Meditation Classes 
We offer day-long meditation workshops and 8-week comprehensive classes.

Our classes focus on developing the fundamentals of meditation practice and teach practical ways to apply these teachings in our daily lives. Each class session includes meditation instructions, a talk and questions on the teachings, and an exploration of our experience while meditating.

LA Dharma Class Schedule
We now offer Continuing Education classes in mindfulness practices to Psychologists, MFTs, LCSWs, Nurses and CAADAC through the Insight Center. For information about Continuing Education see the Insight Center CEU Class Schedule.

Why meditate?

A substantial body of scientific literature regarding the clinical efficacy of meditation in medical settings has demonstrated significant positive outcomes for patient treatment. Lynda Freeman in her Best Practices in Complementary and Alternative Medicine (2001, 8-1:1) writes:

    In clinically controlled trials, mindfulness meditation has been demonstrated to effectively reduce anxiety and depression, including the condition known as posttraumatic stress; to significantly reduce chronic pain caused by a variety of medical conditions; to increase life functionality; and to reduce mood disturbance and psychiatric symptoms. Most of these outcomes were achieved with patients who had not improved with traditional medical care.
Mindfulness meditation and other mindfulness practices in and of themselves provide relief and healing from these distresses. Expensive classes which combine classical mindfulness meditation with cognitive behavioral therapy techniques are effective but not necessarily more effective that mindfulness meditation alone.

The Mayo Clinic writes:

    Meditation is a complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) practice that falls under the category of mind-body techniques. These types of therapies strengthen communication between your body and your mind. Other types of mind-body techniques include support groups, hypnosis, biofeedback, and creative outlets such as art, music or dance therapy. While there are different paths to meditation, in general, when you're meditating, you're concentrating. The focus of your concentration can be anything — an object, a sound or even your own breathing. The goal of meditation is to focus on the moment, clearing away your worries.

    Meditation isn’t typically used in place of traditional therapies, such as medications your doctor prescribes. Instead, you might use meditation to supplement your other treatments. Meditation can also be used by people who are perfectly healthy as a way to reduce stress.

    Medical research into meditation is limited, and the validity of some studies has been questioned. Keeping that in mind, some research shows that meditation may be beneficial for certain conditions when used along with medications or other interventions recommended by your doctor, including:

    • Anxiety
    • Depression
    • Stress
    • High blood pressure
    • Heart disease

    Because meditation can relieve stress, it might also be helpful if you have a condition that's worsened by stress. Meditation may reduce the stress-related effects of allergies, asthma, chronic pain and arthritis, among others.

Meditation also assists us to become happy independent of the conditions of our everyday lives. It leads us to become less reactive and more responsive, to be more accepting and less judgmental, to be happier and more alive, and to become kinder to ourselves and gentler with others. We learn to live our lives with ease.