Join world-renowned teachers and Insight Meditation Society cofounders Sharon Salzberg and Joseph Goldstein in their landmark 12-session online training.
When you seek to live a spiritual life, what matters most is not what you know but the actions you take. How do you effectively practice and embody the spiritual principles you hold dear? Insight Meditation was created to help you answer this question in the nitty gritty of your daily life. Through dedicated engagement with the many teachings and exercises you’ll learn from Sharon Salzberg and Joseph Goldstein, you can expect both immediate and long-term benefits including:
From two of today's most experienced and respected meditation teachers
Including guided meditations, supplemental materials, and a wealth of practices for daily life situations and circumstances
One with each of your teachers, Sharon Salzberg and Joseph Goldstein
Continue your practice at your own pace with lifetime access to all course materials
Insight meditation, also known as vipassana, is the traditional art of meditation as it was taught by the Buddha himself, then passed from friend to friend for over 2,600 years. Insight meditation remains popular even today because it works.
Since we cofounded the Insight Meditation Society nearly 50 years ago, we’ve watched as thousands of our students have made personal breakthroughs and transformed their lives through meditation. (Many have even become teachers themselves!)
We created this 12-session program to teach anyone, with any level of experience, how to start and continue a meditation practice. We’re confident this course is unlike any other online training available today.
If you want to start or continue a profound meditation practice that will transform your way of being in the world—from feeling out of control and reactive to stable, loving, and wise—we wholeheartedly invite you to join the Insight Meditation online course.
Your guides on the journey,
Sharon Salzberg & Joseph Goldstein
Cofounders of the Insight Meditation Society
Sharon Salzberg, a student of Buddhism since 1971, has been leading meditation retreats worldwide since 1974. Influenced by her more than twenty-five years of study with Burmese, Indian, and Tibetan teachers, she teaches intensive awareness practice and the profound cultivation of lovingkindness and compassion. She is a cofounder of the Insight Meditation Society and the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies and the author of several books, including The Kindness Handbook, A Heart as Wide as the World, and, most recently, Real Change. Sharon's Sounds True audio programs include Embracing Your Boundless Heart and Guided Meditations for Love and Wisdom.
Joseph Goldstein has been leading insight and lovingkindness meditation retreats worldwide since 1974, and has studied and practiced different forms of Buddhist meditation under eminent teachers from India, Burma, and Tibet since 1967. He is a cofounder of the Insight Meditation Society, the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies, and the Forest Refuge. His books include A Heart Full of Peace, One Dharma, Insight Meditation, Mindfulness, and The Experience of Insight. Joseph's audio programs with Sounds True include the three-volume Abiding in Mindfulness series.
Begin a deep and lasting meditation practice with two legendary cofounders of the Insight Meditation Society who bring you a combined ten decades of teaching experience.
Explore traditional insight, or vipassana, meditation as it was taught by the Buddha himself and then passed friend to friend for more than 2,600 years.
Structured much like their sought-after in-person retreats, this course offers an immersive meditation training that can be customized to your schedule.
More than stress relief, though it does that too, insight meditation provides a pathway to inner transformation that will carry you through all of life's challenges.
The Insight Meditation online course has been designed to train you step-by-step in the practice of meditation in the vipassana (“insight”) Buddhist tradition. You’ll enjoy two supportive Q&A session recordings, written and audio wisdom teachings, guided meditations, and a wealth of additional experiential exercises to help you bring your practice “beyond the cushion” and into daily life.
In this session, you’ll explore the concept of mindfulness and its importance in our lives. According to the Buddha, we cultivate true happiness and peace when we are mindful, when we are able to bring our full attention to the present moment.
Highlights:
Session Two explores the nature of inner awareness. You’ll discover powerful techniques for slowing down and becoming more present in every moment.
Highlights:
In Session Three, you’ll look closely at the emotions of desire and aversion—how they are widely misunderstood in Western culture, and how we can undo their influence in our everyday lives.
