Meditation Mentoring Program (MMP)
Chris is currently working individually with students through his Meditation Mentoring Program, which now includes a monthly group meditation practice period and discussion.
This group is intentionally kept small, and requires an application. Currently there are a few spaces available.
Being Free: Winter Residential Retreat
March 20–24, 2025 (4 nights)
For Registration and Info click here
The Centers for Mindfulness & Insight Meditation in Wenham, Massachusetts, and Redding, Connecticut, will team up to hold a five-day (four-night) insight meditation retreat at the Wisdom House retreat center, which is situated on 54 acres of meadows, woods, and brooks in the beautiful northwest hills of Connecticut.
Retreat offers the opportunity to reduce distractions that hinder the mind, in turn allowing the mind to relax, becoming both attentive and aware. As practitioners have done for thousands of years, while on retreat we reside within the supportive structure of sangha (community) and take as a primary refuge the Dhamma, both its teachings and meditation practices.
Being Free: Winter Residential Retreat will include instructions in the five recollections* as a foundation for insight meditation (vipassana). Dhamma talks and teacher reflections will explore stories of early practitioners from Buddhist literature who found freedom by retreating to quiet places and turning their focus inwards. From their stories and insights we will see both evidence of profound freedom alongside practical suggestions for our own practice.
This retreat is held in noble silence and all participants are expected to remain silent throughout the retreat, with exceptions made for twice daily question and answer periods. Retreat also includes a commitment to the Five Precepts of non-harm.
* The five recollections, sometimes referred to as the “daily reflections”, help orient the mind towards samvega, an expression of aspiration that seeks freedom.
Meditation class and dharma discussion. Beginners and experienced meditators welcome.
March 26, Wednesday. 7:00-8:30 pm
Info and registration (space limited)
Drop-in Meditation Class, Dharma Talk and Discussion
Cambridge Insight Meditation Center (CIMC)
Cambridge Insight Meditation Center (CIMC)
Becoming Skillful in Practice & Daily Life
Two-days: April 5–6
Cambridge Insight Meditation Center (CIMC)
For registration and info click here
Program Description
An underlaying premise of the Dharma is that we can become highly skillful, both in terms of our meditation practice and how we live our life. With an open mind this premise confronts us and challenges us, pointing us towards our highest potential as human beings–we can learn how to turn away from actions in body, speech, and mind which increase distress, confusion, and self–doubt, and we can learn to become more adept at wise actions that lead to confidence, freedom, and overall wellbeing.
In this retreat participants will be supported by teacher guidance, a community of peers, and continuity of practice over two days. Meditation instructions, dharma reflections, and discussion periods will explore how insight arises through vipassana meditation and culminates in the various activities that comprise our daily lives. Students will be supported in understanding universal aspects of the dharma that are “subtle and hard to see” and encouraged to contemplate how the dharma informs their own personal life circumstances.
Retreat will be held in silence with periods of mindful communication.
Meditation class and dharma discussion. Beginners and experienced meditators welcome.
April 16, Wednesday. 7:00-8:30 pm
Info and registration (space limited)
Meditation class and dharma discussion. Beginners and experienced meditators welcome.
April 19, Saturday. 9:30-11:00 pm
Info and registration (space limited)
Meditation class and dharma discussion. Beginners and experienced meditators welcome.
April 26, Saturday. 9:30-11:00 pm
Info and registration (space limited)
Meditation class and dharma discussion. Beginners and experienced meditators welcome.
May 17, Saturday. 9:30-11:00 pm
Info and registration (space limited)
Calm and Clearly Seeing: The Mutually Supportive Practices of Concentration and Insight
A Pariyatti Program
June 7
9:00 am – 4:30 pm
Info & Registration at WIMC
Pariyatti (Pali) means to study or learn. Pariyatti Programs offer unique opportunities to systematically integrate Buddhist teachings into the path of meditative development, directly supporting the maturation of wisdom. Cumulatively, these thematic programs help build a practical framework of Buddhist teachings, serving as a foundation for one’s meditation practice. Offered a few times annually, all students are encouraged to attend.
Program Description
Concentration meditation secludes the mind from habits of distraction, establishing the conditions for calm and stability. Insight (vipassana) meditation investigates the true nature of experience, leading to wisdom. These two forms of meditation differ in their technique and result, yet together they form a mutually supportive and integrated system of meditation practice. Meditators in the insight tradition rely on both techniques to develop skill in practice, and therefore it is highly advantageous to understand the difference between these two techniques.
In this day-long Pariyatti Program sessions will alternate between meditation practice and teaching periods exploring the differences between concentration and insight. Through simple lessons and instructions students will learn the basis for concentration and insight, and with repeatable methods, gain a better understanding of how to practice both styles of meditation independently, and as an integrated practice.
