About
Michele Ku is an Insight Meditation practitioner and mindfulness teacher based in the East Bay. She teaches Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction at Kaiser Oakland and is a graduate of Spirit Rock Meditation Center's Community Dharma Leaders Program (2012) and Dedicated Practitioner's Program (2019). She is co-founder, coordinator, and teacher of the Family Sangha at East Bay Meditation Center. Her teaching focus includes mindfulness in everyday life and family contexts.
Teaching focus
Michele Ku'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. Michele Ku 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 relationships, beginners. The bigger move Michele Ku 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. Michele Ku'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. Michele Ku'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. Michele Ku'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
Michele Ku teaches in the Insight and Vipassana traditions. The teaching home is East Bay Meditation Center. From the teacher's own profile: Michele Ku is a long term Insight Meditation practitioner, a mindfulness teacher, therapist and a parent. She teaches Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction at Kaiser Oakland. She is a graduate of Spirit Rock Meditation Center's Community Dharma Leaders Program in 2012 and the Dedicated Practitioner's Program in 2019. She is the co-founder, coordinator and teacher of the Family Sangha at EBMC. One of her main spiritual practices is bringing mindfulness to everyday life and within the family. In the Insight stream Michele Ku 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. Michele Ku'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. Michele Ku'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. Michele Ku'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. Michele Ku'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. Michele Ku'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. Michele Ku'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. Michele Ku'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. Michele Ku'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
Michele Ku teaches as a lay teacher in the Insight and Vipassana 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 Michele Ku, 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.
