Sangha member gather both online and in-person at the Salt Spring Insight Meditation community. The laptop get passed around the room at the beginning of the session, so members can greet each other.
Photos by Jude Kornelson

Salt Spring Insight Meditation in British Columbia will be led by a pair of longtime sangha members, following retirement of long-time teacher and founder Heather Martin. 

Christine Mauro and David Rumsey now lead the group, which meets on Salt Spring Island, southwest of Vancouver, B.C.

David Rumsey is one of the leaders of the Salt Spring Meditation community.

In the fall of 2021 Martin announced her intention to retire from dharma teaching entirely, including leading the local sitting group and local retreats, as well as travelling to lead retreats elsewhere.

“I think my time had come to go quiet and take off all hats,” she said, referring to her previous teaching and guiding, organizing, renting spaces, moving equipment, accounting, and other dhamma activities.

She asked two active volunteers who had been practicing for many years to keep the local sangha going: Christine Mauro, who had been hosting and facilitating small groups called Kalyana Mitta gatherings, and David Rumsey, who had been hosting Zoom sessions.

The monthly Kalyana MItta group’s May meeting outside at a member’s home.  From left to right:  Bernadette Mertens-McAllister, Sheri Standen, Christine Mauro  (leader), Andrea Little, Barbara Dams.

“When people ask why we are the ones leading the group, I tell them because Heather asked us to,” Rumsey said. “It’s as simple as that.”

It has been a good pairing, with sangha members benefiting from the new leaders’ different approaches to the dharma, based on their backgrounds and interests. Mauro has a wealth of experience in the formality of monastic settings, and the devotional aspects of Buddhism. Rumsey brings his more “scientific” approach to the dharma, based on experience with Vipassana and Zen teachers, such as Steve Hagen.

Having moved among various locations, Salt Spring Insight Meditation now meets weekly on Wednesday evenings at a yoga studio in the town of Ganges, on Salt Spring Island.  Mauro and Rumsey host the sittings, and provide dharma talks and discussions. Like everything on Salt Spring Island, these changes have developed organically.  

Martin launched Salt Spring Insight Meditation in the 1990s, as an informal Theravada-style sitting group. 

Christine Mauro is one of the leaders of  the Salt Spring Meditation community. 

After she received teacher training from Jack Kornfield and Joseph Goldstein through 2005,  the local group grew rapidly. At its height, the Salt Spring Insight Meditation hosted 20 to 30 people sitting each Wednesday night, and organized four to six residential retreats each year.

Retreats were held at the Gatehouse, at beautiful Stowel Lake Farm on Salt Spring. Retreatants came from up and down the West Coast, and beyond. 

In addition to a volunteer board of directors, various members handled duties such as bookkeeping, retreat registration and management, and website development, with Martin as the resident teacher. Other groups, such as Kalyana Mitta study/practice groups, were organized by members.

When COVID hit, Rumsey arranged weekly meditation sessions via Zoom. As was experienced by many other groups, this was uncharted territory. But over time a regular group of people dialed in each week, including several from Washington, Oregon, Alberta, and even California.

Heather Martin started the insight meditation sangha on Salt Spring in the 1990s.

Through Zoom Martin was also able to offer her traditional New Year’s Eve retreat, teamed with teacher Tempel Smith. A new normal settled in. In the summer, when the weather was good, Martin hosted sittings outside in her garden…with social distancing.

After a couple of years of shifting venues, declining attendance and COVID restrictions, Rumsey and Mauro wanted to establish a regular time and place for the group.

“Access to Wi-Fi was a key requirement, because the Zoom attendees who did not live on Salt Spring still wanted to be a part of the group,” said Mauro.

The hybrid-in person sessions seem to work well. The group places a laptop in the circle, among the in-person attendees. The laptop gets passed around at the start, allowing both virtual and physical attendees to greet each other. The group has held one-day retreats both in-person and virtually.

Discussing the book the group is practicing with  over several months.

Mauro and Rumsey are primarily responsible for giving dhamma talks at the weekly sits. Having a consistent set of leaders offer dhamma helps the group  get to know the teachers’ approaches to the dhamma in more depth, helping relationships to develop with both. This consistency also makes it easier to plan ahead when covering topics in series, such as multiple sessions on the four noble truths or the 10 paramis. Moreover, having consistent leaders ensures it’s clear who has responsibility for dana, advertising, and announcements, even the keys to the building. 

“The challenge is to balance a consistency of energy with a diversity of voices,” said Rumsey.

In addition to Mauro and Rumsey’s regular presence, other teachers are at times invited to lead the sits. Using Zoom makes it relatively easy to bring in other teachers from off-island. Other regular sangha members are also invited to host sessions when needed.

Salt Spring Meditation Society used to host  retreats at Stowel Lake  Farm on Salt Spring Island.

Mauro and Rumsey still check in with Martin about teaching ideas, sangha issues, or potential speakers. Her 30 years of experience in teaching is invaluable. 

“Whether the group is a fully “peer-led” group is a matter of perspective,” said Rumsey. “We may not have the same level of programming we did 10 years ago, but ultimately, we aim to honor Heather’s intention and energy to maintain a regular insight meditation sitting group on the island.”

Harnessing the energy and devotion of Mauro and Rumsey appears to be an effective way to do that, as the recent growth of the group seems to demonstrate.

“When conditions arise such that David or I feel we cannot carry on in a leadership role, we will ask other people to take the lead,” Mauro said. “Like all things, we cannot control how the sangha will develop. But we can set the intention to provide a safe, secure and reliable space for the sangha, dharma and the Buddha within us all to blossom…organically.”

Buddhist statue at the Kunzang Dechen Osel Ling Retreat Centre on Salt Spring Island, which supports many dharma groups.

Salt Spring Island is located in the Gulf Islands (also called the “Canadian San Juan Islands”) between Vancouver and Victoria, Canada. With 10,000 full-time residents, the island offers a disproportionally large number of opportunities for Buddhists.

 It is home to the Kunzang Dechen Osel Ling retreat center, which was established by Khyabje Kalu Rinpoche in 1972, as the first retreat center in the West to continue the Shangpa Kagyu lineage. The island also hosts an active Zen sangha under the leadership of Peter Leavitt, who was a student of Suzuki Roshi.

To join the Salt Spring Insight Meditation group, send an email to saltspringimc@gmail.com or follow us on Facebook.