About Us

Community Dharma Leader

Chris Gilboy is currently the primary dharma leader for the community. Click here for Chris' bio.

History and Growth of Our Community

The Regina Insight Meditation Community (RIMC) had its beginnings in 1993. Dana Anjali, on returning from Southeast Asia and England where she had spent several years starting her Insight Meditation practice began to meditate regularly with a friend. Within a month, the group grew to include five women who practised weekly, forming the basis of our community. In the summer of 1994, she invited Sharda Rogell (Dana's meditation teacher who she had met on retreat in Bodh Gaya, India in 1989) to offer our first Vipassana retreat here in Saskatchewan at Round Lake. Many of those who sat the retreat are still actively involved in our sangha.

Sharda Rogell has been the guiding teacher of our community since leading her first retreat. She currently offers retreats here three times each year and has an integral role in our sangha, nourishing our individual practice as well as our communal unfolding through her wisdom and compassion. Click here for Sharda's bio.

Dana Anjali is our Founder and a Community Dharma Leader having received training (CDL2) at Spirit Rock Meditation Center. Until 2007, she led the community by offering a weekly sitting group, classes and non-residential retreats. Since then she has been working closely with Sharda in cultivating the vision of our sangha, creating our annual retreat schedule, arranging retreat locations, managing our residential retreats, and continuing to provide ongoing support to the community. Her commitment to this sangha and to insight meditation practice guides and nourishes the development and growth of RIMC on an ongoing basis. Click here for Dana's bio.

Chris Gilboy is currently the primary dharma leader for the community. Chris Gilboy began his insight meditation practice at Sharda first Saskatchewan retreat, and completed his training as an authorized Community Dharma Leader at Spirit Rock Meditation Center in 2012. Under Sharda's continuing mentorship, he has been leading the weekly sitting group and has been teaching Insight Meditation courses regularly. He works closely with Sharda and Dana in community planning and involves himself in most of the sangha's other practice-support activities.

From 1998 until 2005, Joanne Broatch (from Vancouver) taught retreats in Regina. Until her retirement, she continued to be a strong support both for individuals and for dharma practice in Saskatchewan.

Since 2002, Howard Cohn, (on the Teacher Council at Spirit Rock Meditation Center) has been sharing his deep understanding of the dharma with our sangha through teaching two retreats per year. Knowing our community so well, he is a strong dharma voice in our individual and communal development. Click here for Howard's bio.

Whilst Sharda, Joanne and Howie have had an ongoing presence in our community, we invite other teachers to Regina whenever possible. Over recent years, such teachers have included Myoshin Kelley, Rodney Smith, Jaya Ashmore, Gemma Polo Pujol, Norman Feldman, Molly Swan, Adrianne Ross and Mark Coleman.

Leadership Support

From 1998 to early 2007, a Sangha Council made up of experienced and committed practitioners supported Dana in her guidance of our community. From 2008 to 2013, a small Working Group assisted Dana in her leadership of the community by helping to fulfill most of the administrative needs of the Sangha. In 2014, we started to explore a more informal process for guiding RIMC's evolution, with Sharda and Dana being the primary guides supported by Chris and several other community elders. In addition, many Sangha members help RIMC to flourish by suggesting potentially beneficial changes at semi-annual community gatherings and by contributing generously and lovingly in ways that are personally meaningful.

Activities

The Wednesday Night Sitting Group has been a mainstay for the community's growth in the dharma. Over the years, other opportunities for deepening practice have evolved in the community. These include residential and non-residential retreats, Insight Meditation courses, lunch-hour sitting groups, discussion and study groups, a compassion circle, a CD and book lending library, social get-togethers and, most recently, a monthly Dharma Night where a dharma-related DVD is shown and discussed.

Fragrance-Free Policy

"We share air! Air comes into you and out of you and into me. Air makes up part of who we are. There is no greater lesson that We Are One!"

RIMC yogi

In our community's commitment to nurture inclusivity, we respectfully ask that all participants who come to our retreats, our Wednesday Night Sitting Group, and any other events we organize to please refrain from using fragranced products. We make this request knowing that some of our members are harmed by exposure to common chemicals and fragrances, which can cause them to experience difficult health issues.

PLEASE CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT HOW TO BE FRAGRANCE-FREE.