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)
Practicing for longer periods
Sometimes we are tempted to extend our usual practice times, yes? Extending our morning sit by doubling our usual time. Or from weekend retreat, to a weeklong. Having tasted a ten-day, contemplating a month. And there looms the possibility of the three-month with which IMS so often brings the year to a close. Contemplating such possibilities, we…
Ethics and the Compassionate Response
The eightfold path is divided into three interconnected sections: Wisdom, Meditation, and Ethics. The third section brings to mind the idea of a set of rules to follow, but another way to think about it might be “having a Compassionate Response”. What would it be like to examine our experience in the light of compassion,…
Intimacy and Vastness
The bedrock solidity of our vipassana practice can be enhanced by the intimacy and vastness of the mahayana, ‘the great vehicle’ which moves beyond measurement. In the direct experience of our everyday lives just as they are, heart and mind can open gently or in a flash. Michael guided some explorations of this shift in our…
