About
Marti Paschal began meditation practice in 2005 and has studied at Spirit Rock Meditation Center, East Bay Meditation Center, San Francisco Zen Center, and Vajrapani Institute. She completed the yearlong Commit2Dharma program at East Bay Meditation Center and the Contemplative Caregiver Course at San Francisco Zen Center in 2014. Paschal completed coursework for the two-year Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Training Program with Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach. She is a Compassion Cultivation Facilitator in Training through the Center for Compassion & Altruism Research and Education at Stanford University. She is based at East Bay Meditation Center.
Teaching focus
Marti Paschal'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. Marti Paschal 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 caregiving. The bigger move Marti Paschal 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. Marti Paschal'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. Marti Paschal'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
Marti Paschal teaches in the Vipassana and Insight traditions. The teaching home is East Bay Meditation Center. From the teacher's own profile: Marti Paschal began her meditation practice in 2005 and has since studied with teachers at Spirit Rock Meditation Center, East Bay Meditation Center, San Francisco Zen Center, and Vajrapani Institute. She completed the yearlong Commit2Dharma program at EBMC and the Contemplative Caregiver Course at the San Francisco Zen Center in 2014. She recently completed the coursework for the two-year Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Training Program with teachers Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach. She is also a Compassion Cultivation Facilitator in Training enrolled in the Compassion Cultivation Training Teacher Certification Program, a course developed by the Center for Compassion & Altruism Research and Education at Stanford University. In the Insight stream Marti Paschal 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. Marti Paschal'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. Marti Paschal'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. Marti Paschal'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. Marti Paschal'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. Marti Paschal'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. Marti Paschal'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. Marti Paschal'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
Marti Paschal 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 Marti Paschal, the basic shape is short instruction, longer sittings, and some Q&A. 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.
