Barre Center for Buddhist Studies

The Barre Center for Buddhist Studies (BCBS) is a non-profit educational centre in the rural town of Barre, central Massachusetts, founded in 1990 by the meditation teachers Joseph Goldstein and Sharon Salzberg to bring Buddhist study and practice together. When it opened in 1991 a farmhouse was the only building. The campus now covers 90 wooded acres about 2 miles north of the town centre, with a dharma hall, classrooms, a library of more than 10,000 titles, a dining room serving vegetarian meals, walking trails, a stupa that the centre says holds relics of the Buddha's disciple Sāriputta, and cottages for staff, practitioners and its resident monk-scholar, Bhikkhu Anālayo. Guests stay in 22 single and 4 double rooms with shared bathrooms. Residential programmes, from a weekend to several months, take 35 participants or fewer and combine sitting and walking meditation, talks, discussion and periods of silence; they draw on several Buddhist traditions, and online programmes run alongside them. As of 2026 fees are tiered: the first tier covers the cost and lower tiers are subsidised by donors, with scholarships available. Teachers are not paid from fees but supported by dāna. There is no public transport directly to Barre; it is about 50 minutes by car from Worcester and 1.5 to 2 hours from Boston.

How to apply

Choose a retreat on the centre's own website and register there. IMS takes a deposit on registration and offers sliding-scale rates and scholarships.

What is taught here

Insight meditation is the English name for vipassanā, clear attention to the present: how IMS, Spirit Rock and Gaia House teach it, its roots and fees. Read about Insight Meditation (West).