COVID-19 UPDATE

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Sacramento Insight Mediation hopes that you are finding stability through your practice at home during this unsettling time. Don’t forget these lists of available resources (1 of 2) and (2 of 2) that we’ve collected to help you. And we continue to nurture our sangha with online meetings that we hope you can attend.

Following government COVID-19 guidelines, Sacramento Dharma Center (SDC) will remain closed until further notice. Because of the changing nature of this crisis, the SDC Board of Directors (in collaboration with the resident sanghas) will continue to reassess the closure status weekly. Whenever reopening is permitted and advisable, the SDC will advise on how it will be implemented.

* This information is a re-post from the update published on 4/18/20 and 5/03/20.

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(Remote) Beginning Meditation Class (6 Week Course)

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This class is currently taught by SIM Community Teacher Rich Howard and is part of a six week meditation course offered twice a year.

Classes meet Tuesday evenings from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm on September 22, 29, October 6, 13, 20 and 27 plus a daylong retreat on Saturday, October 24, 2020 and details for this event are posted on the Course Overview page. If you have registered to this course and would like to make a donation to support SIM and the course instructors, consider donating online via credit card or Paypal.

Registration Details

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 Tuesday, August 11, 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: Sunday, August 23 and Monday, September 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.

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New Roof and Solar Campaign

The Sacramento Dharma Center has almost reached their goal of matching the $15,000 challenge pledge! Generous supporters have donated $13,015 so far; only $1,985 to go!

Fundraising Details …
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07/30/2020 “Value of Faith, Value of Doubt” with Diane Wilde

The Value of Faith, The Value of Doubt

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

Buddhism is unique among spiritual traditions by putting emphasis on both Faith and Doubt. Both are necessary for a balanced practice that benefits ourselves and others. Too much faith encourages certainty without examination of experience. It can lead to mind states such as “if only I practice a lot more, everything will be fine.” Too much doubt can be paralyzing. “Why do I bother? My practice is going nowhere. Nothing has changed!” Knowing how to balance these two extremes brings us to an authentic practice. This helps us not just in our personal practice, but aids in our interaction in the world which seems to insist on extremes at this present time.

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07/23/2020 “Who and What Gets Included or Excluded” with Dennis Warren

Who and What Gets Included or Excluded? Answers that Enrich or Diminish All of Us

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

Two simple questions lie at the center of our spiritual practices, daily life and the “cultural” conflicts we are facing: Who and what gets included? Who and what gets excluded?
The answers to these questions influence our intentions, perceptions, choices, and relationships. They shape identity, education, social and economic status, access to power and our health and well-being. They determine how we participate, and how fully we are allowed to participate, in family, organizations and the American experience itself. They touch every dimension of our inner and outer lives.
How do we work with these questions of inclusion from a mindful and caring perspective? In our inner life? In outer life? In both our spiritual and real-life challenges of being fallible, while simultaneously seeking to be more fully human and inclusive? The evening will explore the special role inclusion plays in Buddhist psychology and practice.
Part of our evening will explore a caring approach to understanding and working with the hot, controversial cultural issues we’re all facing from a mindfulness perspective. This will include the meaning of “systemic” and “systematic” from the perspective of Buddhist psychology.
In preparation for a portion of the session, it’s helpful to view the following:

Talk Handout (11 slides) (.pdf)Download

Here’s the flyer to a 9-week course that Dennis Warren will be teaching, Living on the Other Side of Suffering – An Experiment in Opening the Heart and Becoming More Fully Human.

(Click image to expand)

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(Remote) Sit & Dharma Talk – Tony Bernhard- Right Lifestyle

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Right Lifestyle: living the fully awakened life in the modern world

Sit & Dharma Talk with Visiting Teacher Tony Bernhard

Join online meeting: https://zoom.us/j/99302992161
Passcode: 882009
Join by phone: 1-669-900-9128 ( Meeting ID: 993 0299 2161 )
For tips and instructions on how to participate, check this news blog.

Thursday Night Talk Dana

[give_form id=”15406″ show_title=”false” show_content=”none” display_style=”reveal”] “Generosity is the virtue that leads to peace.” – The Historical Buddha
We recognize that donating by cash or check at the time you attend this event may not always be convenient for you. If that’s the case, please use this form 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 Tony Bernhard.

