SIM Community Potluck (Full Moon)

Every year, Sacramento Insight Meditation (SIM) hosts a community potluck during the holidays. This event is open to the general dharma community.

Savory or Sweet, bring a dish to share (6-8 Servings). In SIM’s tradition please bring your own plate, cup, utensils and as we attempt to go paperless, cloth napkins. Again this year we will need a few people to bring table cloth(s) and holiday decor! We will be setting up our Holiday Feast starting from 6:30 PM, and planning to eat at 7:00 PM.

 

A Unique Opportunity to Visit and Share

All are invited to come celebrate the holidays with our sangha, as we eat together and enjoy each other’s company. Come and visit with your SIM friends, acquaintances and dharma communities. This evening is a fun and joyful way for us to spend time getting to know one another better. It’s a wonderful opportunity to make new friends.

This evening will be what we make of it.

There will not be a Dharma talk. Instead, as we’ve done in years past, people are invited to share of themselves. We all have something to give – our personal dana – a poem, a reading, a story, a song, a dance, a picture – whatever comes from the heart, in the spirit of the holidays. It does not have to be original. For sharing your personal dana, be mindful of the time, 4-6 minutes, so that everyone who wants to can have the opportunity to participate. To sign up for sharing your personal dana, simply RSVP in the section shown below selecting the option “Potluck plus Sharing”.

If you have questions about the “talent”/dharma sharing part of the evening, contact Miriam Greenberg.
You can also contact Barbara Colton for help with anything else.

Tell us if you’re Going or Not Going / Sharing or Not Sharing

Your RSVP to this Community Potluck is requested as it will help us estimate the number of tables and chairs we’ll be setting up and help us organize the agenda for the event. At the bottom of this web page, enter the number of people planning to attend, select the appropriate Confirm RSVP button, enter your Full Name, your Email, and your RSVP as “Going” or “Not Going”.

/by

Our Annual Potluck Dec 12th

Please join SIM friends and acquaintances (if you are new, you will leave with at least one SIM friend) at our annual Holiday Potluck, Thursday, December 12 during our regular meeting time, more or less– 6:30 pm to 9 pm. Friends and relatives are welcome. Bring a vegetarian dish to share that will serve 8-12. Also bring your own plate, glass, and napkin to minimize our contribution to the local landfill (but don’t worry if you forget.) We hope to see you there.

Click here to send in your RSVP which will help us plan table and chair setup so everyone is comfortable.

/by

*Daylong Retreat – Rich Howard – Gratitude and Compassion

Retreat Theme: Gratitude and Compassion

Daylong Retreat with SIM Community Teacher Rich Howard

An attitude of gratitude can bring us joy and resilience. As the practice deepens, it opens us to the joys and sorrows of all beings. This daylong will combine silent meditation practice in the sitting, walking and standing postures with guided meditations and mindful discussions to explore how we might cultivate and expand our practices of gratitude and compassion to heal this hurting world. Please bring a lunch and plan to stay onsite for this day of refuge and connection.

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. He is currently enrolled in 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

  • 10/24/2019 – Registration opens.
  • 11/29/2019 – Registration via this website closed at 6:30 pm. There is still space and you may register in person at least 15 minutes before the retreat begins.
  • 11/30/2019 – 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, we accept checks and cash. No one will be turned away for lack of funds; please contact the registrar for more information. Day-of registration will be on a first-come first-serve basis, contingent on availability of space.

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

CANCELLED – Introduction to Meditation

We’re sorry to announce that Dennis Warren is unavailable this evening and we must cancel the Introduction to Meditation class. We hope you’ll plan to attend the next scheduled course offering SIM Community Teacher Rich Howard on Thursday, December 26, 2019.

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.

At the bottom of this page, you may enter the number of people planning to attend and select the button “Confirm RSVP“.
/by

NO EVENTS TODAY

There are no events scheduled by SIM today due to the Thanksgiving Holiday.

/by

Sit & Dharma Talk with Visiting Teacher Tony Bernhard

Sit & Dharma Talk with Visiting Teacher Tony Bernhard
The topic of the talk is to be announced.

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.

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.

/by

*Sit & Dharma Talk – Diane Wilde – Buddhism and Euthanasia

Buddhism and Euthanasia

Sit & Dharma Talk with SIM Community Teacher Diane Wilde

Spot is old, ill and suffering. As painful as it is for loving pet guardians, we now have to make a difficult decision — is it time to consider euthanasia? For humans, California End of Life Option Act is a law which allows terminally ill adults resident in the state of California to access medical aid in dying by self-administering lethal drugs. Would you take advantage of this? Should you?

We look to our spiritual traditions for guidance on difficult life and death situations such as this. Tonight we will look at the history of teachings on the subject from a Buddhist perspective and what contemporary teachers have to say.

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.

Thursday Night Talk Dana
“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 the form below to donate by credit card or your PayPal account. Enter the amount you’d like to give and your donation will be shared with Rev. Diane Wilde and SIM.

[give_form id=”9758″ show_title=”false” show_content=”none” display_style=”reveal”]
/by

10/17/2019 “A Lump of Foam: The Five Aggregates” with Rich Howard

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

The five Aggregates of Clinging are an excellent means for seeing the three universal characteristics: impermanence, conditionality/insubstantiality and suffering/stress. This phrase is repeated like a mantra in the many suttas about the aggregates: “This is not mine, this I am not, this is not my self.” We will discuss how to use the aggregates in our daily lives to foster insight into how we suffer.

/by