December 14, 2023 @ 6:15 pm 7:00 pm PST

Join us for holiday treats and cheer! There will be a selection of baked goods and tea provided. Come and socialize with other sangha members. We hope to see you there!

Sacramento Dharma Center Building

3111 Wissemann Drive
Sacramento, CA 95826 United States
+ Google Map
916-386-9844
View Venue Website
Hybrid Hybrid Event

December 28, 2023 @ 7:00 pm 9:00 pm PST

Taking Stock and Making Change

Sit & Dharma Talk with Visiting Teacher Seth Castleman

For biographical details about the teacher Seth Castleman, click here.

* The teacher will present in-person at the Dharma Center.
Hybrid events can be attended via Zoom or in-person at the Sacramento Dharma Center.

Taking Stock and Making Change
As the new year approaches, we take stock of 2023 and our lives, not as we wish them to be or fear them to be but as they truly are. And we look with integrity at the changes we hope to make in the near future.

Offer a Donation

Join online meeting: https://zoom.us/join or join by phone at 1-669-900-6833
( Meeting ID: 862 2575 6048 and Passcode: 302015 )
For tips and instructions to join the meeting, click here to check this news blog.

Sacramento Dharma Center Building

3111 Wissemann Drive
Sacramento, CA 95826 United States
+ Google Map
916-386-9844
View Venue Website
Hybrid Hybrid Event

December 21, 2023 @ 7:00 pm 9:00 pm PST

The Ennobling Truths

Sit & Dharma Talk with Visiting Teacher Andrea Castillo

For biographical details about the teacher Andrea Castillo, click here.

* The teacher will present remotely via Zoom.
Hybrid events can be attended via Zoom or in-person at the Sacramento Dharma Center.

The Ennobling Truths
We will contemplate how we can embody the Four Noble Truths and live wisely and even joyfully with the reality of our lives.

Offer a Donation

Join online meeting: https://zoom.us/join or join by phone at 1-669-900-6833
( Meeting ID: 862 2575 6048 and Passcode: 302015 )
For tips and instructions to join the meeting, click here to check this news blog.

Sacramento Dharma Center Building

3111 Wissemann Drive
Sacramento, CA 95826 United States
+ Google Map
916-386-9844
View Venue Website
To download this talk, right-click and select ‘save audio as’ or select the 3-dot menu to the right of the speaker icon.

“I Feel More Comfortable When I’m Tense”

One insight that unfolds in many layers is how we hold, brace, and defend against experiences that make us feel vulnerable, uncertain, confused or at risk. These form into deeply embedded patterns in both the body and mind. These patterns are the result of years of self-protective thoughts, habits, assumptions, projections, and actions.
Understanding these patterns brings the practical real-life problems associated with fixed views, and attachment to outcomes, into focus. It frames the common difficulties and challenges of being human, including self-sabotage, into a more workable Buddhist framework.  And it provides a basis for opening to, and experiencing, more accessible and meaningful forms of empathy and compassion.
This evening will explore this field of experiences through practical common situations in meditation and everyday living.
The subject matter of this evening will be appropriate for all stages of practice.

“The warmth of the community, the commitment to practicing the Buddha’s teachings, and the generosity of SIM is felt each time I engage with the sangha as a teacher. I feel incredibly fortunate to be a part of all the wholesome offerings SIM continues to put forward into the world.”
Vance Pryor, SIM Legacy Project Teacher

Dear Friends,

For over 20 years, SIM has provided a safe and welcoming environment in which to explore the profound teachings of the historical Buddha in the Theravada/Insight Meditation tradition and to cultivate spiritual friendship and community. It has been a rich and precious experience as these teachings can change the way we understand living, relationships, and dying.

SIM has consistently provided a core set of offerings including weekly sit and Dharma talks, monthly daylong retreats, an annual residential retreat, the Beginning Meditation Course, and other courses designed to deepen our practice.

