The Two Wings to Awakening: Wisdom and Compassion

With Jill Shepherd and Elizabeth Faria

August 22 - 28, 2025

Date and Time Details: Fri, 22 Aug, 3pm - 28 Aug, 1pm AEST

Location: Byron Bay, Australia

Address: Sangsurya Retreat Centre, Old Bangalow Road, Byron Bay NSW, Australia

Experience level: This retreat is best suited to people who have done at least one previous residential insight meditation retreat of two days or longer, but prior Insight Dialogue experience is not required.

Organizers: Sydney Insight Meditators

Fees in AUD not USD
  • $1,565.00 – Single room accommodation and all meals. Limited number available.
  • $1,170.00 – Standard Shared room: Twin shared room and all meals
  • $985.00 – Concession Shared room: For pensioners and full time students
Register with Sydney Insight Meditation
Register with Sydney Insight Meditation

A six-night retreat weaving together silent and relational insight meditation practice
This retreat offers a rare opportunity to bring together two complementary practices: silent insight (vipassanā) meditation and Insight Dialogue, a relational meditation practice that involves mindful speaking and listening together in pairs or small groups.

We will combine both these powerful approaches to explore and strengthen the two wings of awakening: wisdom and compassion. Wisdom or insight helps us to understand the causes of unsatisfactoriness, stress, distress, and suffering, and compassion, together with its sister qualities of kindness, appreciative joy, and equanimity, offers the nourishment and support to experience increasingly deep freedom of heart and mind.

The peaceful, natural beauty of Sangsurya Retreat Centre in Byron Bay provides an ideal setting for both quiet reflection and shared contemplation, with warm, inviting spaces perfect for winter retreats.

The retreat schedule will offer a balance of guided and silent meditation in the mornings, relational practice in the afternoons, and dharma talks with evening meditation sessions to close the day.

About the Leaders

Jill Shepherd

Jill Shepherd leads Insight Dialogue courses and non-residential workshops internationally. She began studying and practicing insight meditation in Thailand in 1999, and recently spent seven years on staff at the Insight Meditation Society (IMS) in Barre, Massachusetts, where she participated in several long retreats and Buddhist study programs, as well as offering weekly meditation classes […]

Learn more about Jill Shepherd

Elizabeth Faria

Elizabeth Faria has studied with Gregory Kramer and the Insight Dialogue Teaching Community since 2008. She began practicing vipassana on long retreats meditation in 1996. She took a two-year break from work to dedicate time to meditation practice in India, the US, Australia, and Thailand. Elizabeth is a graduate of the Australian Association of Buddhist […]

Learn more about Elizabeth Faria

Categories : , , , ,