This class is part of a six week meditation course offered twice a year. You must pre-register to the course before attending this class. For course details, click here. If you are a course participant and would like to make a donation online, click here.

Tomorrow we open the registration to our six week Beginning Meditation Course that starts September 22, 2020. This course is offered online and will likely be lead by SIM Community Teacher, Rich Howard. Here is the course flyer in PDF format.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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:


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)

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.

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“.