To continue to offer learning and practice opportunities and to ensure SIM’s future and long-term presence in Sacramento, we are launching two vital initiatives:

  • Legacy Teacher Project (LTP): This program will expand and deepen SIM’s core faculty to ensure the continuity of teaching and will result in new courses and practice opportunities by providing stipends to three new faculty.
  • Operations Manager (OM): The person in this part-time position will provide the long-needed role of central oversight, management, and coordination of SIM’s day-to-day operations.

Funding these initiatives will require an additional $55,000 to our annual budget each year going forward ($33,000 for the LTP; and $22,000 for the OM). And we need your help!

SIM is wholly sustained by the generosity of the community through financial contributions and volunteering. Thank you! To support these new initiatives now, you can help in the following important ways:

Thank you for your contribution and support! We appreciate this deeply and look forward to strengthening our sangha and practicing together in the coming year.

With gratitude,

Amy Kovak, on behalf of the SIM Board of Directors & Faculty

Hybrid Hybrid Event

December 7, 2023 @ 7:00 pm 9:00 pm PST

The Mental Attitude of Metta (Lovingkindness)

Sit & Dharma Talk with SIM Legacy Teacher Walt Opie

For biographical details about the teacher Walt Opie, click here.

* The teacher will present in-person at the Dharma Center. 
Hybrid events can be attended via Zoom or in-person at the Sacramento Dharma Center.

Offer a Donation

Join online meeting: https://zoom.us/join or join by phone at 1-669-900-6833
( Meeting ID: 862 2575 6048 and Passcode: 302015 )
For tips and instructions to join the meeting, click here to check this news blog.

Sacramento Dharma Center Building

3111 Wissemann Drive
Sacramento, CA 95826 United States
+ Google Map
916-386-9844
View Venue Website
Hybrid Hybrid Event

January 27 @ 10:00 am 3:30 pm PST

Daylong Retreat with Senior Teacher Heather Sundberg

For biographical details of the teacher Heather Sundberg, click here.

About This Online Retreat

  • The teacher will present remotely via Zoom. Other participants may attend this Hybrid event via Zoom or in-person at the Sacramento Dharma Center. We encourage everyone to attend in-person since that group experience can be so meaningful.
  • Pre-registration is required and we recommend you pay the registration fee in advance using the registration ATTEND buttons shown below. Since your registration choice indicates if you’ll be attending via Zoom or in-person, registering early helps us determine how many people the meditation room should accommodate.
  • After you’ve registered you may later offer a donation in gratitude of the teacher. To offer teacher dana, visit https://sactoinsight.org/retreat-dana-online/.

Retreat Theme: Awakening through the Body from an Emptiness, Suchness Perspective

The Body – the vehicle for awakening in this very life
Emptiness – Things are not solid and separate as they appear
Suchness – Deeply understanding conditions, the heart opens with an allowing compassion

Bringing the teachings of Emptiness and Suchness to support the direct experience of being Embodied invites us into relationship with a dynamic world of sensation, energy, and aliveness, allowing us a wider wiser perspective.

Enjoy a day of quiet sitting and walking meditation, which allow our body and mind to settle down and our hearts to open to an inner wisdom.  Heather will offer teachings and guided meditations on the themes, as well as optional Qi Gong practice and discussion about how to live these teachings in our daily lives.

In this daylong we will explore Body Practice bringing these two rich wisdom teachings together:

  • Mindfulness of the Nervous system practices you can use in daily life
  • Body as Empty:  Direct Experiencing of the dynamic non-solid not separate alive energy of the body
  • Suchness of the Body Experience:  With a heart of acceptance and compassion which deeply understands conditions, we inhabit the direct experience of the body As It Is
Teacher 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.
To make a donation for this event using a credit card or PayPal account, click here to DONATE ONLINE.

