Category Archives: Meditation

Daylong on Nov. 2, 2013 on Right Communication with Rev. Joe Cherry and Lori Wong

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Please join us on Saturday, November 2, 2013

in the Sarana Kuti
9:00am to 4:00pm
at the
Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Stanislaus County
2172 Kiernan Ave., Modesto, CA

In this daylong workshop, we invite our two communities: UUFSC and IMCV, to meet one another and to explore Right Communication – how we can use mindfulness practice to guide us in how we can skillfully communicate in all of our relationships. If you’re not a member of UUFSC or IMCV, you don’t need to worry – we are open communities that are welcoming to anyone who is interested in the teachings we offer.

Please come with a story from the book, Buddhist Boot Camp, by Timber Hawkeye or a story from a Buddhist book that significantly changed or in some way altered your perspective of life in a meaningful way.

We’ll explore practicing Right Communication using periods of silent meditation which can strengthen our ability to stay present and non-reactive in listening and speaking.

This day is freely offered to all.  Donations are gratefully accepted to support the UUFSC and IMCV.  Please bring a vegetarian potluck dish to share for lunch, if you would like.  Chairs and some cushions will be available.

Sarana Kuti is the small stand-alone building on the UUFSC property at the rear of the east parking lot (the building with red and gold trim). For additional information, please contact Lori Wong at 209-343-2748 or Rev. Joe Cherry at 209-545-1837. It is helpful for us to know how many will attend. Please register using the form below.

Rev. Joe Cherry is a native of Detroit and spent his formative adult years in Chicago. He has served Unitarian Universalist congregations in Chicago, Dukinfield (UK), Vancouver (BC) and Modesto, California. Rev. Joe is the Interim Minister at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Stanislaus County, which he has served since January 2012.

Lori Wong is a Community Dharma Leader trained by Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Woodacre, CA and Gil Fronsdal of Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City.  She is a board member of the Sati Center for Buddhist Studies.  She is the founding teacher of Insight Meditation Central Valley and has been leading Insight Meditation sitting groups in Modesto, CA since 2009.

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Mindfulness in Spanish “Casa De Curación” Daylong on Oct. 19, 2013 with Andrea Castillo

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En nombre de los Servicios Mentales y Recuperación, Caridades Católicas, y Meditación Introspectiva del Valle Central, nos gustaría invitarte a un día dedicado a cultivar bienestar y paz.

Casa De Curación

En este día aprenderemos sobre la atención plena y la meditación. Estas prácticas ofrecen múltiples beneficios físicos y mentales y forman la base de un estilo de vida que es de gran ayuda para todos, pero especialmente para persons que padecen de ansiedad, depresión, o dolor físico.

Día: Sábado, 19 de Octubre de 9 a.m. hasta las 3:30 p.m.

Lugar: Learning Institute, County Center III, Modesto, CA 95355

Costo: El curso se ofrece a base de donaciones.

Por favor traiga un plato vegetariano para compartir en el almuerzo.

Instrutoras: Andrea Castillo, Ph.D. y Lori Wong

Para registrarse favor de hablar a Theresa Zamora (209) 541-2416 o enviar a electronico correo a tzamora@stanbhrs.org

Teaching Mindfulness to Youth Daylong with Kate Janke on Nov. 16, 2013

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Join us on Saturday, November 16th from 10:30-4:30pm at the Sarana Kuti at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Stanislaus County, 2172 Kiernan Ave., Modesto, CA for a daylong with Kate Janke on

Teaching Mindfulness to Youth

In this daylong workshop we will explore how to teach 
mindfulness to children
and young teens in the classroom, private practice, or at home. Learn simple and fun age appropriate mindfulness techniques and lessons through experiential demonstrations and small group breakouts.

We’ll also spend time cultivating our own mindfulness practice, strengthening our ability to stay present and teach through example.
Prerequisite: personal mindfulness practice.

