*Sit & Dharma Talk – Teacher Dennis Warren – Restless, Worry and Anxiety

Investigation Leading to Liberating Insight – A Practical Model For Working With Restless, Worry and Anxiety
Sit & Dharma Talk with SIM Founding Teacher Dennis Warren

How can Restless, Worry & Anxiety be investigated in a way that leads to liberating insight? This is one of the fundamental skills of a good practice. This evening will be devoted to examining a practical, experiential and hands-on model of working with these obstacles and challenges to mindfulness and practice.
While these states of mind can appear in different areas in our practice and our life, they usually acts as an undermining factor in our confidence, decision making and behavior. What are the related experiences of Restless, Worry and Anxiety? What are their experiential origin? What causes them to be present? What causes them to diminish and no longer be present? What can we do to work with them skillfully while they present?
As preparation for this evening, reflect on how Restless, Worry and Anxiety has influenced your experience and decision making in the last year. Come prepared with questions you have regarding your experiences.

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.

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*Sit & Dharma Talk – Sue Taylor – Engaged Buddhism

Engaged Buddhism: A heart as wide as the world

Sit & Dharma Talk with Visiting Teacher Sue Taylor

How do we use our practice to build bridges of empathy and compassion in a confusing and challenging world? Tonight we will discuss the wisdom of elders who have spent their lives metaphorically walking between their internal “practice on the zafu” and their transformational external practice in the world.  We will explore the many ways their examples offer inspiration and courage, as well as spaciousness and resilience.

 

Sue Taylor, PhD, MSW, is a member of the Sacramento Dharma Center Board, an ordained Theravada Minister, and an Environmental Chaplain. She is a professor at CSU Sacramento in the Department of Social Work.

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.

 

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Nurturing Sangha Over Dinner

Nurturing Sangha Over Dinner meets informally at six o’clock on the second Thursday of the month, before the regular dharma talk and sit. Please bring your dinner and something extra to share, if you would like. We can continue to get to know one another and talk more about how SIM can support us in our practice. We’ll try this out for a few months and see if it is something we want to continue.

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*Sit & Dharma Talk – Meg Gawler – Happiness and the Arising of Samādhi

Happiness and the Arising of Samādhi

Sit & Dharma Talk with Visiting teacher Meg Gawler

Happiness (sukha in Pali) is the proximate cause for samādhi (collectedness, concentration). It is also traditionally taught as one of the factors of absorption (jhana). On this evening, Meg will explore the various meanings of happiness in a Buddhist context and the role it plays in our practice of meditative awareness.

MEG GAWLER began practicing Buddhism in 1968 as a disciple of the Zen Master, Shunryu Suzuki Roshi, including over three years of monastic training. She earned a Master’s in Applied Ecology, moved to Europe, pursued an international career in nature conservation and human development, and began practicing in the Theravāda tradition. She has trained with Gil Fronsdal, Jack Kornfield, Joseph Goldstein, and others. Authorized as a Dharma teacher by Jack Kornfield and then by Gil Fronsdal, Meg teaches retreats in both English and French in Switzerland, and serves as a guest teacher at the Insight Meditation Center and elsewhere. Meg also holds a Master’s in Buddhist Studies, specializing in early Theravāda studies. In addition, she teaches Radiant Heart Qigong in the tradition of Teja Bell.

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.

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*Sit & Dharma Talk – Rich Howard – Loving Anger

Loving Anger
Sit & Dharma Talk with SIM Community Teacher Rich Howard

N O T E  – Due to technical difficulties, we couldn’t include this talk in our Audio Dharma library however we do have this handout that Rich provided the attendees – Loving Anger Resources (.pdf)

We may have idealized views of the spiritual path. We may not want to look at the shadow side of our personality. Yet “seeing things as they are” is the very meaning of “vipassana” or insight. It is only by allowing our anger, fear, and other challenging emotions to come into view and be known that we can move through them to a place of peace. At the same time, we must be wary of “spiritual bypassing,” a premature “transcendence” of uncomfortable emotions. As Rumi says in his poem The Guest House, “meet them at the door laughing and invite them in.” We will spend this evening learning to work with, and maybe even love, uncomfortable emotions, using anger as a case study.
This emotion is so important to understand that Thich Nhat Hanh has an entire book on it (“Anger: Wisdom for Cooling the Flames”) and Bhikkhu Bodhi devotes Chapter III of “The Buddha’s Teachings on Social and Communal Harmony” to anger (pages 47-68). Bring an open heart!

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 Rich Howard and SIM.

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*Sit & Dharma Talk – Rich Howard – Vision and Intention

Vision and Intention
Sit & Dharma Talk with SIM Community Teacher Rich Howard

The vision of Sacramento Insight Meditation recognizes that “development of insight meditation and meditative awareness leads to a life of clarity, balance, and peace expressed in the forms of generosity, wisdom, compassion, and ethical conduct.” As we look forward to a new year, let’s explore our own intentions around developing our practice and how that might be expressed in action. Let’s also discuss how SIM might support individual and community well being in 2019.
The full statement of SIM’s Mission, Vision, and Means may be found at https://sactoinsight.org/about-us/. You may want to review these statements to prepare for our discussion.

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.

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