Summary of Important Dates
  • 12/06/2023 – Registration opens.
  • 01/27/2023 – Attend and enjoy the wonderful retreat.
Registration Options
$15 – $35 Registration fee

Select one of the following registration “ATTEND” buttons to indicate if you’ll be attending via Zoom or in-person. The fee is $15.00 per person due before the start of the event. If you are able and interested in further supporting SIM financially, you have the option of a registration fee of either $25 or $35 dollars. Note that fee amounts above the regular rate support Sacramento Insight Meditation and is distinct from teacher dana. For the registration fee, we also accept personal checks. No one will be turned away for lack of funds; please contact the registrar for more information.
Before registering to this event, click here to review the terms of use for this website.

Jan Daylong registration – Onsite at SDC

$15.00 – $35.00

Attend In-Person

Jan Daylong registration – Zoom

$15.00 – $35.00

Attend on Zoom
Questions for the Registrar?

If you need to contact the retreat registrar with any questions, click here.

How to Attend Remotely via Zoom
  • The link to attend the retreat via Zoom appears in three places: The Zoom link is on this page – select the button “Join Retreat Online” to connect to the meeting.
  • The Zoom link is included in the automated email sent with your “Attend on Zoom” registration.
  • The Zoom link is https://joinconferencing.zoom.us/join, with Meeting ID: 846 4443 1584 and Passcode: 290168

Sacramento Dharma Center Building

3111 Wissemann Drive
Sacramento, CA 95826 United States
916-386-9844
View Venue Website
To download this talk, right-click and select ‘save audio as’ or select the 3-dot menu to the right of the speaker icon.

In this talk we will explore ways that Wisdom and Heart practices inform each other, along with practical applications in our daily life practice.

Hybrid Hybrid Event

December 14, 2023 @ 7:00 pm 9:00 pm PST

Ten Books That Mattered

Sit & Dharma Talk with SIM Founding Teacher Dennis Warren

For biographical details about the teacher Dennis Warren, click here.

* The teacher will present in-person at the Dharma Center.
Hybrid events can be attended via Zoom or in-person at the Sacramento Dharma Center.

Ten Books That Mattered
All of us have experiences which change the direction of our lives.
Sometimes we know this at the moment it is happening. Other times, we only realize it later. One of those experiences can be encountering a book that causes us to question how we are living or helps us have a new vision of practice or life.
This evening will explore ten books that mattered in this way for SIM’s Founding Teacher, Dennis Warren. Each book will be discussed from the viewpoint of how it was encountered, its impact, and the change or shift in direction that followed.  Dennis will discuss why each book was helpful for him…and maybe for you.
The subject matter of this evening will be appropriate for all stages of practice. You can attend in person or by ZOOM. Dennis will be presenting in person and encourages you to be there in person as well.

Offer a Donation

Join online meeting: https://zoom.us/join or join by phone at 1-669-900-6833
( Meeting ID: 862 2575 6048 and Passcode: 302015 )
For tips and instructions to join the meeting, click here to check this news blog.

Sacramento Dharma Center Building

3111 Wissemann Drive
Sacramento, CA 95826 United States
+ Google Map
916-386-9844
View Venue Website
Hybrid Hybrid Event

December 27, 2023 @ 7:00 pm 8:30 pm PST

The Young Persons Sangha is a meditation group for people in their 20s, 30s, and 40s. The group meets on the second and fourth Wednesdays in a hybrid format. Attend in person at the Sacramento Dharma Center or online via Zoom.

Join online meeting: https://us06web.zoom.us/join ( Meeting ID: 824 9854 6336) Passcode: 499851
Join by phone: Dial 1-669-900-6833. For tips and instructions on how to participate, check this news blog.

Young Person Sangha Dana

$
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Donation Total: $1 One Time

Generosity is the virtue that leads to peace.” – The Historical Buddha
Please use the form above to donate by credit card or your PayPal account. Enter the amount you’d like to support our Young Persons Sangha.

Sacramento Dharma Center Building

3111 Wissemann Drive
Sacramento, CA 95826 United States
+ Google Map
916-386-9844
View Venue Website