IMCH Calendar of Events

Insight and Mindfulness Meditation (Vipassana)

Weekend Course and Retreat

Friday 7-9PM Saturday 9:30AM-3:30PM

Six Hours Continuing Education Available

Our retreats are an excellent and efficient means for enriching and deepening any kind of meditation practice! Register here for one of our Houston non-residential retreats.

Attend a retreat and have some free weekend time as well!

Aug 20-21, 2010

These retreats, taught by Mary Rees, are open to both new and experienced students. The Friday night session is essential for those new to Vipassana. The retreats are held at

Dawn Mountain at 1925 B Richmond Avenue in Houston, TX 77098-3401.

The retreat format allows time for practicing the basics in insight and mindfulness and offers the rare opportunity for guided and sustained attention - creating a rich opportunity for deepening concentration and for making a significant and lasting impact on the mind.

Working with spiritual texts and interpersonal practice will be included as a means of deepening experiential investigation of the teachings in general, but also including a unique theme or investigation for each retreat.

We include work with basic guidelines of Insight Dialogue supporting the process of practicing together, opening to the truth of both words and silence, and bringing a greater possibility of mindfulness, tranquility and other wholesome qualities into all our interactions.

For more information, please see the registration form here.

Interpersonal Mindfulness

Introductory to Advanced Courses

Continuing Education Available

"The mind emerges from the activity of the brain, whose structure and function are directly shaped by interpersonal practice."

Daniel Siegel, The Developing Mind, p.1

Through these courses, taught by Mary Rees, you will learn interpersonal practices for cultivating the mind. There are courses open to people new to meditation and with experience.

More information available here.

Going Beyond What you Believe to Be True - First Steps

Continuing Education Available

Every one of us is unique, a particular coming together of cells and experiences unlike any other. We are each a product of causes and conditions, yet there is more that joins us than separates us. One of our life tasks is to recognize and honor our uniqueness and richness, but also to see through the conditioning of our particular perspective, too see beyond what we believe to be true, to see clearly the way things are outside the limitations of our conditioned perspective.

Four Session Introduction to Mindfulness and Insight

By Arrangement via Telephone or Computer

More information available here.

Relational Insight and Mindfulness
Insight Dialogue

Residential Retreat - November 19-21, 2010

B&B in Burton, TX

Continuing Education Available (6 hours)

This retreat, led by Mary Rees, is appropriate for both experienced and beginning students. It is a silent retreat following the basic structure of other Insight Meditation or Vipassana Retreats, yet will include closely guided interpersonal practice: Insight Dialogue.

Insight Dialogue, interpersonal meditation, supports our capacity to awaken out of habit into shared presence. We practice by listening and speaking as we contemplate central teachings. The retreat includes simple guidelines that support this process of practicing together, opening to the truth of both words and silence, bringing a greater possibility of mindfulness, tranquility, and other wholesome qualities into all our interactions.

Mary has been teaching Vipassana (Insight and Mindfulness) since 1989 and elements of Insight Dialogue since 2001.

The retreat will be held at Knittel Homestead Inn, a Bed and Breakfast in Burton, TX. Accommodations are private and semi-private rooms, all linens provided. Meals are provided from Friday evening through Sunday lunch. Request a private room, a couples room (queen bed for two), or dorm room (one of five beds) according to availability at the time you register. See rooms on the Knittel Inn website.

The retreat is offered in the spirit of Dana with the intention to keep costs as low as possible. Your costs include room and board, a $100 registration fee to cover the teacher's costs, and, at the end of the retreat, an amount you choose to offer for the teaching.

For more information, please see the registration form here.