About
Maureen Shannon-Chapple has practiced yoga and meditation since her teenage years. She completed Spirit Rock Meditation Center's Community Dharma Leader Training in 2008. Based in Los Angeles, she teaches through InsightLA, where she co-leads the Facilitator Training Program with Trudy Goodman and anchors the monthly Mindful of Whiteness anti-racism group. She also teaches mindfulness classes at Loyola Marymount University, in the Mindful USC program, and at various community sites. Her background includes classroom teaching, adult education, and parenting trainings.
Teaching focus
Maureen Shannon-Chapple's teaching focus, drawn from the source profile, sits in the Insight and Vipassana traditions. Several threads come up: dharma for parents and householders;. On talks, the style is closer to thinking-along than presenting. Maureen Shannon-Chapple 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 beginners. The bigger move Maureen Shannon-Chapple 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. Maureen Shannon-Chapple'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. Maureen Shannon-Chapple'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
Maureen Shannon-Chapple teaches in the Insight and Vipassana traditions. The teaching home is InsightLA. From the teacher's own profile: Maureen Shannon-Chapple has been a practitioner of yoga and meditation since her teenage years. Her professional life has included classroom teaching, parenting trainings, adult education, and college teaching. She is a 2008 graduate of Spirit Rock Meditation Center’s Community Dharma Leader Training, and has led groups including ILA’s Family Program, mindfulness classes, and the weekly Tuesday Night Sitting Group at Loyola Marymount University. Maureen co-leads, with Trudy Goodman, ILA’s Facilitator Training Program. She also teaches in the Mindful USC program and other community sites. She is currently with one of the teams of teachers anchoring the monthly Mindful of Whiteness: Anti-Racism Practices for White People group at InsightLA. In the Insight stream Maureen Shannon-Chapple 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. Maureen Shannon-Chapple'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. Maureen Shannon-Chapple'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. Maureen Shannon-Chapple'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. Maureen Shannon-Chapple'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. Maureen Shannon-Chapple'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. Maureen Shannon-Chapple'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. Maureen Shannon-Chapple'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
Maureen Shannon-Chapple teaches as a lay teacher in the Insight and Vipassana 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 Maureen Shannon-Chapple, 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.
