Stepping onto the Path:

Foundations of Insight Meditation for Beginners and Beyond

This page contains recordings, readings, guided meditations, and other materials for participants in the eight-week course. We’ll update it as the course progresses.

Recordings:

Readings:

Week 1

• Introduction to Mindfulness Meditation - Gil Fronsdal
  An hour-long talk introducing mindfulness meditation. If you'd like a shorter version, you can skip the guided meditation from 17:00-39:00 and the final five minutes, for about 35 minutes of listening.

• What’s a Meditation Anchor? - Lama Rod Owens
  A 20-minute interview and guided meditation introducing the idea of a meditation “anchor.”

• Mindfulness in Plain English - Bhante Gunaratana
  Chapter 13: Mindfulness (Sati)

Guided Meditation Resources

• Gil Fronsdal guided meditations

• Zac’s BDC guided meditations

• Zac’s UVM mindfulness class guided meditations

Week 2

• Mindfulness in Plain English - Bhante Gunaratana
  Chapter 1: Meditation: Why Bother?

• Mindfulness: A Practical Guide to Awakening - Joseph Goldstein
  Chapter 5: Contemplating the Four Foundations

• Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta
  Read from the beginning of the translation of the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta to the "[FEELINGS] / II. The Contemplation of Feeling" section

  • Bhikkhu Anālayo translation

  • Nyanasatta Thera translation

Week 3

• Mindfulness: A Practical Guide to Awakening - Joseph Goldstein
  Chapter: Feelings

• The Mindful Geek - Michael W. Taft
  Chapter 8: Darwin’s Dharma

• “How to Control (and Even Use) Your Anger” - Lama Rod Owens
  NPR interview

Mindfulness in Plain English - Bhante Gunaratana
Chapter 7: What to Do with Your Mind

Week 4

• Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta - Foundations of Mindfulness: Read the Mind section.

  • Thanissaro Bhikkhu translation

  • Bhikkhu Anālayo translation

• Wise Responses to the Hindrances - Rob Burbea Dharma talk

• Mindfulness in Plain English - Bhante Gunaratana Chapter 12: Dealing with Distractions II. For a refresher on the essentials, Chapter 5: The Practice, is great.

• Working with the Five Hindrances in Meditation - Beth Upton Video. See the video description for additional videos exploring how to work with each of the five hindrances.

Week 5

• Gil Fronsdal - Dharmette: Samadhi (1): Introduction (14 minutes) 

• Chapter 5: Samadhi and its Place in Insight Practice in Seeing the Frees by Rob Burbea. When I first read this chapter, it totally changed how I understood concentration. I absolutely love Rob Burbea’s teachings on concentration, and I haven’t found anyone else who approaches it in the nuanced, deep, thorough, and poetic way that he does. He has a lot of fantastic talks on the topic. You can go to this library of his talks and search for “concentration” or “samadhi” to find the