For Newcomers

Welcome!

We’re so happy to welcome you to Vermont Insight. To help you easily navigate your path into the sangha, this page includes answers to frequently asked questions, a guide to programs for beginners, and a glossary of terms you’ll hear often (like “sangha”!).

You’ll have many opportunities to meditate and learn more about Buddhist teachings. Our teachers and practice leaders offer group meditations almost every day. Teachers are also available for individual consultation about meditation practice and Buddhist teachings. Learn more about our teachers here!

At Vermont Insight, we believe that inner transformation benefits the outer world. We observe principles of ethical life as directed through the Theravada Buddhist tradition, including the values of non-harming, generosity, relational respect, and honesty. The expressions of these values are kindness, compassion, and wisdom. Mindful communication is an important feature of these expressions.

We look forward to practicing with you!

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Answers to questions about Vermont Insight

No! As a Buddhist spiritual center, our programs incorporate Buddhist teachings. You do not have to identify as Buddhist either to participate in or benefit from them. We encourage participants to pursue what resonates with them. 

Some of our sits are silent and some include guidance. The Saturday Meditation and Conversation group, along with several of our courses and retreats, often feature guided meditations.

No, almost all our programs are suitable for beginners. Occasionally, a course will be more suited to advanced students; course descriptions will include that information. Please see the “Great programs for beginners” section below for programs newcomers may find especially helpful.

We invite you to engage in gestures and rituals if these are supportive of your practice, and we do not expect anyone to engage in anything that does not resonate with them. Some sangha members chant, bow, use prayer hands, etc. as part of their practice. There is no pressure or expectation to do so.

Different teachers may have different practice etiquette preferences. If a teacher has a preference, they will inform the group at the start of an event.

But in general, during sitting meditation in the Hall, we ask that noise and movement be kept to a minimum in the space where people are sitting. If you need to get up and walk, engage in prolonged stretching, or do other movements people might find distracting, we ask that you do so in the back of the Hall.

During a Dharma talk, a Buddhist teacher gives a lecture on a topic in Buddhism. Vermont Insight’s Dharma talks are generally followed by group discussion.

Practice leaders are long-term practitioners who have been invited by teachers to lead sits. Teachers have years of training and are equipped to give Dharma talks and one-on-one spiritual guidance in addition to leading meditations.

With the exception of courses and retreats, Vermont Insight’s events are offered on a donation basis. We accept donations both to the Center and to teachers.

Courses and retreats have fees. Each event also has a fee waiver option—we don’t want financial hardship to prevent people from participating. We encourage participants to donate to course and retreat teachers if they can or to contribute to the community in non-monetary ways. Making the teachings freely available is an important part of the tradition, as is dana. More on that here.

We have many cushions and chairs in the Meditation Hall, along with blankets. If you have a favorite thing to sit on or wrap yourself in, you’re welcome to bring your own!

You can find the Zoom link for our online events in our weekly newsletter, which goes out on Wednesdays. Subscribe here. For retreats and courses, we’ll email you the Zoom link at least the day before the event starts.

Subscribing to our weekly newsletter and following us on Facebook and/or Instagram are great ways to stay up to date. You can also check our calendar anytime, as well as the homepage, courses page, and retreat page.

Meditation FAQs

Former Guiding Teacher Rae Houseman answers frequently asked questions about Insight Meditation practice.

Sitting upright with an erect spine that is not rigid, either on a cushion(s), a chair or a bench, is recommended.

There are four traditional meditation postures; sitting, lying down, standing and walking. The reason that sitting is generally emphasized as the primary posture is because people have a tendency to fall asleep when practicing meditation while lying down. Lying down is a traditional meditation posture, so if it feels comfortable, and you are able to stay awake and alert, then it can be a great way to practice. It offers a lot of potential for relaxation. The benefit of practicing in a variety of postures is that the mind has more opportunity for training in ways that can easily translate into our everyday life activities. Because we are often engaged in activities that require us to be standing or walking in our daily lives, practicing meditation in these postures helps us bring awareness into these activities.

Practitioners are encouraged to minimize movement while sitting as bodily stillness promotes calm in the mind; however, wise meditating includes knowing when it is necessary to move to avoid hurting oneself and learning how to move with minimal disruption to other meditators.

The aim of the practice is to develop an awareness that can be with anything we experience. Sometimes this means that we are with a very busy mind. In this case, it’s just great that there is some awareness developing of what is happening in the mind. So, if you are able to see that the mind is lost in thought, even just for a moment, and bring the attention back to some aspect of your present moment experience (like the breath, the feeling of the body sitting, or sound) then you are doing it correctly. We just keep practicing being aware of what’s happening – bringing the mind back to the present moment experience.

