My name is Toren. I am in 6th grade and go to Dharma Rocks at IMC. I have organized a food drive at IMC for Second Harvest Food Bank.
If you like, when you come to IMC please consider bringing a donation for the food drive.
Second Harvest prefers to receive canned food such as stew, soup, chili, vegetables, or fruit and low-sugar cereal, peanut butter, 100% fruit juices, and other non-perishable items.
They ask that you do not donate bulk packages of rice, flour, and sugar, as well as foods packed in glass.
The food barrel is in the community hall at IMC. The food drive will last until the first week or two of April.
Thank you.
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, it is also a spiritual path that gradually dissolves the barriers to the full development of our wisdom and compassion. During this introductory course, the basic instructions in insight meditation will be given sequentially, starting with a focus on mindfulness of breathing, followed by mindfulness of the body, of emotions, of thoughts, of mind and of the application of mindfulness in daily life and on retreats. No pre-registration necessary.
This is a daylong retreat with alternating periods of sitting and walking meditation, instruction in mindfulness practice, particularly in mindfulness of the body and a dharma talk. It is recommended for both beginners and experienced practitioners. No interviews. Bring lunch.
Gil is the primary teacher for the Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, CA; he has been teaching since 1990. He has practiced Zen and Vipassana in the U.S. and Asia since 1975, was a Theravada monk in Burma in 1985, and in 1989 began training with Jack Kornfield to be a Vipassana teacher. He ordained as a Soto Zen priest at the San Francisco Zen Center in 1982, and in 1995 received Dharma Transmission from Mel Weitsman, the abbot of the Berkeley Zen Center. In 1998 he received a PhD in Religious Studies from Stanford University. Gil teaches at Spirit Rock Meditation Center where he is part of its Teachers Collective. He is a husband and a father of two boys.
Taking in the Good – Weaving Positive Emotions, Optimism, and Resilience into the Brain and Self Rick Hanson shows how to use the brain’s machinery of memory to get at the essence of beneficial change in the process of personal growth: the internalization of positive experiences. Drawing on recent discoveries about neuroplasticity, he will present a simple, four step process that weaves positive experiences into the structure of the brain and the fabric of the self.
Rick Hanson, Ph.D. is a psychologist, author, and teacher. He began Buddhist practice in 1974, with an emphasis on using householder life for steadiness of mind, insight, and opening the heart. Rick sat on the Board of Spirit Rock Meditation Center for nine years and is a graduate of the Community Dharma Leaders program. He teaches workshops at Sati Center, Spirit Rock, CIIS, Kripalu, and New York Insight. He co-founded the Wellspring Institute for Neuroscience and Contemplative Wisdom. See: www.rickhanson.net. He and his wife have a young adult daughter and son.
Introducing the basic practice of mindfulness, with direction in mindfulness of the breath, body, emotions, thoughts, walking and eating. There will sitting and walking meditation and discussion. Suitable for both beginners and those wanting to review the basics of practice. Bring lunch.
Ines Freedman first became interested in meditation through her yoga practice in 1970. She has been practicing Buddhist meditation since 1985, with Gil Fronsdal being her primary teacher since 1995. She is a graduate of the Spirit Rock Community Dharma Leader Program and a past Managing Director of Insight Meditation Center. She directs and teaches the Audiodharma Online Meditation Course, and serves on the IMC Chaplaincy council. She is a retired chiropractor.
During this daylong, we will explore mindfulness of breathing by connecting with the experience of breathing through the whole body. This style of practice encourages a relaxed focus on the experience of the breath.
This is a great opportunity for a full day of immersion in silent Dharma Practice. Practicing mindfulness on retreat is one of the foundations for maturing insight meditation. The simplicity, silence and support of retreats contribute to letting go of many of the distractions that get in the way of clear seeing. Retreats also are a wonderful environment for developing a continuity of awareness for an extended period. Interviews with Gil will be available. The sign up sheet will be placed on the table next to the Dana box next to the entrance. You are welcome to come for the entire day or drop in for any part of the retreat. If you come for only part of the retreat, please enter the meditation hall only at the beginning of a scheduled sitting. If you come while a sit is in progress, sit in one of the chairs in the outer hall. Bring breakfast and lunch. Light supper provided.
