Shaila Catherine

Shaila Catherine teaches meditation world-wide. Shaila is the founder of Bodhi Courses, an online Dhamma classroom (www.bodhicourses.org), and Insight Meditation South Bay, a Buddhist meditation center in Silicon Valley in California (www.imsb.org). She has been practicing meditation since 1980, accumulating more than nine years of silent retreat experience, and has taught internationally since 1996.

Shaila studied with masters in India, Thailand, and Nepal, and also with the founders of western meditation centers. She completed a one-year intensive meditation retreat with the focus on concentration and jhāna, and authored Focused and Fearless: A Meditator’s Guide to States of Deep Joy, Calm, and Clarity. From 2006-2014 Shaila practiced under the direction of Venerable Pa-Auk Sayadaw. She authored Wisdom Wide and Deep: A Practical Handbook for Mastering Jhāna and Vipassanā to help make this traditional approach to samadhi and vipassana accessible to western practitioners. Her third book, Beyond Distraction: Five Practical Ways to Focus the Mind, will be published by Wisdom Publications in Spring 2022.

Shaila’s teachings emphasize deep samadhi, jhana, and the path of liberating insight. She lives in San Jose, CA.

To learn more about Shaila’s work, visit her websites:

Bodhi Courses — bodhicourses.org

Insight Meditation South Bay — imsb.org