Online Programs

All regularly scheduled programs are hosted on Zoom.

Wednesday Morning Practice Session

9:45 – 11:00 am PST  led by Linda Rose

Meditation, Dharma Reflections, and Discussion on Zoom

Insight Dialogue Peer-Led Practice Group

Our peer-led ID practice group will have several new openings beginning in December. You may join this group if you are familiar with the basic ID guidelines and/or have taken Anita Bermont’s class.
If you are interested in participating, please email us at riverwisdominsight@gmail.com.

In-Person Programs

First Saturdays of the Month

The first Saturday of every month we will meet in person for member-led meditations and discussion. These sessions will be at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Eugene at 1685 W 13th Ave.

10:30 am-12:00 pm PST

For the safety for all, we follow UUCE’s COVID guidelines.

Third Saturdays of the Month

On the third Saturday of the month, we meet in person just to meditate together. These sessions, hosted by Sangha members, will be at the Buddha Eye Temple, 2190 Garfield St. Eugene, OR 97405.

10:30-11:30 am PST

Sutta Study Group

Currently, our monthly sutta class has a few openings. If interested please email Charles Goldsmith (bendgold@aol.com)

Upcoming Events

2024

Oct/Nov:  Insight Dialogue Practice based on the Brahma Viharas

offered by Anita Bermont

River Wisdom will be hosting a series of four online sessions of Insight Dialogue led by Anita Bermont.
Dates:  10/28, 11/04, 11/18, 11/25
Times: 6:00 – 7:30 pm PST (Mondays)
Location: Online (Zoom)
Fee: $ 40.- (flat fee for the entire series)

Insight Dialogue Dharma Talk by Gregory Kramer:  Understanding the Power of Relationship and Turning it Towards the Good.

About Insight Dialogue

Insight Dialogue is an interpersonal meditation practice that rests on three bases, each powerful in its own right: meditative awareness, the wisdom teachings of the Buddhadhamma, and relationship. It has the same purposes and traditional roots as silent meditation: developing mindfulness, compassion and liberating insight.

About This Course

Imagine a world where the Brahma Viharas, the Divine Abodes of goodwill/loving kindness, compassion, empathetic joy and equanimity are the foundation in which all words, actions and deeds arise from.  To make these qualities manifest in the world, we begin by examining our own minds and hearts to become more familiar with where these qualities are already well developed as well as where our capacities for their expression can be strengthened.

In this 4-session offering, we will spend time deepening our understanding and integration of each Brahma Vihara. With the additional support of the Insight Dialogue meditation instructions, we will share in contemplative investigation together that includes speaking and listening.

Some previous silent meditation practice is recommended.

No previous Insight Dialogue experience is necessary, although it is recommended that if the practice is new to you, you spend some time on the Insight Dialogue Community website to become familiar with the guidelines of this practice.

About Anita Bermont

Anita Bermont guides Insight Dialogue practice both online and in-person. When first encountering Insight Dialogue in the mid-’90s, the practice spoke immediately and strongly to her heart. With this recognition came a deep commitment to participating in the first face-to-face practice group. As the years have gone by, her commitment to the path inspired a return to school, earning an MA in Buddhist Studies. She participates in many of the Insight Dialogue Community teams and practice cohorts and coordinates the Insight Dialogue Teaching Community Coordinating team. Insight Dialogue gets called her ‘heart song’ practice and it is from this place that the practice is shared. Anita lives in Portland, OR.

2025

June 6 and 7: Retreat with Tuere Sala

Tuere is from the Seattle Insight Meditation Community.  She will be offering a Friday evening and Saturday day-long retreat, location TBA.

Past Special Events

July 26 and 27:  Retreat with Trina Truong

Let Go To Be Free

Trina is the co-guiding teacher at Pacific Northwest Meditation in Portland. She has served on the Teacher’s Council at Portland Insight Meditation Community, and founded a daily meditation group in 2020, “Wake Up Together” (see link below).

Trina combines the teachings of Thay Thich Nhat Hanh with the Insight teachings.  She calls her approach “Thaypassana”.

Daylong Retreat Description

How can we use meditation and mindfulness to shine light on where we are still holding on? Where are we still not yet capable of forgiving ourselves or others? What continues to live out in the mind holds us back from experiencing the depths of freedom that lives in the spaciousness of letting go.
In this daylong retreat, rest back in the body. Stop and see deeply the nature of patterned thinking and beliefs. Find solace in quieting the busy-ness.  Step into freedom with the practice of forgiveness and kind attention. Practice in community to remember that you are not alone on this quest to set yourself free.