KJ3-cropKate Janke has been teaching mindfulness in education for over five years. In 2012 she founded The Heart-Mind Education Project, a mindfulness based consulting business lending support and resources to students and the adults in their lives. Before her current venture, Kate was the Director of Training at Mindful Schools, developing and implementing mindfulness education curriculum and trainings. She has taught mindfulness to approximately 1500 students in the San Francisco Bay Area and has trained over 2000 Educators, therapists, and parents nationally and internationally in mindful awareness curriculum and techniques.

Kate has been practicing meditation in the Theravada lineage since 2004. She is a teacher in training at Spirit Rock and IMS and leads a weekly meditation group in Alameda, CA. See her website at http://www.heart-mind-education.com/.

This day is freely offered to all.  Donations are gratefully accepted to support Kate and future offerings.  Please bring a vegetarian potluck dish to share for lunch, if you would like.  Chairs and some cushions will be available.

Sarana Kuti is the small stand-alone building on the UUFSC property at the rear of the east parking lot (the building with red and gold trim). For additional information, please contact Lori Wong at 209-343-2748.

Here is a printable flyer.

Please register for this event below as this helps with our planning. Thank you.

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Special Sunday Afternoon Visit with Beth Goldring on Oct. 6, 2013

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On Oct. 6, 2013, we will have a special Sunday afternoon program, “Living in the Present,” with Beth Goldring from 12:30 p.m. -2:30 p.m.

“In Buddhist practice and in Zen especially we talk a lot about living in the present moment. But what does that mean, actually, in our lives? When we are joyous, we want the present moment to continue and/or when we are in painful conditions we want them to be different.  These forms of clinging and aversion are completely spontaneous and so deeply rooted as to seem utterly natural. The Buddha teaches that this seeming naturalness is the foundation of delusion and suffering.  I would like to explore a little what the effort to be fully present for our experience means and why it is so deeply valuable to us, under any and all conditions.”

Beth Kanji Goldring, an American Zen nun in the Japanese Rinzei tradition, founded Brahmavihara/Cambodia AIDS Project in 2000. She is a former ballet dancer, university humanities teacher, and human rights worker. She began as a student of Maurine Stuart Roshi and currently studies with Gil Fronsdal. She was ordained in 1995. She is also a Reiki master through Glynn DeBrocky. Beth has received a number of awards for Brahmavihara’s work.

Location: Sarana Kuti, UUFSC, 2172 Kiernan Avenue, Modesto, CA 95356

Daylong Saturday, August 10, 2013 with Tseme Garcia and Lori Wong – “Exploring our Practice Through SoulCollage®”

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Exploring our Practice Through SoulCollage®

Saturday, August 10th, 9 am to 4:00 pm
UUFSC Sarana Kuti, 2172 Kiernan Ave., Modesto, CA
Co-facilitated by Lori Wong and Tseme Garcia

Example1Through the weaving of expressive arts with guided meditation and reflection, we’ll spend the day inviting our spirits to play. We’ll use SoulCollage®, a technique that involves contemplatively selecting and gluing magazine images onto 5” x 8” cards as a tool for inquiring into and deepening our meditation practice.

The SoulCollage process helps us to discover and explore our authentic selves, bringing healing to ourselves and to others through creative expression. We’ll incorporate mindfulness and reflection in order to look inward using the creative process to explore our practice. We’ll engage in contemplative sharing, allowing us to learn about ourselves and listen in a safe, supportive environment.

These workshops are a safe place for us to “play” and explore—no art experience or talent is needed! Those who especially feel “I am not creative,” are encouraged to attend.Example2

The Facilitators:

Lori Wong is the founding teacher of Insight Meditation Central Valley and has been practicing Insight Meditation since 2003 under the guidance and mentorship of Gil Fronsdal, who is the principal and founding teacher of the Insight Meditation Center (IMC) in Redwood City, CA. She is a former board member and former president of IMC, a current board member of the Sati Center for Buddhist Studies (also in Redwood City), and was a founding board member of the Buddhist Insight Network. She is a Community Dharma Leader trained through Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Woodacre, CA.

