*Daylong Retreat with SIM Founding Teacher Dennis Warren

The Role Of “Framing Experience” In Performance, Satisfaction and Happiness

A One Day Retreat with SIM Founding Teacher Dennis Warren

Every day we are presented with circumstances that can be opportunities, challenges or problems depending on how our mind frames the experience that is taking place. The way our mind frames an experience has enormous influence in determining how we feel about our capacity to deal with a set of facts skillfully and how we perform.
This event – how the mind frames what is it about to engage – is critical in guiding how, and whether, we can mobilize our inner resources to take on what life brings to us with determination, patience and satisfaction; or whether we struggle, suffer and are disappointed. This is the difference between feeling empowered and capable vs vulnerable and at risk.
This principle applies whether the circumstances, or life situation, involves our interior life, our relationship with others, or economic, cultural or political events taking place in our community, our country or the work.
This one day will look at ways we can use the framing process as a practical, hand-on tool. We will examine the what, why and how of framing events from a practice perspective using real life illustrations. We will explore how we can use our practice to improve the fundamental way we relate to our experience, improve our performance and feel better about ourselves? This will include Dennis sharing some of his recent experiences in dealing with medical challenges, pain and other significant life situations.
Please try to attend Dennis’ talk on Thursday, September 26 if you plan on attending this one-day retreat. That talk will lay a helpful foundation for your experience of the one-day retreat.

All are welcome. Come for all day or for a portion of the day. Please bring your lunch.

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/.

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

  • 07/31/2019 – Registration opens.
  • 09/27/2019 – Registration via this website closed  at 6:30 pm however since the retreat still has space, you may register in person at least 15 minutes before the retreat begins.
  • 09/28/2019 – 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.
For the registration fee paid in person, we accept checks and cash. 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.

Volunteer Opportunities

It “takes a village” to put on a large event for our community. If you would be available to assist in set-up, take-down, tea service, providing flowers or other duties for the event, please contact the retreat registrar for more information..

Questions for the Registrar?

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

/by

*Daylong Retreat with Ayya Santacitta and Rev. Diane Wilde

A One Day Retreat– with Ayya Santacitta and SIM’s Community Teacher Rev. Diane Wilde

The Buddha’s advise on what is insanity and how to cultivate a sound mind

We human beings, in this human realm, rarely realize that we operating in a state of of delusion.Not only are we operating in a deluded state, we expect this current mind state to provide us a sense of happiness and well-being. Because we really have no idea what we are doing, the goal of happiness is illusive and frustrating. This is also the Buddhist view of mental disease. Delusion is a mental illness that causes all sorts of suffering; mental health can be restored by correcting the flaws in how the mind operates. We will investigate our “mental disease” in both classical terms as well as our contemporary daily life and how we can cultivate “sanity” both for ourselves and the larger world itself.

Please bring a meal to share with others which includes a lunch offering to Ayya Santacitta.

AYYA SANTACITTA was born in Austria and has a multifaceted background in hotel management, ethnology and avant-garde dance theater. Her first teacher was Ajahn Buddhadasa, who sparked her interest in Buddhist monastic life. She has practiced meditation for 30 years and trained as a nun in both the East and West since 1993, primarily in the lineage of Ajahn Chah. Since 2002 she has also received teachings in the lineage of Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche. Ayya Santacitta is co-founder of Aloka Vihara Forest Monastery, where she has resided since 2009 and took Bhikkhuni Ordination in 2011. She is particularly interested in creating sanctuary close to nature, practicing in community, and bringing wisdom traditions to the environmental movement.

Diane WildeDIANE WILDE has studied meditation in various traditions since 1990. In 2001 she was a founding member of Sacramento Insight Meditation. She founded Buddhist Pathways Prison Project (BP3) in 2010. Since 2003, she has been a BP3 prison chaplain and aids in coordination of 75 volunteers who offer Buddhist services at numerous California prisons and jails. She is a graduate of Sati Center’s Buddhist Chaplaincy program and graduated from Spirit Rock Meditation Center’s Community Dharma Leadership Training Program. She is a board member of Sati Center for Buddhist Studies, Sacramento Dharma Center, Buddhist Pathways Prison Project and California Dept. of Corrections Volunteer Advisory Board. In 2015 she was lay-ordained as a Buddhist minister by her teacher Gil Fronsdal.