No, we can learn to use sound as part of what we are observing in the practice. We simply open our attention to include an awareness of whatever it is that is being heard, and notice that hearing is happening. With time we can also become aware of the reactivity of the mind. How is the mind reacting to the sound in the environment? This is something to get curious about.

We are fortunate that today there are many options for accessing quality guided meditations. If there is interest in using guided sessions some good options are:

The benefit of using a guided session is that the guidance can support the development of the practice and bring the attention back to the present moment. While guided sessions can be supportive it isn’t necessary to use them; if there is interest in practicing without a guide it’s encouraged to explore this interest and see for yourself what works best for you.

Although music can be very relaxing which may make our practice seem easier, we are interested in developing an awareness that is not reliant on external supports or distractions. We are moving toward building confidence in our ability to sit with ourselves regardless of whether or not we are feeling particularly relaxed.

Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness

In certain schools of meditation training, great emphasis was placed on “sitting through” difficult emotional and physical states. We now understand that for some people, and for all of us sometimes, that’s not a wise choice. When our meditation practice pushes us out of our window of tolerance, it’s important that we know how to work with the situation. While we don’t want to jump away from our practice any time discomfort arises, trying to practice outside our window of tolerance is often not productive.

Vermont Insight teacher Susan Dreyer Leon shares this valuable resource on trauma-sensitive mindfulness.

Great programs for beginners

 

Newcomers are welcome at all our sittings and retreats!

A few programs may be especially helpful for those just starting out. These often include meditation instructions, discussion about the practice, and teachings on Buddhist principles:

Meditation and Conversation
1st & 3rd Saturdays of every month, 9:00 – 10:30 am

On Zoom
Instruction, discussion and Q&A, and two short practice sessions.
By donation, no registration required.

Sunday Sitting and Dharma Talk
Most Sundays, 10:00 am – 12:00 pm
(See Calendar for more information)

Hybrid
One hour of meditation, one hour of discourse on Buddhist teachings.
Meditation instructions are often given during the sittings.
By donation, no registration required.

Sangha Tea
One Sunday a month, 12:00 – 1:00 pm
(See Calendar for more information)

Hybrid
Once a month, we gather after a Sunday Sitting and Dharma Talk to drink tea and mingle with our sangha! There is even a remote option for our sangha members Zooming in.

One-on-One Student-Teacher Practice

Please click here to learn more about individual practice meetings with Vermont Insight teachers.

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Glossary

Dana: Dana is the Pali word for giving, the active expression of generosity. In keeping with the Buddhist tradition, our teachers offer their time and guidance as a gift. In turn, sangha members express gratitude by offering what dana they can. The idea of dana is rooted in an understanding of our connections and interdependence. Learn more about dana here.

Dharma: Dharma with a capital “D” refers to the teachings of the Buddha. With a lowercase “d,” dharma refers to phenomena, or “the way things are.”

Insight meditation: Also referred to as Vipassana. This Pali word means to see clearly, or “insight.” As Andrew Olendzki wrote in Tricycle, “vipassana meditation involves pointing a concentrated mind at a flowing stream of experience, with each moment presenting a different object. By watching the ongoing rise and fall of phenomena at the point of contact with the senses, rather than through the filters of narrative and conceptual thought, the meditator is able to see beyond appearances.”

Sangha: A community of people who meditate and reflect on Buddhist principles together. Sometimes, the word refers to those within the monastic order. But we use it more broadly to refer to all within our Vermont Insight community.

Theravada lineage: Also known as the school of the Elders, this references those monks who lived in community during the centuries following the Buddha’s death and who were trying to live as closely to the Buddha’s original teachings as possible. For guidance, they looked to the original teachings and the commentaries written in the centuries following the Buddha’s death. For more on Theravada Buddhism and its relation to Insight meditation, see this page.

Accessing the building

VIMC’s Meditation Hall is located on the second floor at 28 Vernon Street, Brattleboro, VT.

Please Arrive Early: The outside door is locked and greeters will let you in until the sitting start time. If no greeter is physically present at the door, please use the screen to the left of the door to be let in remotely.

Take the elevator or the stairs: The Meditation Hall is on the second floor; signs will direct you to the room. The elevator on the first floor is to the right.

Parking: The building has a parking lot.

Get in Touch

Questions? Comments? Just want to say “hi”? Please contact us here!