Tseme Garcia has been providing individual and small-group interfaith spiritual guidance using expressive arts and contemplative practices since 2004. She has used SoulCollage to explore her own spiritual journey for more than a decade. She guides Gyalshen Modesto Sangha and studies Bön Tibetan Buddhist meditation and spirituality under the direction of her teacher, Geshe Chaphur Rinpoche, who is the founder and resident lama of Gyalshen Institute in San Pablo, CA. She holds a Master’s degree from Sofia University; a Certificate in Expressive Arts from John F. Kennedy University; and a Certificate in Interfaith Spiritual Direction from the Hesychia School of Spiritual Direction.

Registration: Please register using the form below.
Art Materials Fee:                                      $5.00
No one will be turned away for lack of funds. Necessary supplies including magazines will be provided, but feel free to bring any favorite magazine images you might wish to use.

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Donations are gratefully accepted to support the teachers, Gyalshen Modesto Sangha and IMCV.  Please bring a vegetarian dish to share for a potluck lunch, if you would like.  For additional information, please contact Lori Wong at 209-343-2748.

Soul Collage Workshop Announcement Printable Flyer.

Daylong June 17, 2013 with Marguerite Manteau-Rao on Mindfulness in Caregiving

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Join us on Monday, June 17th from 9:30-4:00pm at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Stanislaus County, 2172 Kiernan Ave., Modesto, CA for a daylong with Marguerite Manteau-Rao on

Mindfulness in Caregiving

This daylong is an intensive mindfulness-based caregiving training for professional and family caregivers. It is also appropriate for health care providers and anyone interested in gaining a better understanding of caregiving from a mindfulness perspective.

Learn how the practice of mindfulness can help you cope with the challenges and stresses of caregiving and also greatly improve the experience of the person in your care. Unlike other forms of training that are skills-based only and tend to be quickly forgotten, this approach results in sustained attitudinal changes aimed at benefiting care partners and their care recipients. This intensive daylong requires that you already have an established mindfulness practice or are willing to commit to starting one right after this daylong. (Note: there is a 4-week mindfulness course starting on July 7th in Modesto.) You will be rewarded with a transformative experience that will sustain you over the long course of the caregiving journey.

Care partners will learn to incorporate mindfulness practices into various care situations. You will also learn to understand and adapt to the reality of the experience of the care recipient.

  • Learning objectives for the day:
  • Understand caregiver stress and challenges
  • Understand mindfulness and its applicability to caregiver stress
  • Understand how mindfulness can effect best care practices and improve patient care
  • Apply mindfulness with special relevance to dementia care
  • Apply solo mindfulness practices for caregivers
  • Apply mindful practices for care recipients
  • Apply an experiential model of care
  • Apply mindful care practices
  • Meet practice challenges and have ways to overcome them

MargueriteMarguerite Manteau-Rao is the CEO of Presence Care Project, and Founder of the Mindfulness-Based Dementia Care Program (MBDC) at UCSF OSHER Center for Integrative Medicine. She was just awarded a 2-year research grant from the California Department of Public Health, in partnership with UCSF Institute for Health and Aging, to study the feasibility of MBDC training in assisted living. Marguerite is a clinical supervisor and new program consultant at Lakeside Park Senior Community and Catholic Charities CYO San Carlos Adult Day Program.  She writes for the Huffington Post and is a frequent guest speaker at professional events and conferences. Marguerite is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and Registered Art Therapist. She holds a Master in Social Work from Loyola University of Chicago, an MBA from University of Chicago, and an MS from Ecole Centrale de Paris.

CEs for psychologists are provided by The Spiritual Competency Resource Center which Untitledis co-sponsoring this program and is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor  continuing education for psychologists. SCRC maintains responsibility for the  program and its content. SCRC is a California Board of Registered Nursing Provider (BRN) and  a Board of Behavioral Sciences Provider (BBS). For questions about CE contact, visit www.spiritualcompetency.com or contact  David Lukoff, PhD at david.lukoff@gmail.com or (707) 763-3576.

