About
Gabrielle Hammond is a Qigong instructor, acupuncturist, and herbalist with 30 years of practice. She teaches Qigong alongside a personal practice in Vipassana meditation, which she has pursued for 18 years. She completed Spirit Rock's two-year Dedicated Practitioner Program and Sacred Mountain Sangha's two-year Dharmapala Training under Thanissara and Kittisaro. Her daily practice includes sitting meditation, tea ceremony, Qigong, and chanting. She is affiliated with InsightLA. Her work draws on training from Chang Yi Hsiang, a 64th generation Taoist Master who introduced her to contemplative practice at an early age.
Teaching focus
Gabrielle Hammond's teaching focus, drawn from the source profile, sits in the Vipassana and Insight traditions. Several threads come up: steady attention to body and breath; the relationship between ethics and meditation; and short, direct teachings rather than long talks. On talks, the style is closer to thinking-along than presenting. Gabrielle Hammond works with whatever shows up in the room rather than reading from notes, which is part of why these talks land as conversational instead of scripted. Short pauses, longer sits, and questions that come back to direct experience are usual. Listed specialties on the source profile include silent retreat. The bigger move Gabrielle Hammond keeps making is back toward attention itself: what's happening, how it's being held, and what gets in the way. That keeps the teaching close to practice rather than drifting into commentary about practice. For talks, schedules, and longer essays, the affiliated organization's page is where the live material lives. Gabrielle Hammond's sessions tend to keep returning to the body, to breath, and to the felt quality of attention as the steady ground that the rest rests on. Gabrielle Hammond's sessions tend to keep returning to the body, to breath, and to the felt quality of attention as the steady ground that the rest rests on.
Background
Gabrielle Hammond teaches in the Vipassana and Insight traditions. The teaching home is InsightLA. From the teacher's own profile: Gabrielle Hammond (Movement Teacher | Qigong) has been practicing as an acupuncturist, herbalist, and Qigong instructor for the past 30 years. She offers Qigong playfully while facilitating practitioners to create conditions for a stable, healing, and calm abiding in movement and stillness. She has been practicing Vipassana meditation for 18 years and practices silent meditation retreats annually. She has completed Spirit Rock’s two-year Dedicated Practitioner Program and Sacred Mountain Sangha’s two-year Dharmapala Training with Thanissara and Kittisaro. Her personal daily practice includes sitting, tea ceremony, Qigong, and chanting. She has a particular interest in devotional expression of the Dharma and bringing it alive to people and beings in health or creative crises. She considers her Qigong offerings as an expression of her gratitude for her teacher, a 64th generation Taoist Master named Chang Yi Hsiang, who initiated her journey into contemplative arts, meditation, and Qigong practice at a young age, and encouraged her to study and practice healing Qigong as the bedrock of her personal and healing practice. In the Insight stream Gabrielle Hammond works inside, the emphasis is on direct attention to body, feeling tone, and mind, alongside the brahmaviharas and an ongoing investigation of how clinging and aversion arise. Talks tend to be conversational rather than scripted, and there's room for sila and ethics to be talked about as part of practice rather than as a separate topic. Gabrielle Hammond's page on OMP collects the publicly available bio, the listed affiliations, and any talks tracked through the source archive, and is meant as a directory entry rather than an authorized biography. Gabrielle Hammond's page on OMP collects the publicly available bio, the listed affiliations, and any talks tracked through the source archive, and is meant as a directory entry rather than an authorized biography. Gabrielle Hammond's page on OMP collects the publicly available bio, the listed affiliations, and any talks tracked through the source archive, and is meant as a directory entry rather than an authorized biography. Gabrielle Hammond's page on OMP collects the publicly available bio, the listed affiliations, and any talks tracked through the source archive, and is meant as a directory entry rather than an authorized biography. Gabrielle Hammond's page on OMP collects the publicly available bio, the listed affiliations, and any talks tracked through the source archive, and is meant as a directory entry rather than an authorized biography.
Lineage
Gabrielle Hammond teaches as a lay teacher in the Vipassana and Insight traditions. The institutional home, per the source listing, is InsightLA, and that's where most of the public teaching schedule and any retreat offerings will be posted. The Insight lineage in the West runs through teachers like Mahasi Sayadaw, U Ba Khin, Anagarika Munindra, and Dipa Ma into the founders of IMS, Spirit Rock, and the regional centers, and most contemporary Insight teachers position themselves somewhere in that broad family.
What to expect
On a class or retreat with Gabrielle Hammond, the basic shape is short instruction, longer sittings, and some Q&A. The container is shaped by InsightLA, so format details, fees, and access policies follow that organization's norms. Expect plenty of silence, less talking-at-you than you might think, and an emphasis on letting the practice do its work rather than chasing experiences. For exact dates, registration, and any sliding-scale or scholarship information, There's usually a short Q&A window and, on retreats, optional teacher interviews where students can bring specific questions about their practice. There's usually a short Q&A window and, on retreats, optional teacher interviews where students can bring specific questions about their practice.
