Dharma Seed gathers, preserves, and freely shares recordings of teachers inspired by early Buddhism for the benefit of students, teachers, and dharma centers worldwide.

The talks and meditations available through the Dharma Seed website are largely, although not exclusively, teachings from the Western Insight Meditation tradition, as taught at centers like the Insight Meditation Society (IMS), Spirit Rock Meditation Center, Gaia House and New York Insight. 

A growing number of teachers, retreat centers and local meditation groups across the US and around the world make their teachings available here. Over 30,000 talks and guided meditations are currently publicly available. These range from talks given last night at Spirit Rock to talks offered over 30 years ago during the early days of IMS.

Dharma Seed’s origins can be traced back to 1983 in IMS’s basement when Bill Hamilton, then a work retreatant, began making some recordings from the meditation hall teachings available on cassette tapes. Much has changed since then – the number of teachers and centers that we support has grown exponentially and all of our materials are now available through our website.

We’re also a nonprofit, run mostly by volunteers and supported entirely by donations. We welcome your gift which would help to ensure our ability to continue doing what we do. We hope you enjoy exploring the offerings here and wish that the teachings be of great benefit to you!