Contemporary Insight Tradition
Insight Meditation, blending traditional Buddhist practices and Western non-ritualistic approaches, aims to calm the mind and enhance clarity, fostering awareness to understand and transform habitual mental patterns, thus opening our hearts and deepening our connection to life.
Name of the tradition
Contemporary Insight Meditation
Broad school
Insight Meditation
Specific school
Melbourne Insight Group
What can attendees expect?
Over these four weeks, we will explore, through practice together, the nature of embodied presence, as taught by the Buddha through satipatthana practice. When we become present to and abide in the vital life of the body, it provides a steady grounding for wise responsiveness in our daily lives, as well as a foundation for insight into the nature of the body, heart and mind. In this exploration, we'll utilise practices based on breathing, bodily sensations, the four elements, and open awareness.
Resources
- Melbourne Insight Meditation weekly sitting groups and retreats
- Satipatthana Sutta (Majjhima Nikaya, MN 10), translation by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
- Analayo, Bhikkhu: Satipatthana Meditation - A Practice Guide, Windhorse Publications, 2018 (A very accessible and practical guide to satipatthana practice)
- Analayo, Bhikkhu: Satipatthana - The Direct Path to Reailzation, Windhorse Publications, 2003 (his PhD on satipatthana - a lot more scholarly and in-depth)
- Mindfulness: A practical guide to awakening by Joseph Goldstein
Informed engagement for your wellbeing
No activity is without potential risks. It is important to understand the benefits and risks of participating in guided meditation practices. To help you make informed decisions about your wellbeing, please read through our evidence-based CSC Guided Meditation FAQs before participating in guided meditation sessions that we facilitate.
It is also important to state that the Contemplative Studies Centre at The University of Melbourne is not a health provider, and any guided meditation or mindfulness sessions we may facilitate are not the provision of a health service. All guided meditation or mindfulness sessions we facilitate are Services under the CSC Terms and Conditions. By participating in these sessions you are indicating that you have read, understood, and agree with the full CSC Terms and Conditions.
About the teachers
Robyn Gibson
Robyn Gibson has been practising and studying meditation for 30 years, predominantly in the Mahāsi lineage of Theravāda Buddhism. Her principal teachers have been Patrick Kearney and Carol Perry. Teaching since 2016, Robyn’s approach brings together the radical teachings of freedom through embodied presence that the Buddha taught, deep ecology and other nature-based practices, and creative expression – allowing for enquiry into what it means to live a full and just human life on this earth, and how to face the challenges of our current times with courage and integrity.


Angela McGee
Angela has been a teacher for over 30 years in various traditions of contemplative practice. She is also a psychotherapist with a private practice in Melbourne. She teaches regularly with Melbourne Insight Meditation at weekly meetings and week long silent meditation retreats in Australia and overseas. Angela is keen to explore how the Buddha's dharma teachings can open our hearts, guide our daily experiences and open our connection to all of life.
Anton Eastick
Anton leads Insight Meditation retreats, daylongs and courses at Melbourne Insight Meditation. As well, he offers Hakomi therapy, a Buddhist/Taoist based therapy for individuals and Relationship Life Therapy (RLT) for couples in Northcote. These forms of therapy are deigned to be complementary for meditation practices. For many people who enjoy meditation, there may come a time where we need the help of someone else to free us from old patterns that bring us down and point the way to relational joy again. He lives in Northcote, Melbourne.


Jess Huon
Jess Huon has been engaged in meditative and embodiment practices since the age of seventeen. She has trained in traditional Buddhist monastic settings, in inter-faith contexts of meditative inquiry, and also within long periods of solitary forest practice. She holds a bachelor of Creative Arts (VCA), and a post graduate degree in Therapeutic Arts practice (RMIT). Jess brings traditional teaching alive in a fresh, feminine, and transformative manner. A natural orator, her talks have been described as “street language for the soul.” Whilst deeply informed but not bound by tradition, her style is grounded in contemporary life.