Jack Kornfield in the context of Mahasi Sayadaw

The Insight Meditation Society (IMS) is a non-profit organization for study of Buddhism located in Barre, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1975 by Sharon Salzberg, Jack Kornfield, Joseph Goldstein and Jacqueline Schwartz, and is rooted in the Theravada tradition. Its first retreat center in an old mansion in Barre, Massachusetts was opened on February 14, 1976.

Sharon Salzberg (born August 5, 1952) is an author and teacher of Buddhist meditation practice in the West. In 1974, she co-founded the Insight Meditation Society at Barre, Massachusetts, with Jack Kornfield and Joseph Goldstein. Her emphasis is on vipassanā (insight) and mettā (loving-kindness) methods, and she has been leading meditation retreats around the world for several decades.

All of these methods have their origins in the Theravada Buddhist tradition, through teachings by Dipa Ma, Anagarika Munindra, Sayadaw U Pandita, and other Asian teachers. Her books include Lovingkindness: The Revolutionary Art of Happiness (1995), A Heart as Wide as the World (1999), Real Happiness – The Power of Meditation: A 28-Day Program (2010), which was on The New York Times Best Seller list in 2011, the follow-up Real Happiness at Work (2013), and Love Your Enemies (co-written with Robert Thurman 2013). She runs a Metta Hour podcast, and contributes monthly to a column "On Being".

Joseph Goldstein (born May 20, 1944) is one of the first American vipassana teachers, co-founder of the Insight Meditation Society (IMS) with Jack Kornfield and Sharon Salzberg, a contemporary author of numerous popular books on Buddhism (see publications below), a resident guiding teacher at IMS, and a leader of retreats worldwide on insight (vipassana) and lovingkindness (metta) meditation.

While the majority of Goldstein's publications introduce Westerners to primarily Theravada concepts, practices and values, his 2002 work, One Dharma, explored the creation of an integrated framework for the Theravada, Tibetan and Zen traditions.