No prior experience necessary; everyone is welcome–beginners and experienced meditators encouraged to attend.
Coffee, tea, and light snacks will be provided. Please bring your own lunch. Full use of WIMC kitchen will be available.
Meditating with Ease: The Reality of Non-attachment
Half-day Retreat
August 2
9:00 am – 12:30 pm
Info & Registration at WIMC
Program Description
One of the core teachings of the Dharma is that our happiness and wellbeing rely less on our experiences than how we respond to them. The implications of this are significant and suggest that through insight (vipassana) meditation we learn how to relate to the mind and body in a manner conducive to a relaxed mind; we can remain at ease despite circumstances. This realistic goal is both practical and attainable with the correct view and skills. In this half-day insight meditation retreat we will look closely at the ways the mind is habituated towards grasping and clinging, while practicing meditation techniques to disrupt this pattern in favor of non-attachment.
Everyone is welcome–beginners and experienced meditators encouraged to attend.
Coffee, tea, and light snacks will be provided. Please bring your own lunch. Full use of WIMC kitchen will be available.
Despite Stress: How the Mind Becomes Free
Full-day Retreat
Oct 4, 2025
9:00 am – 4:30 pm
Info and Registration at WIMC
Program Description
Stress is an inevitable part of human experience, though its cause can be understood directly for oneself, and therefore mitigated, and sometimes alleviated all-together. In Pali dukkha means stress, referring to a wide range of experience such as dissatisfaction, uneasiness, disquietude, worry, and many other states of mind which are generally not preferred. The Pali term nirodha means cessation, the absence of dukkha. Mindfulness, the core mediation technique taught by the Buddha, leads to liberating insight, a type of knowing that liberates the mind from stress. During this retreat we will explore the importance of not turning away from that which is difficult in our mind, body, or daily life, strengthening our capacity to integrate all experience, even the most difficult, into the path of freedom.
Everyone is welcome and encouraged to attend, beginners and experienced meditators alike.
Coffee, tea, and light snacks will be provided. Please bring your own lunch (full use of WIMC kitchen will be available).
Gateways to Freedom: Exploring the many Paths to Awakening
A Pariyatti Program
Full-day Program
Dec 6, 2025
9:00 am – 4:30 pm
Info & Registration at WIMC
Pariyatti (Pali) means to study or learn. Pariyatti Programs offer unique opportunities to systematically integrate Buddhist teachings into the path of meditative development, directly supporting the maturation of wisdom. Cumulatively, these thematic programs help build a practical framework of Buddhist teachings, serving as a foundation for one’s meditation practice. Offered a few times annually, all students are encouraged to attend.
Program Description
Where there is a gate there are two sides, the place we are currently, and the place we are entering, or going. Dharma Gate, a concept common to Mahayana Buddhism, and suggestive of the many ways to wake up to the truth and understand the Dharma, reflects more broadly a characteristic promise of all Buddhist lineages, that freedom is possible here and now in this very life.
In this workshop, periods of silent meditation will be integrated with teaching sessions exploring ways to understand – and apply – the notion of “dharma gate” in one’s meditation practice and daily life, greatly expanding the range of practice made available to us on the Dharma path in the insight tradition. “Dharma gates” are everywhere and as we come to recognize this we open ourselves to a deeper understanding of oneself and the true nature of all things. Seen in this way everything become practice–our mind and body, our relationships, our work, our health, our communities–and thus the ways to become free are numberless.
No prior experience necessary; everyone is welcome–beginners and experienced meditators encouraged to attend.
Coffee, tea, and light snacks will be provided. Please bring your own lunch. Full use of WIMC kitchen will be available.
2026
Chris will be on personal retreat and not teaching during this time
Seeing and Knowing: The Practice & Study of Insight Meditation
Residential Retreat
Barre Center for Buddhist Studies
Feb 17-22
Program description
The path of practice laid out by the Buddha known as insight, or vipassana, meditation offers an approach to cultivating the mind which leads to “clear seeing.” To “see” is to know for oneself through direct experience the truth of how suffering is created and alleviated, revealing ever deepening levels of awareness and greater freedom overall. Ultimately, what we come to know through the practice of insight is rooted in an understanding of the true nature of the self, yet it pertains to our whole life (aspirations, relationships, health, existential longings, societal engagement).
In this program we will integrate periods of insight meditation with classroom sessions focused on core Buddhist teachings pertaining to the development of insight. We will explore the role Buddhist teachings play in the investigation of experience, as well as how experience serves as the testing ground of the teachings. Emphasis will be placed on blending the study of traditional teachings with personal discernment to craft an approach to dharma practice that is both personally relevant and consistent with the Buddhist ideal of liberating insight.
Information coming soon
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