Retreat Theme –
The Three Trainings: A Question, a Dialogue, and a Choice

A Daylong Retreat with SIM Community Teacher Rich Howard

About This Hybrid Retreat

• Hybrid events can be attended via Zoom or in-person at the Sacramento Dharma Center.
• Pre-registration is required and we recommend you pay the registration fee in advance. This helps us determine how many people will attend and how many people the meditation room should accommodate.
• To pay now, you’ll find at the bottom of this page registration ticket choices to attend via Zoom or attend onsite. If you attend onsite, you do have the option to pay the registration fee in-person on the day of the retreat or pay online after the retreat starts.
• If you buy a ticket for onsite attendance you may still attend the retreat via Zoom.
• The link to attend the retreat via Zoom appears in three places:
  • The Zoom link is at the bottom of this page – select the button “Join Retreat Online” to connect to the meeting.
  • The Zoom link is included in the automated email sent with your ticket purchase (email subject is “You have tickets!“).
  • The Zoom link is https://joinconferencing.zoom.us/join, with Meeting ID: 892 8253 1249 and Passcode: 830142
• To give a donation after attending this retreat, click here.

Retreat Theme: The Three Trainings: A Question, a Dialogue, and a Choice

The three trainings of the eightfold path are the training in moral integrity (sila), the training in meditation (bhavana), and the training in wisdom (pañña). They are taught in many places in the Pali Canon, nowhere more powerfully than in the Samaññaphala Sutta (Digha Nikaya 2). This sutta, the story of an encounter between the historical Buddha and King Ajatasattu, contains a survey of the other philosophical traditions of the Buddha’s time, a summary of the essence of the Buddha’s teachings illustrated with beautiful similes, and (spoiler alert!) a sad refusal by the King to accept this teaching as the basis for transforming his life. Inspired by two chapters on this sutta (characterized as “almost a Greek tragedy”) in Krishnan Venkatesh’s book “Do You Know Who You Are?” and a book-length essay by Mu Soeng “The Question of King Ajatasattu” (“rightly called one of the most important texts in the Pali Canon”), we will explore in depth how we might answer the King’s question reframed for ourselves: what is the fruit of practice, and what are we willing to do to attain it? This day of practice and dialogue will help deepen our understanding and bring it into our practice and our lives. It will continue the teaching offered on October 14, although both events stand alone.
All are welcome.

RICH HOWARD has been an active practitioner and volunteer at SIM since 2004. His area of interest is bringing meditative awareness into everyday life. He participated in SIM’s 2007 India Pilgrimage and is a graduate of SIM’s second Practice Development and Leadership (PDL) program. He served on the Board from 2010 until 2015, the last two years as president. He was one of the SIM representatives to the Inter-Sangha Coordinating Committee, predecessor to the Sacramento Dharma Center Board, which now runs our shared space for Buddhist sanghas in Sacramento. He served as a Peace Corps volunteer in southern Africa in the 1970s and is fluent in Spanish. His teachers are Dennis Warren, Tony Bernhard, and Steve Armstrong. Rich completed online courses with Steve on the Abhidhamma (the Buddhist psychology) and the Manual of Insight. He took Gil Fronsdal’s online course on the Majjhima Nikaya (Middle-length Discourses of the Buddha). His interest in the environment led him to the One Small Planet training with Kerry Nelson and the Ecosattva training with One Earth Sangha. In 2018, he completed a 10-month Dhamma Awareness Training with Steve Armstrong and Kamala Masters called Touching the Earth. In 2019, he completed Meg Gawler’s 8-month course Preparing the Ground for Samadhi.

Sacramento Insight Meditation events are sustained by the generosity of instructors in offering teachings freely and on the generosity of students and members of the meditative community in the form of financial support, service and participation in events. With our practice of dana, we support our Sangha. If you prefer to make a donation for this event online using a credit card or PayPal account, click here to DONATE ONLINE.

Summary of Important Dates

• 09/13/2021 – Registration opens.
• 10/30/2021 – Attend and enjoy the wonderful retreat.
• 11/01/2021 – Registration closes the Monday after the retreat at 11:00 am PDT.

Registration Ticket Details

Registration is $15.00 per person due before the start of the event. If you are able and interested in further supporting SIM financially, you have the option of a registration fee of either $25 or $35 dollars. To pay the registration fee online, use the “Tickets” section at the bottom of this page. Specify the number of people you are registering to this retreat and click the button “Get Tickets”. You’ll be automatically directed to a secure web-page where your registration payment can be made by credit card as a guest (no PayPal account required) or payment can be made by PayPal after you sign-in to your PayPal account if you have one.
For the registration fee, we also accept personal checks. No one will be turned away for lack of funds; please contact the registrar for more information.

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Questions for the Registrar?

If you need to contact the retreat registrar with any questions, click here.