Mountain Stream Meditation Center has held Buddhist meditation groups in the Northern California Sierra Foothills since 1986 when it was founded by John M. Travis, resident teacher. Today we have meditation groups meeting in many communities, we hold retreats many times a year, publish and distribute a newsletter to over 2,000 individuals, and generally serve as a center for the Buddhist community in the Northern California Sierra Foothills.

The focus of Mountain Stream is to provide a place for residents of the Sierra Foothills to come and experience seclusion and quiet for meditation. In 2010, we purchased a property for a spiritual center in Nevada City, California. It is our hope and intent to develop this property so teachers and students from around the world may come for silent meditation and practice. Mountain Stream became a California Non-Profit Corporation in 1994. In 1995, we were granted a 501 (c)(3) tax-exempt designation as a church from the United States Internal Revenue Service.

Overall Purpose

Mountain Stream Meditation has provided a place for Buddhist meditation in the northern Sierra Nevada region of California for twenty-five years. The kind of Buddhism is called Vipassana or "Insight" meditation, one of the classic meditation practices in the Buddhist tradition.

The are two main traditions of Buddhism: Theravada and Mahayana. Vipassana comes from the Theravada tradition, while Tibetan and Zen Buddhism are part of the Mahayana. The Theravada tradition has been kept alive in monasteries throughout Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Burma and dates to the original teachings of the Buddha. The Buddha's "Discourse on Mindfulness" teaches the actual practice.

There are four ways Mountain Stream provides for the community and fulfills its purpose. It is first through organizing meditation retreats, where Vipassana meditation is taught and practiced. We also publish a newsletter called "Dharma Stream" to announce the dates and times of the many meditation retreats we hold throughout California. Various retreats are lead by the resident teacher(s) of Mountain Stream (John M. Travis) and also by visiting teachers from other areas.

Another way Mountain Stream provides for the community is with regularly scheduled meetings for meditation practice, instruction, and the organizing community development activities. Regular groups are known as "sitting groups," and meet for a few hours on a weekly basis. Times and telephone contact numbers for these groups are also listed in our newsletter.

Mountain Stream also holds other community activities, such as potluck dinners, community service workdays, board meetings, and gatherings with other Buddhist meditation leaders and groups. Weekly meetings and community activities are organized and led by the resident teacher(s) and by the senior students. Mountain Stream continues to help, with other local churches, to feed the homeless in Nevada County through local programs.

We hold regular introductory classes in Vipassana meditation that are open to all levels of practice. These classes are organized and led by the resident teacher or by senior students, usually twice a year.

Special Relationship With Other Organizations

Four resident guiding teachers from other Vipassana meditation centers comprise a Teachers Advisory Committee for Mountain Stream Meditation Center. The committee advises the Board of Directors of Mountain Stream on the conduct of religious activities, in identifying teachers to lead meditation retreats, about the conduct of retreats and related activities, and other matters on religious observances, instruction, and practice.

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

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