About
Amy Smith has practiced Vipassana meditation since 2005. She worked as operations director of InsightLA in Santa Monica from 2008 to 2010, where she attended Dharma classes and retreats and completed a teacher training program. She is a graduate of Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach's Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certificate Program. Her guiding teachers are Tara Brach, Jonathan Foust, and Trudy Goodman. Since moving to Washington, DC in 2010, she has taught mindfulness at Insight Meditation Community of Washington (IMCW) and served on its board. She also works in forest conservation.
Teaching focus
Amy Smith's teaching focus sits inside the Burmese vipassana revival as transmitted to the West, with insight meditation (vipassana) as the working ground. Vipassana practice as taught here works with direct observation of body, feeling-tone, mind-state, and dhammas, the four foundations of mindfulness as they appear in the Satipatthana Sutta. The instruction keeps coming back to what's actually arising rather than what should be. Across the body of work, the consistent thread in Amy Smith's teaching is the refusal to let practice become abstract. The instruction asks for direct contact with what's actually arising, and the framing supports practitioners in giving it that. Recurring questions in the teaching include how to keep practice honest across years, how to hold difficulty without bypassing it, and how the dharma actually shows up in ordinary life rather than only on the cushion. Recurring questions in the teaching include how to keep practice honest across years, how to hold difficulty without bypassing it, and how the dharma actually shows up in ordinary life rather than only on the cushion. Recurring questions in the teaching include how to keep practice honest across years, how to hold difficulty without bypassing it, and how the dharma actually shows up in ordinary life rather than only on the cushion.
Background
Amy Smith has practiced Vipassana meditation since 2005. She worked as operations director of InsightLA in Santa Monica from 2008 to 2010, where she attended Dharma classes and retreats and completed a teacher training program. She is a graduate of Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach's Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certificate Program. Her guiding teachers are Tara Brach, Jonathan Foust, and Trudy Goodman. Since moving to Washington, DC in 2010, she has taught mindfulness at Insight Meditation Community of Washington (IMCW) and served on its board. She also works in forest conservation. Amy is a graduate of Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach’s Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certificate Program (MMTCP). Her guiding teachers are Tara Brach, Jonathan Foust, and Trudy Goodman. Since her arrival in DC, Amy has been engaged with IMCW as a mindfulness teacher, and has also been an IMCW board member. She currently works at an international environmental organization to promote forest conservation and sustainable natural resource use. Amy Smith's teaching is anchored at Insight Meditation Community of Washington. The teaching draws from the Burmese vipassana revival as transmitted to the West, with insight meditation (vipassana) as the working ground. In Amy Smith's talks the emphasis lands on direct observation. What the breath actually does, what mood actually feels like in the body, what arises and passes when nothing is being added. The practice is asked to deliver its own evidence. Practitioners drawn to Amy Smith's teaching tend to be people who've already noticed that practice is a long arc, not a quick fix, and who want a teacher who treats it that way. Practitioners drawn to Amy Smith's teaching tend to be people who've already noticed that practice is a long arc, not a quick fix, and who want a teacher who treats it that way. Practitioners drawn to Amy Smith's teaching tend to be people who've already noticed that practice is a long arc, not a quick fix, and who want a teacher who treats it that way. Practitioners drawn to Amy Smith's teaching tend to be people who've already noticed that practice is a long arc, not a quick fix, and who want a teacher who treats it that way. Practitioners drawn to Amy Smith's teaching tend to be people who've already noticed that practice is a long arc, not a quick fix, and who want a teacher who treats it that way. Practitioners drawn to Amy Smith's teaching tend to be people who've already noticed that practice is a long arc, not a quick fix, and who want a teacher who treats it that way.
Lineage
Amy Smith teaches within the Burmese vipassana revival as transmitted to the West. During that time, she attended numerous Dharma classes and retreats, and participated in InsightLA’s teacher training program. Amy is a graduate of Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach’s Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certificate Program (MMTCP). Her guiding teachers are Tara Brach, Jonathan Foust, and Trudy Goodman. Since her arrival in DC, Amy has been engaged with IMCW as a mindfulness teacher, and has also been an IMCW board member. Current affiliation runs through Insight Meditation Community of Washington. Amy Smith teaches as a lay practitioner rather than from a monastic role.
What to expect
In Amy Smith's classes and groups, expect guided sitting, dharma teaching held to a manageable length, and time for practitioners to ask the questions that are actually live for them. Sittings are conventional, mindfulness of breath and body, with metta and inquiry into difficult mind-states woven through. There's space for questions, and the answers don't get rushed. The atmosphere is grounded rather than performative, and practitioners tend to leave with practical ground to keep working from on their own. The atmosphere is grounded rather than performative, and practitioners tend to leave with practical ground to keep working from on their own.
