Sacramento Insight Meditation (SIM)
15th Annual Retreat
“Keeping our Footing on Unsteady Ground”

This is a five day, online Zoom event with Senior Teacher John Travis
(Friday, September 11th at approximately 6 pm through Wednesday, September 16th by 11 am)

Residential retreat is widely viewed in the Theravada tradition as an important, if not essential, component in the path towards awakening. Residential meditation practice provides an environment that helps us turn inward towards a way of being where we live and act from a place of stillness, satisfaction, and kindness. This retreat is designed to deepen practice skills and foster insights into the stages of awakening and their implications for daily life. People of all walks of life are warmly welcome.

It is rare for a community sangha to sponsor a regular residential retreat and this year’s retreat will be unusual because we’ll have it online via Zoom. Practicing online together for multiple days, our individual efforts join together into a powerful force to deepen our practice, integrate it into our daily lives in our home environment, and strengthen our connections as a community. This year there will be two options for attending this retreat. See Participation and Registration sections below.

While this retreat is appropriate for both experienced and less experienced meditators, we encourage you to consider the following questions before registering:

• Do  you have a regular practice?
• Do you have a home sangha or group that you sit with?
• Have you sat at a multi-day retreat before?

If you have questions about whether this retreat is appropriate for you, please contact the retreat registrar for advise.

Our retreat teacher this year will be John Travis.

John Travis is the founding teacher of Mountain Stream Meditation Center and a member of the Senior Teachers Council of Spirit Rock Meditation Center. He studied in Asia for many years with many of the Buddhist masters who have influenced a generation of American meditation teachers—Thubten Yeshe, Kalu Rinpoche, Anagarika Munidra, S.N. Goenka, and Traungpula. He has also trained with and received teaching authorization from Jack Kornfield.
John was a critical force in the early growth of the Sacramento meditation community through his regular presence, guidance, and teachings during the 1990s. His sound and thoughtful advice has been instrumental to the development of Sacramento Insight Meditation. He now teaches regularly in various meditation centers in the United States and overseas. His teachings are characterized by his kindness, compassion, the depth of his meditation experience, and his ability to see deeply into the minds and hearts of those with whom he is working.

Participation

This retreat is designed to support those who are able to make this a full-time at home self-retreat, as well as those who may need to work, care for family members or do other daily life activities during parts of the rest of their day/evening.
Everyone is strongly encouraged to attend the 3-4 sessions each day with the Teacher. To view the current retreat schedule, click here. Full participants will also have one small group check-in with the Teacher.

For those with uncertain work or travel schedules, there are a limited number of spaces available to audit the retreat. Auditing does not include the small group check-in with the Teacher. If you require this accommodation, select the Ticket option “Auditing“.

Cost

The registration fee will be $100 with an opportunity to later make a donation to support the teacher, John Travis.

Registration

Note: If this retreat is full (you’ll see a message SOLD OUT), there’s a good chance you may still be able to attend since people’s plans change and there will likely be some cancellations. Proceed with the registration process to add your name to the wait list and as soon as a spot is open, we’ll notify you.  If you don’t get into the retreat, we’ll refund your deposit. Expect us to contact you on or before Friday, Aug 24, 2020 with an update about your wait list status.

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

You may pay online or by check as follows:

Online Registration

Registration payments done online will automatically add your name to the registration or wait list. If you’re paying for more than one person, SIM will confirm everyone’s name and email address at a later date.
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.

Postal Registration

If you plan to pay the registration fee by mail, you must add your name to the RSVP list to secure your spot in the registration queue. Click here for postal registration instructions.

Scholarships

A limited number of partial or full scholarships are available based on need. To request the scholarship application, please add your name to the RSVP list to secure your spot in the registration queue. Click here for scholarship registration instructions.

Cancellations

• Through August 21, 2020, full refund if requested by this date.
• After August 21, 2020, the registration fee could be refunded if SIM is able to fill your spot with another participant. Otherwise, the registration fee will not be refunded. A waiver of this policy will be considered in limited circumstances based on request demonstrating financial hardship.

Questions for the Registrar?

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

Audio Dharma

Some of the dharma talks for this retreat were recorded. If you attended this retreat, click here and enter the password to access the recordings.