Name: Insight Meditation Society – Retreat Center
Item: Insight Meditation Society – Retreat Center
Rating: 1
Author: Maria C. Whittaker

IMS’s Retreat Center

Insight Meditation Society – Retreat Center first opened its doors in 1976. It offers a yearly schedule of meditation courses, lasting from a weekend to three months. Most retreats are designed for both new and experienced meditators.

Recognized insight meditation teachers from all over the world offer daily instruction and guidance in Buddhist meditations known as vipassana (insight) and metta (lovingkindness). While the context is the Buddha’s teachings, these practices are universal and help us to deepen awareness and compassion.

The Retreat Center meditation hall

At regular intervals throughout a retreat, group or individual interviews with the teachers take place. A typical daily retreat schedule starts at 5:30 am and ends at 10 pm. The day is spent in silent practice with alternate periods of sitting and walking meditation, as well as a one-hour work-as-practice period.

Meals are nutritious and vegetarian. Accommodations at the Retreat Center are simple single rooms. Men and women do not share accommodations, and camping is not available.
Evening Talks

When a Retreat Center course is in progress, anyone who is not already participating in the retreat is welcome to attend the evening talks about the teachings, known as dharma talks. Those with insight meditation experience are also welcome to attend group sittings.

But if you haven’t been to IMS before, please speak first with the Retreat Center office for an orientation prior to attending a talk or sitting period. Call 978-355-4378 or email.

Teacher talks given at the Retreat Center are available for downloading, streaming or podcasting.

Insight meditation (vipassana in Pali, the language of the original Buddhist teachings) is the simple and direct practice of moment-to-moment mindfulness. Through careful and sustained observation, we experience for ourselves the ever-changing flow of the mind/body process. This awareness leads us to accept more fully the pleasure and pain, fear and joy, sadness and happiness that life inevitably brings. As insight deepens, we develop greater equanimity and peace in the face of change, and wisdom and compassion increasingly become the guiding principles of our lives.

The Buddha first taught insight meditation over 2,500 years ago. The various methods of this practice have been well preserved in the Theravada tradition of Buddhism, and the retreats at IMS are all rooted in this ancient and well-mapped path to awakening.

Here is a typical daily Retreat Center schedule. Please note that it is only tentative – a more precise schedule will be available on your arrival.

5:30 am – Wake up
6:00 am – Sitting meditation

.... 6:30 am – Breakfast .....

7:15 am – Work-as-practice period
8:15 am – Sitting meditation with instructions
9:15 am – Walking meditation
10:00 am – Sitting meditation
10:45 am – Walking meditation or meetings with teachers
11:30 am – Sitting meditation

..... 12:00 noon – Lunch .....

1:45 pm – Walking meditation
2:15 pm – Sitting meditation
3:00 pm – Walking meditation
3:45 pm – Sitting meditation
4:30 pm – Walking meditation

..... 5:00 pm – Light Dinner .....

6:15 pm – Sitting meditation
7:00 pm – Walking meditation
7:30 pm – Dharma talk
8:30 pm – Walking meditation
9:00 pm – Sitting meditation
9:30 pm – Late tea, further practice or sleep

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Maria C. Whittaker

Overall Experience

I am an experienced African American practitioner who successfully completed the IMS 3 month silent retreat in 2017 writing to you about concerns about my treatment at IMS. It was my first IMS retreat and my fourth long silent retreat.

During the first half of this 3 month retreat, my teachers made the following statements to me:

1.”I don’t care about them;”(referring to the support group of students of color who met regularly during the retreat.) “I assume you are meeting with them.”
2. “You don’t like it here do you.” Repeated twice during my “teaching” sessions.

During the first half of this 3 month retreat my teachers and a retreat staff member also made many jingoistic and demeaning remarks to me about the fact that I had sought psychotherapy in 2014 which I shared on my application..

