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 7PM.
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, or to learn more about it, contact Linda Franklin by email or phone (530) 902-1364 or complete this online form.
Tell us if you’re Going or Not Going
For the potluck, your RSVP is requested as it will help us estimate the number of tables and chairs we’ll be setting up. At the bottom of this webpage, enter the number of people planning to attend, select the button Confirm RSVP and then pick “Going” or “Not Going”.
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.
Labor Day cancels 12 Step Sangha
NewsThe Monday night Recovery Sangha will not be meeting on Labor Day evening, Monday September 4th. The group has been meeting on all the other holidays, but not this one this year.
08/24/2017 “Five Spiritual Faculties” with Rich Howard
Audio DharmaFive Spiritual Faculties
The faculties of faith, energy, mindfulness, concentration, and wisdom are our constant helpers on the path of awakening. They operate as a spiral rather than a straight line, deepening and supporting each other as we progress. This evening we will begin our exploration of these faculties.
Several suttas that mention the five faculties are presented in Chapter X, Planes of Realization, of “In the Buddha’s Words.” Text X,4(2) on pages 406-407 (The Trainee and the Arahant; SN 48.53) is one example; Bhikkhu Bodhi’s brief introduction to this text is in the first full paragraph on page 381. However, the introduction and texts in this chapter discuss the five faculties in the context of stages on the path to awakening. This will not be the focus of this discussion. A more useful text for our purpose of a general introduction to the Five Spiritual Faculties can be found in Thanissaro Bhikkhu’s translation of the Indriya-vibhanga Sutta (SN 48.10). There is also a brief but useful essay by Bhikkhu Bodhi on the Five Spiritual Faculties.
If you would like to download this talk, please right click and select “save as” here.
08/17/2017 “Karma and Rebirth – continued” with Diane Wilde
Audio DharmaKarma and Rebirth (continued)
Why the emphasis both in meditation and daily life on the present moment? And why is it so difficult to maintain our focus on what is happening in the present moment? Yet this is the core instruction we are continually reminded of as we navigate the Buddha’s path to awakening. The present moment is the only place where we have the liberating opportunity to create our own karma, thus creating a future of much more ease and contentment. By remaining oblivious to the present moment, we stay in delusion…continuing our habitual reactivity mentally and to the episodes in our lives which perpetuates discontent and unhappiness. We might consider that each moment we are “present” is an opportunity for rebirth… to “wake up” to our lives.
The Buddha provided a check-list of sorts which helps us focus on what is taking place. This list is the ten unwholesome actions — in thought, word, and deed — and their counterparts, the ten wholesome actions. As you read them, you may notice a category or categories in which you struggle — or have ignored — which has caused unhappiness for yourself and others. We will discuss these “wholesome and unwholesome actions” and how effectively to work with them.
In preparation for the evening’s discussion, please read “V. The Way to a Fortunate Rebirth” Chapter 2 (page 156 – 161) in Bhikkhu Bodhi’s book, “In the Buddha’s Words.”
If you would like to download this talk, please right click and select “save as” here.
Morning Meditation with Diane Wilde
Weekly MeditationMorning Meditation with Diane Wilde
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
Weekly MeditationMorning 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
Weekly MeditationMorning 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 Rich Howard
Weekly MeditationMorning 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.
08/10/17 “The Arising of Wisdom: Experiencing ‘The Characteristic of Nonself'” with Dennis Warren
Audio DharmaThe Arising of Wisdom – Experiencing “The Characteristic of Nonself”
Wisdom (Insight), from a Buddhist perspective, arises from “hearing” (listening to the Dharma), study and reflection capped by non-conceptual direct experience. This formula involves intentionally focusing the mind and attention on a number of different and particular experiences, supported by the underlying psychology outlined by the historical Buddha.
This will be the first in a series of interlocking talks about the arising of Wisdom (Insight) by focusing on the experience of “nonself” or “notself.” Dennis’ two most recent talks on the process of suffering thru clinging (becoming attached) to, then identifying with five separate, but tightly related features of human experience commonly referred to as the “Five Aggregates” will service as a foundation for these new talks.
Please reflect on the comments of the Dalai Lama and Thubten Chodron about Short & Long Term Practice Perspectives On Emotions. What might this have to do with the nature of suffering associated with being and becoming, on the one hand, and the experience of nonself or notself, on the other???
For those who are using In The Buddha’s Words – An Anthology of Discourses from the Pali Cannon, edited by Bhikkhu Bodhi as a reference, please read the following: VII. The Path To Liberation – Introduction, pages 301-309, and suttas at pages 326 – 345.
If you would like to download this talk, please right click and select “save as” here.
Community Evening
Weekly MeditationAs we approach the end of the year, SIM Mentor Rich Howard and SIM Board Member Cathy Vigran will host an evening of community discussion. We will invite participants to review their practice over the past year in terms of the “Three Pillars”: generosity, ethical living, and training the mind (dana-sila-bhavana). We will also encourage folks to share what SIM can do to support their aspirations for practice. Come prepared to speak from the heart and listen mindfully.
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.
SIM Community Holiday Potluck
NewsEvery 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 7PM.
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, or to learn more about it, contact Linda Franklin by email or phone (530) 902-1364 or complete this online form.
Tell us if you’re Going or Not Going
For the potluck, your RSVP is requested as it will help us estimate the number of tables and chairs we’ll be setting up. At the bottom of this webpage, enter the number of people planning to attend, select the button Confirm RSVP and then pick “Going” or “Not Going”.
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.