12/23/2021 “Beginnings and Endings” with Rich Howard

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

While the end of a calendar year is somewhat arbitrary, it offers us a chance to look back on the previous year and to look forward to the year to come. In terms of practice, we can think of these activities as Wise Reflection and Wise Intention. For this evening, we will be using a beginning – the first section of the Dhammapada, which Jack Kornfield calls “the most beloved of all Buddhist texts, both poetic and profound.” Titled “Dichotomies” in Gil Fronsdal’s translation (Shambhala, 2008), this text contains reminders of the power of our thoughts and actions, and discernment in choosing a path of happiness and away from quarrels.

The placement of a text at the beginning of a collection was not arbitrary when the Pali Canon was assembled – important texts like this one were intentionally placed first. We will take a slow tour through this poem and see what it offers for our year-end reflection and intention. Feel free to have your own copy of the Dhammapada at hand; it is often fruitful to see how different translators approach a text.

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(Hybrid) Beginning Meditation (6-Week Course)

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Hybrid Event

March 29, 2022 @ 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm PDT

This class is currently taught by SIM Community Teacher Rich Howard (click here for his biography), assisted by SIM Community Member Sara Denzler and is part of a six-week meditation course offered twice a year. For details, visit the Course Overview page (click here). After you enroll, if you’d like to make a donation to support SIM and the course instructors, consider donating online (click here) via credit card or PayPal.

Registration

Pre-registration is necessary since the course registrar provides follow-up information required prior to this first class meeting. 

Before making the $35 registration payment, click here to review the terms of use for this website. On Monday, January 3, online registration opens. Pay the registration fee online using the “Tickets” section at the bottom of this page. Specify the number of people you are registering to this course and click the button “Get Tickets”. You’ll be automatically directed to a secure web-page where your registration payment can be made by credit card as a guest (no PayPal account required) or payment can be made by PayPal after you sign-in to your PayPal account if you have one. After you’ve paid the fee, you’ll receive an email with the subject “You have tickets!” (but no need to print the ticket on paper).

Note that all registrants will receive an email communication from the course registrar on the following dates:  Feb 28, and Mar 24. Before the course begins the registrar will ask if you’ll be attending in-person or on Zoom.

* Hybrid events can be attended via in-person at the Sacramento Dharma Center or online via Zoom. You can read our attendance guidelines (click here). For tips on attending with Zoom (click here).

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

Details

Hybrid (in-person and online)

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

Tickets

The numbers below include tickets for this event already in your cart. Clicking “Get Tickets” will allow you to edit any existing attendee information as well as change ticket quantities.
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12/16/2021 “Establishing the Wonderful Quality of Beginner’s Mind” with Dennis Warren

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

“Beginner’s Mind” is a wonderful quality of mind. It has the potential to significantly improve our practice of meditation and the quality of our mindfulness and experience in daily life. Despite the widespread (and often confusing) coverage it receives in Buddhist, business, athletic, therapeutic and pop culture publications, it is something that remains elusive for many of us.
This evening will explore the following practical questions:

  • What is Beginner’s Mind, really?
  • Why is it considered so valuable?
  • Why does it seem elusive?
  • How do we establish it in meditation practice? And in daily life?

The subject matter of this evening is appropriate for all stages of practice.

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12/09/2021 “Karma is not what you think” with Tony Bernhard

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

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A message from the Sacramento Insight Meditation Board of Directors

The SIM Board is continuing to monitor developments regarding the Delta AND the Omicron variants of Covid19. After careful review of the latest available evidence, we have decided that it continues to be safe to maintain a hybrid program of in-person and Zoom attendance for now. We want to share with you not only our decision, but also the thinking behind it.

  • VACCINATION PROVIDES OUR GREATEST PROTECTION – Vaccination continues to provide good protection from infection and serious illness due to both Delta and Omicron, and we strongly urge all members of our community to be vaccinated. We also recommend you receive a booster vaccination, according to the CDC guidelines, no later than seven days before attending events in person. Booster vaccines are recommended after 2 months for everyone vaccinated with the J&J vaccine and 6 months after either their second Pfizer or Moderna vaccines. If anyone would like to be vaccinated but hasn’t been able to do so, we would be glad to help. We want to send a clear message that anyone who is not fully vaccinated should NOT attend SIM events in person for their own safety and the safety of others. Those who choose to remain unvaccinated are welcome to participate remotely on Zoom and not attend in person.
  • MASKING, DISTANCING AND AIR FILTRATION PROVIDE ADDITIONAL PROTECTION – To maximize safety, we will continue to require indoor masking, and high quality KN95 masks will be available at the door to anyone who would like one. We will continue to arrange socially distanced seating, and for lunch time and break periods to make maximal use of our two high-quality HEPA air filters. All of this creates a low-risk environment in which we feel that we can safely practice together.
  • PRACTICING TOGETHER PROVIDES IMPORTANT SUPPORT FOR OUR COMMUNITY – We do not want the focus on minimizing risk to overshadow the benefits that we are striving to provide to our community, namely the opportunity for us to practice together. After this long period of isolation and loneliness, coming together to practice as a sangha is an opportunity that we truly value.

