What’s New At Insight Meditation Center
After a person has been meditating for some time, it’s important that he or she evaluate how the practice is developing. Is it working? Does it need adjustment? Is it the right practice to be doing? Can it be improved? Some of this evaluation can be done on one’s own, some with a teacher or with friends. Taking a step back to assess our meditation shouldn’t be seen as a difficult task. We are evaluators by nature. We evaluate all…
Read More Read More
Wednesdays 7:30pm to 9pm, May 25, June 1, June 8, June 15, June 22 Insight Meditation or Vipassana, is a simple technique, beginning with focusing the attention on the breath. The practice concentrates and calms the mind. At the heart of Insight Meditation is the practice of Mindfulness, a practice of moment-to-moment observation which cultivates a clear, stable and non-judgmental awareness. While mindfulness practice can be highly effective in helping bring calm and clarity to the pressures of daily life,…
Read More Read More
Saturday, April 23, 2011 9:00 am – 4:30 pm Speaking is often one of the most difficult places to be mindful. One of the reasons it can be so challenging to integrate speech into our mindfulness practice is that we often don’t practice it! This daylong offers an opportunity to explore practices, reflections and teachings that support wise and mindful speech. The day will integrate some periods of silence with periods of practicing mindful speech, with ample opportunity for discussion….
Read More Read More
November 18-27, 2011 With Andrea Fella, Anuskha Fernandopulle, Will Kabat-Zinn and Teja Bell (qigong) Registration opens July 18th. For more information see the Spirit Rock website: https://www.spiritrock.org/calendarDetails?EventID=2950
Fridays, 7:00 – 8:30 pm on Oct 14, Nov 11, & Dec 9 An opportunity for parents to practice in community with mindful speech and listening, meditation and stress reduction. Each participant will have time to share their mindful parenting experiences. The monthly series will include council practice sessions alternating with sessions featuring local dharma teachers who also practice mindful parenting and mindfulness for children. Facilitated by Patty McLucas and Liz Powell.
Sunday, May 22, 11am to 12pm This panel is informational—to give some insights into the role of a volunteer chaplain in prison, what it’s like to share the dharma through prison visits or being penpals with an inmate, and to share some of the mens’ writing and the joy that is often found, even in prison. Panel Members: Heidi Rentería, who has served at CTF for 8 years, is a graduate of the Sati Center Chaplaincy Program and sits with…
Read More Read More
Saturday, June 25, 9:30am – 5pm Aversion to anxiety is often accompanied by reactivity and actions that worsen how we feel. We suffer. Instead of running from anxiety, our focus for this day will be on kindhearted mindful awareness and intentional cultivation of non-reactive attention to this mood state. Guided meditations will be offered as we practice stopping and quieting the mind so that we slow down enough to see what is actually happening internally. The natural state of a…
Read More Read More
Dear Sangha, For those of you who are interested in receiving occasional updates on the Retreat Center, please either check the IRC website Updates or sign up on the Retreat Center email list. Last Monday night, Gil gave a talk about retreat practice, followed by a discussion about the retreat center. You can listen to the recordings here: Retreats as Sanctuary (Dharma Talk) 23:04 min Community Meeting (Discussion) 39:54 min Warm Wishes, Ines Freedman Managing Director Insight Retreat Center (IRC)
The Sangha Yellow Pages are being updated for 2011. If you would like to advertise in the Yellow Pages, please submit no more than one pags of information about your work in a page protector and one business card protector with cards to the library for approval and inclusion. All papers must be approved before they are added to the book. Please include the following: category, Sangha members name, business name, contact information: name, address, city, phone number, email, website,…
Read More Read More
Sunday, Sept. 11 to Sunday, Sept. 25, 2011 Hidden Villa , 26870 Moody Road, Los Altos Hills, CA 94022 This is a silent mindfulness retreat for experienced meditators who are comfortable with periods of independent practice. Instruction, Dharma talks, and interviews with Gil will support the meditator’s independent insight practice. RETREAT FULL AND WAITLIST CLOSED Flyer Information Application Prerequisite: This retreat is for practitioners with previous Vipassana residential retreat experience and who have checked in with Gil Fronsdal about participation….
Read More Read More
The January – March 2011 Newsletter is now available for download.
“Passing It On” is now available for purchase as a paperback at Create Space and Amazon. “Passing It On” is a collection of writing and art by lay practitioners connected with the Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, California. It shows that helpful teaching can be found in the ordinary lives of lay practitioners. The collection celebrates our everyday lives, but not in a way that ignores its complexity. The personal essays, short stories, poetry, and art explore the challenges we face and…
Read More Read More
Buddhism offers teachings, practices, and profound realizations for two different dimensions of life: the relational and the non-relational. Classically, these two were referred to as the conditioned and the unconditioned dimensions. A modern way of distinguishing them is to point out that the first has to do with that which occurs or exists only in relationship to other things. The second is that which is independent of any relationship to anything else. In human terms, the first involves all the…
Read More Read More
Five Thursday Evenings: February 10,17, March 3, 10, 17 In this five week series, we will explore how mindfulness of the body can help us to become more familiar with our minds. We will begin with mindfulness of the elemental nature of physical experience. Over the weeks of the course, we will explore a variety of mental processes, such as emotions, feeling tone, perception and knowing, and look at how we can become mindfully aware of these processes in relationship…
Read More Read More
Tuesdays, May 3 to June 14, 7 to 9pm No meetings on May 17, June 7 For those who would like to formally take refuge in the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, we will have four classes exploring the meaning of “taking refuge.” Then, on the evening of June 14, we will meet for a sitting, dharma talk, and refuge ceremony. Those who have been in the refuge ceremony before are encouraged to come again to provide support and inspiration. Taking…
Read More Read More