2024 Teachers for VIMS retreats

Teachers for 2024 retreats

Margo McLoughlin  Mar  16  and  17 2024
Margo McLoughlin has been practicing in the Insight tradition of Theravada Buddhism since 1986. Margo is known for her telling of Jataka tales and in leading meditation retreats and courses on Vancouver Island, the US and Ireland. A former staff member at Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts and a graduate of the Harvard Divinity School, Margo has also completed her training to be a Community Dharma Leader through Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Woodacre, California. Her teachers include Joseph Goldstein, Carol Wilson, Thanissara, and Eugene Cash.  For more information about Margo, please visit her website at  www.margostoryteller.net

Adrianne Ross  Apr 27, 2024
Adrianne Ross (she/her), a retired family physician, has been involved in meditation and healing since 1976. She began practicing insight meditation with Theravada teachers in 1984 and began teaching in 1995. She co-founded BCIMS with the late Joanne Broatch over 20 years ago and was also the guiding teacher for Saskatoon insight for many years.
She is influenced by both Thai and Burmese streams of the Theravadan tradition, as well as Tibetan (Mahamudra and Dzogchen) practice. She teaches classes, weekend and residential retreats in Canada and the US.
She has been involved in teaching and mentoring students in the Dedicated Practitioner and Advanced Practitioner (now LEAP) Programs through Spirit Rock Meditation Center in California.
She is happy to see how the dharma has flourished in BC and in particular that there are a growing number participants from a wider diversity of backgrounds. She is committed to supporting the increase of safety and availability for people of various identities and capacities, both as students and becoming teachers sharing the dharma.

Kristina Baré  May 25, 2024
Kristina Baré is an insight meditation teacher, therapist, and Somatic Experiencing practitioner. She has trained primarily in the
Burmese lineages of Ven. Mahasi Sayadaw and Ven. Pa Auk Sayadaw.
She enjoys supporting students in deepening samadhi and insight.
Opening the door to an expansion of the heart and to liberating
wisdom. In support of the Buddha’s teachings, Kristina also draws
on knowledge from Western psychology and Somatic
Experiencing. She invites a kind, patient, and embodied approach
as a base for samadhi and insight meditation practices.
Kristina’s talks at the Sunday Night Sit will focus on the 10 Paramis. They will be based on
Ajahn Sucitto’s online book, Parami – Ways to Cross Life’s Floods.

Ajaan Geoff  Aug 17 and 18, 2024
Thanissaro Bhikkhu (Geoffrey DeGraff) is an American Buddhist monk of the Kammatthana (Thai Forest) Tradition. After graduating from Oberlin College in 1971 with a degree in European Intellectual History, he traveled to Thailand, where he studied meditation under Ajaan Fuang Jotiko, himself a student of the late Ajaan Lee. He ordained in 1976 and lived at Wat Dhammasathit, where he remained following his teacher’s death in 1986. In 1991 he traveled to the hills of San Diego County, USA, where he helped Ajaan Suwat Suvaco establish Metta Forest Monastery. He was made abbot of the Monastery in 1993.

Kate Davies  Sep 14 and 15, 2024
I am naturally curious and have lived my life as an explorer, an inquirer and a pilgrim.  In my early twenties, I was fascinated by life, especially the natural environment. This led me to study biochemistry, culminating in a doctorate (1981) from Oxford University in the UK.
Along with my professional life I now I lead a weekly online meditation group. There is more information about this group on the Online Community page.
In addition, I have led the Whidbey Island Insight Meditation Group since 2018. There is more information about this group on the In Person Community page.
I am a regular guest teacher at the Bellingham Insight Meditation Society? and have taught at other Sanghas including the Eastside Insight Meditation Group, Mount Om Sangha in Leavenworth, WA, and the GBLTQI Sangha in Olympia, WA. In the fall of 2023, I co-taught a six-night residential retreat at the Cloud Mountain Retreat Center, WA with Ayya Santacitta. I have also taught mindfulness meditation to veterans, faith-based groups, at universities & colleges, government agencies, and in community settings.
I am a Mentor in two mindfulness meditation programs taught by Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach.

Howard Cohn  Oct 19 and 20, 2024

Howard Cohn

Howard Cohn has practiced meditation since 1972 and had led vipassana retreats since 1985. He leads a weekly ongoing class in San Francisco. Howard has studied with many Asian and western teachers of several traditions, including Theravada, Zen, Dzogchen and Advaita Vedanta and has been strongly influenced by contact with the Indian master H. W. L. Poonja. He has done postgraduate work in East/West Psychology and has a private counseling practice.

Brock Brown  Nov 23, 2024
Brock Brown is a founding member and Chair of the Victoria Insight Meditation Society where he teaches and leads meditation retreats. He has been dedicated to the study and practice of the Buddha’s teachings in the Theravada tradition for the past 30+ years, and is inspired by the Thai Forest tradition. He is a graduate of the Spirit Rock Dedicated Practitioners Program and the Community Dharma Leader Program and completed the Birken Forest Monastery Upasika program. Brock enjoys studying the suttas and making them relevant to our everyday lives.