Tempel Smith

Residential Retreat Teacher

Tempel Smith teaches Mindfulness, Insight and Metta meditation with an emphasis on Buddhist psychology and mind-body awareness. He spent a year as a monk in Burma with Sayadaw U Pandita and Pa Auk Sayadaw. Tempel serves on the Spirit Rock Guiding Teachers Council, organizes the Dedicated Practitioners Program (DPP) and Living Dharma retreats for Spirit Rock, and teaches classes in the East Bay.

One thing you’ll notice about compassion, lovingkindness, and sympathetic joy is that they have a preference for what’s good, and an understanding that pain and suffering is a misfortune we all face. And yet that preference for the good, and seeing what’s painful as a misfortune, will keep us in our reactivity. With deeper wisdom, as we become intimate with life, as we have lived long enough and felt into what an actual human life is like, we see that there is this up and down motion: there’s pleasure and good fortune, then states that are very difficult when we experience pain and loss. To be an open-hearted human means that we have to come to terms with the fact that there will be some pleasure, there will be some pain, and that we don’t have much control over that. And so equanimity grows over time, with perspective.
 
Tempel Smith, Four Brahmavihāras Practice in Daily Life

Tempel Smith's Upcoming Programs

Retreat On-Land

February 1 - March 29, 2025 Saturday - Saturday | 56 nights

2025 Insight Meditation 2-Month Retreat - Application

Applications Still Being Accepted. An extended period of retreat offers the rare opportunity for sustained, dedicated practice. This retreat emphasizes quieting the mind, opening the heart, and developing profound clarity and depth of Insight practice. Instruction will follow the traditional four foundations of mindfulness combined with training in lovingkindness and compassion, and practice will be structured around a daily schedule of silent sitting, walking, Dharma talks, and practice meetings with teachers.

Dawn Scott

Dawn Scott

Vance Pryor

Vance Pryor

Tuere Sala

Tuere Sala

Brian Lesage

Brian Lesage

devon hase

devon hase

JD Doyle

JD Doyle

Tara Mulay

Tara Mulay

Tempel Smith

Tempel Smith

Devin Berry

Devin Berry

Anushka Fernandopulle

Anushka Fernandopulle

Kristina Baré

Kristina Baré

Francisco Morillo Gable

Francisco Morillo Gable

Marjolein Janssen

Marjolein Janssen

Rasika Link

Rasika Link

Retreat On-Land

March 1 - March 29, 2025 Saturday - Saturday | 28 nights

2025 March Insight Meditation 1-Month Retreat - Application

Applications Still Being Accepted. An extended period of retreat offers the rare opportunity for sustained, dedicated practice. This retreat emphasizes quieting the mind, opening the heart, and developing profound clarity and depth of Insight practice. Instruction will follow the traditional four foundations of mindfulness combined with training in lovingkindness and compassion, and practice will be structured around a daily schedule of silent sitting, walking, Dharma talks, and practice meetings with teachers.

Tara Mulay

Tara Mulay

Tempel Smith

Tempel Smith

Tuere Sala

Tuere Sala

Devin Berry

Devin Berry

Anushka Fernandopulle

Anushka Fernandopulle

Kristina Baré

Kristina Baré

Francisco Morillo Gable

Francisco Morillo Gable

Marjolein Janssen

Marjolein Janssen

Rasika Link

Rasika Link

Retreat On-Land

July 9 - July 18, 2025 Wednesday - Friday | 9 nights

Summer Lovingkindness Retreat

Registration Opens - March 12. The Buddha’s teachings on the four divine sanctuaries (brahmavihāras) include meditations on universal friendliness (mettā), compassion (karuṇā), altruistic joy (muditā), and equanimity (upekkhā). Aimed at purifying our hearts and developing concentration, these divine sanctuaries help us find inner peace and powerfully engage with the world. This retreat will deepen our understanding of selfless love and its role in ending suffering. Retreatants are encouraged to combine this retreat with the Insight Meditation retreat to further develop concentration and purify the heart.

Tempel Smith

Tempel Smith

Rebecca Bradshaw

Rebecca Bradshaw

Anushka Fernandopulle

Anushka Fernandopulle

Bonnie Duran

Bonnie Duran

John Martin

John Martin

Rasika Link

Rasika Link

Retreat On-Land

July 18 - July 27, 2025 Friday - Sunday | 9 nights

Summer Insight Meditation Retreat

Registration Opens - March 18. This retreat will emphasize continuity of awareness in all activities, stabilizing the mind, and cultivating insight. Combining relaxation with clarity, we will explore the liberating teachings of the Buddha, including the foundations of mindfulness, the radical nature of impermanence, and the cessation of craving. Practitioners are encouraged to combine the Summer Insight Retreat with the Summer Lovingkindness (mettā) Retreat, although this is not required. For those attending both retreats, the teachers will guide and integrate the retreats as one offering.

Tempel Smith

Tempel Smith

Anushka Fernandopulle

Anushka Fernandopulle

John Martin

John Martin

Bonnie Duran

Bonnie Duran

Rebecca Bradshaw

Rebecca Bradshaw

Rasika Link

Rasika Link

Dharma Library

Can't join us live online or on the land? Study and practice at your convenience with Tempel Smith through our new library of recordings, articles, and self-paced online courses.