The greatest gift is the
gift of the teachings
 
Kaira Jewel Lingo's Dharma Talks at Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center
Kaira Jewel Lingo
Kaira Jewel Lingo is a Dharma teacher and lived as an ordained nun for 15 years in Thich Nhat Hanh’s Order of Interbeing, and is now based in New York. She provides individual spiritual mentoring and leads retreats internationally, offering mindfulness programs for educators, parents and youth in schools, in addition to activists, people of color, artists and families. She mentors with the Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Program, was lead teacher for Mindful Schools’ year long training for educators, teaches teens and adults with Inward Bound Mindfulness Education, and is a guiding teacher for One Earth Sangha. She edited Thich Nhat Hanh’s Planting Seeds: Practicing Mindfulness with Children and has been published in numerous other books and magazines. She explores the interweaving of art, play, ecology and embodied mindfulness practice and is an InterPlay leader. Read her recent article, In Times of Crisis Call Upon the Strength of Peace, published in Lion’s Roar magazine.
2025-03-28 Equanimity Meditation 45:04
This meditation explores upekkhā, or equanimity—the deep steadiness of heart that meets life’s joys and sorrows with wisdom and care. Through reflections, guided phrases, and a progression of categories (from self, to loved one, neutral person, difficult person and finally all beings), we cultivate balance and spaciousness in the face of life’s ever-changing conditions. Rooted in the Brahmavihārā tradition, this practice invites us to rest in the truth that all beings are moving through causes and conditions beyond our control.
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center Return to Wholeness: Opening to Wisdom & Love - 25DW
2025-03-27 Mindfulness of Thoughts 52:48
In this talk, we explore mindfulness of thoughts as part of the third foundation of mindfulness—learning to meet thoughts not as distractions or enemies, but as present-moment experiences to observe with curiosity and care. Through guided practice and teachings, we investigate the nature of thinking, including how to relate to repetitive or difficult thoughts with clarity and compassion. By developing this skill, we discover a deeper steadiness and freedom in the midst of the mind’s activity.
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center Return to Wholeness: Opening to Wisdom & Love - 25DW
2025-03-25 Introduction to the Brahmaviharas and the Practice of Metta 58:28
We begin with a song and for the first half hour Kaira Jewel gives a brief overview the Four Brahmaviharas followed by an introduction to the practice of metta: what it is, how it can transform our lives, what some of the challenges are and then how to practice with the categories and the phrases. Then in the second half hour Kaira Jewel leads a guided metta meditation offering metta to ourselves, our benefactor and a dear friend.
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center Return to Wholeness: Opening to Wisdom & Love - 25DW
2025-03-24 The Power and Freedom of Equanimity in Polarized Times 60:11
In this talk we explore the power of equanimity to help us remain steady and spacious in the face of life's ups and downs. Trusting, relaxing and letting go all help us to see we don't have to hold the challenges of life alone, we can open to the larger mystery holding us all. We also look at how to engage with the suffering and injustice of our world, to practice sacred criticism, and depolarizing ourselves and our communities. We take inspiration from the Civil Rights Movement and their practices of self-emptying and how we can give our whole hearts to the task and then let go of attachment to the outcome. Kaira Jewel ends by singing the poem Recommendation by Thich Nhat Hanh.
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center Return to Wholeness: Opening to Wisdom & Love - 25DW
2025-01-19 Justice is What Love Looks Like in Public: Honoring Dr. King and Building the Beloved Community 66:29
Offered on the Strength to Love retreat over the MLK holiday weekend at IMS, we explore how we can each give rise to bodhicitta, the mind of awakening and love, and support the realization of justice: the expression of love in public. Kaira Jewel first shares about the personal impact of Dr. King on her life, introducing her father, Al Lingo, who briefly offers a few stories of his time in the Civil Rights Movement working directly with Dr. King. She then explores the friendship between Thich Nhat Hanh and Dr. King and their common effort to build the Beloved Community. We then look at the importance of cultivating our hearts and minds to be able to support justice in the world, and also how caring for ourselves is caring for others and vice versa. We look at how important it is to connect with our ultimate concern, because this provides an inexhaustible source of energy and confidence. We end with Dr. King's words condemning the war in Vietnam and the damaging effect of militarism on our collective health, and our current bloated military budget.
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center Strength to Love: Honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Embodying Insight in Action - 25WMLK
2023-02-27 Teaching and meditation instructions on compassion 48:15
Deep listening, as a practice of compassion, fierce, compassion, and a chant invoking the bodhisattva of compassion, Avalokitesvara
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center Return to Wholeness: Opening to Wisdom & Love
2023-02-25 Renouncing technology ceremony, and meditation instructions on three anchors 62:27
Exploration of the three anchors – mindfulness of sound, body sensation, and breathing
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center Return to Wholeness: Opening to Wisdom & Love
2023-02-24 Equanimity and inclusiveness in a time of poly crisis 47:41
An exploration of the liberating qualities of equanimity that allow us not to take sides, let go of enmity and touch peace
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center Return to Wholeness: Opening to Wisdom & Love
2014-12-02 Metta chanting by Greg Scharf and Kaira-Jewel Lingo 13:55
This evening's Metta chanting starts with an invitation to the Devas, followed by the Karaniya Metta Sutta in Pali and English, and the Metta practice chant.
Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center Three Month - Part 2

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