Mid America Dharma

Reflections on the Benefits of Insight Dialogue

Mary Burns

During Insight Dialogue retreats, practices include the traditional silent and walking meditation of vipassana retreats, while also extending the practice to include periods of structured Insight Dialogue meditation in which we contemplate together, often in pairs, Buddhist teachings on human experience. 

This is important because much of the time we live less in the flow of life and relationship, and more in conditioned views about life and relationship. Typically, when experience happens, we respond with a thought, an emotion, or even a whole story that shapes the experience in a way that habitually leads to a sense of separation and discontent.

These conditioned patterns happen so effortlessly and spontaneously that we often fail to see them or to know the distorting, unnecessary painful influence of these patterns.  These repetitive human patterns play out over and over again in our internal lives and show up in our relationships.  We can see the suffering manifesting in our larger society and across the planet. Indeed, there is no lack of suffering for humans. 

It is important to remember that freedom from ordinary human suffering can be alleviated and transformed through the skillful path of practice offered by the Buddha.

Individually bringing awareness to some of our individual and cultural habit patterns can touch a deep seated, often not fully known, distress. 

As we pay attention to this sorrow and discontent while meditating together, we take significant steps toward acknowledging and accepting our human experience as it is, and clearly see our tendencies to get stuck in unhelpful, unskillful patterns. With the support of wisdom teachings and our meditation partners’ willingness to listen deeply and speak the truth, these patterns can be known and responded to with wisdom and compassion.  Indeed it is this very turning toward the sorrow of living within the limitations of half known patterns that allows the desire for change to arise as a natural expression of caring for ourselves and others. 

The practice of Insight Dialogue is guided by six meditation instructions:  pause, relax, open, attune to emergence, listen deeply, and speak the truth.  Throughout retreat we call on these instructions to allow us to meditate together while meeting the challenges of living. Beyond retreat, these practices can be profoundly supportive in all aspects of our lives- individually and socially.  As we develop our own peaceful mind and learn to speak and listen from the shared human experience, we can see more clearly, respond more authentically, and contribute more effectively with our friends, family and community.  We learn to skillfully meet adversity with courage, deep insight and compassion.


Mary Burns is a meditation teacher, psychotherapist and a Recognized Retreat Teacher of Insight Dialogue.  She will be in Leavenworth, Kansas to teach a residential retreat April 17-20, 2020.


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