Featured Live Courses

Awakening Joy Course

James teaches his 5-month, signature course live via Zoom once per year, starting the last Tuesday in January. The 2025 course has ended, but, it is still open for independent study--the course materials are available through Dec. of 2025. The 2026 course will commence in January.

2025 Course Details

Introduction to Insight Meditation

A 6-week class series to help you establish an Insight (mindfulness) meditation practice in your life and understand the teachings upon which mindfulness meditation is based.

(The live course ran in Oct. and Nov. of 2024. You can still take this course through Zoom Recordings, which will be available until the end of January, 2025.)

Course Details


The Four Buddhist Heart Practices (Brahma Viharas)

A 4-week live online course to open the heart as a complement to Insight (mindfulness) meditation practice.

(This online course runs  Nov. 4 - 25, 2025 live via  Zoom through Spirit Rock Meditation Center.)

Course Details


Meet James

James Baraz

James Baraz has been a meditation teacher since 1978 and leads retreats, workshops and classes in the U.S and abroad. He is the creator and teacher of the online Awakening Joy course, since 2003. He's also a co-founding teacher of Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Woodacre, California. In recent years, he has also focused on dharma and climate change, and serves as an advisor to One Earth Sangha, a website devoted to Buddhist responses to climate change. His books include Awakening Joy with Shoshana Alexander, and Awakening Joy for Kids with Michele Lilyanna. He lives in Berkeley, California, with his wife, Jane, and has two sons and three grandchildren.

Featured Live Courses