We understand that each of us, including our teachers, will need to evaluate the personal risks and benefits of in-person attendance and make individual decisions about how to attend SIM. All of us on the Board want to support you in whatever you choose to do. We extend sincere thanks to the members of our audiovisual and set-up teams who have agreed to participate in making in-person attendance possible.

With deep gratitude to all of you who have remained faithful supporters of our sangha,


Jon Siiteri, for the SIM Board of Directors, December 7, 2021

(For other related resources posted by SIM, visit https://sactoinsight.org/pandemic-news/)

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(Remote) Sit & Dharma Talk – Seth Castleman – Have a Little Faith!

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Virtual Event

January 13, 2022 @ 7:00 pm – 9:15 pm PST

Have a Little Faith!

Sit & Dharma Talk with Visiting Teacher Rabbi Seth Castleman

Join online meeting: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/86043707674
Passcode: 591726
Join by phone: 1-669-900-9128 ( Meeting ID: 860 4370 7674 )
For tips and instructions on how to participate, check this news blog.

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
For remote meetings, 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.

RABBI 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.

Details

Remote Meeting Zoom

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(Remote) Introduction to Meditation with Dennis Warren

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Virtual Event

March 24, 2022 @ 6:00 pm – 7:00 pm PDT

To join this remote meeting, note the following:

Join Online: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/87269584502
Passcode: 008185
Join by phone: 1-669-900-6833 ( Meeting ID: 872 6958 4502 )
For instructions on how to join the meeting, click here.

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.

DENNIS WARREN is SIM’s Founding Teacher and has been teaching mindfulness, meditation and contemplative practices since 1998. He recently completed his 11th year as a Volunteer Clinical Professor in Mindfulness in the Division of Pain Medicine at the UC Davis School of Medicine and Medical Center. He is certified as a Mindfulness Teacher, Professional Level (CMT-P), by the International Mindfulness Teachers Association. He is a graduate of the professional trainings in Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction and Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy for Depression. He also is a graduate of the Spirit Rock Medication Center’s Dharma leaders training program. You can learn more about Dennis’ background and activities at https://www.denniswarren.net/ .
Dennis has been participating in residential meditation retreats, and has maintained a daily meditation practice, in the Theravadan Buddhist tradition for over 30 years. 2018 was his 20th year of teaching Insight Meditation and mindfulness practices in residential, retreat, educational, medical, corporate and community settings. In 2007 and 2014, Dennis led month long pilgrimages and moving retreats in Thailand, India and Nepal. A third is being planned for late 2021.

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. If you wish to make a donation, click here.

At the bottom of this page, you may enter the number of people planning to attend and select the button “Confirm RSVP“.

Details

Remote Meeting Zoom

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(Canceled) Introduction to Meditation with Tony Bernhard

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February 24, 2022 @ 6:00 pm – 7:00 pm PST

Our apologies: this course is canceled.

Join Online: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/82116767613
Passcode: 510576
Join by phone: 1-669-900-6833 ( Meeting ID: 821 1676 7613 )
For instructions on how to join the meeting, click here.

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.

TONY BERNHARD is a Buddhist chaplain and teacher. He maintains an active practice with inmates in Folsom Prison and hosts sitting groups in Davis. He sits on the board of the Sati Center for Buddhist Studies and teaches regularly around the bay area and central valley. His practice is non-traditional, guided by his chaplaincy work in prison, his teaching and by his study of the early Pali scriptures.

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. If you wish to make a donation, click here.

At the bottom of this page, you may enter the number of people planning to attend and select the button “Confirm RSVP“.

Details

Remote Meeting Zoom

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Rich Howard

(Remote) Introduction to Meditation with Rich Howard

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Virtual Event

January 27, 2022 @ 6:00 pm – 7:00 pm PST

Rich Howard

To participate, note the following:

Join Online: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/82514332127
Passcode: 807915
Join by phone: 1-669-900-6833 ( Meeting ID: 825 1433 2127 )
For instructions on how to join the meeting, click here.

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.

 

RICH HOWARD has been an active practitioner and volunteer at SIM since 2004. His area of interest is bringing meditative awareness into everyday life. He participated in SIM’s 2007 India Pilgrimage and is a graduate of SIM’s second Practice Development and Leadership (PDL) program. He served on the Board from 2010 until 2015, the last two years as president. He was one of the SIM representatives to the Inter-Sangha Coordinating Committee, predecessor to the Sacramento Dharma Center Board, which now runs our shared space for Buddhist sanghas in Sacramento. He served as a Peace Corps volunteer in southern Africa in the 1970s and is fluent in Spanish. His teachers are Dennis Warren, Tony Bernhard, and Steve Armstrong. Rich completed online courses with Steve on the Abhidhamma (the Buddhist psychology) and the Manual of Insight. He took Gil Fronsdal’s online course on the Majjhima Nikaya (Middle-length Discourses of the Buddha). His interest in the environment led him to the One Small Planet training with Kerry Nelson and the Ecosattva training with One Earth Sangha. In 2018, he completed a 10-month Dhamma Awareness Training with Steve Armstrong and Kamala Masters called Touching the Earth. In 2019, he completed Meg Gawler’s 8-month course Preparing the Ground for Samadhi.

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. If you wish to make a donation, click here.

At the bottom of this page, you may enter the number of people planning to attend and select the button “Confirm RSVP“.

Details

Remote Meeting Zoom

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