Sit & Dharma Talk with SIM Community Mentor, Rich Howard

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Thursday, August 25, 7-9 pm. Sitting and Dharma Talk with Rich Howard, SIM Community Mentor.

Analog or Digital?

Nature is a seamless whole, flowing and changing continuously. The world we inhabit is increasingly digital, measured, quantified, and reduced to numbers and words. How do you think of your practice? Minutes on the cushion? Days in retreat? Years of practice? Or does the practice flow through every waking moment? We will spend this evening examining our view of practice as analog or digital. We will ask ourselves if it makes a difference. Think about your own practice and come prepared to discuss how it might be digital, analog, neither, or both. And how that serves your life and the world.

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Introduction to Meditation with SIM Community Mentor, Rich Howard

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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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Sitting and Dharma Talk – “The Power of Negative Thinking”: Five Ethical Precepts – With Longtime SIM Participant Laura Rosenthal – Thursday, August 18, 2016, 7:00 pm-9:00 pm

In Buddhist teaching, ethical conduct constitutes an essential training: sila, one of the three trainings that form the ennobling eightfold path. While contemporary teachers frequently discuss the ethical precepts in positive terms, emphasizing the wholesome qualities we are cultivating, traditional Buddhist teaching frames them in the negative, as core unwholesome behaviors with respect to which we practice renunciation. In this dharma talk and group discussion, we will explore why the precepts may have been framed in this way as well as the freedom and richness found in exploring this path of “not doing.”

Laura Rosenthal, a long-time participant in the SIM community, is a graduate of Spirit Rock Meditation Center’s Dedicated Practitioners Program (DPP 4) and is currently participating in Spirit Rock’s Advanced Practitioners Program (APP).

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Sit & Dharma talk with SIM Founding Teacher, Dennis Warren

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Thursday, August 11, 7-9:15 pm. Sitting and Dharma Talk with SIM Founding Instructor, Dennis Warren. RIGHT EFFORT and RIGHT ACTION

Our last two Thursday evenings at SIM have focused on Right Effort, or Energy, and the prominent role it plays in Buddhist practice. This Thursday evening will focus on the important relationships between Right Effort or Energy, on the one hand, and Right Action on the other.

Understanding these two different elements of practice; how they are similar; and how they are different is an important step in making them operational in daily life.

This evening of meditation and discussion, led by SIM’s Founding Instructor, will explore the meanings of Right Effort and Right Action, their role in practice and their place in Buddhist psychology.

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Sit & Dharma Talk with SIM Founding Teacher, Dennis Warren

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Thursday, July 28, 7-9:15. Sitting and Dharma Talk, with Dennis Warren, SIM Founding Instructor.
AN EVENING ON RIGHT EFFORT

This evening will focus on Right Effort and present a model for understanding and working with this core practice that may be a little different than you have heard before. Drawing on a number of talks of the Historical Buddha and other teachers, Dennis will explore a practical approach to jump starting your practice. The evening will begin at 7:00 pm at the Sacramento Friends Meeting House on 57th Street.

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Sit & Dharma talk with SIM Founding Teacher Dennis Warren

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Thursday, August 4, 7-9:15 pm. Sitting and Dharma Talk with SIM Founding Instructor, Dennis Warren. RIGHT EFFORT, PART II

Right Effort, or Energy, plays a prominent role in Buddhist practice. It is one of the “5 Spiritual Faculties”, one of the “7 Factors of Awakening”, one component of the “8 Fold Path”, and is a foundation for the “4 Foundations of Mindfulness.” It’s obviously pretty important for the Buddha to have included it as an element in all of these groupings of core spiritual tools.

This evening will be a follow up to the initial discussion of Right Effort last Thursday evening, July 28. We’ll switch gears and look at Right Effort or Energy from a different perspective – as the application, monitoring, and adjustment of both physical and mental energy as the basic underpinning of all of our practice efforts.

In its most basic form, this involves non-conceptually figuring out, and using our effort to support, what works — what allows us to remain mindful and see into the nature and consequences of what is unfolding — in any moment of experience. In this sense, Right Effort’s contribution to helping us get free of suffering in our lives involves using it to stay focused on a particular way of investigating our experience and the nature of our lives. Understanding Effort in the context of meditative psychology, and how to use it as a reliable and practical tool in formal meditation practice, as well as daily life, is essential to developing, stabilizing, and maturing our practice.

This evening of meditation and discussion, led by SIM’s Founding Instructor, will further explore the meanings of Right Effort, its role in practice and its place in Buddhist psychology.

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Half-Day Retreat with SIM Community Mentor, Sandra Sigrist

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Saturday, July 30, 8:30-12:30. Daylong Retreat with Sandra Sigrist, SIM Community Mentor. A half day of silent sitting and walking.

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Introduction to Meditation with SIM Founding Teacher Dennis Warren

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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 SIM Founding Teacher Dennis Warren

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Thursday, July14, 2016 – 700-915 PM. Sitting and Dharma Talk with SIM Founding Teacher DENNIS WARREN  – “WHAT IS THE BENEFIT OF LIVING THE CONTEMPLATIVE LIFE?” – Part II –  

“What is the benefit of living the contemplative life?”

This is the question put to the historical Buddha by King Ajatasattu. The dialogue that continues is one of the most comprehensive and eloquent presentations of the Buddha regarding his teachings; a comparison of his teachings to the other major spiritual and philosophical theories of the time; the original Sangha’s code of ethics; the Buddha’s own lifestyle, and more.

This evening will be part of a continuing discussion of this fascinating Sutta that began during Dennis’ talk on June 9th. You might listen to that talk at as a way of preparing for this evening at https://sactoinsight.org/category/audio-dharma/ .

The evening will explore the specifics of this sutta and how they have direct application to our practice and daily life today in an urban setting.

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Sit & Dharma talk with SIM Founding Teacher, Dennis Warren

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“WHAT IS THE BENEFIT OF LIVING THE CONTEMPLATIVE LIFE?” – Part II –  

“What is the benefit of living the contemplative life?”

This is the question put to the historical Buddha by King Ajatasattu. The dialogue that continues is one of the most comprehensive and eloquent presentations of the Buddha regarding his teachings; a comparison of his teachings to the other major spiritual and philosophical theories of the time; the original Sangha’s code of ethics; the Buddha’s own lifestyle, and more.

This evening will be part of a continuing discussion of this fascinating Sutta that began during Dennis’ talk on June 9th. You might listen to that talk at as a way of preparing for this evening athttps://sactoinsight.org/category/audio-dharma/ .

The evening will explore the specifics of this sutta and how they have direct application to our practice and daily life today in an urban setting.

This event will begin at 7:00 pm at Sacramento Friends Meetinghouse, 890 57th Street.

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