Highlights:
In this session, you’ll continue your exploration of the five traditional hindrances to mindfulness, taking a closer look at the remaining three: sleepiness, restlessness, and doubt. You’ll also begin to bring more simplicity into your life.
Highlights:
What is the difference between our thoughts about the world and the world as it is? In this session, we’ll investigate this question and look at some practical actions we can take to free ourselves of limiting concepts that obscure our direct experience of reality.
Highlights:
Session Six explores the Four Noble Truths. Many people have negative reactions to the first noble truth: life involves suffering. Yet denying the existence of suffering doesn’t make it go away. By acknowledging this truth, we take the first step toward freedom.
Highlights:
In a sense, delusion can be seen as the opposite of vipassana, or insight. In this session, we’ll look at the various ways our minds create delusion and how we can recognize and transform those tendencies through awareness.
Highlights:
Session Eight explores the often misunderstood concept of karma. You’ll investigate the law of cause and effect, as well the importance of the intentions that precede our actions.
Highlights:
In order to stabilize the positive effects of wisdom, compassion, and mindfulness, it is crucial that we learn to develop equanimity. This spiritual force gives us the perspective we need to ride the changing tides of experience without getting washed away each time a wave rolls in.
Highlights:
In this session, we’ll take a closer look at faith as a quality of mind that leads to freedom from ignorance. We also explore the meaning of wisdom—a word that takes on specific nuances in the Buddhist tradition.
Highlights:
In this session, we unpack the power of metta, or lovingkindness, and its revolutionary potential in our lives. Lovingkindness practice provides a perspective of radical non-separation, and its skillful application plants the seeds of love in our lives.
Highlights:
Session Twelve brings us to the end of the course—and to the beginning of the next chapter in your ongoing practice. You’ll explore practical ways to continue meditating on your own, as well as how to take your meditative awareness into every area of daily life.
Highlights:
The Insight Meditation online course has been designed to introduce you to the practice of meditation in the vipassana (“insight”) Buddhist tradition. It features two supportive Q&A session recordings, written and audio wisdom teachings, guided meditations, and a wealth of additional experiential exercises to help you bring your practice beyond the cushion and into daily life.
In this session, you’ll explore the concept of mindfulness and its importance in our lives. According to the Buddha, we cultivate true happiness and peace when we are mindful, when we are able to bring our full attention to the present moment.
Highlights:
Session Two explores the nature of inner awareness. You’ll discover powerful techniques for slowing down and becoming more present in every moment.
Highlights:
In Session Three, you’ll look closely at the emotions of desire and aversion—how they are widely misunderstood in Western culture, and how we can undo their influence in our everyday lives.
Highlights:
In this session, you’ll continue your exploration of the five traditional hindrances to mindfulness, taking a closer look at the remaining three: sleepiness, restlessness, and doubt. You’ll also begin to bring more simplicity into your life.
Highlights:
What is the difference between our thoughts about the world and the world as it is? In this session, we’ll investigate this question and look at some practical actions we can take to free ourselves of limiting concepts that obscure our direct experience of reality.
Highlights:
Session Six explores the Four Noble Truths. Many people have negative reactions to the first noble truth: life involves suffering. Yet denying the existence of suffering doesn’t make it go away. By acknowledging this truth, we take the first step toward freedom.
Highlights:
In a sense, delusion can be seen as the opposite of vipassana, or insight. In this session, we’ll look at the various ways our minds create delusion and how we can recognize and transform those tendencies through awareness.
Highlights:
Session Eight explores the often misunderstood concept of karma. You’ll investigate the law of cause and effect, as well the importance of the intentions that precede our actions.
Highlights:
In order to stabilize the positive effects of wisdom, compassion, and mindfulness, it is crucial that we learn to develop equanimity. This spiritual force gives us the perspective we need to ride the changing tides of experience without getting washed away each time a wave rolls in.
