Last updated August 25, 2026.
Upcoming Events
The Perceptions We Make
Sept 9, 2026, 7-8:30pm
Hybrid Offering, on Zoom or in-person at IWM (Eastworks, Suite 242, 116 Pleasant St, Easthampton, MA 01027)
Perception (saññā) shapes how we see the world. Our eyes take in a person walking down the road, the mind recognizes the person as “friend,” and we smile. Happy! The body feels a pain in the knee, the mind applies a label — “ugh, this again” — and we feel dejected. Sad! When the mind applies concepts or labels to things, we are in the territory of perception in the Buddhist sense.
The Buddha teaches that perception is a skill we can train. We can learn to apply a perception like “friend” where we might otherwise have just seen “person,” or even “animal.” We can learn to see “impermanent,” “not me,” “not mine” where we might have otherwise seen “ugh, this again.” The world we inhabit, the world our hearts respond to, is not just given. It is a world we are continually helping to build, and the Buddha has much to teach us about how to build it well. Perception is part of how we do that.
This talk will reflect on the Buddha’s teachings on perception (saññā), with particular emphasis on cultivating skillful perceptions as a support for calm and insight.
Meditation and the Craft of the Heart: A Three-Part Series
Sept 17, Sept 24, Oct 1, 2026; 7-8pm
River Valley Co-Op (Virtual Workshop Series)
This fall, I’ll be offering a three-part series sharing reflections and meditation practices involved in what I call “the craft of the heart.”
Most of us tend to do a lot of “clenching up” around our experience. Things happen that we don’t like, and the heart recoils. This reflex has cumulative effects, and when these are not met with appropriate care and attention, the heart gets conditioned into various kinds of affliction: numbing out, feeling tense or stressed, seeking distraction, feeling listless, or just having a vague sense that things aren’t quite right.
Learning to work directly with the heart along these dimensions can be enormously beneficial for modern people who for the most part have been brought up to think too much and feel too little. In essence, this is about developing skills for meeting experience in a way that doesn’t feed suffering but instead inclines the heart towards what is genuinely nourishing. One of the most important skills in this area is known in the Buddhist tradition as yoniso manasikara — often translated as “wise attention.” Wise attention has to do with the mind’s capacity to latch onto an idea or perception and let it resonate in the heart. This is a learnable skill, something we can practice not only in formal meditation but in everyday life, and it helps us become more careful and caring stewards of our experience. Then we don’t have to be dominated by the restless mind or trapped in our emotional afflictions.
Alongside wise attention, we can also learn to cultivate the heart qualities known in Buddhism as the brahmaviharas, or “divine abodes.” These are beautiful affective states that are innate to the human heart, and they can help us feel more grounded, connected, caring, spacious, and joyful. There are four of them: metta (loving-kindness or friendliness, that which wishes for the good of another); karuna (compassion, the tenderness that fully meets another’s suffering and wishes to relieve it), mudita (altruistic joy, that which smiles and brightens at another’s good fortune), and upekkha (equanimity, a profound strength and evenness of mind that gives it ballast). These, too, are trainable skills, things we can practice in meditation and in everyday life.
In brief: the heart needs tending, and we need skills to do this well. We can develop these skills by practicing wise attention and the four beautiful heart-qualities. That’s what I’ll be sharing in this workshop.
Satipatthana Sutta (Course)
Thursdays, Oct 22-Nov 19, Time TBD
Eastworks, Suite 242, 116 Pleasant St, Easthampton, MA 01027
This fall I’ll be co-teaching a course with Michael Grady on the Satipatthana Sutta, the core discourse describing the Buddha’s instructions on meditation. This sutta has been at the core of Buddhist theory and practice for thousands of years, and it’s been an important part of our own practice journeys as well. We’re very excited to join forces share our perspectives on this beautiful text with interested students. More details to come soon!
Coming soon…
Working with the Inner Tyrant
Workshop offered online through Aurora, a digital space for guided personal development, emotional intelligence, and reflective practices. Date and further details to come soon.
Daylong Beginners Insight Retreat
Saturday December 5, 2026, in-person at IWM (Eastworks Building). Exact timing TBD, probably something like 11am-4pm. Further details coming soon.
Forest Dharma: Timeless Wisdom from the Thai Forest Tradition
POSTPONED — Date TBD. Some time in the fall.
Eastworks, Suite 242, 116 Pleasant St, Easthampton, MA 01027
An evening of meditation and dharma reflections inspired by the Thai Forest tradition of Theravada Buddhism. I’ll share a bit about the history of that tradition, where it came from, what makes it distinctive in the landscape of modern Buddhism, and why its practical, down-to-earth ethos is especially well suited for minds that have been shaped by modern Western conditions. I will also share some accessible practices that have been an important part of my own dharma path.
Ongoing Offerings
35 and Under Group
2nd and 4th Sundays, 5-6:30pm
Insight WMA: Eastworks, Suite 242, 116 Pleasant St, Easthampton, MA 01027
I facilitate a meditation and dharma group for young adults aged 35 and under. Drop-in — no experience or registration required.
We have a mailing list that I manage through this google group. If you go there, it should give you the option to “contact group administrator,” and I can add you to the list.
Tuesday Sangha
Every Tuesday, 5:30-6:45pm (continuing through the fall)
Insight WMA: Eastworks, Suite 242, 116 Pleasant St, Easthampton, MA 01027
This is a weekly drop-in meditation and dharma practice group. Open to all; in-person only.
Our theme for September is “Supports for Insight.” The Buddha teaches that wisdom grows from a heart that learns how to orient around its own goodness. When the heart experiences a healthy dose of confidence, integrity, and trust in itself, it experiences wellbeing; and when it experiences wellbeing, it brightens and settles. This is one of the ways the Buddha describes the development of samādhi, the concentration or unification of the mind which then leads on to insight and the development of wisdom.
This month, we’ll explore the Buddha’s teachings on what helps the heart orient around its own goodness, how to nurture that and how to harvest the fruits in meditation and in daily life.
All are welcome— while the sessions will form a certain continuity that can be helpful over time, every individual session is accessible to anyone regardless of background.
