Virtual Event

April 24, 2021 @ 10:00 am 3:30 pm PDT

An Online, Daylong Retreat with visiting Senior Teacher Heather Sundberg

Suchness: Understanding Conditions, Responding with Compassion

From the perspective of Suchness we understand causes and conditions which lead to suffering and to freedom, and from that we can connect with what Ajahn Amaro calls ‘the texture of experience’, opening our hearts with a caring attitude to things as they are. Enjoy a day of quiet sitting and walking meditation, which allow our body & mind to settle down and our hearts to open to an inner wisdom. In addition to insight meditation practice, Heather will offer teachings & guided meditations on the theme, as well as optional Qi Gong practice & discussion about how to live these teachings in our daily lives. In this daylong we will explore this Subtle Characteristic of Suchness from the following perspectives:
  • Using the Buddha’s teaching to Bahiya as well as the teaching of the Two Arrows, and teachings on Conditionality.
  • Exploring practices from the Thai forest tradition, including Ajahn Sumedho’s famous teaching ‘It’s like this’.
  • Deepening the Heart Practice of Compassion.
  • Deepening inner Resiliency through Somatic Practices.
Note there will be a lunch break from Noon to 1:00 pm.
HEATHER SUNDBERG has taught insight meditation since 1999, has completed the Spirit Rock/IMS Teacher Training, and is currently on the Spirit Rock Teacher’s Council. Beginning her own meditation practice in her late teens, for the last 25 years Heather has studied with senior teachers in the Insight Meditation (Vipassana) and Tibetan (Vajrayana) traditions and has sat 1-3 months of retreat a year for the last 25 years. She was the Spirit Rock Family & Teen Program Teacher & Manager for a decade. Between 2010 and 2015 she spent a cumulative one-year in study, practice, and pilgrimage in Asia. Since 2011, she has been a Teacher at Mountain Stream Meditation Center and sister communities in the Sierra Foothills, and teaches retreats nationally and internationally. Her teaching emphasizes embodiment, compassion, awareness, and practical wisdom. For more information about Heather visit www.heathersundberg.com.
The Teacher offers the teachings freely in the tradition of the Buddha, and her livelihood is completely sustained by the generosity of the communities she serves. Dana (donation) for these priceless teachings will be gratefully accepted by the teacher, giving participants the opportunity to freely engage in the practice of generosity, the first step toward freedom. You may donate for this event online using a credit card or PayPal account.

Summary of Important Dates

  • 02/23/2021 – Registration opens.
  • 04/24/2021 – Attend and enjoy the wonderful retreat. (There will be a lunch break from Noon to 1:00 pm.) Registration via this website closes 30 minutes before the start of the retreat on Apr 24.

Registration 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. Before registering to this event, click here to review the terms of use for this website.

Questions for the Registrar?

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

How to attend this online retreat

Once you’ve registered, you’ll receive an email “Ticket” that also includes the link to join the Zoom meeting. Use this link at the start of the retreat to participate in the retreat. Additionally, the evening before or the morning of the retreat, the registrar will send you a welcome email that also includes the link to join the Zoom meeting.
Join online meeting: The hyperlink is included in your emailed "Ticket" and also in the email sent by the retreat registrar.
Join by phone: 1-669-900-6833 ( see email sent by retreat registrar for the Meeting ID )
For tips and instructions on how to use Zoom to attend the retreat, click here.
To give a donation after attending this retreat, click here.

Details

  • Date: April 24, 2021
  • Time:
    10:00 am – 3:30 pm PDT
  • Cost: $15.00 – $35.00
  • Event Categories: ,

Remote Meeting Zoom

Tickets

The numbers below include tickets for this event already in your cart. Clicking “Get Tickets” will allow you to edit any existing attendee information as well as change ticket quantities.
Tickets are no longer available

Who's coming?

32 people are attending (Remote) Daylong Retreat – Heather Sundberg – Suchness: Understanding Conditions…

Elli Sandis Jennifer Sharples Marian Baldy Jan Eisenman Kate MacNeil curtis watkins Cheryl Dell Joe Kellett Sedna Cedarstone Tony Pruitt Kristie Wells carol Fernandes Matt Norby Cecilia Richards Stillness Healing Arts rosemary ogrady Thomas Gangloff Jackie Garcia cedric orange sr Robin Boyer Ossian MacDonald Jon Siiteri Amanda Kimball Robert Bakke Jim Lerner, Ph.D. steven glass Sara Denzler Charlesly Joseph Luiza leite photography Temira Lital
To download this talk, right-click and select ‘save audio as’ or select the 3-dot menu to the right of the speaker icon.

