IMS Online Learning Center

Greg Scharf began meditating in 1992 at retreats taught by senior teachers from the Insight Meditation Society and Spirit Rock Meditation Center. Drawn to practice and travel in Asia, he developed a long-term relationship with practice and service in Burma (Myanmar), and discovered a deep heart connection with Indian devotional traditions, both of which continue to this day. In the Fall of 1998 Greg ordained as a Buddhist monk and continued his training in robes through 1999. Greg began teaching residential meditation retreats in 2007 and currently teaches both in the US and abroad. He is particularly interested in teaching longer, intensive retreats and has been teaching the Three-Month Retreat at Insight Meditation Society, and the month-long retreats at Spirit Rock Meditation Center for many years. In addition, Greg is an IMS Emeritus Guiding Teacher. Greg’s teaching emphasizes the understanding that the meditative process is fundamentally an exploration of Nature and natural processes. In his teaching, he stresses the critical importance of bringing the qualities of kindness, compassion, and a sense of humor to meditation practice.

Éowyn Ahlstrom grew up a stone’s throw away from the then emerging Insight Meditation Society. She left the area to go to college, and looked around the world for about a decade, searching for a way to live. In her journeys, Éowyn first discovered meditation through the yoga tradition. But, to her happy surprise, that way to live she was searching for turned out to be very close to home – at IMS, with the liberating practices of vipassana and metta meditation and the profound wisdom of the early Buddhist teachings. During the past two decades, she has attended many IMS retreats, both at the Retreat Center and the Forest Refuge, and has often led mindful movement sessions for retreats too. Éowyn has served as a staff member and volunteer here, and is currently glad to be receiving mentorship from Kamala Masters and Greg Scharf as she continues her ever deepening relationship with practicing and teaching dhamma. Her contributions to the broader field include the development of MBSR2 at the Mindfulness Center at Brown University; teaching community mindfulness, meditation and yoga programs at the Center for Mindfulness at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, the Center for Mindfulness and Compassion at the Cambridge Health Alliance; and teaching for many other organizations in the region as well. She loves consulting with both individuals and organizations to provide pragmatic guidance and support for integrating contemplative awareness into 21st century living. Éowyn is also a poet, and the author of Mindscapes: Practice Poems. In addition to her master’s degree in health and wellness, along the way Éowyn has received qualifications as a massage therapist, yoga teacher (E-RYT 500), Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) teacher, and Compassion Cultivation Training (CCT) teacher. For more about her work and practice, please visit her website, Middle Path Healing Arts.