Shown below is a post from Vicki about the gifts shopped for and delivered:
NEWS
A message from the Sacramento Insight Meditation Board of Directors
The SIM Board is continuing to monitor developments regarding the Delta AND the Omicron variants of Covid19. After careful review of the latest available evidence, we have decided that it continues to be safe to maintain a hybrid program of in-person and Zoom attendance for now. We want to share with you not only our decision, but also the thinking behind it.
- VACCINATION PROVIDES OUR GREATEST PROTECTION – Vaccination continues to provide good protection from infection and serious illness due to both Delta and Omicron, and we strongly urge all members of our community to be vaccinated. We also recommend you receive a booster vaccination, according to the CDC guidelines, no later than seven days before attending events in person. Booster vaccines are recommended after 2 months for everyone vaccinated with the J&J vaccine and 6 months after either their second Pfizer or Moderna vaccines. If anyone would like to be vaccinated but hasn’t been able to do so, we would be glad to help. We want to send a clear message that anyone who is not fully vaccinated should NOT attend SIM events in person for their own safety and the safety of others. Those who choose to remain unvaccinated are welcome to participate remotely on Zoom and not attend in person.
- MASKING, DISTANCING AND AIR FILTRATION PROVIDE ADDITIONAL PROTECTION – To maximize safety, we will continue to require indoor masking, and high quality KN95 masks will be available at the door to anyone who would like one. We will continue to arrange socially distanced seating, and for lunch time and break periods to make maximal use of our two high-quality HEPA air filters. All of this creates a low-risk environment in which we feel that we can safely practice together.
- PRACTICING TOGETHER PROVIDES IMPORTANT SUPPORT FOR OUR COMMUNITY – We do not want the focus on minimizing risk to overshadow the benefits that we are striving to provide to our community, namely the opportunity for us to practice together. After this long period of isolation and loneliness, coming together to practice as a sangha is an opportunity that we truly value.
We understand that each of us, including our teachers, will need to evaluate the personal risks and benefits of in-person attendance and make individual decisions about how to attend SIM. All of us on the Board want to support you in whatever you choose to do. We extend sincere thanks to the members of our audiovisual and set-up teams who have agreed to participate in making in-person attendance possible.
With deep gratitude to all of you who have remained faithful supporters of our sangha,
Jon Siiteri, for the SIM Board of Directors, December 7, 2021 (republished on 10/17/22)
(For other related resources posted by SIM, visit https://sactoinsight.org/pandemic-news/)
SIM’s Community Teacher Diane Wilde will be teaching a new nine-month course “The Noble Eightfold Path: A Path for Living with Contentment, Compassion and Purpose“. This 2023 course offering runs monthly from March 19 through November 19, meeting in-person at the Dharma Center. For more information or to register now, visit the course overview page listed below.
Regarding the 2022 Sacramento Insight Meditation Retreat at the Mercy Center in Auburn, CA, we have some retreat photos and reflections to share. Click on a photo or click here for details, including reflections written by Cedric Orange and by Megan Carney.
Survey regarding the 2023 annual retreat.
Are you interested in attending a 2023 SIM retreat at the Mercy Center with Greg Scharf?
How likely are you to attend the SIM retreat if the dates are November 12 through November 19?
Are you willing to help with planning or managing the SIM 2023 retreat?
SIM’s Founding Teacher Dennis Warren will be teaching a new seven-week course “Discovering Balance – A Meditation Course for Experienced Meditators“. This course offering runs October 5 through November 16, 2022 (7:00 pm to 8:30 pm), meeting remotely via Zoom. There’s a one-day retreat on November 12. For more information about this course, visit this course overview page.
Registration to this 2022 course is currently closed.
The 2023 schedule for this course is set as: This course meets in 2023 for seven (7) consecutive ninety (90) minute Zoom sessions beginning at 7:00 pm on Wednesday evenings: October 4, 11, 18, 26 and November 1, 8 and 15. A one-day in-person retreat meets on November 11 from 8:30 am to 4:30 pm.
If you’d like us to notify you via email when registration opens for the 2023 course, use the following RSVP form to indicate your interest. Enter a quantity of 1 and select the colored button. Note that an RSVP is not the same as registering; it just means we’ll notify you about the registration schedule and procedure.
Our popular six-week Beginning Meditation Course begins Wednesday, October 19th. Rich Howard and Sara Denzler will be instructing. For more information, click on the flyer image or visit the registration page at https://sactoinsight.org/event/beginning-meditation-oct2022/.
Today SIM’s Board of Directors is sending out a Newsletter #2 communication “GETTING TO KNOW US…Up Close and Personal with SIM Board.” This month, they are featuring Margaret Buss and the SIM Set-up Crew. —– Excerpt follows —–
Next time you walk into the dharma hall, take a minute and look around. You may notice that the chairs are all in order, cushions laid out, colorful flowers in vases on the altar and around the room; that there is a sense of welcome, calm, and peace. Margaret has been the head of the SIM set-up crew since SIM moved to the Sacramento Dharma Center several years ago. Asked why she chose to volunteer for this position, she says [More details here…]
A message from our founding teacher, Dennis Warren.
Good afternoon and hope everything is good with you. I want to extend an invitation to you.
In person attendance at SIM on Thursday evenings is still much lower than pre-pandemic numbers. This is a loss for each of us individually as well as the organization. There is an added dimension to our practice and experience when we are in each other’s presence and practice together. Not that we need to do it all the time, but experiencing the truly unique human element of companionship in spiritual practice from time to time is something special.
I’m inviting you to consider attending SIM this Thursday, the 30th – in person. It would be great to be able to be together and practice in person for an evening.
My presentation that evening will be on Seeing Clearly and Thinking Clearly. Thinking as an object of meditation and focus of practice isn’t something that is discussed very much. This is surprising given how thinking tends to play such a significant role in our lives. A description follows below.
Hope you can make it. Take care.
Dennis
https://sactoinsight.org/06-30-2022-revisiting-fundamentals-thinking-with-dennis-warren/
Today SIM’s Board of Directors emailed a “Newsletter” to our current subscribers. Click on the image below to view the entire message. Below the image we’ve also included an excerpt of the Newsletter.
GETTING TO KNOW US…Up Close and Personal with SIM Board
This is the first of what we hope will become a monthly offering to the SIM community, featuring a profile of one of the sangha’s leaders or volunteers each time. In this age of virtual (or hybrid) gatherings, it is easy for us to feel disconnected from one another. More than ever, we need to share our stories and appreciate the diversity of people and their life experiences that make up this thriving sangha. More…