Hybrid Event

April 21, 2022 @ 7:00 pm 9:15 pm PDT

Walking The Path

Sit & Dharma Talk with Visiting Senior Teacher Greg Scharf

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

Thursday Night Talk Dana
[give_form id=”17856″ show_title=”false” show_content=”none” display_style=”reveal”] “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 give and 100% of your donation will be shared with Greg Scharf.

Join online meeting: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/88471186030 , Passcode: 077856
Join by phone: 1-669-900-6833 ( Meeting ID: 884 7118 6030 )
For tips and instructions to join the meeting, click here to check this news blog.

GREG SCHARF, an Insight Meditation Society guiding teacher, has practiced with Western and Asian teachers in the Theravada tradition since 1992. He has been teaching residential retreats since 2007, including the annual Three-Month Retreat at IMS. Greg’s love of nature and the outdoors deeply informs both his practice and teaching.

Hybrid (in-person and online)

3111 Wissemann Drive (or *ZOOM)
Sacramento, CA 95826 United States
Hybrid Event

April 14, 2022 @ 7:00 pm 9:15 pm PDT

Ethics and Wisdom

Sit & Dharma Talk with Visiting Senior Teacher Vance Pryor

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

Often times the practice of living ethically is considered a foundational aspect of the path. Ethical conduct is also a clear manifestation of wisdom being expressed in speech and behavior. This talk will explore the intersection between refining ethical conduct and cultivating wise discernment in our practice.

Thursday Night Talk Dana
[give_form id=”19397″ show_title=”false” show_content=”none” display_style=”reveal”] “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 give and 100% of your donation will be shared with Vance Pryor.

Join online meeting: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/83943740488 , Passcode: 524394
Join by phone: 1-669-900-6833 ( Meeting ID: 839 4374 0488 )
For tips and instructions to join the meeting, check this news blog.

VANCE PRYOR, PsyD, began insight meditation in 1998. He has been deeply influenced by the teachings of Sayadaw U Pandita and Sayadaw U Tejaniya. His training to become a teacher has been supported by the mentorship of Steve Armstrong and Kamala Masters. He is currently participating in IMS’s 2017-2021 Teacher Training Program.

Hybrid (in-person and online)

3111 Wissemann Drive (or *ZOOM)
Sacramento, CA 95826 United States
Hybrid Event

May 19, 2022 @ 7:00 pm 9:15 pm PDT

Talk topic: Vesak: Religious Celebration, Practice Opportunity

Sit & Dharma Talk with SIM Community Teacher Rich Howard

* Hybrid events can be attended via Zoom or onsite at the Sacramento Dharma Center 

Vesak is the most important holiday of the year for Buddhists. It celebrates the Buddha’s birth, awakening, and passing into nibbana (parinibbana) at death. In many countries, it is recognized on the Full Moon Day of May as a national holiday. We will look at how the day is celebrated throughout the world, and then look at how we might take inspiration from these celebrations and from the life of the Buddha for our own practice. 

Join online meeting: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/82041682995 , Passcode: 066992
Join by phone: 1-669-900-6833 ( Meeting ID: 820 4168 2995 )
For tips and instructions to join the meeting, click here to check this news blog.

Thursday Night Talk Dana
[give_form id=”10304″ show_title=”false” show_content=”none” display_style=”reveal”] “Generosity is the virtue that leads to peace.” – The Historical Buddha
Please use this form to donate by credit card or your PayPal account. Enter the amount you’d like to give and 75% of your donation will be shared with Rich Howard.

Hybrid (in-person and online)

3111 Wissemann Drive (or *ZOOM)
Sacramento, CA 95826 United States
Hybrid Event

April 7, 2022 @ 7:00 pm 9:15 pm PDT

Talk Topic: Death, Dying, and Loss

Sit & Dharma Talk with Visiting Teacher Seth Castleman

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

Thursday Night Talk Dana
[give_form id=”16677″ show_title=”false” show_content=”none” display_style=”reveal”] “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 give and 75% of your donation will be shared with Seth Castleman.

Join online meeting: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/82896442241 , Passcode: 889892
Join by phone: 1-669-900-6833 ( Meeting ID: 828 9644 2241 )
For tips and instructions to join the meeting, click here to check this news blog.

SETH CASTLEMAN is a teacher, writer, and storyteller with over twenty years experience teaching mindfulness and spiritual practice. Castleman is trained in both the Jewish and Buddhist traditions. After 20 years of meditation practice and two years of silent retreat as a lay-person in the US, India, and Nepal and as a monk in Burma, Seth was trained as a teacher by Jack Kornfield at Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Woodacre, CA. He was authorized as a meditation/dharma teacher in 2008. Following eight years of rabbinical studies in the US and Israel/Palestine, Castleman was ordained in 2011 as a rabbi by one Orthodox, one Conservative, and one Reform rabbi. Castleman has published in two dozen newspapers, periodicals, and anthologies on the intersection of contemplative practice and social justice and the transformational power of brokenness. As a storyteller, Seth has performed in theaters, on radio and television, and at countless kitchen tables. Seth uses myth, storytelling, and humor as central tools in his teaching and counseling work. Seth Castleman is married to Reverend Elizabeth Griswold, making them, quite possibly, the only rabbi—Christian minister married couple in the US. Seth and Elizabeth live in Davis, CA with their three children.

