Welcome to Mountain Stream Meditation/Nevada City Insight Center

Mountain Stream Meditation's Founding Teacher is John M. Travis. John began leading Buddhist meditation groups in the Sierra Foothills in 1986. Mountain Stream Meditation became a 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization in 1994.

In 2010 Mountain Stream purchased a unique property and remodeled the building into a beautiful meditation center we named the Nevada City Insight Center. The Center opened in Jan, 2013, hosting weekly sitting groups, daylongs and other meditation programs.

For more details about the programs we offer, check our website listings.

““I am so pleased that over the years through a grassroots system we have each discovered the dharma, and through that inspiration we have created a wave....a movement that now manifests itself as a viable center which will serve us now and into the next generation.”
- John Travis”

Overall Background

Mountain Stream Meditation has supported Buddhist meditation in the Sierra Nevada for about thirty years.. The style practiced is called Vipassana or "Insight" meditation, part of the Theravadan Buddhist tradition.

Traditionally, Theravada and Mahayana are the two main vehicles in Buddhism. Vipassana comes from the Theravada tradition, while Tibetan and Zen Buddhism are part of the Mahayana. Monasteries throughout Sri Lanka, Thailand and Burma have kept Theravada Buddhism alive. This form dates to the original teachings of the Buddha.

Mountain Stream Meditation serves a wide community by offering various types of meditation retreats. Daylongs are scheduled during weekends on a Saturday or Sunday. There are also 7-night or 9-night residential retreats held at various venues. All Mountain Stream programs offer the teachings and practice of Insight meditation.

Insight meditation classes, held two times a year, welcome all levels of practitioners. Regular groups, the "sitting groups," meet for a few hours on a weekly basis. These groups are listed on this website.

Other community activities, such as potlucks, community workdays, board and committee meetings, and gatherings with other Buddhist meditation leaders and groups are also part of our programs.

The teachers, senior students and volunteers help plan our many events for this active community. Along with local churches, Mountain Stream Meditation continues to support the local shelter Hospitality House to feed and care for the homeless in Nevada County.

Our resident guiding teacher and our three Community Dharma Leaders comprise a Teachers Council for Mountain Stream Meditation. The council advises the Board of Directors of Mountain Stream on the conduct of religious activities, helps in identifying teachers to lead meditation retreats, provides guidance on conducting retreats and related activities, and helps in many other matters relating to religious observances, instruction, and practice.

Mountain Stream Meditation became a California Non-Profit Corporation in 1994. In 1995, we received a 501 (c)(3) tax-exempt designation as a church from the United States Internal Revenue Service.

Special Relationship With Other Organizations

Mountain Stream Meditation may be considered an informal spiritual affiliate of the centers in Massachusetts and in Woodacre, California. There is, however, no official connection among the centers and no fiduciary relationship. In every legal sense, Mountain Stream Meditation is a freestanding organization, and its Board of Directors is answerable to no other organization.