Sit & Dharma Talk, with SIM Founding Teacher, Dennis Warren

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CHANGE AND KARMA

What is the relationship between the constant element of change in our lives and what is called “Karma” in Buddhist practice? These two realities can act as powerful resources for understanding Buddhist psychology; informing our meditation practice; and helping us live more satisfying and meaningful lives. How does the Buddhist understanding of these issues differ from that of other spiritual traditions?

This evening with SIM’s Founding Teacher, Dennis Warren, will explore these topics from both a short and long term perspective. As background for this evening, you may find it helpful to review Dennis’  presentation from Oct 20, 2016 on the nature of change.

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Sit & Community Discussion, led by SIM Community Mentor, Diane Wilde

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Diane will give an overview on Right Speech and Skillful Listening and then invite the community to share what they found out about themselves and others with the home practice exercises offered at the 11-3-16 meeting.
If you are one of the sangha members who resist talking to a group, please investigate your own response.  This is a great area of practice!  Consider that an entire community benefits from the shared experiences of all who are following the Buddha’s path to freedom.
Coming together as a community to share topics that are normally not discussed in “ordinary” society is one of the gifts of sangha and spiritual friends.  Please take part!
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Sit & Dharma Talk with SIM Community Mentor, Diane Wilde

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Friendship… the friend we are to others and the friendships we cultivate

Our new home and the first SIM Dharma sitting practice and discussion at the Sacramento Dharma Center is a wonderful opportunity to look at friendship in this new, expansive and beautiful venue… our new home. What kind of friends do we cultivate? What kind of friend are we to others? What hinders us from being a friend and why do some of us shy away from developing friendships? What can we learn from those whom we consider “difficult”? With three sanghas coming together in our shared space, it is a timely topic.

All of us who practice and study the Buddha’s teachings at the Sacramento Dharma Center will all be asked to help and support our new home. This is a wonderful opportunity to deepen old friendships and cultivate new ones. The Buddha offered wise and compassionate advise which couldn’t be more relevant then right now.

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Day-long with Visiting Teacher, Heather Sundberg

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Topic:  Equanimity: Freedom from Hope & Fear

** This is daylong one of two, which can be attended separately or together. The second daylong is scheduled for November 19th, hosted by SBMG.

“How do I respond wisely to the changing conditions of my life and the world?

“How do I find Equanimity in the middle of hoping things will be OK & fearing they won’t be OK?”

Equanimity is the Balance of the Non-Reactive mind & heart, grounded in Wisdom, which supports a deep Caring and leads to an Appropriate Response. The quality of Equanimity allows us to be less reactive, more compassionate and wise in the face of the underlying conditioned patterns of Hope & Fear. In this daylong we will identify and investigate these underlying patterns, how they manifest in our minds/lives, and examine what it means to have a heart open in the midst of all things. Teachings and practices will focus on developing the qualities of embodied groundedness, spaciousness, mindfulness, equanimity, and lovingkindness.

Enjoy a day of quiet sitting and walking meditation, which allow our minds to settle down, and our hearts to open to an inner wisdom. In addition to insight meditation practice, Heather will guide Equanimity Practices through sitting meditation, somatic practices to help settle and discharge reactivity, teachings, simple movement practice and plenty of discussion about how to live with increasing wisdom based on the teachings.

Heather Sundberg has taught insight meditation since 1999 and has completed the Spirit Rock/IMS Teacher Training. Beginning her own meditation practice in her late teens, for the last 25 years, Heather has studied with senior teachers in the Insight Meditation (Vipassana) and Tibetan (Vajrayana) traditions and has sat 1-3 months of retreat a year for almost 20 years. Between 2010- 2015 she spent a cumulative one-year in study, practice, and pilgrimage in Asia. Since 2011, she has been a Teacher at Mountain Stream Meditation Center and sister communities in the Sierra Foothills, and also teaches nationally, especially at Spirit Rock Meditation Center. For more information about Heather visit heathersundberg.com or www.mtstream.org.  

Dana (donation) The Teacher offers the teachings freely in the tradition of the Buddha, and her livelihood is completely sustained by the generosity of the communities she serves. Dana (donation) for these priceless teachings will be gratefully accepted by the teacher, giving participants the opportunity to freely engage in the practice of generosity, the first step toward freedom.

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Introduction to Meditation with Long-time SIM Community Member, Laura Rosenthal

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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.

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Sit & Dharma Talk with Long-time SIM Community Member, Laura Rosenthal

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The Eight Worldly Winds encapsulate the many vagaries of life that can challenge our sense of balance and ease or, as teacher Donald Rothberg says, “the …ways…we may get blown off center.” Join Laura Rosenthal for a discussion of the role these “winds” play in our lives and in Buddhist practice. How do they challenge our equanimity and how are they a tool for cultivating greater insight and ease?

Laura is a longtime SIM participant. She is a graduate of Spirit Rock Meditation Center’s Dedicated Practitioners Program (DPP4) and is currently participating in Spirit Rock’s Advanced Practitioners Program.

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Sit & Dharma Talk with SIM Founding Teacher, Dennis Warren

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CHANGE & ADAPTING TO CHANGE 

While change is inevitable in our lives, the appearance of things remaining the same seems to be the constant focus of our attention. Many, if not most, of our decisions are based on an assumption – the assumption that things will remain as they are. Why do our minds do this?

This evening with SIM’s Founding Teacher will explore the nature of change and adapting to change from the perspective of Buddhist psychology and practice. What are the conditions, mind states, and attitudes that allow us to adapt to change with a sense of ease, acceptable and equanimity? And which hinder or act as obstacles to it?

This event will be held at the Friends Meeting House, 890 57th Street

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Sit & Dharma Talk with SIM Community Mentor, Diane Wilde

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Topic: Better than, worse than, the same as…

The habit of fault-finding and comparison is part of a larger pattern of insecurity in which we always feel the need to judge ourselves in regards to other people. It is as though we need to convince ourselves that we are okay, which we can only do indirectly, in comparison to people who we feel are superior, are less okay or just like us.
The point is not to dwell on our own faults—or our own virtues, for that matter. It is to see ourselves and others in a clear and unbiased way. It is to see, but not to dwell on the seeing.
The first step in this practice is awareness of what we are doing, actually seeing and experiencing the discontent of the comparing mind!
We will discuss the judging mind and the Buddha’s advise on how to abandon it.
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Sit & Community Discussion, led by SIM Community Mentor, Rich Howard

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Depends on What?:   An Exploration of Causes and Conditions

You may have heard about the importance of “causes and conditions” but what does that mean to our practice in formal meditation and daily life? Can we learn to recognize how causes and conditions work in our lives experientially without making it into an intellectual analysis? What would it be like to know a peace that does not depend on outside circumstances?

Rich Howard will lead this evening exploring the practical application of the Buddhist understanding of conditionality. As a start, notice how the experience of finding a parking place near the Friends’ Meeting House affects your mood!

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Day-long Retreat with Nuns of the Aloka Vihara Forest Monastery

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Day-long Retreat with the Nuns of the Aloka Vihara Forest Monastery on Saturday, August 27, 2016, from 9:00 am to 4:30 pm at the Sacramento Friends Meeting House.  The retreat will be a potluck (no meat dishes, please). Offerings will be made to the Nuns. Volunteers are needed to help setup the room, make offerings, clean-up, etc. Contact james@sactoinsight.org for information or to sign up as a volunteer for this special event. To view photo, click here.

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