This day is freely offered to all by Insight Meditation Central Valley. If you wish to obtain CEUs, there is a $15 administrative fee that should be made payable to SCRC.  Donations are gratefully accepted to support Marguerite Manteau-Rao and Insight Meditation Central Valley.  Please bring a vegetarian potluck dish to share for lunch, if you would like.

Here is a printable Mindfulness in Caregiving Flyer.

Please register for this event below and note whether you are interested in obtaining CEUs for this daylong workshop. Thank you.

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Introduction to Mindfulness Course Starts July 7th

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We will be offering a 4-week Introduction to Mindfulness course on Sunday afternoons from 1:45-3:15pm at the Sarana Kuti at the UUFSC.  If you are new to meditation or want to review basic mindfulness practices, this is a good opportunity to begin or deepen your practice.

This course is offered freely, although donations will help to support more offerings of this kind. You do not need any special cushions or clothing.

Please register below for this course as this will help us plan for materials that are needed. Thank you.

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Daylong July 13, 2013 with Jeff Hardin on The Abhidhamma

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Join us on Saturday, July 13, 2013, from 9am to 4:30pm at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Stanislaus County in the Sarana Kuti, 2172 Kiernan Ave., Modesto, CA for a daylong with Jeff Hardin on:

The Abhidhamma



A Practice-Study Daylong on Buddhist Psychology

The Abhidhamma is perhaps humanity’s most precise and detailed system for understanding human thought and behavior. Found in the third basket of teachings of the Pali Canon, it describes physical and mental experience in minute detail and on the momentary level. The constituent parts of reality are analyzed and their diverse conditions and interactions are elucidated. More than mere theory, however, the Abhidhamma provides the meditator with a sophisticated yet clear map for dissecting momentary experience and realizing liberating insights into the nature of reality.

During this study-practice daylong we will look at the history, theory and practice of the Abhidhamma. Didactic, discussion and guided meditation sessions will be integrated in order to explore the deeper meanings and movements of the mind and to provide a framework for working with Buddhist psychology in one’s own meditation practice and life. Please join us for an interesting and thought-provoking retreat.

Jeff HardinJeff Hardin has been practicing meditation since 2000. His areas of interest are participating in residential meditation retreats, studying the original discourses of the Buddha (the Pali suttas), and providing international humanitarian relief work. He is on the board of the Sati Center for Buddhist Studies, a volunteer for Buddhist Global Relief, and a founder of Insight World Aid. He is a graduate of the Spirit Rock Community Dharma Leaders program and a Sacramento Insight Meditation community mentor. His supervising teachers are John Travis and Gil Fronsdal. Jeff is an emergency room physician in the Sacramento area.

This day is freely offered to all.  Donations are gratefully accepted to support the teacher and future offerings.  Please bring a vegetarian potluck dish to share for lunch, if you would like.  For the sake of those who may have sensitivities or allergies, please do not wear scented or perfumed products.  If you have a meditation cushion, please bring it.  Chairs will be available.  Suitable for all-levels of practitioners. A printable flyer is available here.

Sarana Kuti is the small stand-alone building on the UUFSC property at the rear of the east parking lot (the building with red and gold trim). It is behind the Johnson Building.

For additional information, please contact Lori Wong at 209-343-2748

If you plan to come, please let us know (it helps to know if we need a larger space) by filling out the form below. Thank you!

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Daylong Saturday, June 1, 2013: The Gifts of Grief with Nancee Sobonya and Daniel Doane

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Please join us on Saturday, June 1, 2013 from 10am to 5pm at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Stanislaus County, 2172 Kiernan Ave., Modesto, CA, for a daylong with film maker, teacher, and grief counselor, Nancee Sobonya, and meditation and yoga instructor, Daniel Doane, and on The Gifts of Grief.

I saw Grief drinking a cup of sorrow and called out, “It tastes sweet, does it not?”

