Special Events

Dharma Practice Days: The Five Hindrances

Fridays, October 10, November 7, December 19, January 23, Feburary 27, April 3,
May 8, June 5, 9:30 am - 3:30 pm

A nine-month program centered around the Friday Dharma Practice Days. Rather than allowing hindrances to remain as obstacles it is important to learn how to transform them into stepping stones to greater mindfulness, concentration and wisdom. Each of these Dharma Practice Days will focus on one of the hindrances through teachings, meditation, and discussion. For those participating in the entire series, Ines Freedman will be available for additional support through practice discussions/interviews. Everyone is welcome. Bring lunch.

IMC Community Meeting

Wednesday, June 25, 7:30 - 9:00 pm

Everyone who participates at IMC is welcome to come to a community meeting. Gil will speak for ten minutes on being part of a Buddhist community and for another few minutes on news of things happening at IMC. This will be followed by an open discussion about a variety of issues related to our IMC community.

Weekend Program With Bhante Gunaratana

Saturday - Sunday, July 12 - 13

Bhante Henepola Gunaratana is the founding abbot of the Bhavana Society. Born in rural Sri Lanka, he has been a monk since age 12 and took full ordination at age 20 in 1947. He came to the United States in 1968. “Bhante G” has written a number of books, including the now-classic meditation manual Mindfulness In Plain English and its companion Eight Mindful Steps to Happiness.

• Saturday 7/12: Discourse on the Four Foundations of Mindfulness
• Sunday 7/13: The Dhammapada

This event is presented by Sati Center. For more information visit the Sati Center website or contact Sati Center at (650) 223-0311. Pre-registration preferred.

Online Course: Introduction to Mindfulness Meditation

with Gil Fronsdal & Ines Freedman
July 14 - September 1

Click here for details.

Dharma Discussion

with Andrea Fella
Occasional Thursdays, July 17, August 28, September 11 & 18

On occasional Thursday evenings before the usual evening program, Andrea Fella is available for half-hour one-on-one practice discussions about mindfulness practice.

This is an opportunity to discuss with a teacher the details of your personal meditation practice as well as more general questions about Buddhist practice and its place in your life. These practice discussions are not counseling sessions.

To schedule a practice discussion contact imc.thursday.interviews@gmail.com, or call the IMC information line (650) 599-3456. (Email contact is preferable. Messages left on the information line will be forwarded to the email address.)

Full Moon Gathering for Women

Fridays, July 18, September 26, 7:00 - 9:00 pm

Meditation and dharma teachings with local teachers, sharing and creativity. RSVP Nicole Cherok.

Polishing the Mirror: Relationships As Practice

with Donald Rothberg & Larry Yang
Saturday, July 19, 9:00 am - 4:30 pm

What helps us to take our relationships—with friends, at work, in our communities, with our partners—as spiritual practice? How do we cultivate the qualities of mindfulness, wisdom, compassion, and skillful action in the midst of interaction? In this daylong, we will explore how our relationships can nourish our awakening. Along with periods of silent practice, we will introduce a number of relational practices that participants can take home, involving speech; mindfulness of self, other, and the relationship itself; working with interpersonal challenges; community.

Benefit Evening with Joseph Goldstein

Sunday, July 27, 2008, 7:30pm - 9:00pm

At Unity Church, 3391 Middlefield Road, Palo Alto
co-sponsored by IMC and IMSB

Renowned Buddhist teacher Joseph Goldstein will be offering an evening of Dharma discussion, based on a question-and-answer format. Bring your Dharma questions for Joseph!

This evening benefit will launch the formation of Karuna Programs for IMC and IMSB that will support a variety of local and global service projects. Through this event, IMC will support the Community Partnership for Mindfulness in Education, which offers mindfulness programs for students and teachers in Oakland public schools. IMSB will support the Prajna Vihara School in Bodh Gaya, India, which serves more than 500 children in extreme poverty and is currently raising funds to build a vocational training center.

JOSEPH GOLDSTEIN is the co-founder and guiding teacher of IMS (Insight Meditation Society) in Barre, Mass., and the guiding teacher for The Forest Refuge in Barre, a center for long-term meditation practice. He has taught Vipassana and Metta retreats worldwide for 30 years. In 1989, he helped establish the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies. He is the author of Insight Meditation: The Practice of Freedom, The Experience of Insight, and One Dharma: The Emerging Western Buddhism. His latest book is A Heart Full of Peace. He lectures and leads retreats around the world.

By Donation: No registration is required. Donations are greatly appreciated to support our Karuna funds. Please make all checks to IMSB.

Directions:
From the North: Exit 101 at Embarcadero/Oregon. Follow signs to get onto Oregon Expressway. From Oregon Expressway, turn left onto Middlefield Road. Unity is on the left past Loma Verde Avenue.
From the South: Exit 101 onto San Antonio Road. Turn right at Middlefield Road. Unity is on the right past East Meadow Drive. There are parking lots on both sides of the building.

