About IMCC

Insight Meditation Community of Charlottesville (IMCC) provides a welcoming environment for people to engage in Insight Meditation. Insight Meditation, also known as Vipassana, is a practice that trains us to live mindfully in the present moment. Vipassana literally means "to see clearly." It enables individuals to experience all aspects of life from a place of stillness. The meditator learns to relate to life with greater clarity and loving kindness and with less fear, anxiety and stress.

Vipassana represents the central meditation practice taught by the Buddha upon his enlightenment. Although the origins of Vipassana lie in the Buddha's teachings, Insight Meditation or "mindfulness" meditation, may be practiced by anyone regardless of religious beliefs. Mindfulness meditation does not require belief in a god, the Buddha, or an adherence to specific doctrines. One cultivates the ability to focus the mind on the changing nature of experience both internal and external, ultimately revealing insights into the very nature of heart and mind.

IMCC offers ongoing daily  group meditation sessions, and weekly dharma talks as well as a variety of educational opportunities designed to increase the understanding, knowledge and practice of Insight meditation.

Mission Statement

Our mission and values are inspired and informed by Buddhist teachings on compassion, ethics, right effort, and right understanding. We aspire to the four boundless qualities of equanimity, love, compassion, and joy. To this end, IMCC will:

• Promote the instruction and practice of Buddhist Insight Meditation (Vipassana) and related Buddhist teachings that awaken our natural wisdom and compassion

• Cultivate the growth of the spirit and community of all beings  

• Initiate and promote related activities and programs that will increase the well-being and improve the quality of life of the community 

• Aid, work with, and participate in the activities of other organizations, individuals and public entities engaged in a similar mission 

Land Acknowledgement Statement by IMCC

Background

In recent years, the practice of land acknowledgments has arisen among individuals and organizations who wish to name and honor the ancestral people associated with the land where the speaker now lives or works. The purpose is to break the cycle of ignorance and delusion about indigenous displacement and genocide. Motivated by the Buddha’s teaching to investigate the root causes of suffering wherever they exist and to act with the intention of preventing future harm, we at IMCC respectfully offer the following land acknowledgment.

Land Acknowledgement

For thousands of years, the people of the Monacan nation lived on, protected, and cultivated the land on which Charlottesville and surrounding communities now stand. This land was forcibly seized by white-bodied settler colonizers. We at the Insight Meditation Community of Charlottesville acknowledge the profound suffering inflicted on the Monacan people, past, present, and future as a result of these acts and as a result of policies rooted in erasure. We recognize the relationship the Monacan people of the present day have with the land where their ancestors are buried.