Highlights:
In this session, we’ll take a closer look at faith as a quality of mind that leads to freedom from ignorance. We also explore the meaning of wisdom—a word that takes on specific nuances in the Buddhist tradition.
Highlights:
In this session, we unpack the power of metta, or lovingkindness, and its revolutionary potential in our lives. Lovingkindness practice provides a perspective of radical non-separation, and its skillful application plants the seeds of love in our lives.
Highlights:
Session Twelve brings us to the end of the course—and to the beginning of the next chapter in your ongoing practice. You’ll explore practical ways to continue meditating on your own, as well as how to take your meditative awareness into every area of daily life.
Highlights:
Insight Meditation has been designed to introduce you to the practice of meditation in the Buddhist vipassana (“insight”) tradition. While these teachings and practices derive from a particular tradition, they are universally applicable and used by those of all faiths (or none at all) around the world. Their purpose is to help you cultivate wisdom, love, kindness, and compassion in your life, and to find true happiness for yourself and others.
Insight Meditation was created with newcomers in mind, however, the in-depth curriculum provides teachings and skills to continually deepen an existing practice, no matter how many years you’ve been formally sitting. If you are a complete beginner, you’ll find no more qualified teachers than Sharon Salzberg and Joseph Goldstein, who have truly heard it all and can help anyone new to the path. If your practice needs a reboot or new inspiration, you’ll find that and more in the course.
Insight Meditation is based on Sharon Salzberg and Joseph Goldstein’s many decades of formal teaching and practice with revered masters and countless students from all over the globe. If you want to learn meditation from teachers you can trust in a way that honors its rich origins and fully prepares you for a rewarding daily practice for years to come, Insight Meditation may be the perfect course for you.
If you have additional questions, please find our technical FAQs here.
————— or —————
or
If you are not 100% satisfied for any reason, simply return it for a full refund for up to one year.
All orders are processed on a secure server. If you prefer to order by phone, call 1 (800) 333-9185.
If you are not 100% satisfied for any reason, simply return it for a full refund for up to one year.
All orders are processed on a secure server. If you prefer to order by phone, call 1 (800) 333-9185.
If you are not 100% satisfied for any reason, simply return it for a full refund for up to one year.
All orders are processed on a secure server. If you prefer to order by phone, call 1 (800) 333-9185.
© 2025 SOUNDS TRUE · ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
The Diamond Approach is offering live, online Inquiry groups to accompany this course at a discounted rate — $100 for eight, 90-minute sessions, where you’ll take turns with other students working one-on-one with an expert teacher. This is completely optional and available after purchasing Presence.
You can purchase it here.
To access your course, you will need to:
You may contact us Monday–Friday, 8 am–5 pm MT.
Email: support@soundstrue.com
Phone: US Customers 1.800.333.9185 #3
Phone: International Customers 1.303.665.3151 #3
We recommend the most recent version of Safari for Mac users or Google Chrome for PC users (with a second choice of Firefox). We do not recommend using Internet Explorer—but if you must, please use version 11 or higher.
To access Realization Unfolds: A Conversation between A.H. Almaas and Adyashanti, you will need to:
Unfortunately, it is part of the bundle, and substitutions are not allowed.
You can download the audio/video content onto your computer or Android mobile device. With the exception of eBooks, Apple has restrictions that prevent items from being downloaded directly to iOS devices, unless purchased from iTunes or Apple. Digital items may be downloaded to your computer and then synchronized to your iOS device via iTunes. Courses are also available to stream within the Sounds True App.
Live sessions are viewable on Mac and PC. You can stream them on Android and Apple mobile devices through the browser. If you are not using WiFi, please check with your mobile carrier, as additional data rates may apply.
All events are Eastern Time unless otherwise noted. Here is the schedule. Please use a time zone converter of your choice or thetimezoneconverter.com.
Player solutions:
The course videos are prerecorded. Videos noted as “Live” are live.
Click here for the Sounds True return policy.