Hello. I am following The Mind Illuminated (TMI) in the earlier stages.

I value community a lot and thus like to go to e.g. weekly group sittings and talks. Also I would like to attend retreats. I live in Melbourne (Australia, not Florida) and Dharma Treasure is not really a thing here. Hence I wanted to ask what styles/schools/sanghas could be compatible.

Generally it would be helpful to know what branches would be compatible or what TMI is derived from / comprised of (e.g. Theravada, Thai Forrest, …). It would also be helpful to know what to avoid (e.g. Mantra meditation, chanting, …).

Also, here are a couple I found nearby, a few are focused on Vipassana, while TMI focuses on Samatha (first):

General list of centers

http://www.buddhanet.info/wbd/search.php?keyword=Melbourne&search=Search&country_id=18&province_id=2
http://www.bcv.org.au/map-of-buddhist-centres.html

More promising

http://bsv.net.au/ (Theravada Tradition)
http://meditateinmelbourne.org/ (Kadampa)
https://www.facebook.com/manohara251/ (scarce profile, Sayadaw U Pandita, Junior)
http://www.ddmmelbourne.org.au/ (Chan)

Less promising

http://melbournebuddhistcentre.org.au/ (Metta, Triratna Buddhist Community)
http://www.samadhivihara.org.au/ (Sri Lanka)
https://www.dhamma.org/ & http://www.dharma.org.au/ (Goenka, Vipassana) http://www.melbourneinsightmeditation.org/ (Vipassana)
https://www.tobygillies.com/ (Dalai Lama)

Cross-post from Dharma Treasure: http://dharmatreasurecommunity.org/forums/topic/compatible-communities-practices

Are you a part of this group David?


https://www.dharmaoverground.org/discussion/-/message_boards/view_message/6559553

Cool. Will get in contact with them. Thanks.

If lived in Australia I would go to: https://bswa.org/

Western Australia. Many asian countries are cheaper (and sometimes faster) to get to ;-) (I live in Victoria)