Overview and History
Spirit Rock Insight Meditation Center is an insight meditation center located in Woodacre, California founded by a group of insight meditation practitioners, who include Jack Kornfield, Sylvia Boorstein, Anna Douglas, Howard Cohn and James Baraz. Although they incorporate a comprehensive program at Spirit Rock, they focus heavily on the practice of insight meditation, or vipassana, from the Theravada tradition.
Prior to founding the Spirit Rock Meditation Center, Kornfield, alongside other Western meditation teachers that had trained in Asia, established the Insight Meditation Society (IMS) located in Barre, Massachusetts. The IMS was characterized by collective teachings, multiple lineages, and retreats. Collective teachings would prevent the potential misconduct and abuse of power from the primary teacher and the multiple lineages would allow students to be exposed to a wide variety of different dharma teachings and perspectives, which Kornfield was especially keen on.
In his article titled “This Fantastic, Unfolding Experiment,” published in Buddhadharma, Jack Kornfield discusses the IMS, the history and establishment of Spirit Rock, as well as the issues that have arisen during the process of bringing Buddhism to the Western world. In the introduction of his work, Kornfield mentions how in contemporary Buddhist practices, there is a “contradictory variety of approaches to dharma practice and liberation […] and the various traditions have been exchanging teaching for millennia” (Kornfield 32).
This fact has been what influenced not only how he taught the dharma at the IMS, but also the major foundation of Spirit Rock Meditation Center. After working with a number of different Buddhist teachers who were also of different lineages, Kornfield and other teachers at the IMS had realized that the most conservative of voices, the most radical of voices, and every voice in between was absolutely crucial, and each way of teaching complemented another, which would then carry over to how they conducted teachings at Spirit Rock Meditation Center.
However, one issue that they had come across in the IMS was the fact that after the retreats, many of the students had a difficult time integrating the dharma and what they had learn on the retreats into their everyday lives (Kornfield 36). Hence, they realized that they needed more than retreats and meditation in order to fully encompass the Buddhist experience. Then, in 1987, established Spirit Rock Insight Meditation Center to satisfy exactly that need. Kornfield describes Spirit Rock as “a mandala that includes the practice of intensive retreats and the ongoing embodiment and integration of dharma in all of the dimensions of one’s life” (37). In the center of the mandala is the Dharma of Liberation, and around it are “other key elements of the mandala” (Kornfield 38) which include retreats, studies, hermitages, and right relationships (Kornfield 37). These will be discussed in further detail in the following sections.
Spirit Rock states that the center’s mission is to lead others to “a depth of realization of Buddha’s path of liberation through direct experience” (Spirit Rock) and inspire them to incorporate what they learn through Buddha’s teachings into their own life “for the benefit of all beings” (Spirit Rock). It is clear in its statement of values that Spirit Rock condemns any form of hatred, violence, and oppression, and seeks to be a refuge for anyone that needs one. As stated previously, Spirit Rock also makes it a point to offer different perspectives of dharma teachings and complement their own values with the teachings derived from different lineages. Thus, they conduct teaching sessions with teachers outside of their own lineage. When doing so, they are accompanied by at least one of the teachers at Spirit Rock in order to connect their teachings to the meditation center’s practices (Kornfield 39). For instance, when Tsoknyi Rinpoche visited to teach on Dzogchen, he worked with the teachers of Spirit Rock as well.
Teachers
Spirit Rock Teachers Council is made up of 27 teachers. They, along with visiting teachers from other insight meditation centers, lead Spirit Rock’s classes and retreats. The website contains a section dedicated to the Teachers Council, which provide links to brief blurbs about their experiences, expertise, and the type of programs they lead at Spirit Rock. While reading over each of the profile pages, it can be determined that a majority of the teachers have practiced insight meditation for more than two decades and trained in monasteries outside of the Western community.
Furthermore, they have partaken in a training program that can last anywhere between four to six years, which “incorporates systematic study of Buddhist texts, extensive training in meditation practices and techniques, study of [their] Buddhist lineage and history, and teacher role studies” (Spirit Rock). They also emphasize that the teachers of Spirit Rock are not only instructors, but also students themselves who continue to study and practice dharma in order to expand their knowledge of Buddha’s teachings.
