Tag Archive for: Rich Howard

01/27/2022 “The Paramis” with Rich Howard

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Developing a Mind/Heart of Peace The Paramis are qualities of heart that when developed bring the highest blessing, which is peace. In honor of the passing of Thich Nhat Hanh, Rich will use illustrations from the beloved Zen Master’s life for development of the Paramis in daily life. We will see how Thay embodied patience, renunciation, determination, truthfulness, and other qualities of the heart to bring peace at the individual, community, and global scales. Please bring a story of how you have been influenced by Thich Nhat Hanh’s teaching, in person, online, or through his writing: a short quote, a song, a poem, or one of his books. We have invited special guest Helen Hobart to share her experience practicing with Thay.

Rich donated all the dana he received from the presentation to the Thich Nhat Hanh Foundation.

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

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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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10/14/2021 “The 3 Trainings” with Rich Howard

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The two book titles mentioned in this presentation are:

The three trainings of the eightfold path are the training in moral integrity (sila), the training in meditation (bhavana), and the training in wisdom (pañña). They are taught in many places in the Pali Canon, nowhere more powerfully than in the Samaññaphala Sutta (Digha Nikaya 2). This sutta, the story of an encounter between the historical Buddha and King Ajatasattu, contains a survey of the other philosophical traditions of the Buddha’s time, a summary of the essence of the Buddha’s teachings illustrated with beautiful similes, and (spoiler alert!) a sad refusal by the King to accept this teaching as the basis for transforming his life. Inspired by two chapters on this sutta (characterized as “almost a Greek tragedy”) in Krishnan Venkatesh’s book “Do You Know Who You Are?” and a book-length essay by Mu Soeng “The Question of King Ajatasattu” (“rightly called one of the most important texts in the Pali Canon”), we will explore in depth how we might answer the King’s question reframed for ourselves: what is the fruit of practice, and what are we willing to do to attain it? This evening’s introduction will help prepare for the SIM daylong on October 30, although both events will stand alone as opportunities to look at the teachings, our practice, and our lives.

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09/02/2021 “Retreat Practice: At Home Again” with Rich Howard

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On the eve of SIM’s second online annual retreat, let us consider retreat practice in general and online retreat practice in particular. What is unique about online retreat? Are there distinct advantages to in-person retreats? What can we do to make the most of an online retreat? Please be prepared to share your retreat experience – online or in person – in the era of pandemic isolation.

2021 Retreat Container at Home (,pdf)Download
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07/22/2021 “Where is Right View?” with Rich Howard

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For many, sight is the primary connection to the outside world. We marvel at a sunset, smile at an infant, react to a political poster. These sights can bring pleasure or anger, connection or revulsion. But are we aware of the act of seeing itself? “Why have we never noticed seeing?” asks Sayadaw U Tejaniya. We will explore the differences between looking and seeing and its implications for our formal meditation and daily life practice.

Sayadaw U Tejaniya quotes on Seeing
from The Daily Tejaniya (.pdf)Download
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05/13/2021 “Nothing or No Thing? Reframing our Experience” with Rich Howard

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The mind tends to solidify experience and to grasp for security in comfort, familiarity, and habitual patterns. This is natural, a long-established pattern to help negotiate a complex world in the face of threats and unknowns. Even our language reinforces this dependence on solid objects versus processes, using nouns to translate words that are verbs in Pali, the original language of the early Buddhist texts. This talk will expand on the theme of investigating the concept of “self” that all three SIM faculty explored in February. Be prepared to share insights you may have received in working with this area of practice.

“Insight Meditation: A Psychology of Freedom” by Joseph Goldstein and “Crazy Wisdom” by Chögyam Trungpa

Books referenced in this talk
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02/04/2021 “Finding and Losing Your Self” with Rich Howard

Who Am I? What Do I Want? What Do I Believe?:
Finding and Losing Your Self

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The Buddhist concept of “not self” can be very confusing if we let it linger as a subject of philosophical speculation or distant conceptual notion. On the other hand, the Buddha taught the illusion of self (anatta in Pali) as one of the three universal characteristics of experience, along with impermanence and unsatisfactoriness; living an embodied insight into how this process works is one avenue to awakening.
Two of the basic processes we have taught often at SIM offer ways of seeing into how we construct and maintain the sense of self: the five aggregates of clinging and dependent origination. In this presentation, Rich will share some other approaches from classes he attended with Steve Armstrong and Kamala Masters at the Vipassana Metta Foundation and Jay Garfield at the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies. We will place particular emphasis on the ethical and liberating aspects of these teachings.

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12/17/2020 “Finding Happiness: the Maha-Mangala Sutta” with Rich Howard

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As the days wane and the nights get longer, Rich will bring reflections on the “greatest blessings” from the Maha-Mangala Sutta (Sutta Nipata 2.4 translated by Narada Thera). This beloved sutta reminds us that, even in the midst of loss and grief, our ordinary lives contain so many sources of happiness. In balancing our awareness of suffering with the uplifting conditions in life, we come closer to seeing things as they are. This awareness provides a balance to our daily life practice and a motivation for skillful action in the world.

Rich last offered a reflection on this sutta four years ago, as we moved into the Sacramento Dharma Center. Now that we are not able to be there in person, let’s bring these blessings to mind again.

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09/24/2020 “What is in your Go Bag?” with Rich Howard

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In the devastating fires this summer, we have seen folks needing to evacuate where they live on short notice. Public safety officials recommend having a “Go Bag” packed and ready with batteries, a crank radio, first aid supplies, extra socks, and other essentials. Maybe we should take this idea and think about what to bring with us from our “toolkit” of meditation practices. What is essential? What would you want to have with you to protect your mind in any circumstance? Be prepared to share the practices and essential teachings that you have found most useful.

* Gil Fronsdal, Insight Meditation Center (Redwood City)
* For Pre made Go Bags – google Redfora or Earthquake bags

ZOOM chat shared by Rich Howard
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09/03/2020 “Turning Toward or Away” with Rich Howard

Meditation Practice: Turning Toward or Turning Away?

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In a 2017 article, Naropa University Professors Carla Sherrell and Judith Simmer-Brown warned about using meditation practice to avoid pain: “We take up meditation as a way to avoid or dull the pain, and only feel it “works” if we feel better. This approach is an expression of a prevailing culture that quickly takes a pharmaceutical to alleviate pain or pours a drink to numb anxiety. This kind of response to pain favors meditation practices that feature detachment, peace, bliss, and absolutist thinking as defense mechanisms against anxiety, fear, and anguish.” Yet, our world right now is full of anxiety, fear, and anguish. How do we avoid the temptation to turn away from the painful aspects of our personal and societal lives? How do we turn toward our experience and the harsh realities playing out in our community, nation, and world? How do we find insight and engagement in the midst of chaos and injustice? We will explore these difficult but essential questions on this evening of practice and inquiry. Bring an open mind and a willingness to look at the motivation for practice.

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