About
Imee Contreras is founder of Mindfulness Asia and co-founder and principal teacher of Philippine Insight Meditation Community. She trained at Spirit Rock Meditation Center and UCLA Mindful Awareness Research Center under teachers including Thanissaro Bhikkhu and Tara Brach. Contreras serves as a mentor in the Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Program and The Power of Awareness course, and holds positions as cross-cultural mindfulness teacher and board member at Braided Wisdom, affiliate teacher at UCLA Mindful Awareness Research Center, and founding advisory council member of the Global Compassion Coalition. She is credentialed by the International Mindfulness Teachers Association and teaches at meditation centers internationally.
Teaching focus
Imee Contreras's teaching focus, drawn from the source profile, sits in the Vipassana and Insight traditions. Several threads come up: compassion training that doesn't collapse into pity or burnout;. On talks, the style is closer to thinking-along than presenting. Imee Contreras 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. The bigger move Imee Contreras 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. Imee Contreras'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. Imee Contreras'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. Imee Contreras'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
Imee Contreras teaches in the Vipassana and Insight traditions. The teaching home is East Bay Meditation Center. From the teacher's own profile: Imee Contreras is the founder of Mindfulness Asia, and co-founder and principal teacher of Philippine Insight Meditation Community. Mentored by Thanissaro Bhikkhu, Tara Brach, Ph.D., and Carol Cano, M.A., she received formal training at Spirit Rock Meditation Center and UCLA Mindful Awareness Research Center. She is a mentor for Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach's Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Program and The Power of Awareness course, serves as a Cross-Cultural Mindfulness teacher and Board Member at Braided Wisdom and an affiliate teacher at UCLA Mindful Awareness Research Center. She is a visiting teacher in various meditation centers around the world, a founding Advisory Council member of the Global Compassion Coalition, and is credentialled by the International Mindfulness Teachers Association. In the Insight stream Imee Contreras 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. Imee Contreras'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. Imee Contreras'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. Imee Contreras'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. Imee Contreras'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. Imee Contreras'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. Imee Contreras'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
Imee Contreras teaches as a lay teacher in the Vipassana and Insight traditions. The institutional home, per the source listing, is East Bay Meditation Center, 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 Imee Contreras, the basic shape is short instruction, longer sittings, and some Q&A. Retreats are part of the offering, usually a few days to a week, mostly silent. The container is shaped by East Bay Meditation Center, 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.
