About
Sierra Pickett is a meditation practitioner and organizer based at the East Bay Meditation Center (EBMC), a gift-economy Buddhist center in the East Bay. She has served as a long-time coordinating committee member of EBMC's People of Color Sangha, a weekly sitting group, and sits on EBMC's Programming Committee. Pickett is also a board member of Buddhist Peace Fellowship and an American Sign Language interpreter. She has volunteered with East Point Peace Academy for over three years and engages with Kingian Nonviolence practice. Her work focuses on sangha building, accessibility, and social justice within Buddhist communities.
Teaching focus
Sierra Pickett's teaching focus, drawn from the source profile, sits in the Insight and Mahayana traditions. Several threads come up: dharma applied to social and collective suffering;. On talks, the style is closer to thinking-along than presenting. Sierra Pickett 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 LGBTQ+, beginners. The bigger move Sierra Pickett 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. Sierra Pickett'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. Sierra Pickett'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
Sierra Pickett teaches in the Insight and Mahayana traditions. The teaching home is East Bay Meditation Center. From the teacher's own profile: Sierra Pickett has a passion for accessible Sangha building. At the East Bay Meditation Center (EBMC), a gift economy based, social-justice Buddhist center that Jack Kornfield has called "the most diverse Sangha on the planet", she has been serving as a long-time Coordinating Committee member of the People Of Color Sangha, a weekly sitting group offering safe(r) space for POC practitioners, and currently sits on the Programming Committee for EBMC at large. An addition to Buddhist Peace Fellowship's board of directors, Sierra is a web weaver who sees networking as an intentional act of love connecting us together in reciprocal support and interdependence. Volunteering with East Point Peace Academy for 3+ years, she values Kingian Nonviolence as a true avenue in transformation and is honored to have witnessed and experienced it first hand. An American Sign Language interpreter, Sierra loves expanding linguistic and cultural accessibility within a social justice framework. Easily spotted in bright colors, she will greet you with an infectious smile. In the Insight stream Sierra Pickett 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. Sierra Pickett'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. Sierra Pickett'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. Sierra Pickett'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. Sierra Pickett'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. Sierra Pickett'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
Sierra Pickett teaches as a lay teacher in the Insight and Mahayana 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 Sierra Pickett, 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.
