Morning Meditation with Diane Wilde

Morning 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.

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Morning Meditation with Laura Rosenthal

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.

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Morning Meditation with Rich Howard

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.

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SIM Board of Directors Meeting

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.

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SIM Board of Directors Meeting

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.

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Board Meeting Rescheduled to Oct 2

This Board of Director’s meeting that would normally occur on Monday, September 25, 2017 has been rescheduled to Monday, October 2, 2017.

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.

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*Sit & Dharma Talk – Laura Rosenthal – Spiritual Bypass: Can We Be Too Good?

Spiritual Bypass – Can We Be Too Good?
Sit & Dharma Talk with SIM Community Member, Laura Rosenthal

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.

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 – Diane Wilde – Karma and Rebirth (continued)

Karma and Rebirth (continued)
Sit & Dharma Talk with SIM Community Mentor Diane Wilde

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.”

  • To review Diane’s previous talk on this topic, click here.

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 – Dennis Warren – The Arising of Wisdom: Experiencing “The Characteristic of Nonself”

The Arising of Wisdom – Experiencing “The Characteristic of Nonself”
with SIM Founding Teacher Dennis Warren

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.

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*Sit & Dharma Talk – Rich Howard – Five Spiritual Faculties

Five Spiritual Faculties
Sit & Dharma Talk with SIM Community Mentor Rich Howard

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. This evening will serve as good preparation for the bilingual daylong (with Andrea Castillo) on Saturday August 26, where we will explore and discuss the faculties in greater depth.

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 our 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.

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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