About Trina Truong

Trina brings a heartwarming approach to her teachings.  Born into a Buddhist family in Vietnam, she grew up around monastics and spent much of her youth at the local temples and retreats. Trina blends the eastern ceremonial and devotional aspects of the Mahayana tradition with the practical, systematic methods of the Theravada tradition.  For two decades, she studied the teachings of Buddhist monastics Thich Nhat Hanh, Master Sheng Yen and Bhante Guanaratana.  She began practicing in the Theravada tradition in 2013.
Trina is trained in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and has taught Mindfulness workshops to underserved communities such as prisons, inner cities, and marginalized folks. She provides mindfulness coaching and spiritual guidance to individuals and groups seeking to apply the Buddhist teachings and mindfulness practices into daily life–from life transitions to finding purpose in the daily grind and resolving relational conflict. Trina is passionate about building mindful communities rooted in diversity, equity and inclusion values, and  creating the conditions for people to experience profound insights and awakening to the nature of mind.
She leads a daily morning meditation group, Wake Up Together; a weekly sitting group, Thaypassana Tuesday; and frequently offers Sunday Sangha at the Portland Insight Meditation Community as well as other classes and events.
She can be reached at: mindfulnesswithtrina@gmail.com

The Roots of Mindfulness with Kate Savage, CMT-P

A five-week class in mindfulness meditation (March 2024)

This is a course for beginning meditators, those who wish to deepen or reinvigorate their practice, and for those who want to learn about the roots of mindfulness (also known as “vipassana” or insight) meditation.

Each class offers practical, evidence-based approaches to meditation in a course designed to build on concepts covered in previous sessions. Weekly teaching and discussion will be followed by experiential guided meditations, with time for reflection and Q & A. Participants will learn about the science of mindfulness while exploring a range of practices such as mindfulness of breath and body, dealing with stress, walking meditation, mindful eating, befriending and working with our busy minds, and more.

Over the five weeks, students will be encouraged to meditate on their own in order to more fully experience the benefits of regular practice, supported by mid-week recap emails with recorded meditations. The deep history of Buddhist wisdom underlying each of the practices will offer a more complete understanding of the “why and how” of meditation.

About Kate Savage

Kate’s formal meditation study began in 1993 in the lineage of Thich Nhat Hanh. While she has explored many meditation traditions, finding her way to insight (“vipassana”) meditation in 2013 felt like a homecoming. In 2018, Kate graduated Insight LA’s teacher training with Trudy Goodman-Kornfield, and she became a Certified Mindfulness Teacher-Professional (CMT-P) through the International Mindfulness Teachers Association in 2019. Other study includes Mindful Schools Yearlong teacher training, Eco Sattva, White Awake, UCLA MARC’s trauma-sensitive Meditation Safety Training, Insight LA’s Dedicated to the Dharma, Dharma and Art at Barre Center for Buddhist Study, and Dharma Here and Now training with Dave Smith. Kate leads mindfulness classes and retreats at meditation and wellness centers, schools, businesses, health-care settings and for city employees. See Open Window Mindfulness for more information.

An Introduction to Insight Dialogue with Guest Teacher Dave Leggatt

Weekend Workshop/Retreat (Sept. 2023)

About Insight Dialogue

Insight Dialogue is an interpersonal meditation practice that rests on three bases, each powerful in its own right: meditative awareness, the wisdom teachings of the Buddhadhamma, and relationship. It has the same purposes and traditional roots as silent meditation: developing mindfulness, compassion and liberating insight.

In this short Introduction to Insight Dialogue we’ll take a journey through the Buddha’s teachings on Kalyanamitta and the Brahma Viharas to explore the power of good friends practicing together. This offering will focus on the embodiment of the practice and practical ways to use these teachings in everyday life.

About Dave Leggatt

Dave Leggatt practiced in the Vipassana tradition for many years. He was introduced to Insight Dialogue in 2011 and joined the Insight Dialogue facilitator program in 2016. Since then Dave has been facilitating and teaching in-person workshops, retreats and online offerings. Aware of the importance of spiritual friendship and the power of Insight Dialogue practiced in daily life, he enjoys expanding the boundaries of practice for himself and others. He founded the annual Kalyanamittata retreat and offers practice in the global Insight Dialogue community. He is active on a number of community teams. Dave lives in Toronto, Canada.