Finally, toward the end of that first half of the full three month retreat, my teachers informed me they had decided to send me home at the end of the first half of the full 3 month retreat despite that IMS had already approved me for the full three months because they (my two teachers for the first half of the full 3 month retreat) were concerned I might have problems during the second half of the retreat due to my history of having sought psychotherapy. They confirmed to me that I had had no problems during the first half, but they were concerned about the second half.

They never asked me to see the staff psychiatrist at IMS.

At this time I happened to see a notice of an Ethics Committee at IMS and I wrote to them about my ethical concerns about my teacher’s decision. The Ethics Committee reversed the teacher’s decision and I continued on with my practice. Despite that my teachers never had claimed I had had any problem, the Ethics Committee made my continuation contingent upon my successfully completing the first two weeks of the second half of the long retreat. Again, they did not require me to see the staff psychiatrist at IMS.

At this time, I was so shocked by my teacher’s statements to me I also wrote to the Board and Diversity Director on the Board to raise the question to them as to whether my treatment could have been racially motivated. As an experienced EEO attorney I shared with both Board members that IMS would need to look at how IMS teachers treated other long term retreat-ants who were Caucasian who also shared they had sought psychotherapy in the past to see whether I was treated differently than were they. I did not receive a response from the Board Members.

One of my teachers during the second half of the retreat made the following statement to me repeatedly for the first two weeks of the second half of the retreat: “Lets not talk about the fact that you may have to leave in two weeks.”

I completed the entire retreat without any problems just like I had the first part of the retreat.

Shortly thereafter, I applied to participate in the 2018 3 month silent retreat. Subsequently I began receiving phone calls from the same IMS teacher who had said: “ “Lets not talk about the fact that you may have to leave in two weeks.” This teacher then began to make similar undermining and attack statements on my mind in a number of phone calls to me expressing concerns about my letters to the Board Members. I just listened and sent him my true presence, smile and and love. After several weeks of this, I decided to drop my request to participate in the 2018 retreat. I figured this poor being must have been terrified to behave as he did , and I acted out of mercy.

However, I applied to IMS earlier this year to participate in the second half of this 3 month silent retreat for this year (2019) as I continued to see the benefits of the 2017 retreat continue to roll in. I asked only to participate in the second half of this 3 month retreat as the teacher who made the phone calls to me required. . Shortly after my application I received an email from the IMS ED rejecting my application saying:

“Dear Maria,

I am writing to let you know that unfortunately IMS is not able to accept your application for a retreat this fall. We have credited your card with a full refund of $375 today.

After the many difficulties you experienced during the 3-month retreat in 2017, your many written communications while on retreat, and the teacher/staff resources necessary to support you during your retreat, we have come to the conclusion that the IMS silent, intensive retreat environment, whether in the 3-month or a shorter retreat, is not suitable for you at this time.

If you wish to continue with your insight meditation practice, it might be helpful for you to find a qualified teacher in a community near you and follow their guidance in classes and daily practice situations. They would then be in a position to advise you on best steps to continue to deepen your practice.

I am sorry for the disappointment, but hope that I am communicating with you early enough that you can find another fall retreat that supports your ongoing practice.

Warmly,
Inger”

I called and wrote to the ED many times and received no response over a period of months.

The esteemed ED’s remarks are first inaccurate as I experienced no difficulties at all during the 2017 IMS silent retreat, and her decision overruling my teachers’ decision to send me home verifies this. As well, my teacher from that second part did infact invite me to participate in the second part of the IMS Silent Retreat in 2018 which I decided not to do as described above. Third, in my recent request to IMS, I asked only to participate in the second half of the IMS silent retreat as instructed by “my teacher.”

Now that I know the esteemed ED is unhappy with my sharing my concerns about possible unethical and unlawful racial discrimination with IMS Board Members, I am happy to refrain from so doing in the future, however, to prevent me from now practicing at IMS because I raised concerns about possible unlawful racism at IMS is unethical and possible unlawful in itself because these concerns themselves are unethical and unlawfull.

