions to learn the craft of meditation practice. Most of his training has been in the insight meditation lineage of Mahāsī Sayādaw of Burma, which included several years as a Buddhist monk. His main teachers were Sayādaw U Paṇḍita and John Hale. He has also trained in the Diamond Sangha lineage of Zen where his teachers have been Robert Aitken Rōshi and Paul Maloney Rōshi.

Patrick has been a full-time teacher of mindfulness meditation for over 20 years. He conducts residential and online retreats, workshops and seminars. He has studied early Buddhism at post-graduate levels and has a particular interest in the original teachings of the Buddha, before the invention of “Buddhism.” This allows him to bring the radical insights of the Buddha to our contemporary situation. He sees meditation as a physical practice that reconnects us with the felt world of our senses, allowing us to live our lives directly rather than through the cling-wrap of our habitual thinking.

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Links related to this episode:

• Patrick Kearney website

Links related to Treasure Mountain Podcast:

• Treasure Mountain Podcast
• The Everyday Dhamma Network
• Support the podcast with a donation (via the Ko-fi creators platform)

In Western culture over the past century, the growth of interest in psychology and Buddhism have occurred together and have often intersected. Yet they come from quite different views of the world and the nature of the mind. What is the relationship between Buddhism and psychotherapy in the modern world? Where do these two intersect, and where do they diverge? And how can we understand the nature of mind from both points of view?

On this episode of Treasure Mountain Podcast we are privileged to have as our guest Ayya Jitindriya who is currently resident at Viveka Hermitage in southern New South Wales. Ayya Jitindriyā first trained as a monastic in the Theravada Forest Tradition lineage of Ajahn Chah & Ajahn Sumedho for over 16 years from 1988-2004. After leaving the monastic order she gained a Master’s degree in Buddhist Psychotherapy Practice with the Karuna Institute in the UK, and continued to teach meditation and retreats on invitation. Returning to live in Australia in 2008, she practiced as a Buddhist psychotherapist and taught meditation, Buddhism and psychotherapy in various capacities. She was the Director of Training for Australian Association of Buddhist Counsellors and Psychotherapists for several years. In early 2018 Jitindriyā re-entered the monastic life at Santi Forest Monastery in the Southern Highlands of NSW and held the role of guiding teacher and Spiritual Director there for a time. In 2021 she helped to set up Viveka Hermitage in Southern NSW where she now resides.

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Links related to this episode:

• Viveka Hermitage

Links related to Treasure Mountain Podcast:

• Treasure Mountain Podcast
• The Everyday Dhamma Network
• Support the podcast with a donation (via the Ko-fi creators platform)

Have you learned the basics of meditation and wanted to take things deeper? Have you heard about silent meditation retreats and wondered what they are like? If so, you’ve arrived at the right place as in this episode we are going to discuss why we should go on meditation retreats, with a focus on the commonly available nine or ten day retreat format. Also we’ll discuss what we might expect when going on meditation retreats and some of the obstacles we might encounter and how to overcome them, and how to integrate this all into a deeper practice, leading us to deeper tranquility and insight.

To guide us into a better understanding of silent meditation retreats is our guest Shaila Catherine.

Shaila Catherine is the founder of Bodhi Courses, an online Dhamma classroom, and Insight Meditation South Bay, a center for mindfulness, compassion, and wisdom in Silicon Valley, in California.

She has taught insight meditation since 1996 in the USA, Europe, Israel, New Zealand, and Canada. Shaila draws inspiration from the Discourses of the Buddha and maintains an unwavering dedication to awakening. She is known for her expertise in guiding practitioners to cultivate concentration and the deep absorption states of jhāna, and for her enthusiasm for sutta study.

Shaila is a Buddhist author of three books on meditation. Her first book, Focused and Fearless: A Meditator’s Guide to States of Deep Joy, Calm, and Clarity, introduces concentration practices and the absorption states of jhāna. From 2006–2014 Shaila trained in samādhi and vipassanā under the direction of Venerable Pa-Auk Sayadaw in Myanmar. She went on to author Wisdom Wide and Deep: A Practical Handbook for Mastering Jhanā and Vipassanā to help make his traditional approach to meditative training accessible to western practitioners. And her third book is Beyond Distraction: Five Practical Ways to Focus the Mind which shares practical Buddhist strategies for overcoming restlessness and distraction.

Shaila has been going on and teaching meditation retreats for several decades and I feel very fortunate that she has offered her time and experience to help us understand the whys and hows of silent meditation treats on this episode of Treasure Mountain. So join us as we seek for the treasure within…

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Links related to this episode:

• Shaila Catherine website
• Shaila Catherine upcoming meditation retreats
• Bodhi Retreats and Courses (online)

Links related to Treasure Mountain Podcast:

• Treasure Mountain Podcast
• The Everyday Dhamma Network
• Support the podcast with a donation (via the Ko-fi creators platform)