Hybrid (in-person and online)

3111 Wissemann Drive (or *ZOOM)
Sacramento, CA 95826 United States
Hybrid Event

March 31, 2022 @ 7:00 pm 9:00 pm PDT

Talk topic: The Paradox of Shame

Sit & Dharma Talk with SIM Community Teacher Rev. Diane Wilde

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

We all experience shame.  It is a universal emotion with some social scientists and psychologists saying it is an innate human trait, and others insisting it evolved within our social fabric. It is considered an absolutely essential emotion in some societies, and yet, is also frequently considered mentally damaging. The causes of shame have dramatically changed, from lack of adherence to prescriptive social mores of the past, to shaming of individuals on social media today. The Buddha also taught about shame (hiri) and its companion, the dread of shame (ottapa). Shame and the reasons for shame as taught by the Buddha are quite different then the “shaming” we experience in contemporary society. We will discuss this complex emotion, its history and why it is an important, yet often overlooked Buddhist teaching.

Thursday Night Talk Dana
[give_form id=”9758″ show_title=”false” show_content=”none” display_style=”reveal”] “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 give and 75% of your donation will be shared with Rev. Diane Wilde.

Join online meeting: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/89428587147, Passcode: 607786
Join by phone: 1-669-900-6833 ( Meeting ID: 894 2858 7147 )
For tips and instructions to join the meeting, click here to check this news blog.

Hybrid (in-person and online)

3111 Wissemann Drive (or *ZOOM)
Sacramento, CA 95826 United States
Hybrid Event

March 24, 2022 @ 7:00 pm 9:15 pm PDT

Revisiting Fundamentals: “Right” Understanding

Sit & Dharma Talk with SIM Founding Teacher Dennis Warren.

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

Deciding what is the “Right” or skillful thing to do can be confusing when we are suffering. On one hand, the modern interpretation of the Historical Buddha’s teachings seems to offer an endless number of potential methods and solutions. On the other, what method or approach is actually effective in a particular situation can be elusive. The Buddha’s teachings on Right Understanding describe a straight forward, practical and helpful model for working with confusion, struggle and suffering. These teachings become a powerful set of tools for living, problem solving and growth when they are combined with the teachings on Right Intention and Right Effort. Together, they provide short term strategies for working with the immediate, real-time challenges in our lives; as well as strategies for pointing the mind, body and heart into long term satisfaction and peace.
The subject matter of this evening is appropriate for all levels of practice.

Thursday Night Talk Dana
[give_form id=”10310″ show_title=”false” show_content=”none” display_style=”reveal”] “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 give and 75% of your donation will be shared with Dennis Warren.

Join online meeting: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/87234022343 , Passcode: 605331
Join by phone: 1-669-900-6833 ( Meeting ID: 872 3402 2343 )

Hybrid (in-person and online)

3111 Wissemann Drive (or *ZOOM)
Sacramento, CA 95826 United States
To download this talk, right-click and select ‘save audio as’ or select the 3-dot menu to the right of the speaker icon.

With SIM returning to in-person programs, we need a few more volunteers to help with set-up – specifically, one person for the third Thursday and another on the fourth Thursday. We could also use some people willing to be called on to set-up for daylong retreats. The volunteer would need to arrive about an hour before the meeting (Thursday dharma talk or Saturday retreat) and would work as part of a three-person team to set up chairs, set up the altar, put out the dana bowl, and other tasks as needed. The team also helps close down after the meeting, putting away items, emptying trash and recycle cans, cleaning break room and kitchen counters if needed, and ensuring all doors and gates are closed and locked. Closing tasks typically take 15-20 minutes.

Volunteering for set-up is both a gratifying way of giving dana to the sangha and an opportunity to get to know fellow sangha members on your team, as well as to care for the Dharma Center itself. If you are interested in helping, please contact Margaret Buss at volunteer-coordinator@sactoinsight.org

After careful consideration of the current trends in the number of new case reports of Covid-19, mostly due to the omicron variant, the SIM Board of Directors has passed a motion to reopen in-person attendance for all SIM-sponsored events effective 2/22/2022. On behalf of the Board, I thank the SIM community for your patience and understanding during this hiatus. For the comfort and safety of all, we encourage you to continue to wear high-quality masks while indoors, maintain social distancing, and receive all SARS-Cov-19 vaccinations as recommended by the California Department of Public Health.
Looking forward to seeing everyone in person again!

Jon Siiteri, on behalf of the SIM Board of Directors

To download this talk, right-click and select ‘save audio as’ or select the 3-dot menu to the right of the speaker icon.