Lineage

Common Ground is an independent center founded on the teachings of the Buddha. We take the historical Buddha as our root teacher and closely study and practice the teachings preserved in the Pali discourses as well as other Early Buddhist texts. We are grateful to the monasteries in Sri Lanka, Burma/Myanmar, and Thailand who have preserved these texts over the centuries.

At the same time our center follows in the spirit of Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts and Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Woodacre, California and is part of the greater Insight Meditation, or Vipassana, movement in the West. We appreciate modern interpreters and teachers over the past century who have directly influenced the development of the Western Insight tradition.

Resources from teachers and organizations in our lineage:

Insight Meditation in the United States: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness: An article on the origins of the Western insight movement
Dharma Seed: gathers, preserves, and freely shares recordings of teachers inspired by early Buddhism for the benefit of students, teachers, and dharma centers worldwide.
Access to Insight: is an HTML website dedicated to providing accurate, reliable, and useful information concerning the practice and study of Theravada Buddhism.
Bhikkhu Analayo: scholar-monk at the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies and the author of numerous books on meditation and early Buddhism.
Gil Fronsdal is the founding teacher of the Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, CA and the author of many articles and books on Buddhism and mindfulness practice.
Sayadaw U Tejaniya is a contemporary teacher and monastic in Myanmar who emphasizes continuity of relaxed awareness at all times.
Mahasi Sayadaw: Burmese teacher and monastic from the last century who founded a tradition that gave lay people access to intensive meditation retreats for the first time. Our insight meditation movement in the West is a direct descendent of his tradition.
Thai Forest Tradition: a reform movement in Thailand from the last century that yielded many important and influential teachers such as Ajahn Chah, whose students in turn founded Western monasteries still in operation today.
Insight Meditation Society in Barre, MA.
Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Woodacre, CA.
Vipassana Metta Foundation: Kamala Masters and Steve Armstrong have been important teachers for CG leaders and our community.
Dipa Ma was an important teacher in our Insight Meditation lineage.