Some part of us desperately wants to control, and some part of us desperately wants to surrender—and we can't always choose which side we're on. But what's left in the wake of letting go is very quiet, potent love. Hatred requires energy, clinging. Love asks only that we let go.
Matthew Brensilver, PhD
Residential Retreat Teacher
Matthew Brensilver teaches at the Insight Retreat Center, Spirit Rock and Insight Meditation Society. He was previously program director for Mindful Schools and for more than a decade, was a core teacher at Against the Stream Buddhist Meditation Society. Matthew worked as a clinical social worker, serving severely and persistently mentally ill adults. He subsequently earned a PhD from the Dworak-Peck School of Social Work at USC. His dissertation examined the mechanisms of risk and resilience in maltreated adolescents in a large, longitudinal study in South Los Angeles. Before committing to teach meditation full-time, he spent years doing research on addiction pharmacotherapy at the UCLA Center for Behavioral and Addiction Medicine. Each summer, he lectures at UCLA’s Mindful Awareness Research Center on the intersections between mindfulness, science and psychotherapy. He serves on the Board of Directors at Spirit Rock and Insight Meditation Center.
Matthew Brensilver's Upcoming Programs
Retreat | On-Land
January 18 - January 22, 2026 | Sunday - Thursday | 4 nights
Tranquility and Insight: The Path to Inner Peace
Registration Open. In this retreat, we’ll explore how the forces of grasping and aversion bind our minds, shaping our views and experiences more profoundly than we realize. The Buddha invites a radical shift: as the body relaxes and the clenched fist of clinging is released, a new experience of ourselves and the world becomes available. As the mind unbinds from habitual tendencies, clarity and stillness emerge, and from this stillness, wisdom converges with love as we come to honor and cherish life.
Training | Online
January 24 - May 16, 2026 | 5 Sessions
Buddhist Psychology Training
21 CE Credits. Deepen your meditation practice and nourish your work with clients in this training designed for clinicians, counselors, and mindfulness teachers. Through meditation, Dharma talks, small group explorations, and clinical case studies, you will develop greater confidence in applying mindfulness-based interventions with clients while enhancing your understanding of Buddhist psychology and meditation practices that illuminate our minds, foster goodness, and transform habits that compound suffering. This training brings both sides of ourselves—patient and healer—together as we practice and learn in community.
Matthew Brensilver
Retreat | On-Land
April 30 - May 9, 2026 | Thursday - Saturday | 9 nights
Spring Insight Retreat
Registration Open. All the time before you were born plus all the time after you die is almost exactly all the time there is. Yet we find ourselves alive, with a question: how should I live? We begin by listening deeply. Throughout this retreat, we will sit together in the refuge provided by a 2,600-year legacy of wisdom and kindness. In the silence, we come to know the preciousness of life and the poignancy of the human condition.
Retreat | On-Land
June 27 - June 30, 2026 | Saturday - Tuesday | 3 nights
Wisdom and Love
Registration Open. For generations, practitioners have stepped away from the hum of daily life to slow down, listen deeply, and remember what’s always been here. To be mindful of goodness brings love; to be mindful of pain also brings love. This asymmetry is the miracle of mindfulness. As our attention stabilizes, we begin to sense the poignancy of our wish to be happy. In turn, this love informs how we engage with the world.
Retreat | On-Land
August 4 - August 8, 2026 | Tuesday - Saturday | 4 nights
Young Adult Retreat
For those Young adults ages 18-32 years. Registration Open. Join a kind community to practice mindfulness and compassion. Offer yourself freedom from overstimulation and come home to the experience of being alive. In mindfulness meditation, we rest and look deeply, knowing moment-by-moment what it is like to be human. Some of us are hesitant to look because there is concern about what we’ll find. Our practice shows us that the more deeply we look, the more reason we have to love.
Upcoming Drop-Ins
Drop-in | Online
Monday, December 22 | 6:30 PM - 8:30 PM
Monday Night Meditation & Talk
For over 35 years, the Monday Night sitting group at Spirit Rock has been a welcoming refuge to gather, hear the teachings of the Buddha, and practice Insight Meditation together as a community. The program includes a 30-40 min guided meditation, a short break, and a Dharma talk.
Matthew Brensilver
Dharma Library
Can't join us live online or on the land? Study and practice at your convenience with Matthew Brensilver through our new library of recordings, articles, and self-paced online courses.