​Insight Meditation Australia Teacher

Victor von der Heyde

Insight Tradition
Victor has been practising meditation for over forty years and has taken dharma teaching roles since the mid 1990s. He studied Buddhism and Comparative Religion at the University of Queensland and practised with teachers in various Buddhist traditions. Separate from teaching roles, he spent over two years in silent retreats. Some of these were in the United States, at  Spirit Rock, Insight Meditation Society and  Springwater Centre, where he worked with Toni Packer. Others were in India and Nepal and in the UK at Gaia House. His main influence in the dharma world has been the Gaia House teacher Rob Burbea.

Victor was co-founder of Sydney Insight Meditators, Bluegum Sangha, the Bodhgaya Development Association and Yatra Australia. He also trained in Gestalt Therapy, did graduate studies in Social Science and worked for years as a counsellor.

His focus in practice and teaching includes

1. Environmental ethics - how we treat animals, how we respond to climate breakdown, how ethics has an impact on us as well as others;
2. Helping people find meditation practices and ways of thinking about meditation that work for them;
3. Ontology, metaphysics, and ways to come to an understanding of emptiness;
4. Imaginal practice, also known as Soul-Making Dharma.

Further information:
​Webpage with teaching schedule
​www.dharma.org.au/v/index.html

Talks on DharmaSeed
https://dharmaseed.org/teacher/519