“You’ve caught me,” Grief answered, “and you’ve ruined my business. How can I sell sorrow, when you know it’s a blessing?”     – Rumi

This daylong explores the powerful and mysterious nature of grief, using Nancee’s film The Gifts of Grief as a supportive guide in identifying; the physical, emotional and spiritual impact of grief and the various outer resources that sustain us, as well as those inner places where we find strength, love, connection and support. We will be joined on this journey by Yoga/Meditation Instructor Daniel Doane.

During this daylong, we will create a safe environment in which our grief will be honored and held as sacred through the sharing of our personal stories, exploring how loss impacts and transforms our lives and working with the emotions of grief through meditation, yoga, poetry, artwork and ceremony. We will practice a gentle movement sequence throughout the day which will facilitate the personal process of healing. No previous experience is necessary. The practice will be gentle and modified for each individual.

Participants are encouraged to bring photos and other objects of remembrances to place on a group altar that we will create in the course of the daylong to honor our losses.

ABOUT THE DOCUMENTARY:

The Gifts of Grief is a compelling documentary that explores how seven remarkable people embrace their pain, learn to live with their loss and now engage in life with more compassion, courage and awareness. The personal and moving stories include those of author, Isabel Allende; Reverend Cecil Williams; Zen Monk/ Vietnam Veteran, Claude AnShin Thomas; filmmaker, Lee Mun Wah, celebrate and inspire healing and transformation. The film invites us to open to pain, learn from loss, and reminds us of the preciousness of life.

Workshop Objectives:

1) To demonstrate and validate that grieving is a natural, healthy process from which we can not only recover, but be changed by in deep and profound ways.

2) To identify how loss impacts and transforms our lives, including the spiritual, emotional and practical resources that support us through the grieving process.

NanceeNancee Sobonya, MA is an ordained minister/teacher of the Diamond Approach guiding people on their inner journey of self-discovery in the Bay
Area and Europe. She is also a Grief Counselor and Educator and the producer/director of The Gifts of Grief. She offers workshops and screenings of this highly acclaimed educational documentary at conferences, churches, retreat centers and hospices worldwide. Nancee has been working in the field of death and bereavement for the past 28 years and began practicing vipassana meditation in 1983. Her website is www.giftsofgrief.com

DanielDaniel Doane has been a student of vipassana meditation since 1983, and has taught meditation groups and practice days since 1997. He is also a yoga instructor and currently teaches several classes and groups in the East Bay.

This day is freely offered to all. Donations are gratefully accepted to support the teachers and Insight Meditation Central Valley’s future offerings. Please bring a vegetarian potluck dish to share for lunch, if you would like. For additional information, please contact Lori Wong at 209-343-2748. Here is a printable flyer.

If you plan to attend, please fill out the form below to let us know you’re coming.  Thank you!

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Daylong May 18, 2013 in Stockton: Exploring Lovingkindness

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Exploring Lovingkindness Daylong Retreat with Lori Wong

May 18, 2013
9:00 am to 4:00pm

Where: Unity of Stockton
2025 W. March Lane, Stockton, CA

This day will be an opportunity to explore the Buddha’s teachings on Lovingkindness with silent meditation, walking practice, guided instructions and some interactive exercises.

Please bring a vegetarian dish to share for a potluck lunch. Dress comfortably. There will be limited cushions and zabutons. Please bring a cushion if you have one. Chairs will be available.

This retreat is suitable for all levels of practitioners. Donations are gratefully accepted to support the teacher and to support Unity of Stockton.

LORI WONG is the founding teacher of Insight Meditation Central Valley and has been practicing Insight Meditation since 2003 under the guidance and mentorship of Gil Fronsdal, who is the principal and founding teacher of the Insight Meditation Center (IMC) in Redwood City, CA. She is a former board member and former president of IMC, a current board member of the Sati Center for Buddhist Studies (also in Redwood City), and was a founding board member of the Buddhist Insight Network. She is a Community Dharma Leader trained through Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Woodacre, CA.

May 18 Printable Flyer