Jhānas and Insight Retreat (Barre Center for Buddhist Studies, Barre, Massachusetts)

Jhānas and Insight is a meditation retreat at the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies in Barre, Massachusetts, for people who want to practice the jhānas, the meditative absorptions of the Buddhist tradition, alongside insight practice. It is led by Leigh Brasington, a Buddhist meditation teacher known for his work on jhāna practice. He teaches by Zoom while a co-teacher guides students in person at the center.

What to Expect

This is a residential, in-person retreat with a hybrid teaching format. Students gather at Barre, and Leigh Brasington appears by video, while an in-person teacher is present in the room with the group. For the retreat currently listed, that teacher is Meagan Chambers.

The subject is the jhānas together with insight. Leigh's wider teaching connects this work to satipatthana (the foundations of mindfulness) and dependent origination, and his retreats are built around practicing concentration deeply and then turning it toward understanding. The retreat runs for more than a week, long enough for a settled, continuous practice rather than a sampler.

About Leigh Brasington

Leigh Brasington has practiced meditation since 1985. He is the senior American student of the late Ven. Ayya Khema, began assisting her in 1994, and started teaching retreats on his own in 1997. His teaching centers on the jhānas, along with insight practice, satipatthana and dependent origination. He teaches in Europe and North America, in person and online, often with co-teachers and with retreat centers and sanghas as sponsors.

He is the author of Right Concentration: A Practical Guide to the Jhānas, which has been translated into German, Hungarian, Dutch and Spanish. His other books include Dependent Origination and Emptiness, The Gradual Training, On The Way To The Far Shore, and a book on the Brahma Viharas (love, compassion, joy and equanimity) covering suttas, stories and practices.

About Meagan Chambers

Meagan Chambers is the in-person teacher at the Barre retreat currently listed, and she has also assisted Leigh Brasington on other retreats he teaches. Students at Barre can expect her to be the teacher physically present with the group.

Before You Go

Registration is handled by the retreat's registrar rather than directly through the teacher, and Leigh asks participants to read his Guidelines for Retreats before attending. It is worth doing this before you commit, since the retreat has some firm expectations.

- You will not be allowed to connect to the internet during the retreat, so arrange work, family contact and any other online obligations beforehand.
- Plan to stay until the stated closing time on the last day. Leaving early is not permitted.

Because the teaching is built around the jhānas and insight practice, this retreat suits people who already meditate and want to go deeper into concentration, or who are curious about how absorption and insight work together in the Theravada tradition. Leigh also recommends Wildmind Buddhist Meditation as a free online resource for learning meditation, and its material applies to the kinds of practice taught on his retreats.