Meditation Courses

Sacramento Insight Meditation (SIM) offers a 6-week beginning meditation course twice a year.  The Beginning Meditation Course requires pre-registration and is fee based. Course and registration details are listed here on this page.

A summary of all other courses is listed here. To register for a particular course, check this calendar list.

Beginning Meditation Course Overview

The Beginning Meditation is a 6-week course that provides the basic techniques for learning Insight Meditation (vipassana), both during sitting meditation and in daily life. This is insight meditation that has been handed down from the time of the Buddha. This course is intended as an introduction to the practice of meditation as it is taught at the Sacramento Insight Meditation group. As an introduction to meditation it is meant to support and encourage you to take up the practice of meditation and to see if meditation is a worthwhile activity in your life. The course is a hands-on, experiential program for beginners as well as those more experienced meditators who are interested in revisiting and working with their meditation skills. It is not meant as an exploration of comparative meditation techniques or a scholastic treatment of meditation theory. In the course of our work we discuss the theory of meditation but put these concepts aside to investigate our direct experience of what is happening. This is also not a course in Buddhism. We discuss Buddhist terms and concepts only to the degree that they are helpful in learning the process of meditation. Insight meditation does not require any belief system or adherence to any philosophy or religion.

Participation in the course will require approximately 1 hour of practice daily. This includes a 15-20 minute daily sitting meditation period, reviewing written and audio materials, practicing exercises throughout the day to develop meditative awareness, and recording your impressions. This is in addition to the 90 minutes we meet for six consecutive weeks in the evening and an all-day Saturday retreat. We have found over the years that people who don’t fully commit to doing the course work have a significantly less meaningful experience. This is not a course that can be audited or observed from the sidelines. Developing the skill of meditation requires direct participation. It requires effort and commitment.

At the daylong retreat, we practice more in depth meditation practices which will include longer sitting sessions, walking meditation, movement meditation and eating meditation. If you have any questions about the course content, please feel free to contact the teacher at: sim-med-course@sactoinsight.org. and the instructor Rich Howard will respond.

Schedule

• 2025 – meets for six weeks on Tuesday evenings 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm from April 29 through June 3, with a daylong retreat on Saturday, May 24 from 8:30 AM to 4:30 pm.
• 2024 (Feb – Mar)
• 2023 (Jan – Feb)
• 2022 (Mar – Apr) & (Oct – Nov)

Registration

Registration will open on March 1, 2025. If your name is on the interest list we will send you a reminder email as the registration date approaches.

Generally, advanced registration and payment is strongly encouraged as this popular course fills quickly and on-site registration is not available. The registration fee is $50 per person due before the start of the first class. The registration fee could be waived for qualifying volunteers; for details, contact the course registrar.
In addition to the registration fee, at the class meetings there will be an opportunity to offer dana (in the form of a financial donation) to support Sacramento Insight Meditation and the meditation instructors.
For the fifty dollar ($50) registration fee, we accept credit cards, checks and cash.