Beginnings and Endings

Sit & Dharma Talk with SIM Community Teacher Rich Howard

* Hybrid events can be attended via Zoom or in-person at the Sacramento Dharma Center. The teacher will present on location.

Join online meeting: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/89485691687
Passcode: 114183
Join by phone: 1-669-900-6833 ( Meeting ID:  894 8569 1687 )
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Thursday Night Talk Dana
[give_form id=”10304″ show_title=”false” show_content=”none” display_style=”reveal”] “Generosity is the virtue that leads to peace.” – The Historical Buddha
For remote meetings, please use the form above to donate by credit card or your PayPal account. Enter the amount you’d like to give and 75% of your donation will be shared with Rich Howard.

Topic details:

While the end of a calendar year is somewhat arbitrary, it offers us a chance to look back on the previous year and to look forward to the year to come. In terms of practice, we can think of these activities as Wise Reflection and Wise Intention. For this evening, we will be using a beginning – the first section of the Dhammapada, which Jack Kornfield calls “the most beloved of all Buddhist texts, both poetic and profound.” Titled “Dichotomies” in Gil Fronsdal’s translation (Shambhala, 2008), this text contains reminders of the power of our thoughts and actions, and discernment in choosing a path of happiness and away from quarrels.

The placement of a text at the beginning of a collection was not arbitrary when the Pali Canon was assembled – important texts like this one were intentionally placed first. We will take a slow tour through this poem and see what it offers for our year-end reflection and intention. Feel free to have your own copy of the Dhammapada at hand; it is often fruitful to see how different translators approach a text.

Feeding on Joy

Sit & Dharma Talk with Visiting Senior Teacher Walt Opie

* Hybrid events can be attended via Zoom or in-person at the Sacramento Dharma Center

Join online meeting: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/87048503535
Passcode: 717418
Join by phone: 1-669-900-6833 ( Meeting ID: 870 4850 3535 )
For tips and instructions on how to participate, check this news blog.

Thursday Night Talk Dana

[give_form id=”14984″ show_title=”false” show_content=”none” display_style=”reveal”]

“Generosity is the virtue that leads to peace.” – The Historical Buddha For remote meetings, please use the form above to donate by credit card or your PayPal account. Enter the amount you’d like to give and 100% of your donation will be shared with Walt Opie.

Topic details:  There is a discourse that describes the Buddha going on his alms round one day and not receiving any food to eat. Instead of getting down at the lack of food though, he declared that he took delight in being self-sufficient, and he said he would “keep feeding on joy.” The type of joy he meant relates to deep states of meditation. However, we can also feed on the “subtle joy of being in the present moment” when we are practicing diligent mindfulness. And further, we can take delight in wholesome forms of joy and happiness like cultivating more gratitude and generosity, especially during the holiday season. WALT OPIE was first introduced to insight meditation in 1993 at Spirit Rock and began attending regular residential retreats in 2005. He is a graduate of both the Spirit Rock Community Dharma Leaders’ (CDL4) training program and the Sati Center Buddhist Chaplaincy program. He has led sitting groups for people in recovery since 2011. Walt also serves as a volunteer chaplain with Buddhist Pathways Prison Project (BP3) at Solano state prison in Vacaville, CA. In addition, he is currently a trainee in the Insight Meditation Society (IMS) Teacher Training program based in Barre, MA. Visit https://www.waltopie.com/ for more information.

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Walt is also offering an online mini retreat through IMS (Insight Meditation Society) focusing on “Freedom from Craving”. The retreat is scheduled for Sunday, December 5, 2021 and details are posted to https://www.dharma.org/freedom-from-craving/. Details include IMS interviewing Walt with questions such as,

• How does craving lead to suffering?
• How can we develop the internal empowerment needed to change our relationship to old habits?