NEWS

Attending future events at SIM: Information to help assess your Covid-19 risk for attending future Sacramento Insight Meditation sponsored events

The Sacramento Insight Meditation board of directors has not yet determined a date or the circumstances for having in-person SIM-events at the Sacramento Dharma Center. In preparation for the eventual re-opening of our events at the Dharma Center, we’d like to share this New York Times article published 3/30/21. The article includes an interactive survey that calculates a person’s risk of SARS-Cov-2 (Covid-19) infection from engaging in public activities based on the individual’s age, health conditions, size of the meeting and other factors. This article is provided to help sangha members decide whether to attend in-person meetings based on their own self-assessment. We hope you find it helpful.

Click the image or the link caption to access the article’s interactive survey.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/03/30/opinion/coronavirus-vaccine-risks.html

The dates of the SIM Board of Directors meetings have been changed and will now be held on the second Monday of each month, starting with April 12th at 6:00 pm. The meetings are still on Zoom. You can also check our calendar for the list of upcoming board meetings ( click here to check the schedule ).

After a year of isolation, on March 17th Sacramento Insight Meditation volunteers prepared and served dinner to the women and children who are living at St. John’s Program for Real Change. The cooks and servers practice COVID safety by wearing masks. Servers were in close proximity, while cooks were distanced. Most of the volunteers have been fully vaccinated.

We will soon be scheduling shifts for the third Wednesday of April, May, and June. Volunteer opportunities include cooks who prepare the meal from 2:45-4:30 pm, and servers who work from 4:30-6:00 pm. We are welcoming new volunteers as we re-start this chance to practice generosity and compassion in the greater community.

If you are not already on the email list and wish to volunteer or have questions, please contact Mary Howard at mary@sactoinsight.org.

Sacramento Dharma Center News Update (Mar 16, 2021). News topics include: Solar Energy System, The North Yard Project, Parking Lot Makeover, and
SDC Re-opening. For details, click here.

SIM is grateful for all our donors and we’ve already emailed tax letters to those who gave $250 or more in 2020. If you have not received the tax letter and you think you should have, please check your email Inbox, as well as your Spam or Junk folder. If you still don’t find it, please contact SaraD@sactoinsight.org.

For 2021, we’ve changed the 6-week Beginning Meditation course meetings from Tuesday to Wednesday. The class start time has shifted 30 minutes earlier with a 90 minute duration. The Spring 2021 course begins Wednesday, May 12th and general registration opens on Thursday, Feb 4. Rich Howard and Sandra Sigrist will be instructing. For more information, visit the course summary page at https://sactoinsight.org/activities/practice-opportunities/meditation-courses/.

We hope you’ll join us for a mid-morning coffee/tea break with Greg Scharf. This will be a chance to get to know Greg in an informal hangout (on Zoom). Bring a beverage and/or snack and your questions.

Note that Greg will lead our Thursday Sit & Dharma talk on Jan 28 and our daylong retreat on Jan 30.

For 2021, we’ve added two more weeks to the Living on the Other Side of Suffering course so it’s now 11-weeks long and the start time has shifted 30 minutes early. SIM Founding Teacher Dennis Warren will instruct. The next course begins Wednesday, April 7 and general registration opens on Saturday, January 9. For more information, visit the course summary page at https://sactoinsight.org/activities/study-groups/living-other-side/

We are starting to plan the next offering of the popular course “A Year to Live” with Rev. Diane Wilde. The 2021 meeting times/dates are still to be determined due to the pandemic. If you’re interested and want to stay in touch with the planning, visit the course summary page at https://sactoinsight.org/acti…/study-groups/a-year-to-live/.

If you’re planning to attend our annual Holiday Party this year, please RSVP now. Because we’ll be setting up some smaller break-out groups during this event, your RSVP will help us be better hosts. We look forward to seeing you there!