On-Demand

This program was recorded live on November 15 and 22, 2022


The mind can be a potent tool, used to guide extraordinary achievements, inspire good works, and incline your spiritual path toward peace and awakening. But the mind can also produce thoughts that lead to suffering. For many people, thoughts run rampant and seem to oppress or control their lives. Even the Buddha tells us that before his enlightenment, he sometimes found his mind preoccupied by thoughts connected with sensual desire, ill will, and harm. But he figured out how to respond to thoughts skillfully and developed a step-by-step approach to calm the restless mind.

Here, IMS teacher Shaila Catherine offers an accessible approach to training the mind that is guided by the Buddha’s pragmatic instructions on removing distracting thoughts. Drawing on two scriptures in the Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha, Shaila shows you how to overcome habitual modes of thinking, develop deeper concentration, and discover the insights into emptiness that are vital for a liberating spiritual path.

Meet Your Teacher

Shaila Catherine

Shaila Catherine has been leading meditation retreats worldwide since 1996, emphasizing deep concentration, jhana, and the path of liberating insight. Shaila is the founder of Bodhi Courses, an online Dhamma classroom, and Insight Meditation South Bay, a Buddhist meditation center in Silicon Valley in California. She has practiced meditation since 1980, studied with meditation masters from India, Thailand, Nepal, and Burma, as well as with the founders of Western insight meditation centers, and accumulated more than nine years of silent retreat experience. Shaila is also the author of "Focused and Fearless: A Meditator’s Guide to States of Deep Joy, Calm, and Clarity" and "Wisdom Wide and Deep: A Practical Handbook for Mastering Jhana and Vipassana."

Shaila Catherine

Shaila Catherine has been leading meditation retreats worldwide since 1996, emphasizing deep concentration, jhana, and the path of liberating insight. Shaila is the founder of Bodhi Courses, an online Dhamma classroom, and Insight Meditation South Bay, a Buddhist meditation center in Silicon Valley in California. She has practiced meditation since 1980, studied with meditation masters from India, Thailand, Nepal, and Burma, as well as with the founders of Western insight meditation centers, and accumulated more than nine years of silent retreat experience. Shaila is also the author of "Focused and Fearless: A Meditator’s Guide to States of Deep Joy, Calm, and Clarity" and "Wisdom Wide and Deep: A Practical Handbook for Mastering Jhana and Vipassana."