The meditation center’s website also features a link that presents information about the visiting teachers that lead residential retreats and non-residential programs. Generally, the visiting teachers are “graduates of the Spirit Rock Retreat Teachers Training Program, monastics, or teachers from other complementary traditions” (Spirit Rock). Similar to the Spirit Rock Teachers Council section, there is a comprehensive list of the visiting teachers’ names, consisting of 245 instructors, and links which direct to short profiles. It seems that like the Teachers Council, the visiting teachers have gone through extensive training and have much experience with insight meditation.
In terms of the ethnic composition of the teachers, it is difficult to determine the exact ethnic demographics with the information that has been provided. However, examining the pages can allow one to come to the speculative conclusion that a majority of them are of Caucasian descent. However, there are a few exceptions with instructors from Asia, Spain, Mexico, and more. In addition, it is evident that nearly all the teachers have worked and interacted with other western and Asian Buddhist communities.
An example is Jack Kornfield, one of the founders of Spirit Rock and a teacher who is considered to have played a major role in bringing Buddhist mindfulness to the West. It states on his biography blurb that he trained as a Buddhist monk in Thai, Indian and Burmese monasteries. Another one of the founders and teachers of Spirit Rock, Howard Cohn, has also studied with many Asian and western teachers of different traditions, including Theravada, Zen, Dzogchen and Advaita Vedanta. His profile also addresses that he is strongly influenced by contact with the Indian master H.W.L. Poonja (Spirit Rock).
Programs
The programs available at Spirit Rock are divided into: residential retreats, drop-in programs, non-residential programs, non-residential retreats, dharma and yoga programs, online offerings, and extended study programs. The wide variety in programs allow visitors and practitioners to pick and choose what is most suitable for their schedules. Some programs consist of events that last for a couple hours, while others may go on for several months.
Residential retreats are, as the name suggests, retreats that take place at the meditation center and allows visitors to practice intensive meditation. Depending on the retreat, they can either last two nights or 56 nights, with the two-month retreat. The number of participants range from 30-100+ and during the retreats, they will not speak to one another, immersing in pure silence. In this process, they will focus on nothing but the present experiences, which will lead to a state in which “awareness sharpens, the body quiets, the mind clears, and space opens for insight and understanding to develop” (Spirit Rock). The retreats usually consist of different types of meditation (e.g. sitting, walking, eating, and working), practice meetings, dharma teachings, and rest periods. All of this is intended to leave participants feeling much more mindful and healed once the retreat concludes.
Drop-in programs are considered to be helpful for newcomers, in that they can serve as introductions to teachings, as well as those who have been practicing the dharma for quite some time. Drop-in programs seem to generally be much shorter in comparison to residential retreats, lasting anywhere between 45 minutes to two hours. They also cost, on average, $15-30 to participate in, although they will not turn anyone away for being unable to provide the money for drop-in programs. The weekly drop-in programs include Monday Night Dharma Talk & Meditation group led by Jack Kornfield, Mark Coleman, Nikki Mirghafori, Matthew Brensilver, Will Kabat-Zinn, and other teachers, Community Welcome for those trying out meditation for the first time and interested in experimenting, Wednesday Morning Meditation Group, Thursday Women’s Group, and Thursday Morning Meditation & Yoga. Monthly drop-in programs include a Dharma and Recovery group that meets on the second Friday of every month that focuses on helping each other on varying paths to recovery of some sort, whether it be one from substance abuse or emotional issues.
Non-residential programs include daylongs, drop-ins, classes, and benefit events which are essentially “stepping stones to sitting a residential retreat and as ongoing support for developing a sustainable practice” (Spirit Rock). Hence, they are suitable for everyone, including beginners who are not as familiar with intensive meditation and dharma teachings. Similarly, there are multi-day, non-residential retreats. The purpose, goals, and events that take place are not all that different from the residential retreats. However, unlike those who partake in the residential counterpart, participants of non-residential retreats only spend time during the day at the meditation center, then continue the practice in the evenings/nights at their homes or at other accommodations. Like the daylongs, drop-ins, classes, and benefit events, non-residential retreats are a good introduction meditation practice for new comers. It is also a more suitable option for those whose schedules only allow them to be present at the meditation center during the day, such as parents who must tend to familial matters or those who work. The online offerings also serve a similar purpose for those who cannot be there physically. There are live webcasts of teachings, online classes, and recorded programs.
Victoria Park
Sources
Kornfield, Jack. “This Fantastic, Unfolding Experiment.” Buddhadharma, 2007, pp. 32–39.
Spirit Rock: An Insight Meditation Center, www.spiritrock.org.