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Investigating the Best Known Collection of the Buddha’s Teachings
Saturday, December 4, 2010, 9am to 4pm
The Dhammapada may well be the most widely read and most beloved collection of Buddhist scriptures presenting wisdom through vivid, poetic imagery and often blunt contrast. Its lesson goes to the heart of the Buddha’s teachings. During this daylong contemplation and investigation of the Dhammapada verses, we will examine both their scope and structure and explore some of the most challenging of the Buddha’s instructions. The primary translation used will be Gil Fronsdal’s.
As one of Spirit Rock’s community dharma leaders, Tony hosts sitting groups in Davis and periodically teaches around the bay area and central valley. Tony’s practice is guided by study of the Pali scriptures (in translation!) and by contemporary scholarship of these texts.
A Benefit for Buddhist Global Relief
Saturday, October 30, 9am to 5pm
Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi will lead a daylong program exploring traditional and contemporary approaches to Socially Applied Buddhism. Caring for oneself while caring for others is at the heart of the Buddha’s teachings. How we can best do this in our present-day world is a deeply challenging question with profound ramifications. Bhante will explore the canonical roots of Socially Applied Buddhism, with texts and discussion. He will develop a model aimed at articulating a postmodern integral understanding of Buddhism and explore corresponding approaches to Buddhist practice and sacred activism. He will also highlight the work of Buddhist Global Relief, a non-profit organization he founded in 2008, which has launched over fifteen aid projects throughout the world. All dana will go to BGR. This event will be jointly sponsored by IMC and the Sati Center.
Bhikkhu Bodhi is an American Buddhist monk originally from New York City. After serving as a monk in Sri Lanka for twenty-four years, he now lives at Chuang Yen Monastery in upstate New York. Ven. Bodhi is a prolific writer of Buddhist essays and books and has translated and commented extensively on the Pali suttas.
Sunday October 17 11:15am to 12:15pm
Long time Vipassana student Toni Bernhard has written an insightful and helpful book on how to practice Buddhism while sick. Toni has been chronically ill for many years, much of that time housebound and bed- ridden. From her personal experience she has written a wonderfully personal and deeply compassionate book for people both ill and healthy. Since her illness limits how much she can do, we are fortunate that she will be sharing her book and wisdom with us at IMC. Her book is “How to Be Sick: A Buddhist Inspired Guide for the Chronically Ill and their Caregivers.”
In 1982, Toni Bernhard received a J.D. from the School of Law at the University of California, Davis, joined the faculty where she stayed until chronic illness forced her to retire. In 1992, she began to study and practice Buddhism. Before becoming ill, she attended many meditation retreats and led a meditation group in Davis with her husband, Tony
Sunday, October 10, 10am to 10:45am
For the last ten years IMC has been supporting the growth of Beth’s Buddhist Chaplaincy program in Cambodia called Brahmavihara-Cambodia. In recent years we have had annual benefits that have provided a significant amount of funding for her work. She and her staff started with caring for those dying of AIDS. With the success of her program, her project has expanded to also offer compassionate care to the desperately poor, prisoners, and those with serious illness. It has been gratifying that our IMC community has been able to help her program. All the dana from the Sunday morning sitting will be used to support her program.
Wednesday, October 6, 7:30-9:00pm
This is an evening to experience and delight in the teachings of Munindra-ji, an Indian meditation master and Buddhist scholar who was one of the most important meditation teachers for the first generation of Westerners to study and then teach Insight Meditation, including Joseph Goldstein and Sharon Salzberg. Mirka Knaster, has written a delightful book of poignant and humorous anecdotes from his life that highlight the many qualities of mature Buddhist practice and great human beings. To celebrate the publication of ”Living This Life Fully: Stories and Teachings of Munindra,” Mirka will offer a sample of the practice, teachings, and stories of this remarkable man who embodied the Dharma. This is a wonderful opportunity to look back at the beginnings of our Western Insight Meditation movement through personal remembrances by the people who helped bring it about.
Mirka Knaster has been practicing in the Theravada tradition since 1981 and holds a Ph.D. in Asian and Comparative Studies.
Sunday, October 24, 10:45am
IMC’s Dharma teens present this benefit to support a poor school in Cambodia.
Information about the school and other ways of supporting it are at www.cambodiarotaryschool.org
Friday, October 29, 7:30 to 9pm
Anyone who has lost a family member, friend or other dear person over the last year is welcome to join us for a chance to remember and honor those who have died but who enriched our lives and community. With the Buddhist practices of mindfulness and compassion, we will have a period of silent sitting and rituals of remembrance, bereavement, and farewell. Bring pictures or mementos for our altar of persons you wish to honor/remember. If you cannot come to the ceremony, you are welcome to send Maria the name of the person you would like us to include in our remembrance. Contact Maria at mstraatmann@gmail.com
Maria Straatmann, a former scientist and businesswoman, has been a student of Vipassana meditation since 1996. She is a graduate of the Sati Center Buddhist Chaplaincy Program and End of Life Counselor training with Metta Institute; volunteers with Zen Hospice Project.. Maria also serves as IMC Program Director and on its Chaplaincy Council. She is a Spirit Rock Buddhist Ritual Minister.
Friday, July 16, 2010, 10am to 2pm
This day will be open to those who have sat retreats of one month or longer sometime in the last 3 years. The time will involve meditation and discussion. Please bring lunch.
