One of the keys to understanding the Buddhist practice of death contemplation is remembering that it’s not just about all things being impermanent. Rather, it’s about mindfully facing our own death and understanding it could come at any time. The good news is that this practice can lead to lessening our fear of death and learning to live more fully (and even joyfully) each day.
Guided Meditation (the first part of the meditation is missing – the audio was not clear)
Dharma Talk
In the suttas, the Buddha encouraged us to be grateful and thankful. Intentionally cultivating gratitude even during challenging times helps serve as an antidote to the negative bias of the mind. Otherwise, we often focus too much of our energy on what is wrong or lacking in our lives, rather than appreciating the many simple blessings all around us. Being grateful also counters tendencies towards greed, envy, jealousy and pride.
According to Bhikkhu Bodhi, it is said that “the purpose of the Buddha’s appearance in the world… is to proclaim the four noble truths.” This was also the Buddha’s very first teaching where he “set in motion the wheel of the dhamma.”
We will explore these four truths of suffering, the origin of suffering, the cessation of suffering and the way leading to the cessation of suffering, and see how they can apply to modern life.
At some point, hopefully we begin to fall in love with meditation and the inherent wisdom we gain from this path of practice. This means we really make it a top priority, not because we “should” or think it’s a good idea, but because we start to see the tangible benefits manifesting in our life. We may also begin to get a sense of spiritual urgency or samvega. We understand that meditation can be a stable, reliable refuge for us even during the difficult times in our lives.
In this talk we will explore how our perceptions are often conditioned by many assumptions, beliefs, habits, desires, attachments, misconceptions, resentments, and more. Through mindfulness practice, we can even begin to train our perceptions and counteract our conditioning, allowing us to respond to events with greater wisdom and less reactivity.
In the Maha-parinibbana Sutta, we learn what occurred during the last few months of the Buddha’s life. We will explore a few episodes from this sutta and examine some of the Buddha’s compassionate teachings during this poignant time leading up to his death.
In daily life, we have a lot of distractions that can easily cause our minds to be quite scattered and distracted, and lacking in composure or serenity. One aspect of insight meditation practice that we are gently cultivating is what we call concentration, or samadhi in Pali. Buddhist scholar Bhikkhu Analayo says the term samadhi “carries nuances of a bringing together.” He writes that other translations for samadhi include “collectedness” and “composure of the mind.” In this talk, we will explore various aspects of developing greater concentration and how it can help transform our practice and our life.
According to Ajahn Sucitto in his book Parami: Ways to Cross Life’s Floods, the parami of truthfulness can be understood in two ways. The obvious way is that we do not tell lies or mislead others with our speech (including written communication). The other way, Ajahn Sucitto says, “refers to perception, to the ability to see or know things in an undistorted way.” This second way requires us to be totally honest with ourselves and to see with clarity, which involves bringing mindfulness to each moment.
(Part 9 of 10 of a series on The Paramis)
The main person who gets in the way of allowing us to feel sympathetic joy (mudita in Pali) and gratitude is you know who. Often we compare ourselves to others and find we don’t measure up in some way. Envy and jealousy are the opposites of sympathetic joy. The Buddha encouraged us to challenge our assumptions and to cultivate this capacity to find joy in the good fortune of others. Ajahn Pasanno says, “Cutting through self-view is the Buddha’s unique contribution to spiritual practice. Mudita is antithetical to the self-view that we carry around with us and leads us to a place of boundless and immeasurable joy.”
February 10 @ 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm PST
Cultivating The Seven Factors of Awakening (a 5-week online course with Walt Opie)
This online course meets via Zoom for five consecutive Tuesday evenings on February 10, 17, 24, and March 3,10, 2026. For details, visit the course overview page.
The fee is $50.00 per person due before the start of the first class meeting. If you are able and interested in further supporting SIM financially, you have the option of a registration fee of either $75 or $100 dollars. For the registration fee, we also accept personal checks; please contact the registrar for more information.
Before registering for this course, please click here to review SIM’s Registration Refund Policy.
After we receive payment, SIM will confirm your registration within 48 hours. If the class fills up, the registration fee automatically secures your place on the course wait list.
If you need to contact the retreat registrar with any questions, click here.
Some of the dharma talks for this course will be recorded and available to registered participants; click here and enter the password to access the recordings.