This is a daylong retreat with alternating periods of sitting and walking meditation, instruction in mindfulness practice, particularly in mindfulness of the body and a dharma talk. It is recommended for both beginners and experienced practitioners. No interviews. Bring lunch.
Please join a conversation with Kim Allen, IMC’s board president. Topics could include volunteering at IMC, our culture and way of doing things, or our practice. Questions are welcome.
Five Wednesday Evenings
March 24 to April 21, 2010, 7:30 to 9pm
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, it is also a spiritual path that gradually dissolves the barriers to the full development of our wisdom and compassion.
During this introductory course, the basic instructions in insight meditation will be given sequentially, starting with a focus on mindfulness of breathing, followed by mindfulness of the body, of emotions, of thoughts, of mind and of the application of mindfulness in daily life and on retreats.
Short Meditation followed by a talk and discussions. Clear View Project has been working closely with several groups of activist monks inside Burma and in exile to support the monks, nuns and Burmese democracy movement.
U Pyinya Zawta is Executive Director in Exile of the All Burma Monks’ Alliance, a leader of Burma’s Saffron Revolution in the autumn of 2007. In 2008, arriving in the United States with refugee status, he and three other exiled monks created a monastery in Utica, New York, where continues to live and organize. Born in 1960 in the Magwe District of central Burma, U Pyinya Zawta was ordained at the age of twenty. After years of study at monastic universities in Burma, he was appointed president of Rangoon’s Aloan Township Young Monks Union. Arrested and imprisoned several times from 1990 onward, in January 1998 U Pyinya Zawta was arrested and sentenced to seven years in Insein prison He moved to the Rangoon’s Maggin Monastery in 2005 and opened a study center and a unique HIV/AIDS patient support refuge. Pyinya Zawta helped form and lead the All Burma Monks Alliance, which in 2007 protested Burma’s repressive military rule. Tens of thousands of monks and nuns marched in the streets alongside countless civilians, chanting the Metta Sutta. But the demonstrations were fiercely repressed. U Pyinya Zawta escaped from Rangoon by taking on a variety of disguises. Unable to capture him, the Burmese military regime arrested his mother and siblings, who were not released until he surfaced in Mae Sot, Thailand in January 2008. Since moving to the U.S. Pyinya Zawta, along with his dedication to daily Buddhist practice and meditation, works tirelessly to support refugee monks inside and outside of Burma, and to build a free nation for all Burma’s people.
For those who have never sat a retreat, or those who have but are curious about extended retreat practice, experienced practitioners will discuss the following:
• A typical retreat day, retreat “etiquette”, interviews, accommodations, food
• Types of retreats: Vipassana, metta, monastic, study, abroad, self-retreat
• Preparing for a retreat and post-retreat integration
• Helpful hints
Kim McLaughlin has been a student of insight meditation since 1987. Prior to that she practiced concentration meditation and other aspects in the Ananda Marga spiritual tradition for 18 years. She studied with the Venerable Pa Auk Sayadaw in Burma for three months in 2004. She was a participant in the Dharma Practice Program study group with Gil Fronsdal, and a graduate of the Buddhist Chaplaincy course sponsored by Sati Center.
Megan Cowan has been practicing since 1996, mostly in Burma, and including two and half years ordained as a nun. In 2001, she fell upon teaching mindfulness meditation to children and found it to be incredibly inspiring. Most recently, she started the Community Partnership for Mindfulness in Education through Park Day School in Oakland with Laurie Grossman and Richard Shankman. She experiences great joy in offer these tools of awareness and compassion to young people, preparing them to influence peace in our world.
Jim Podolske is a scientist who has been a Vipassana student of Gil Fronsdal since 1998. He serves the Insight Meditation Center sangha both as a volunteer and introductory meditation instructor, and is a former IMC board member. He has sat Vipassana, Samadhi, and Brahmavihara retreats over the last 10 years, including a six week retreat with Joseph Goldstein in 2003. Jim enjoys sailing on the San Francisco Bay.
