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 studio.
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.

Sunday Night Sits Schedule

Jan 19 – Joyce Elliot (Cultivating joy)
Jan 26 – Mary-Ann Enthoven
Feb 02 – George Nyi
Feb 09 – Sandra Joy
Feb 16 – Metta VanderVliet
Feb 23 – Margo McLoughlin (Storytelling from Jataka tales)

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.

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 and organizes the Dedicated Practitioners Program (DPP) and Living Dharma retreats for Spirit Rock.

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.

Sandra Joy

Sandra is a dedicated student and meditation practitioner in the Theravada Buddhist tradition. She sat her first Vipassana retreat in 1982 with S.N.Goenka at a “gypsy” camp on the banks of the St. Lawrence River in Quebec. Sandra continued on this path for many years, gradually transitioning, from 1994 onward, to experience other teachers of Insight Meditation practice as well as those in the Thai Forest tradition. Among the teachers she has sat with are S.N.Goenka, Sayadaw U Pandita, Sayadaw U Tejaniya, Ajahn Sona, Thanissaro Bhikkhu, Steve Armstrong and Kamala Masters.
From the outset of her meeting with the Dharma, Sandra has had a focus on integrating the teachings into her daily life in the world, observing the benefits that accrue from practice – the development of stillness of the body and a quiet mind, the clarity of vision that arises, and the warmth of a loving heart. Sandra has been an active member of the Victoria Insight Meditation Society since 2012, supporting its activities in the management of retreats, administrative and communication functions, and facilitation of the Sunday night sittings.

Joyce Elliott

Joyce is a long term meditator who has sat many retreats at Spirit Rock Meditation Center in California and with Michelle McDonald, a vipassana teacher from Hawaii. Recently Joyce completed a 2 year Dedicated Practitioner's Program at Spirit Rock.
She is a retired social worker and had a career working in hospitals and in employee assistance programs.  Joyce has been involved with VIMS for the past 15 years in different volunteer capacities.  Her enthusiasm for the dharma just keeps getting stronger and applying it to her everyday life is what excites her the most.

George Nyi

George is originally from Burma. His journey in Theravada Buddhism and meditation has been shaped by his curiosity and life experiences. Rooted in the tradition, he learned Theravada Buddhist practices in his younger life and discovered that meditation brought him peace and calm. Even though he did not fully understand the techniques or have a specific goal, he practiced regularly. Later, his work took him overseas, where he experienced different cultures and ways of thinking. Living abroad, often away from family, gave him new perspectives on how Buddhist principles could apply in everyday life across cultures. He also felt a stronger need for practices that could help him feel centered. This inspired him to approach meditation more systematically, especially after spending some time in a monastic environment. In the last ten years, George has focused on the Mogoke Tradition of Theravada meditation and the scientific perspectives on meditation including psychological and neurological insights from the West. His practice now combines traditional Buddhist methods with modern knowledge from the West. This mix helps George understand meditation from both spiritual and scientific views, making his practice a journey of lifelong learning.