About
Jennifer Stanley began meditating in 1986 in Michigan and joined the Insight Meditation Community of Washington in 2000. She completed the two-year Meditation Teacher Training Institute and began teaching in 2011. Stanley is a trained teacher of Mindful Self-Compassion and teaches the 8-week MSC series regularly. She leads residential retreats in MSC, vipassana, and metta practices. Since 2022, she has taught MSC to staff and patients at the Washington DC VA Medical Center. Her background includes graduate training in ecological and community psychology and work as a public health systems researcher.
Teaching focus
Jennifer Stanley'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. Working with stress isn't treated as the entry-level version of the dharma. It's where most practitioners actually start, and the teaching takes that starting point seriously. 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 Jennifer Stanley'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.
Background
Jennifer Stanley began meditating in 1986 in Michigan and joined the Insight Meditation Community of Washington in 2000. She completed the two-year Meditation Teacher Training Institute and began teaching in 2011. Stanley is a trained teacher of Mindful Self-Compassion and teaches the 8-week MSC series regularly. She leads residential retreats in MSC, vipassana, and metta practices. Since 2022, she has taught MSC to staff and patients at the Washington DC VA Medical Center. Her background includes graduate training in ecological and community psychology and work as a public health systems researcher. She is a graduate of the two-year Meditation Teacher Training Institute (MTTI) and began teaching in 2011. In 2014 she became a trained teacher of Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC) and regularly teaches the 8-week series. She leads residential MSC, Vipassanā, and Mettā/lovingkindness retreats. In 2022, she began teaching MSC to staff and patients of the Washington DC VA Medical Center. Jennifer’s graduate training was in ecological/community psychology and she spent many years as a public health systems researcher. Contact Jennifer for teacher meetings. Jennifer Stanley'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. Areas of particular focus include stress, retreat. In Jennifer Stanley'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 Jennifer Stanley'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 Jennifer Stanley'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 Jennifer Stanley'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 Jennifer Stanley'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 Jennifer Stanley'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
Jennifer Stanley teaches within the Burmese vipassana revival as transmitted to the West. She is a graduate of the two-year Meditation Teacher Training Institute (MTTI) and began teaching in 2011. In 2014 she became a trained teacher of Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC) and regularly teaches the 8-week series. In 2022, she began teaching MSC to staff and patients of the Washington DC VA Medical Center. Jennifer’s graduate training was in ecological/community psychology and she spent many years as a public health systems researcher. Current affiliation runs through Insight Meditation Community of Washington. Jennifer Stanley teaches as a lay practitioner rather than from a monastic role.
What to expect
On retreat with Jennifer Stanley 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. 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.