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

  • 06/04/2019 – Registration opens.
  • 07/26/2019 – Registration via this website will close at 4:30 pm. There is still space available so come and register in person.
  • 07/27/2019 – 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.

We’ve closed the online payment which is why the “Tickets” section at the bottom of this page shows “Tickets are no longer available” however there is still space at the retreat so come and register in person; we accept checks and cash. 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.

Volunteer Opportunities

It “takes a village” to put on a large event for our community. If you would be available to assist in set-up, take-down, tea service, providing flowers or other duties for the event, please contact the retreat registrar for more information..

Questions for the Registrar?

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

/by

Rummage Sale Sat. June 15th

The Sacramento Dharma Center invites you to include your stuff in the Rummage Sale scheduled for Saturday, June 15th from 9 am until 2 pm. For details in PDF format, click here or you can check the SDC calendar.

/by

05/23/2019 “Buddhist Ethical Precepts” with Laura Rosenthal

The Buddhist Ethical Precepts – Are They Really Not Commandments?

Audio Player

If you would like to download this talk, please right click and select “save as” here.

/by

Facebook Page Likes Growing

Thank you to all the Facebook users who have visited our page and given it a thumbs up! Back in November 2016, our Facebook page had 398 “Likes” and today our page likes have grown to 755.  We hope you’re enjoying the links, photos, and events we’ve been posting over the years. If you haven’t had a chance yet to Like our page, please do! Just visit https://www.facebook.com/sactoinsight/ and Like our page. If you’re not sure how to do this, make a comment to this news post and we’ll send you a LIKE invitation via Facebook.

And if you’ve already given us the thumbs up, consider leaving a Facebook review of SIM. Currently our review rating is 4.9 out of 5, based on the opinion of 11 people.

/by

New Members Join Board of Directors

The Sacramento Insight Meditation Board is pleased to announce that we have two new members who will be joining us this summer: Alice Carney and Jon Siiteri. Please congratulate Jon and Alice when you see them, and thank them for their service to SIM.

/by

Sangha Dinners take a summer break

SIM will be taking a break from our monthly community dinners over the summer, so no dinner is planned for Thursday, June 13. We can re-evaluate in the fall whether we want to begin again with a monthly event, or find a new way to “nurture sangha over dinner.” Thanks to everyone who has participated in these events, and have a wonderful summer!

/by

Young Persons Sangha with Sue Taylor

Meeting on the Second and Fourth Tuesday evenings is a ​young persons group studying mindfulness and meditation. Idris Ahmed is the facilitator and SIM Community Teacher Diane Wilde is the sponsor.

/by

05/16/2019 “Vesak… and looking at ‘Nibbana'” with Diane Wilde

Audio Player

If you would like to download this talk, please right click and select “save as” here.

The most important holiday in the Buddhist calendar is Vesak. This year for many Buddhists Vesak is celebrated on Sunday, May 19. It celebrates the important events in the Buddha’s life… his birth, enlightenment and reaching a final state of no suffering… paranibbana.
Enlightenment or Nibbana has a host of definitions, mostly consisting of what it isn’t. The Buddha never explicitly said what it is, or for that matter, even exactly “who” gets enlightened. Due to the inability to speak about “Nibbana, the“goal” of eliminating suffering is either impossibly vague or has disappeared entirely from view.
What Western Buddhists are left with is the “path” and perfecting the path now appears to be the goal rather than actual enlightenment. Why is that? Is Nibbana the same in 2019 as 2,600 years ago when the world was so radically different? We’ll investigate the traditional attempts at explaining Nibbana and also some new ideas emanating from the challenges of our times.

/by

05/09/2019 “The Ethical Dimension of Buddist Practice” with Tony Bernhard

Audio Player

If you would like to download this talk, please right click and select “save as” here.

/by