Category Archives: Meditation

Service as a Meditative Practice – A daylong with Jeff Hardin on April 16

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Insight Meditation Modesto will be offering a daylong with Jeff Hardin of Sacramento Insight Meditation on Saturday, April 16th, from 9am to 4:00pm at Doctors Medical Center, 1441 Florida Ave., Conference Center, room 1, Modesto, CA (the Conference Center is the building between the parking structure and the emergency department) on:

Service as a Meditative Practice: A Study and Practice Daylong

Given all of the chaos in the world, there is a seemingly endless call to be of service to others. We do this daily on an individual level with our friends, loved ones, and even ourselves.  We can also get involved in service with volunteer organizations.  Regardless of what shape our helping takes, it is important to approach service with wisdom and compassion.  Using mindfulness we can investigate our internal and external experience before, during, and after helping others.  When we act from the stability of our insight meditation practice we have a better chance of being helpful without unintentionally harming ourselves or others.  This daylong retreat will look at service as a practice of meditative awareness.  We will alternate periods of discussion with sitting and walking meditation. There will be a brief slide presentation of examples of service and ample opportunities for sharing our experience.

Jeff 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 international humanitarian relief work. He teaches meditation as a community mentor for the Sacramento Insight Meditation group. He is on the boards of Insight World Aid, the Sati Center for Buddhist Studies, and the Folsom Pathways Sangha.  He also volunteers for Buddhist Global Relief. He is enrolled in the Spirit Rock Community Dharma Leaders (CDL4) 2-year training program.  His supervising teachers are John Travis and Gil Fronsdal. Jeff works as an emergency room physician in Sacramento.

This day is offered by Insight Meditation Modesto and Jeff Hardin. Donations for Jeff and Insight Meditation Modesto are gladly accepted. Please bring a vegetarian potluck dish to share for lunch.  If you wish to sit on the floor and have a zabuton and/or meditation cushion, please bring it.  Chairs will be available.

For the sake of those who may have allergies or sensitivities, we kindly request that you do not wear any perfumes or other scented products to this workshop.

Don’t Waste Your Pain – daylong on March 12th with Carla Brennan

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Insight Meditation Modesto will be offering a daylong with Carla Brennan on Saturday, March 12th, from 10am to 4:30pm at Doctors Medical Center, 1441 Florida Ave., Conference Center, room 1, Modesto, CA (the Conference Center is the building between the parking structure and the emergency department) on:

DON’T WASTE YOUR PAIN: 
A Mindfulness Retreat on Working with Suffering

To be alive means that we sometimes experience pain and discomfort. Learning to meet this discomfort with presence, non-reactivity and open-heartedness is one of the most important lessons of being human. We can discover how it is possible to find freedom and peace in the face of difficult, challenging circumstances.

This retreat will explore mindfulness practice and its skillful use in working with physical and emotional pain. The day will flow between silent sitting and moving meditation periods as well as teaching sessions with reflection exercises. For both experienced and beginning meditators.

Carla Brennan, M.Ed., teaches regular meditation classes, daylong retreats, residential retreats, nature-based retreats and other programs in the Santa Cruz area and beyond. Carla is particularly interested in teachings that can be easily integrated into daily life situations.  Her sangha is called, “Bloom of the Present” (www.bloomofthepresent.com) and meets weekly for dharma talk and meditation in Felton, CA.  Practicing Buddhist meditation since 1975, she has been trained in the Theravadan, Zen and Tibetan traditions and was a primary teacher with Vipassana Santa Cruz for five years. In 2009, Carla was approved by the Spirit Rock Teachers Council to be a Vipassana teacher. She has also been a Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction (MBSR) teacher for 18 years, is an artist and former psychotherapist.

This day is offered by Insight Meditation Modesto and Carla Brennan. Donations for Carla and Insight Meditation Modesto are gladly accepted. Please bring a vegetarian potluck dish to share for lunch.  If you wish to sit on the floor and have a zabuton and/or meditation cushion, please bring it.  Chairs will be available.