Tuesday, July 13, 7:30 to 9pm
Plans for the Coming of Age Program are now in place, and we will be starting our first groups in the fall. Two separate groups will be formed, one for girls and one for boys; both will be open to 7th and 8th graders. Groups will meet monthly from September, 2010 through May, 2011.
You and your children are invited to join the teachers and program organizers for two introductory meetings, during which you will learn more about our goals and and plans for the program, find out about logistics and other details, and get answers to any questions that you may have.
Parents only: Tuesday, July 13, 7:30 to 9 pm, at IMC
Youths only (both boys and girls): Sunday, September 19, 1 to 4 pm, at Jikoji (a beautiful zen temple and retreat center on Skyline Blvd., south of Page Mill Rd.; driving directions are here: http://www.jikoji.org/gettinghere.html). More information about this meeting will be available during the parent meeting in July.
Pre-registration is not required, and you may feel free to extend this invitation to other families whose children might be interested. Attendance at the introductory meetings does not imply a commitment to the program. However, youths who wish to continue with the group after September will be asked to commit to regular, monthly attendance for the duration of the program year. Contact Lauren Silver.
Sunday, September12, 11:15am to 12pm
Gil would like to take this opportunity to offer his appreciation to the many volunteers at IMC for the generous gift of their time and efforts. It will also be an opportunity for volunteers to become better acquainted with one another.
Sunday, July 18, 11:15 (after a brief snack) to 1 pm
Hands-on workshop for locating meditation and Buddhism information online including through IMC’s website. Get technical support for using IMC’s many online sources; learn the uses of our updated website and the flexibility and reach of our Community site. RSVP please. Anne Foster, afoster@rawbw.com, 650/591-1285.
Saturday, August 21, 2010, 9am to 4:30pm
Have you noticed that no matter what we eat, how much we weigh or exercise, that feeling of lack, emptiness, the unquenchable thirst for more, eventually takes over? The Buddha observed that the source of suffering comes from craving and the mismanagement of desire. He also observed how to satisfy physical and emotional feelings of hunger and lack that are part of the human condition.
This class will explore why the Buddha declared, “Hunger is the supreme disease” and why he equated hunger for anything outside of ourselves (food, beauty, the end of loneliness, etc.) with craving, the source of suffering. Through a series of experiential meditation exercises, drawing and small group discussions, we will discover for ourselves the Buddha’s teachings on craving, desire and contentment, what fills and depletes us? What qualities need to be developed and nourished to establish insight into the differences between physical nourishment, which comes and goes, and food for the heart, the only kind that lasts? We will also investigate different kinds of hunger, appetites and what the Buddha meant when he said that “True happiness is the end of craving.”
Ronna Kabatznick is a social psychologist who has been practicing meditation since 1985. She spent nearly two years on a Vipassana meditation retreat under the guidance of two of Thailand’s greatest Forest Masters. She is the author of The Zen of Eating: Ancient Answers to Modern Weight Problems and a board member of The Center for Mindful Eating, a web-based organization designed to help educate professionals about Mindful Eating. An assistant clinical professor in the department of psychiatry at UCSF, her Berkeley-based private practice focuses on helping people with depression, weight and relationship issues.
Sunday, August 15, 7 to 8:30pm
Megan Cowan will be sharing the work of Mindful Schools and discussing the movement of mindfulness in education. Hear the inspiring impact mindfulness is having on children and teachers in Oakland and the greater Bay Area, and what we can learn about our own practice from the simplicity of children.
Megan 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 offering these tools of awareness and compassion to young people, preparing them to influence peace in our world.
Saturday, October 16th, 2010, 9:30 am to 4:30 pm.
Welcoming Buddhist chaplains and those interested in deepening their spiritual care practice for a day of learning and community-building. Fleet Maull will will share about prison Dharma and Rev. Judith Finely from Final Passages will talk about Home Funerals and Natural death care. Vegetarian lunch included. Presented by Buddhist Chaplains Group. Pre-registration at www.buddhistchaplainsnetwork.org or call Bill Hart: 415 -567-9823
Acharya Fleet Maull is a senior teacher in both the Shambhala Buddhist and Zen Peacemaker communities. He founded both the Prison Dharma Network and the National Prison Hospice Association while serving 14 years in federal prison.
Reverend Judith Fenley, Chaplain and Instructor with Final Passages, will share information that can diminish fears surrounding death. She has a professional background in nursing, and currently practices as a health and spiritual educator and practitioner.
Saturday, September 18, 2010, 9:00am to 12:30pm
This retreat offers an opportunity to develop a continuity of awareness in movement and in stillness. We will integrate yoga poses, breath work, relaxation, loving-kindness (metta), and guided and silent meditation and let the synergy of these practices inform and deepen one another to open heart and mind. The retreat is appropriate for beginners to either yoga or meditation as well as experienced yogis and meditators. You do not have to be flexible to do yoga, nor to have a particular body type; you need only to be as you are. Please bring a large towel and yoga mat if you have one.
Terry teaches Yoga for Meditation. She has been teaching classes and retreats at the Insight Meditation Center since 1995. She began practicing yoga in 1984, and has been a student of Vipassana meditation since 1992. Trained in Iyengar style yoga, she also teaches at the California Yoga Center in Palo Alto. Her teaching is gentle, supportive, and sensitive to individual abilities.
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