About
Regina Flanigan teaches in the Insight Meditation tradition and nondual wisdom traditions. She holds a master's degree in counseling from Johns Hopkins University and completed the two-year Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification training led by Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach in 2019. She has also trained in the Satipatthana Meditation Certificate Program through the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies. Flanigan is based at the Insight Meditation Community of Washington, where she leads weekly meditation classes, groups, and short retreats.
Teaching focus
Regina Flanigan's teaching focus sits inside the Insight Meditation lineage that grew from Burmese vipassana through teachers like Joseph Goldstein, Sharon Salzberg, and Jack Kornfield, with insight meditation (vipassana) as the working ground. The Insight Meditation lineage carries forward the Burmese vipassana teaching as it took root in the West through teachers like Joseph Goldstein, Sharon Salzberg, and Jack Kornfield. That means mindfulness held at the center, with metta and the broader brahmaviharas as steady companions, and a household-friendly framing that doesn't require ordination or extreme retreat conditions. Grief practice gets real time. The teaching doesn't sanitize loss into a contemplative lesson, it lets it stay heavy long enough to be honest. 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 Regina Flanigan'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.
Background
Regina Flanigan teaches in the Insight Meditation tradition and nondual wisdom traditions. She holds a master's degree in counseling from Johns Hopkins University and completed the two-year Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification training led by Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach in 2019. She has also trained in the Satipatthana Meditation Certificate Program through the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies. Flanigan is based at the Insight Meditation Community of Washington, where she leads weekly meditation classes, groups, and short retreats. In 2019 Regina completed the two year, inaugural Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification training (MMTCP) led by Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach. She was mentored by Hugh Byrne at Insight Meditation Community of Washington (IMCW), where she continues to teach and help nurture the Center for Mindful Living Sangha. Regina has completed additional training, including the “Approach to Nibbana” teacher training and the Satipatthana Meditation Certificate Program through the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies, based on the teachings of Bhikkhu Analayo. Her teaching is informed and inspired by the wisdom and compassion of both past and contemporary Buddhist teachers. For the past seven years, Regina has led weekly meditation classes, groups, and short retreats. Her work is devoted to supporting others in cultivating well-being, meeting loss and change with wise compassion, and navigating the challenges of being human. Regina Flanigan's teaching is anchored at Insight Meditation Community of Washington. The teaching draws from the Insight Meditation lineage that grew from Burmese vipassana through teachers like Joseph Goldstein, Sharon Salzberg, and Jack Kornfield, with insight meditation (vipassana) as the working ground. Areas of particular focus include grief, retreat. The voice in Regina Flanigan's teaching is recognizably in the Insight Meditation lineage, warm without being soft, and willing to sit with the difficult places practice opens. Mindfulness, loving-kindness, and the gradual accumulation of insight are the working vocabulary. Practitioners drawn to Regina Flanigan'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 Regina Flanigan'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 Regina Flanigan'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
Regina Flanigan teaches within the Insight Meditation lineage that grew from Burmese vipassana through teachers like Joseph Goldstein, Sharon Salzberg, and Jack Kornfield. In 2019 Regina completed the two year, inaugural Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification training (MMTCP) led by Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach. She was mentored by Hugh Byrne at Insight Meditation Community of Washington (IMCW), where she continues to teach and help nurture the Center for Mindful Living Sangha. Regina has completed additional training, including the “Approach to Nibbana” teacher training and the Satipatthana Meditation Certificate Program through the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies, based on the teachings of Bhikkhu Analayo. Current affiliation runs through Insight Meditation Community of Washington. Regina Flanigan teaches as a fully ordained monastic.
What to expect
On retreat with Regina Flanigan 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.
