Essential Buddhist Teachings

Course Overview

Essential Buddhist Teachings is a detailed introduction to the Buddha’s teachings and the practices of Insight Meditation. This course emphasizes the cultivation of mindful awareness and learning how to apply and live these wisdom and heart practices in our daily lives. These are essential teachings for building a baseline understanding of the Buddhist path of practice. 

The course covers the Four Foundations of Mindfulness, the Four Noble Truths, the four heart practices known as the Divine Abidings, and the Noble Eightfold Path. In each section, there will be guided meditations, lectures, discussions, and prompts for inquiry that can be explored in meditation or journaling. Filmed live at Spirit Rock, Essential Buddhist Teachings brings a beloved Spirit Rock teacher to you wherever you are in an accessible home-study format.

About Mark Coleman

Mark has trained extensively in the Buddhist tradition, both in the Insight meditation and in the Dzogchen tradition. He is a senior teacher at Spirit Rock Meditation Center and has taught insight meditation retreats since 1997.

Mark is a life-long nature lover and is passionate about guiding people into the beauty of meditation and nature. He has led wilderness nature retreats worldwide for over twenty years. Through his organization Awake in the Wild Mark leads year long nature meditation teacher trainings in the US and Europe.

Co-founder of the Mindfulness Training Institute Mark also leads year long professional mindfulness teacher trainings in Europe and the US. He is the author of Awake in the Wild: Mindfulness in Nature as a Path to Self-discovery, Make Peace With Your Mind, From Suffering to Peace, and his recent book A Field Guide to Nature Meditation.

He lives in Sausalito, Marin, and likes nothing more than hiking, biking, and kayaking in the outdoors.

About Spirit Rock & Insight Meditation

Spirit Rock is a spiritual training institution in the Insight Meditation tradition grounded in the Buddha’s teachings in the Pāli discourses. Our vision and mission is to bring people to a depth of realization of the Buddha’s path of liberation through direct experience, and to provide practitioners with teachings to manifest wisdom and compassion in all aspects of their lives, for the benefit of all beings. We welcome practitioners of all backgrounds and levels of experience to join communities of learning, support, and connection in our spiritual sanctuary and refuge.

This course is part of Spirit Rock’s new Dharma Institute, which offers in-depth study of the teachings and practices of the Buddha and the Insight Meditation lineage, along with professional trainings and continuing education. 

Spirit Rock was founded in 1986 by a group of Insight Meditation teachers, including Jack Kornfield, who, along with Sharon Salzberg, Joseph Goldstein, and Jacqueline Schwartz, founded Insight Meditation Society (IMS) in Barre, MA, in 1976. These centers, along with Gaia House (Devon, UK), are among the first centers teaching Insight Meditation (vipassanā) in the West. Read more about the founding of Spirit Rock and IMS in Jack Kornfield’s article “This Fantastic, Unfolding Experiment.” 

Insight Meditation is based in Theravāda (“The Way of the Elders”) Buddhism, as practiced in Sri Lanka, Burma (Myanmar), and Thailand, though our teachers carry many different lineages within—and outside—Theravāda. Our primary practices are based in the Mahāsī lineage of Burmese vipassanā and the Thai Forest Saṅgha lineage of Ajahn Chah. Read more aboutour Buddhist Lineage and listen to talks from teachers about the roots of our practice.

Questions?

Visit Help for additional information and guidance. After visiting the Help page, if you still need support with the Online Learning Platform, email OLPsupport@spiritrock.org.