MapQuest:  Unity Church of Palo Alto

Metta Retreat

with Andrea Fella
Saturday, August 23, 9:00 am - 4:30 pm

A daylong retreat of metta or lovingkindness meditation

Radical Dharma:
The Buddha's Teachings on Views and Desire from the Atthaka Vagga

with Andrea Fella
Saturday, September 13, 9:00 ama - 4:30 pm

This event is presented by Sati Center. For more information visit the Sati Center website or contact Sati Center at (650) 223-0311. Pre-registration preferred.

Householder Retreat: An Integrated Practice Retreat

with Andrea Fella
Sunday - Saturday, September 14 - 20

Integrating practice into our daily lives can be difficult. Many of us need support for this aspect of practice. We will integrate formal practice and Dharma discussion with daily life by surrounding our usual workweek and workdays with practice & discussion. Half-day retreat with instructions and discussion on Sunday, ending with a daylong retreat on the following Saturday. During the week we will meet each morning and evening to inspire, encourage and support our daily life practice. You may participate in any part of the program.

Schedule:

• Sunday 9/14: 1:30 - 5:00 pm
• Monday - Friday 9/15 - 9/19: 7:30 - 9:00 am and 7:30 - 9:00 pm
• Saturday 9/20: Daylong retreat, 9:00 am - 4:30 pm

The Whole World In Our Hands: Buddhist Chaplaincy As Buddhist Practice
A Benefit for Beth Goldring's Brahmavihara/Cambodia Aids Project

with Beth Goldring & Gil Fronsdal
Sunday, September 7, 11:00 am - 12:30 pm

A discussion on service and chaplaincy as a forms of Buddhist practice. There will be an update on Brahmavihara, the small Buddhist organization founded by Beth Goldring, providing chaplaincy and social work services to Cambodian AIDS patients too poor to access traditional resources.

Presented by IMC's Karuna Program.

Buddhist Chaplaincy Training Program

with Jennifer Block, Gil Fronsdal, Paul Haller, and a variety of guest teachers
One Friday a month from September 19, 2008 to July 2009

The Sati Center for Buddhist Studies is offering a year-long training in Buddhist chaplaincy and spiritual caregiving, oriented to Buddhist practitioners with at least four years of committed practice. Its aim is to provide a strong foundation in Buddhist chaplaincy for volunteer chaplains, those working toward being professional chaplains, and those serving the pastoral needs of their local sanghas.

For more information visit the Sati Center website or contact Sati Center at (650) 223-0311.

Yoga & Meditation

with Terry Lesser
Saturday, September 27, 9:00 am - 12:30 pm

See Yoga for details.

Resting in Emptiness: The Evolution and Transcendence of the Self

with Rick Hanson, Ph.D. & Rick Mendius, M.D.
Saturday, October 4, 9:00 am - 5:00 pm

“Me, myself, and I” – it’s the most personal subject of all, but in some ways the most mysterious. This experiential workshop—led by a psychologist and a neurologist—will use the modern sciences of evolution and the brain to explore the profound teachings of the Buddha that the apparent self both brings great suffering and is actually “empty” of any independent existence. We will cover:

• The circuits of awareness and self-ing in the brain
• Non-dual perspectives on the oneness of self and world
• Brain-savvy ways to relax the sense of self, take things less personally, feel more at peace with the world, and rest in the spacious awareness in which self activates and then disperses

This event is presented by Sati Center. For more information visit the Sati Center website or contact Sati Center at (650) 223-0311. Pre-registration preferred.

Sutta Study Program

with Gil Fronsdal, presented by Sati Center
One Friday a month from October 5, 2007 to June 27, 2008, 9:30 am - 3:30 pm
(note: two Fridays in June)
2008: April 4, May 2, June 6, June 27
2008 - 2009 series starts October 3

In this 9-month Sutta Study Program, Gil Fronsdal will lead a systematic study of the Middle Length Discourses (Majjhima Nikaya), one of the most important collections of the Buddha’s teachings. As both a Buddhist teacher and a Buddhist scholar, Gil’s lectures will be both practical and scholarly. The course is designed for those who have already been introduced to the basics of Buddhist teachings and practice and have the time and motivation to carefully read through the assigned readings from this collection. Participants will be expected to come to the classes having read and reflected on the readings assigned for that day. There may also be some short written assignments.

Ten classes will be organized around the themes of The Dharma, The Buddha, The Path of Practice, Karma, Right Effort, Renunciation, Meditation, The Four Noble Truths, Not-clinging, and Liberation.

Reading: The Middle Length Discourses translated by Bhikkhu Bodhi. Please read MN # 95, 63, 58, and 21 before the first class meeting.

Registration: Send an email stating your intention to participate to suttastudy@sati.org. Provide an email address we can use to contact you as there may be additional readings or instructions.