Sharda rogell biography of christopher

About Sharda

I began practicing meditation in 1976 as a last resort to deal with my perennial unhappiness.

Transcendental Meditation was suggested to me as a way to help and I practiced this form of meditation with great discipline, gaining some favorable results for two years.

I was on my second insight meditation retreat, this time during a seventeen-day course at the Thai Monastery in Bodh Gaya, India, with Christopher Titmuss.

When I moved to San Francisco in 1978 to study holistic healing, I met James Baraz who was offering one of his first classes in Vipassana meditation. Once I stepped onto the Buddha’s path, something clicked and I became a dedicated practitioner.

I joined James at his San Franicsco sitting group when there were just three of us sitting in these early days! Then I began sitting many long retreats at the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts under the guidance of Joseph Goldstein and Jack Kornfield.

This was a significant time of learning and growth for me.

My focus in teaching is to provide the support that students need to turn their life to the dharma, to truth, and to find ways to come out of their pain and.

Sharda Rogell has been teaching retreats at IMS for more than ten years.

My engagement in teaching the dharma, to point to a free and liberated life, has remained the same since the first day I started.

This is an edited version of the Zoom talk I gave for the Wednesday Night Sitting Group on October 13, in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada.

I joined their retreats when they came to California to teach. Sometimes, I also helped James organize their retreats and served as a cook. I joined Wes Nisker and Barbara Gates as the graphic desig