Mindfulness is the operational centerpiece of good practice, sound problem solving and living well. It supports and enables all the different teachings, methods and psychology of the historical Buddha which are designed to help us live a rich, full, satisfying life.
One way of understanding mindfulness is that it has two interlocking dimensions: One is practical and functional. The other is oriented towards awakening or liberation. As a community practitioner, we can inadvertently slip into the habit of relating to mindfulness, and practice itself, as only functional and practical.
When this happens, mindfulness and practice can become self-restricting and self-limiting. Such an approach can accidently obscure, and potentially cut us off from, spontaneous discovery and the deep, intuitive, healing wisdom of our bodies and hearts. We can become disconnected from the beauty and power inherent in exploring the mystery, and the dilemma, of being human, of being in relationships and of being alive on this planet.
This is the territory we’ll explore on Thursday evening: functional mindfulness; awakening or liberating mindfulness; and the unifying and inspiring experience at the center of practice which is beyond words, language and concepts.
The subject matter of this evening is appropriate for all stages of practice. All that is necessary is showing up with an open, questioning mind.

The book that Dennis references: In Love with the World – By YONGEY MINGYUR RINPOCHE and HELEN TWORKOV

Zoom Chat

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/.


This class is currently taught by SIM Community Teacher Rich Howard and SIM Community Mentor Sandra Sigrist, and is part of a six week meditation course offered twice a year. For details, visit the Course Overview page. After registering , if you’d like to make a donation to support SIM and the course instructors, consider donating online via credit card or Paypal.


Registration – Get Tickets After Feb 3

Pre-registration is necessary since the course registrar provides follow-up information required prior to this first class meeting.

Before making the $35 registration payment, click here to review the terms of use for this website. On Thursday, February 4, online registration opens. Pay the registration fee online using the “Tickets” section at the bottom of this page. Specify the number of people you are registering to this course 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. After you’ve paid the fee, you’ll receive an email with the subject “You have tickets!” (but no need to print the ticket on paper).

Note that all registrants will receive an email communication from the course registrar on the following dates:  March 29,  April 19, and  May 7.

If you can’t attend this class now or the course is full (sold out), we invite you to add your name to the wait list (click here) and we’ll contact you when the next course offering is scheduled or if a space has opened up. If you need to contact the course registrar with any other questions, click here.

To download this talk, right-click and select ‘save audio as’ or select the 3-dot menu to the right of the speaker icon.

* I think this was in Lion’s Roar Thubten Chodron: American Tibetan Buddhist nun, author, teacher, …My concern with Buddhism in the West is that there’s some block to really looking deeply at what dukkha means. People want light and love and bliss. Many people come to Buddhism to achieve a better psychological state and feel better about themselves, and that’s fine—we can help them on that level. But that’s not the depth to which the Buddha’s teachings go. If we don’t spend time considering what dukkha is, then we won’t seek liberation and awakening. Instead, we’ll use the dharma only to make our samsaric life a little bit better. That’s one of my fears for Buddhism in the West, that we lose the liberating aspect of the dharma.
* www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/kn/snp/snp.4.15.irel.html
* www.heartmindteaching.com

Zoom chat shared by JD Doyle

Join online meeting: https://zoom.us/j/97343989624
Passcode: 633878
Join by phone: 1-669-900-6833 ( Meeting ID: 973 4398 9624 )
For tips and instructions on how to participate, check this news blog.

To make a donation for this event, click here.

Our Buddhist Recovery Group meets every Monday evening. For additional information, visit the 12 Step Sangha page at https://sactoinsight.org/activities/practice-opportunities/12-step-sangha/.

Join online meeting: https://zoom.us/j/97343989624
Passcode: 633878
Join by phone: 1-669-900-6833 ( Meeting ID: 973 4398 9624 )
For tips and instructions on how to participate, check this news blog.

To make a donation for this event, click here.

Our Buddhist Recovery Group meets every Monday evening. For additional information, visit the 12 Step Sangha page at https://sactoinsight.org/activities/practice-opportunities/12-step-sangha/.

Join online meeting: https://zoom.us/j/97343989624
Passcode: 633878
Join by phone: 1-669-900-6833 ( Meeting ID: 973 4398 9624 )
For tips and instructions on how to participate, check this news blog.

To make a donation for this event, click here.

Our Buddhist Recovery Group meets every Monday evening. For additional information, visit the 12 Step Sangha page at https://sactoinsight.org/activities/practice-opportunities/12-step-sangha/.

Join online meeting: https://zoom.us/j/97343989624
Passcode: 633878
Join by phone: 1-669-900-6833 ( Meeting ID: 973 4398 9624 )
For tips and instructions on how to participate, check this news blog.

To make a donation for this event, click here.

Our Buddhist Recovery Group meets every Monday evening. For additional information, visit the 12 Step Sangha page at https://sactoinsight.org/activities/practice-opportunities/12-step-sangha/.