Shaila Catherine is an American Buddhist meditation teacher and author in the Theravādan tradition, known for her expertise in insight meditation (vipassanā) and

jhāna In the oldest texts of Buddhism, ''dhyāna'' () or ''jhāna'' () is a component of the training of the mind ('' bhavana''), commonly translated as meditation, to withdraw the mind from the automatic responses to sense-impressions, "burn up" th ...

practices. She has authored two books on

practice, ''Focused and Fearless'' and ''Wisdom Wide and Deep'', and has introduced many American practitioners to this

concentration In chemistry, concentration is the abundance of a constituent divided by the total volume of a mixture. Several types of mathematical description can be distinguished: '' mass concentration'', ''molar concentration'', ''number concentration'', an ...

practice through her writings and focused retreats. Catherine is the founder of Insight Meditation South Bay in Mountain View, California, and the primary teacher for Bodhi Courses, an online Buddhist classroom. She conducts retreats locally, nationally and internationally in

mindfulness Mindfulness is the practice of purposely bringing one's attention to the present-moment experience without evaluation, a skill one develops through meditation or other training. Mindfulness derives from ''sati'', a significant element of Hind ...

(

satī Sati or suttee is a Hindu practice, now largely historical, in which a widow sacrifices herself by sitting atop her deceased husband's funeral pyre. Quote: Between 1943 and 1987, some thirty women in Rajasthan (twenty-eight, according to offic ...

(

samādhi ''Samadhi'' (Pali and sa, समाधि), in Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism, Sikhism and yogic schools, is a state of meditation, meditative consciousness. In Buddhism, it is the last of the eight elements of the Noble Eightfold Path. In the Ash ...

and

), lovingkindness (mettā), and insight meditation (vipassanā).

Biography

Shaila Catherine began meditating in 1980 in California. She later travelled and studied in Asia, training and practicing with an

Advaita Vedanta ''Advaita Vedanta'' (; sa, अद्वैत वेदान्त, ) is a Hinduism, Hindu sādhanā, a path of spiritual discipline and experience, and the oldest extant tradition of the Āstika and nāstika, orthodox Hindu school Ved ...

master, H.W.L. Poonja, in northern India; Tibetan

Dzogchen Dzogchen (, "Great Perfection" or "Great Completion"), also known as ''atiyoga'' ( utmost yoga), is a tradition of teachings in Indo-Tibetan Buddhism and Yungdrung Bon aimed at discovering and continuing in the ultimate ground of existence. ...

masters

Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche (1920A Brief Biography of Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche
– ...

and Nyoshul Khen Rinpoche in Nepal; and at Theravādan forest monasteries in Thailand. In addition to these Asian masters, she has studied with founders of Western meditation centers ( Christopher Titmuss, Joseph Goldstein,

Sharon Salzberg Sharon Salzberg (born August 5, 1952) is a ''New York Times'' bestselling author and teacher of Buddhist meditation practices in the West. In 1974, she co-founded the Insight Meditation Society at Barre, Massachusetts, with Jack Kornfield and Jos ...

, and

Lama Surya Das Surya Das (born Jeffrey Miller in 1950) is an American lama in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. He is a poet, chantmaster, spiritual activist, author of many popular works on Buddhism, meditation teacher and spokesperson for Buddhism in the West. ...

). Catherine developed a special interest in the practice of deep

, and in 2003–2004 devoted a one-year silent meditation retreat to exploring

as the basis for insight. Based upon her experiences in this retreat, she wrote ''Focused and Fearless'', as an introduction to the absorption states of

. In 2006, she began training under the guidance of the Burmese meditation master Venerable Pa Auk Sayadaw. In 2011 Catherine authored a second book, ''Wisdom Wide and Deep'', which provides an introduction to the comprehensive practices of

and

vipassanā ''Samatha'' (Pāli; sa, शमथ ''śamatha''; ), "calm," "serenity," "tranquillity of awareness," and ''vipassanā'' (Pāli; Sanskrit ''vipaśyanā''), literally "special, super (''vi-''), seeing (''-passanā'')", are two qualities of the ...

based on her training with Pa Auk Sayadaw and derived from teachings in the early Discourses of the

Buddha Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha, was a śramaṇa, wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist tradition, he was ...

Visuddhimagga The ''Visuddhimagga'' (Pali; English: ''The Path of Purification''), is the 'great treatise' on Buddhist practice and Theravāda Abhidhamma written by Buddhaghosa approximately in the 5th century in Sri Lanka. It is a manual condensing and syst ...

, and Abhidhamma. Catherine's writings and teaching have contributed to a new and growing field within Theravādan Buddhism—introducing the traditional trainings of

and insight meditation (vipassanā) to Western lay practitioners.Jhāna Practice and True Happiness
, May 14, 2014, Insight Journal, A Journal of the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies

Bibliography

* Catherine, Shaila. ''Focused and Fearless: A Meditator’s Guide to States of Deep Joy, Calm and Clarity,'' Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2008. * Catherine, Shaila. ''Wisdom Wide and Deep: A Practical Handbook for Mastering Jhanā and Vipassanā,'' Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2011.

Audio Publications

DharmaSeed

Audiodharma

Interviews

Jhana and the Practice of True Happiness

Settle into the Bliss

Focused and Fearless with the Jhanas

The Way of Commitment

Concentrating the Hell Out of Mind: Jhana Interviews with four experts

References

{{reflist

External links

Insight Meditation South Bay

Official biography

Bodhi Courses
American Buddhists American scholars of Buddhism