How intentions shape our experience – Converging views from neuroscience and early Buddhism

Sit & Dharma Talk with Visiting Teacher Rick Maddock

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

How intentions shape our experience – Converging views from neuroscience and early Buddhism.

Saṅkhāra is a word with many levels of meaning in early Buddhism. This talk will focus on its meaning as one of the five aggregates (skandhas), where it is often translated with such terms as volitions and intentions. People often strongly identify with their volitions and intentions. The Buddha taught about the dangers of clinging to and identifying with sankharas. The Foam Sutta describes sankhara with the analogy of a carpenter in need of heartwood who goes to a forest and cuts down a plantain tree. But when he cuts into the tree trunk, he finds it is only layers of sheaths. There is no heartwood there. The perspective of modern neuroscience leads to a similar understanding of volition and intentions.

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RICK MADDOCK, MD, is a professor of psychiatry who teaches and conducts neuroscience research at the UC Davis School of Medicine. A long-time dharma practitioner with a focus on the teachings of early Indian Buddhism, Rick has completed Spirit Rock’s training programs for senior students and teaches dharma in the Sacramento area and Sierra foothills. His teachings explore the convergence between contemporary scientific insights about the human brain and the wisdom traditions and practices of Buddhism.

Join online meeting: https://zoom.us/join or join by phone at 1-669-900-6833
( Meeting ID: 874 0623 9886 and Passcode: 843332 )
For tips and instructions to join the meeting, click here to check this news blog.

The Benefits and the Challenges of Being in Community

Sit & Dharma Talk with SIM Community Teacher Diane Wilde

For biographical details about the teacher Diane Wilde, 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.

The Benefits and the Challenges of Being in Community
As a Buddhist community, we take refuge in the triple gem: the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha.  It is important to understand  that the sangha is flawed and on occasion, bound to cause disappointment.  How could it be otherwise, when WE are the sangha.  Tonight’s discussion will be about the benefits of being in the SIM community and the larger SDC community, and the organizational and personal challenges that arise from a group of disparate individuals coming together. Community can be, if we allow it, a very practical guide to waking up to the suffering in our life and the lives of others.  And perhaps if we can skillfully navigate our relationships in our SIM and larger SDC community, we may find more ease in the wider communities of family, neighborhood, country… the planet.

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Join online meeting: https://zoom.us/join or join by phone at 1-669-900-6833
( Meeting ID: 874 0623 9886 and Passcode: 843332 )
For tips and instructions to join the meeting, click here to check this news blog.

Truthfulness: Precept, Parami, and Profound

Sit & Dharma Talk with SIM Community Teacher Rich Howard

For biographical details about Rich Howard, click here.

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

Truthfulness: Precept, Parami, and Profound
A commitment to speaking the truth brings a sense of trust and safety to our relationships, and we reinforce this commitment when we take the fourth precept of refraining from harmful speech. Truthfulness (sacca in Pali) is also one of the Paramis, and it is said that this commitment to speak the truth was never broken by the Buddha on his way to awakening. As the same time, we are surrounded by a society which seems to thrive on untruthful, deceptive, or exaggerated communication. On this evening, we will look at various aspects of Truth in the Buddhist teachings, up to the profound Four Noble Truths, and explore how we can incorporate a commitment to truthfulness in our daily lives.

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Join online meeting:  https://us06web.zoom.us/join ( Meeting ID: 874 0623 9886) Passcode: 843332
For tips and instructions to join the meeting, click here to check this news blog.