Welcome to the Burlington Area Buddhist Fellowship in Vermont. We are a practice group primarily based in the Insight Meditation school of Buddhism. We welcome all who are on the path to liberation through meditation and integration of the Buddha’s teachings into daily life, regardless of cultural and religious background, race, ethnicity, socio-economic class, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, educational background, or ability. If you are a beginner, we offer a free course of study so you might become familiar with Buddhist practice. We are dedicated to supporting each other’s practice and to creating a culture of inclusion, kindness and generosity.
We meet Sunday mornings from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. The first, second, and third meeting of every month are held in-person. Join us for meditation, dharma talk, discussion, and tea. You can find material from our past meetings in the Archive.
The Burlington Area Buddhist Fellowship is primarily a group of long-term dharma practitioners living in northern Vermont who meet to study, discuss, and practice together. Anyone is welcome to join us in person for our meetings on the first three Sundays of the month. However, we have found the online format makes in challenging to welcome those with little or no experience with Buddhist practice to the online portion of our Sunday meetings. If you would like to join us online, please read through the options below.
If you are an experienced practitioner and would like to join us for our Sunday meetings online, please email us and let us know the nature of your past training or study of the dharma and your daily practice.
If you are a beginner and interested in Buddhist practice we offer online introductory drop-in classes about once a month as well as the occasional deeper dive in the form of a four week or six week class. To be notified of these offerings and learn how to join us please sign up for the email list below.
All of our classes are offered freely, but if you would like to support us, you can do so here.
The nature of a Sangha is to be inclusive and, we believe, to actively work toward equality. To that end, we have collected some resources which you may find useful regarding anti-racism on a dedicated page.
Recent talks (see more in our archive)
Emptiness as Expectation
In Buddhist philosophy when we say things are “empty”, we mean they are empty of independent existence. All things are conditioned; they are products of thousands of separate conditions and only exist because those conditions have come together at that moment in time. Our slice of toast depends on the baker, the miller, the truckers,…
Emptiness—further dimensions
Our sangha is in the midst of a series of explorations of Emptiness, which Sam began last Sunday. This week, Michael guided an unpacking of the famous Heart Sutra, which brings a Mahayana perspective: Form is Emptiness, Emptiness is Form. Payton and visiting Dharma Teacher Cara Lai will round out the series in the subsequent weeks. Join us…
The mind, a flawless crystal
Sam guided our sangha this Sunday. Inspired by a quote from Shabkar Tsokdruk Rangdrol (1781–1851) — “The mind’s nature is vivid as a flawless piece of crystal – intrinsically empty, naturally radiant, ceaselessly responsive” — we considerd other writings and listen to excerpts of some relevant dharma talks. Here’s Sam’s notes: In a sangha run by Max or Don,…
