Sunday Night Sits
Victoria IMS weekly Sunday Night Sits are an opportunity to practice meditation and listen to dharma talks with our community sangha.
The sits are led by dharma teachers and dedicated peer leaders (see below).
There’s no registration simply show up if you can. Everyone is welcome.
The evenings will begin with a 40 minute meditation followed by a dharma talk and or a discussion. Chairs are provided and participants are welcome to bring their own cushions or stools if they prefer. There are also yoga bolsters, blocks and blankets available at the stuSdio.
Dana donations are accepted to support the teachers and to cover organizational expenses such as the rent.
Time: 7-8:30
Place: Helga Beer Yoga Studio
Address: 202-1600 Bay Street
For inquiries or to volunteer please contact us here.
Schedule of Sunday Sit Facilitators for 2023
October
29 June Fukushima – An investigation of the Metta Sutta/Discourse on Goodwill. Chanting and small group sharing.
November
5 Mary-Ann Enthoven
12 Kristina Baré
19 Brock Brown
26 Metta VanderVliet
December
3 Mary-Ann Enthoven
10 Kristina Baré
17 Margo McLoughlin
24 cancelled
31 cancelled
Sunday Sit Leaders
Kristina Baré
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.
Brock Brown
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 27
years, and is inspired by the Thai Forest tradition.
Brock 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.
Mary-Ann Enthoven
As the founder and teacher of YOGADA studio in Montreal in 2010, Mary-Ann provided classes for individuals to enhance their lives with mindful movement and meditation’s many benefits. Her interest and study in Buddhist tradition got peaked by a long Vipassana retreat in 2012. Mary-Ann has been studying with Pema Chödrön and is a graduate of the “Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Program,” led by Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach. In addition to their guidance, Mary-Ann’s practice has also been deeply influenced by teachers such as, Thich Nhat Hanh, Eckhart Tolle, Brother David Steindl-Rast, and Oren Jay Sofer. Her mindfulness routine is deeply rooted in gratitude practice and relation to nature as a doorway to ease the mind and find peace. Mary-Ann leads workshops on mindfulness and has on-going drop-in Meditation sits.
Margo McLoughlin
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.
Tempel Smith
Tempel Smith teaches Mindfulness, Insight and Metta
meditation with an emphasis on Buddhist psychology and mind-
body awareness. In 1997, he spent a year as a monk in Burma
with Sayadaw U Pandita and Pa Auk Sayadaw.
Since 2001 Tempel has been teaching meditation and Buddhist
psychology to a wide variety of people including prisoners,
activists, youth, service providers, and those with severe and
chronic illnesses. Tempel serves on the Spirit Rock Teachers
Council, organizes the Dedicated Practitioners Program (DPP)
and Living Dharma retreats for Spirit Rock, and teaches classes
in the East Bay.
June Fukushima
June Fukushima (she/her) was born into a Buddhist family and has been a student of the dharma for 35 years. Her teachers are from the Thai Forest monastic tradition. June was the Personnel Director for IMS (Barre, MA) and has volunteered for the Victoria IMS for the past 15 years. June is involved with the development of Aranya Refuge, a Thai Forest monastery on Vancouver Island. June was born in BC and is third-generation Japanese Canadian.
Metta VanderVliet
Metta VanderVliet (who uses they/them pronouns to acknowledge their genderqueer identity) began their regular daily practice of meditation in 2003, sitting yearly retreats in the Theravada Buddhist Tradition. Moving to Victoria in 2011 they gratefully began participating in VIMS Sunday night sits and weekend retreats. Metta has occasionally led Sunday sits and has supported weekend retreats as sound person and Zoom coordinator. In their work role as a somatic oriented trauma therapist Metta leads a weekly lunchtime mindfulness group for survivors of gender-based violence. Metta is part of the sub-committee responsible for organizing the post-pandemic relaunch of the Sunday night sits.