The teaching
I know this from the inside. I'm Black, of Afro-Caribbean descent — born in Brooklyn to Jamaican parents, one of African lineage, one of Indian. I came to the Insight tradition as an outsider to the spaces where it was being taught in the West: spaces that were overwhelmingly white and expensive and assumed a particular kind of prior belonging. I stayed because the teachings themselves were true. I teach because the door should be wider.
This practice has been here for 2,600 years. But the Western version of it — the apps, the retreat centers, the credentialing — has made it feel like something we have to earn, afford, or already belong to.
We don't. We never did. The door was always open. This is just a different entrance.
Whether you've never sat before or you've been practicing for years and needed a different kind of home — you're welcome here exactly as you are.
This week's teaching
Pain is inevitable. The Buddha was clear about this — the first noble truth isn't pessimism, it's honesty. Life includes difficulty, loss, and dissatisfaction.
But most of us don't just feel the pain. We shoot a second arrow into ourselves. We add judgment, self-blame, the story of why this is happening, and what it means about us.
"When touched with a feeling of pain, the ordinary uninstructed person sorrows, grieves and laments... He is afflicted with two sufferings, physical and mental." — SN 36.6, The Arrow Sutta
This week, notice the second arrow. You don't have to remove it immediately — just see it. That seeing is the beginning of freedom and spaciousness.
"Admirable friendship, admirable companionship, admirable camaraderie — this is the whole of the holy life." — SN 45.2, Upaḍḍha Sutta
A citation-grounded dharma reference tool for lay practitioners in the Insight/Vipassanā tradition. Ask a question; receive passages from the Pāli canon and how contemporary Insight teachers — across Spirit Rock, IMS, IRC, and EBMC — have engaged the same teaching.
It is a library, not a teacher. Every passage is attributed, linked to its source, and offered as a bridge to a living teacher and sangha — never as a substitute.
Access the demo → Soft launch January 2027 · Private demoSit
No app. No account. Just this.
Find a comfortable seat.
Let your eyes close softly.
Reflection
"Where did you notice the second arrow today?"
This stays on your device. Nothing is sent or stored.
This practice is offered from the unceded traditional territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations in Vancouver; the traditional territory of the Semiahmoo and Lummi peoples at Point Roberts; and the ancestral lands of the Mixtec (Ñuu Savi), Zapotec (Be'ena'a), and Chatino (Kitse Cha'tnio) peoples in Oaxaca. These lands were never ceded. I am grateful to live and practice on them.