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.

RICH 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. The pilgrimage and the PDL program led to an interest in establishing the SIM Kalyana Mitta (Pali for spiritual friends) groups. He coordinated SIM’s network of Kalyana Mitta groups until he joined the SIM Board in 2010. 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. He is a past president of the SIM Board. His teachers are Dennis Warren and Steve Armstrong..

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.

How do I get off this Cycle of Reactivity?
Sit & Dharma Talk with SIM Community Mentor, Rich Howard

Our beginning classes offer an accessible approach to the profound core teaching of dependent origination called the Cycle of Reactivity. This evening, we will explore that very helpful teaching, with some deeper background drawn from the Nidanasamyutta, a chapter of the Samyutta Nikaya devoted to dependent origination. In preparation, you may read as much of Bikkhu Bodhi’s introduction to Chapter IX of “In the Buddha’s Words” as you wish; we will focus on page 315 through the first six lines on page 316. You may read all six suttas in Section IX(4)4; we will focus on two suttas on pages 355-357: IX(4)4(c) SN 12:33 and IX(4)4(d) SN 12:15.

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.

This meeting was originally planned for September 25 but was rescheduled for October 2.


The SIM Board of Directors meets every month and all are welcome. If you can’t attend this meeting, please join us for one of our other up-coming meetings. For details on contacting any of the board members, click here.

Morning Meditation with Cathy Vigran

All are welcome to this open sitting for anyone interested in starting their morning out by sitting with others. The session involves a 40-45 minute sitting, a limited about of meditation guidance, and a few comments at the end of the sitting to set a theme for moving into the world and your daily activities.

Morning Meditation with Rich Howard

All are welcome to this open sitting for anyone interested in starting their morning out by sitting with others. The session involves a 40-45 minute sitting, a limited about of meditation guidance, and a few comments at the end of the sitting to set a theme for moving into the world and your daily activities.

Morning Meditation with Dennis Warren

All are welcome to this open sitting for anyone interested in starting their morning out by sitting with others. The session involves a 40-45 minute sitting, a limited about of meditation guidance, and a few comments at the end of the sitting to set a theme for moving into the world and your daily activities.

Morning Meditation with Laura Rosenthal

All are welcome to this open sitting for anyone interested in starting their morning out by sitting with others. The session involves a 40-45 minute sitting, a limited about of meditation guidance, and a few comments at the end of the sitting to set a theme for moving into the world and your daily activities.

Morning Meditation with Jerry Simkins

All are welcome to this open sitting for anyone interested in starting their morning out by sitting with others. The session involves a 40-45 minute sitting, a limited about of meditation guidance, and a few comments at the end of the sitting to set a theme for moving into the world and your daily activities.

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Contemporary Buddhist practitioners and teachers sometimes talk about “spiritual bypass.” This term is not found in classical Buddhist texts. What does it mean? How does it affect our practice, both in formal meditation and in every day life? Can we be too good for our own good? Join Laura Rosenthal for a dharma talk and group conversation about this very practical topic. 

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