We are all on a river—life’s river—and constantly moving, changing. We need wisdom to navigate obstacles in the river or we’ll suffer needlessly. Wisdom to navigate the river comes slowly, with study, experience, and a community of people who are in agreement that paddling together is a skillful way to travel to the river’s end.

— George Esveldt, fisherman and dharma friend

Our Vision

One awakens not alone but in community.

Sangha – the Pali word for spiritual community – is one of the three treasures of Buddhist practice. The Buddha described this living, breathing community not as a supplement, but as the entirety of the path.

At River Wisdom, the Sangha is our heart. To support its growth, a dedicated leadership team oversees our spiritual direction, while a guiding board manages organizational wellbeing and fosters open communication.

As a community-led, Buddhist-inspired sangha, we are dedicated to sharing the teachings of lovingkindness, compassion, and equanimity. Through meditation, mindfulness and insight, we aspire to free the heart and awaken the mind.

We welcome people of all races, gender and sexual identities, socioeconomic backgrounds, and belief systems. No prior meditation experience is necessary.

History

Linda Rose and Marilyn Picariello, long-time students of Howard Cohn, moved to Eugene from California in 2014 and together with Rasika Link formed the Eugene Insight Meditation Community. In 2015, Justin Michelson, a long-time practitioner, joined the leadership group. After Rasika moved away, Linda and Justin shared teaching responsibilities, and Marilyn continued to play a crucial role in sangha community-building.

With COVID, the sangha began meeting on Zoom, offering a weekly online evening meeting and, eventually, a morning practice session. Over time, the Wednesday morning meditation group matured into its own sangha. With two changes in mind—the deepening of Wednesday morning Sangha ties and the wish to establish and develop a more community-driven organization—it was decided that we would reorganize ourselves as two sister sanghas: Eugene Insight Mediation Community and River Wisdom Insight Community.

We trust that moving ahead in the dharma as two sister sanghas—EIMC and River Wisdom—will better enable each community to thrive and grow in the direction they need to go. We plan to continue to support each other, work cooperatively, and perhaps sponsor future events together.