I am so sorry for our misunderstandings. Life is so very difficult says the Buddha. I know IMS would like to probably make me disappear but that is simply not going to happen. I am a person like the Buddha who cares deeply about the truth and ethics. I also am deeply concerned about the many young and inexperienced African American practitioners who come to IMS looking for help and don’t find it and maybe even find racial and other forms of delusion if my experience is exemplary.

I also learned from another retreat ant that four African American practitioners went home during the first part of the 3 month 2017 Silent Retreat. I wonder I anyone at IMS has spoken with them to learn why and if their teachers made “discouraging” attacks on their mind state as did mine!

From the three months I spent at IMS, I listened closely and heard teachers and others who felt deeply guilt for the way “their” people, people of European descent treated particularly African Americans but Native Americans as well. These teachers also had no understanding of the suffering of their own peoples who had done horrible things in the past. Nor did these teachers have an understanding that delusion was also present in African American and Native American communities who did many bad things to each other as well. Humanity is delusional said the Buddha; not just White people, but all people.

Yet, your teachers could not see this. There vision was truly shallow and delusional. I feel for them and the wrong picture of Black and Whit they have painted in their minds and of their own guilt which might make them attack even their own African American students! What a tragedy.

All people have my compassion and understanding, and where there is understanding, forgiveness is unnecessary. We are all simply human, doing our best, which is often delusional, greedy and hateful as the Buddha said.

Please know however, as I shared with Inger in my last communication that If I cannot resolve this issue with IMS, I will share my story publicly and consider a lawsuit against IMS in order to protect those young African Americans who may come here seeking help and receive something else instead.

Buddha blessings.
6 years ago

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What other essential items should I bring?

-- Indoor-only, soft-soled shoes or slippers. This helps contribute to the silence and overall cleanliness of our retreat environment.

-- For a Retreat Center course, sheets, pillowcase and towels. (Please note there is a limited supply for those with travel weight restrictions.) For a Forest Refuge retreat, linens and towels are provided.

-- All necessary special foods and beverages.

-- Plastic containers for special foods.

-- Medicines, vitamins, supplements, etc. If you have an existing medical condition, bring enough of all prescription medicines to last throughout the retreat.

-- Unscented personal hygiene products. We ask that you anticipate your needs and bring unscented soap, body lotion and other hygiene products with you. (We stock a small selection of these items, for those with travel weight restrictions.) IMS provides unscented shampoo and conditioner in all the bathrooms.

-- Please consider washing the items you bring with an unscented laundry detergent and softener before you come. Please do not wear any scented products on the day of your arrival and throughout the retreat.

-- If you are acutely chemically sensitive, please let our office know.

-- If you have ever been to an emergency room because of a medical condition, bring your doctor's telephone number in case the condition comes up while you're on retreat.

Are there ethical guidelines for retreat life?

The Five (or Eight) Precepts

A core aspect of the Buddha’s teaching is the importance of living by certain ethical guidelines. At IMS, these guidelines – known as the Five Precepts – form an integral part of daily life, and are adopted by everyone here, from retreatants and visitors to teachers and staff.

A commitment to undertake training in these precepts helps ensure our retreat environment of safety, refuge and non-harming.

While on retreat, all participants undertake:

-- To refrain from harming any living, sentient beings – not to kill or intentionally hurt any person or creature, even an insect.
-- To refrain from taking what is not freely given – not to steal or 'borrow' without the consent of the giver; to accept what is offered and not try to change it or get more.
-- To abstain from sexual activity.
-- To practice noble silence and to refrain from harming by one's speech – not to lie, gossip or use harsh or hurtful language.
-- To abstain from using alcohol, recreational drugs and other intoxicants that cloud the mind and harm the body. (This does not apply to prescription medicines.)

During most IMS retreats offered by monastic teachers, retreatants are asked to abide by Eight Precepts. The additional three precepts are:

-- To refrain from eating after 12pm.
-- To refrain from dancing, singing, music, shows; from the use of garlands, perfumes, cosmetics and adornments.
-- To refrain from using high and luxurious seats and beds.

Insight Meditation Society – Retreat Center

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