We are looking forward to seeing all of you at our Annual Holiday Event Thursday evening, December 13th at our Sacramento Dharma Center at 3111 Wissemann Dr, Sacramento, CA 95826. Please go our calendar page for details and to RSVP for yourself and guest(s).

As in our past celebrations, we will enjoy together our vegetarian potluck dinner and, afterwards, contributions of “personal dana”.  Do you have a favorite poem or reading, whether one you’ve written or one you just love?  Do you play a musical instrument, paint, sing, write, dance?  Do you have a special travel experience with photos you might share a few of?  We would love you to offer your passion, skill, or art to our group.

“Personal dana” performances/contributions can be no more than 3 to 5 minutes long.  You must pre-register in order to assure yourself a space.  “Personal dana” contributions do not have to be strictly Buddhist in nature, just whatever comes from your heart. This is a great way to get to know and enjoy each other.  It is also a generous act to share yourself with our sangha community in this way. We have room for only about a dozen performances in all, so please respond soon.

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.

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.

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.

We closed escrow on the wonderful property on Wissemann Drive on June 13, 2016. The site was ready for occupancy by the three sustaining Sanghas in the fall. On 11/6/2016 the three sustaining Sanghas joined together to dedicate the Center as a sanctuary for Buddha’s teaching and meditation practice. Now it’s 2018 and time to celebrate so please stop by the SDC on Saturday, 

https://sacdharma.org/event/sdc-anniversary-celebration/

Four Elements, Suffering, and the End of Suffering
Sit & Dharma Talk with SIM Community Teacher Rich Howard

Fire, water, earth, and air have all been conditions for suffering of humans and other beings in 2018. They have also been the basis of inspiring compassionate actions. Let us take time this evening to reflect on the role of the Four Elements in our lives and how we might use them to find a middle way toward the end of suffering.

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.

Investigation Leading to Liberating Insight – A Practical Model For Working With Doubt
Sit & Dharma Talk with SIM Founding Teacher Dennis Warren

How can doubt based experiences 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 doubt.
While doubt can appear in many different places in our practice and our life, it usually acts as an undermining factor in our confidence, decision making and behavior. What is doubt? What is its experiential origin? What causes it to be present? What causes it to diminish and no longer be present? What can we do to work with it skillfully while it is present? A helpful handout of the model will be used as the outline for the evening.
As preparation for this evening, reflect on how doubt has influenced your experience and decision making in the last year, and 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.

Knowing How to Ask the Right Question
Sit & Dharma Talk with SIM Community Teacher Rev. Diane Wilde

The Buddha taught that how we frame our questions is equally, and usually, more important then the answer.  In other words, the Buddha wasn’t content simply to provide answers to people’s questions. He also wanted to show them how unskillful questions can be recognized through testing, and how skillful questions—conducive to the end of suffering—can be framed and tested in their place.  These skills are applicable to our meditation practice as well as in daily life.  For example, we might begin to see when we or others are asking a question not for an answer, but to enhance a particular self-identity. If we do not know how to frame our questions skillfully, we can find ourselves mired in an untenable situation of our own making. As Voltaire noted, “Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers.”

 

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.

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Investigation Leading to Liberating Insight – A Practical Model For Evaluating Your Practice

Sit & Dharma Talk with SIM Founding Teacher Dennis Warren

How can aversion based (unpleasant, uncomfortable, painful) experiences 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 this process against which you can evaluate your own practice. A helpful handout of the model will be used as the outline for the evening.

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.

Due to the Thanksgiving holiday there are no activities scheduled today.