Tony Bernhard is a Buddhist chaplain and teacher. He maintains an active practice with inmates in Folsom Prison and hosts sitting groups in Davis. He sits on the board of the Sati Center for Buddhist Studies and teaches regularly around the bay area and central valley. His practice is non-traditional, guided by his chaplaincy work in prison, his teaching and by his study of the early Pali scriptures.

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(Remote) Introduction to Meditation with Dennis Warren

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To join this remote meeting, note the following:

Join Online: https://zoom.us/j/95640745936
Passcode: 686089
Join by phone: 1-669-900-6833 ( Meeting ID: 956 4074 5936D )
For instructions on how to join the meeting, click here.

This 45-minute course is suitable for beginners or anyone who would like a refresher. It is offered on the fourth Thursday of every month before the regular sitting and dharma talk. There is no fee.

DENNIS WARREN is SIM’s Founding Teacher and has been teaching mindfulness, meditation and contemplative practices since 1998. He recently completed his 11th year as a Volunteer Clinical Professor in Mindfulness in the Division of Pain Medicine at the UC Davis School of Medicine and Medical Center. He is certified as a Mindfulness Teacher, Professional Level (CMT-P), by the International Mindfulness Teachers Association. He is a graduate of the professional trainings in Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction and Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy for Depression. He also is a graduate of the Spirit Rock Medication Center’s Dharma leaders training program. You can learn more about Dennis’ background and activities at https://www.denniswarren.net/ .
Dennis has been participating in residential meditation retreats, and has maintained a daily meditation practice, in the Theravadan Buddhist tradition for over 30 years. 2018 was his 20th year of teaching Insight Meditation and mindfulness practices in residential, retreat, educational, medical, corporate and community settings. In 2007 and 2014, Dennis led month long pilgrimages and moving retreats in Thailand, India and Nepal. A third is being planned for late 2021.

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.

At the bottom of this page, you may enter the number of people planning to attend and select the button “Confirm RSVP“.
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(Remote) Introduction to Meditation with Dennis Warren

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To join this remote meeting, note the following:

Join Online: https://zoom.us/j/95758794860
Passcode: 171337
Join by phone: 1-669-900-6833 ( Meeting ID: 957 5879 4860 )
For tips and instructions on how to participate, check this news blog.

This 45-minute course is suitable for beginners or anyone who would like a refresher. It is offered on the fourth Thursday of every month before the regular sitting and dharma talk. There is no fee.

DENNIS WARREN is SIM’s Founding Teacher and has been teaching mindfulness, meditation and contemplative practices since 1998. He recently completed his 11th year as a Volunteer Clinical Professor in Mindfulness in the Division of Pain Medicine at the UC Davis School of Medicine and Medical Center. He is certified as a Mindfulness Teacher, Professional Level (CMT-P), by the International Mindfulness Teachers Association. He is a graduate of the professional trainings in Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction and Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy for Depression. He also is a graduate of the Spirit Rock Medication Center’s Dharma leaders training program. You can learn more about Dennis’ background and activities at https://www.denniswarren.net/ .
Dennis has been participating in residential meditation retreats, and has maintained a daily meditation practice, in the Theravadan Buddhist tradition for over 30 years. 2018 was his 20th year of teaching Insight Meditation and mindfulness practices in residential, retreat, educational, medical, corporate and community settings. In 2007 and 2014, Dennis led month long pilgrimages and moving retreats in Thailand, India and Nepal. A third is being planned for late 2021.

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.

At the bottom of this page, you may enter the number of people planning to attend and select the button “Confirm RSVP“.
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(Remote) Daylong Retreat – Rich Howard – Awareness and Friends

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An online, One Day Retreat with SIM Community Teacher Rich Howard

Retreat Theme: Awareness and Friends: A Day of Practice

The practice of mindful awareness is at the core of our practice. When cultivated properly, it brings along several of its friends: clear seeing, clear comprehension, tranquility, acceptance, and eventually compassion and equanimity. This day of practice will be in the style of Sayadaw U Tejaniya, a contemporary Burmese monk, with an open schedule conducive to home practice. It should work well on Zoom.

All are welcome.  (Pre-registration is required.)

Rich HowardRICH 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

  • 07/11/2020 – Registration opens.
    Registration via this website will close 30 minutes before the start of the retreat (8:00 am, Aug 29).
  • 08/29/2020 – Attend and enjoy the wonderful retreat.

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 include the link to join the Zoom meeting. Use this link at the start of the retreat to join the online retreat. Additionally,  the evening before the retreat, the retreat 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 in the email sent by 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.
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