NEWS
Dear members of the SIM community,
SIM’s long-time friend and supervising Senior Teacher, Steve Armstrong, underwent surgery for a brain tumor in the last several days. Fortunately, neither his speech nor his thinking has been affected. Follow up evaluation and treatment are underway. A letter Steve wrote last week, when he first learned of his situation, follows immediately below. Read More …
Dennis completed his term as President of the SIM Board last month. Please join us on March 22 to celebrate his extraordinary contributions. We will have refreshments at the break and an opportunity to thank Dennis for his great work during the last two and a half years. All are invited. We hope to see you there!
This is a meeting of the SIM community with presentations from the SIM Board and Senior Faculty regarding what we’ve accomplished in the last year and areas where we plan to direct attention and effort in the year ahead. We have scheduled ample time for community questions and comments, and are looking forward to seeing and hearing from all of you.
If you would like to download this talk, please right click and select “save as” here .
Please join us for a meeting of the SIM community on Thursday night, March 1. After our regular sit we will have a break with refreshments, followed by presentations from the SIM Board and Senior Faculty regarding what we’ve accomplished in the last year and areas where we plan to direct attention and effort in the year ahead. We have scheduled ample time for community questions and comments, and are looking forward to seeing and hearing from all of you.
Nurturing Sangha Over Dinner is something new that we’ll be trying out for a few months and we’ll see if it is something we want to continue. We’ll meet monthly on the second Thursday from 6:00 pm to 7:00 pm, before the regular dharma talk and sit. This is an informal gathering. Please bring your dinner and something extra to share, if you would like. We can continue to get to know one another and talk about how SIM can support us in our practice.
*The first Nurturing Sangha Over Dinner meeting occurred Jan 11 where SIM’s Board of Directors shared some plans on how the west end of the SDC lobby might be changed to better suit our needs.
The three main sections of SDC building
The Sacramento Dharma Center envisioning process is continuing with a focus on plans for the west end lobby. At the request of the SDC Board, the SIM Board has developed recommendations for creating new meeting rooms that could be used concurrently to support the anticipated growth in membership and activities of all three sanghas living together in the SDC building.
We would like to share these recommendations with interested members of the SIM community on January 11th at 6:15 pm, before our regularly scheduled Thursday night sit. Members of the SIM Board will be there to discuss the plans. In preparation for this meeting, you might wish to read through the Board’s recommendations (click here). We hope to see you on January 11th.
December 26, 2017
Dear SIM Supporter,
If you’ve already made a year-end donation to SIM, we send you our heartfelt appreciation!
If you’re still finishing up your year-end donations, please consider supporting SIM with a year-end or monthly donation for 2018! It’s easy to donate at sactoinsight.org or by sending a check to SIM at 3111 Wissemann Drive, Sacramento, CA 95826. Your generosity is the key to our success in providing ongoing support for our community and those practicing in the Vipassana/Insight tradition.
May your New Year be healthy, peaceful and happy!
Sara Denzler, Treasurer
on behalf of SIM’s Board of Directors
As we approach the end of the year, SIM Mentor Rich Howard and SIM Board Member Cathy Vigran will host an evening of community discussion. We will invite participants to review their practice over the past year in terms of the “Three Pillars”: generosity, ethical living, and training the mind (dana-sila-bhavana). We will also encourage folks to share what SIM can do to support their aspirations for practice. Come prepared to speak from the heart and listen mindfully.
If you would like to download this talk, please right click and select “save as” here.
December 15, 2017
Dear members of the SIM community,
I recently returned from a wonderful retreat with Guy Armstrong and Kamala Masters. Kamala’s love and extraordinary generosity were palpable throughout, and provided a strong support to our practice. On the last day of the retreat she made a personal donation to feed all of the yogis breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Kamala has been one of our Senior Teachers since SIM’s founding 15 years ago. She cares deeply about our organization and all the members of this sangha. When the retreat was over I asked her permission to share the fact that she has been a regular monthly donor to SIM since the program began earlier this year. She readily agreed, and offered these thoughts about why she gives to Sacramento Insight Meditation:
“The practice of generosity has been an important mindfulness practice for my life. Giving of myself—compassion, understanding and patience as well as material and financial resources—helps me to ‘let go’ and ‘let be’ more easily. I do this for the sake of others, and also for my own heart’s release, for the sake of deeper and deeper peace.”
Kamala encourages everyone to join her in support of SIM. I hope that you will hold this in your hearts as you consider your options for year-end generosity.
With metta, and all best wishes during this holiday season,
Cathy Vigran
Vice President, Board of Directors
Sacramento Insight Meditation
December 9, 2017
Dear Friends,
We have an extraordinary opportunity in 2018 to practice with senior teacher Steve Armstrong here in the Sacramento region. First, Steve will be leading SIM’s January daylong retreat. It will be held at the Sacramento Dharma Center on Saturday January 27, 2018, from 8:30 am – 4:00 pm. Registration is open now. Please see this flyer for more details (Retreat Flyer .PDF).
Second, Steve will lead SIM’s annual residential retreat from September 7-14, 2018. This will be held at the Community of the Great Commission camp and retreat center near Foresthill, CA. More details and registration will be available early next year.
Steve’s theme for both events will be “Awareness, Insight and Liberation.” He will be using the January 27 daylong as both a stand-alone one day retreat and as preliminary groundwork (to prepare) for those planning attending the residential retreat. All who attend the January daylong will receive priority registration for the September weeklong retreat. These are Steve’s only teachings in California in 2018, so interest promises to be great.
Rich Howard
Retreat Manager
SIM Community Mentor