About
Anna Douglas teaches meditation and explores connections between meditation practice and creative work. She is based in a Buddhist Dharma tradition and has led 20 retreats and 124 talks. Douglas teaches classes in meditation and works with students on creative practice across various media. She frames creative engagement as linked to Buddhist concepts of emptiness and non-clinging, and positions it as a bridge between meditation and activity in daily life.
Teaching focus
Anna Douglas's teaching focus sits inside the broader Mahayana stream, with shamatha and bodhicitta cultivation as the working ground. The teaching is shaped by the silent-retreat container, with the long arcs and the sustained quiet that container makes possible. Across the body of work, the consistent thread in Anna Douglas'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. 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
Anna Douglas teaches meditation and explores connections between meditation practice and creative work. She is based in a Buddhist Dharma tradition and has led 20 retreats and 124 talks. Douglas teaches classes in meditation and works with students on creative practice across various media. She frames creative engagement as linked to Buddhist concepts of emptiness and non-clinging, and positions it as a bridge between meditation and activity in daily life. With generosity rather than greed? With humility instead of arrogance? With the intention to include rather than exclude? And with a genuine openness to what we do not know, and therefore might fear? I believe these are urgent questions for the global situation, and rich questions for Dharma inquiry. For several years, I have been teaching classes in meditation and the creative process. Anna Douglas's teaching is anchored at Donate to Anna Douglas. The teaching draws from the broader Mahayana stream, with shamatha and bodhicitta cultivation as the working ground. Areas of particular focus include retreat. The recorded talk archive on Dharma Seed currently runs to roughly 124 recordings, which gives a long view of how the teaching has developed across years. Retreat teaching is part of the ongoing schedule, with 20 retreats logged through the public archives so far. The Mahayana framing in Anna Douglas's teaching keeps bodhicitta in view, the orientation toward awakening for the sake of all beings, without making it abstract. Compassion gets practiced, not assumed. Practitioners drawn to Anna Douglas'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 Anna Douglas'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 Anna Douglas'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 Anna Douglas'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 Anna Douglas'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
Anna Douglas teaches within the broader Mahayana stream. I believe these are urgent questions for the global situation, and rich questions for Dharma inquiry. For several years, I have been teaching classes in meditation and the creative process. It teaches us about non-doing and non-clinging in action. Current affiliation runs through Donate to Anna Douglas. Anna Douglas teaches as a lay practitioner rather than from a monastic role. The lineage shapes the form of the teaching, not just its content. Practitioners encountering it find a transmission line still actively developing. The lineage shapes the form of the teaching, not just its content. Practitioners encountering it find a transmission line still actively developing.
What to expect
On retreat with Anna Douglas you'll get long sits, walking practice, and dharma talks that build on each other across days. The container is silent or near-silent, which gives the teaching room to land in a way that single classes can't quite reach. 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. The atmosphere is grounded rather than performative, and practitioners tend to leave with practical ground to keep working from on their own.