Introduction to Mindfulness Meditation with Qi Gong – Daylong on Feb. 12th

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Insight Meditation Modesto will be offering an Introduction to Mindfulness Meditation with Qi Gong daylong on Saturday, Feb. 12th from 9am to 4pm at Doctors Medical Center, Conference Center, room 1 (the building between the parking structure and the emergency department):

An introduction to mindfulness meditation will be taught by Lori Wong, including basic instructions, experiential sessions and guided meditations with alternating sitting and Qi Gong movement periods, about 35 minutes or so in length through the day.  Qi Gong has at its very foundation the necessity of complete physical relaxation and the idea that the intent leads and controls the motion of the body.  It has many benefits that can improve energy, health, balance, calmness, and illness.  Sifu Neil Thomas will offer Qi Gong as a complement for sitting practice, to energize the body and also to develop body awareness in movement.  If you come for a partial day and arrive during a sitting period, please enter quietly and sit in the rear until the sitting period is over.  Most of the day will be held in silence in order to cultivate a still and quiet mind; opportunities for questions and discussion will be provided.

Lori Wong has been practicing mindfulness meditation since 2003 and is a Community Dharma Leader in training through Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Woodacre, CA.  Her mentor teachers in the program are Gil Fronsdal of Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City and Eugene Cash of SF Insight in San Francisco. She has been on the board of the Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City and is currently on the board of the Sati Center for Buddhist Studies.  She leads two Insight Meditation sitting groups in Modesto.

Sifu Neil Thomas has trained over 35 years in Yang and Chen Style Tai Chi, Qi Gong, Wu Tang and Shaolin martial arts as well as Tibetan Pranic Healing. He is a student and disciple of Master Jason Tsou, who was a disciple of the late Grand Master Liu Yun Chiao, founder of the famous Wu Tang Chinese Martial Arts Association.  Sifu Thomas teaches Tai Chi, Qi Gong and martial arts classes in Modesto.

This day is freely offered. Donations for the teachers and Insight Meditation Modesto are gladly accepted.  Please bring a vegetarian potluck dish to share for lunch.  Feel free to bring a meat dish for yourself if you require additional protein in your diet.  Dress in loose and comfortable clothing.  If you have a meditation cushion, please bring it.  Chairs will be available.  Suitable for beginning and experienced practitioners.

Transforming Depression and Anxiety – daylong on Jan. 8th with Lee Lipp

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Insight Meditation Modesto will be offering a daylong with Dr. Lee Lipp on Satuday, Jan. 8th, from 10am to 5pm at Doctors Medical Center, Conference Center, room 1 (the building between the parking structure and the emergency department) on:

Transforming Depression and Anxiety: A Path of Skillful Compassion

Combining mindfulness meditation and specific therapeutic approaches, this workshop will examine how to best take care of ourselves by relating to depression and anxiety with compassion. Suitable for both experienced and beginning meditators, the aim of the workshop is for participants to practice identifying, relating to, and interrupting conditionings that are hindrances to feeling better.  With encouragement and skillful means to interrupt the mind’s habitual patterns contributing to depression and anxiety, participants can cultivate practices to manage and prevent chronic feelings of unhappiness.

There is no fee for this workshop. Donations for the Insight Meditation Modesto’s future daylongs and for the teacher will be gratefully accepted.

TO REGISTER: Those wishing CEU credit must pre-register in advance and a CE  administrative fee of $25 will be collected at the workshop. 6 CEUs for MFTs/LCSW’s may be earned by those attending the entire workshop (Dr. Lipp’s Provider #4468). Please download the Transforming Depression and Anxiety Flyer and fill out the registration form and return it – follow instructions on the form.

WHAT TO BRING: Please bring something vegetarian to share for a pot luck lunch.  Hot water and tea will be provided.  If you prefer to sit on the floor, please bring your own cushion.

Lee Lipp, Ph.D. has been a member of Thich Nhat Hanh’s Order of Interbeing, practicing Zen and Vipassana since 1991. Having taught in psychology graduate programs for 16 years, her most recent work has included being Diversity Coordinator at SFZC. She has taught classes at Spirit Rock, Insight Meditation Center, San Francisco Zen Center, East Bay Meditation Center, Zen Hospice Project, Tassajara, Arcata Zen Center, La Casa de las Madres, Gay Men’s Buddhist Sangha, UCSF Trauma Recovery Center, SF Mental Health Assoc. and SF Dept. of Mental Health.  Lee supervises at Haight Ashbury Psych Services, leads “Transforming Depression” and “Transforming Anxiety” groups, and has a psychotherapy practice in San Francisco. www.leelipp.com

Daylong on Dec. 12th with Sean Feit

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Insight Meditation Modesto will be offering a daylong with Sean Feit on Sunday, Dec. 12th, from 9am to 4pm at Doctors Medical Center, Conference Center, room 1 (the building between the parking structure and the emergency department).

Devotion, faith, and refuge:
A day of mindfulness, meditation and chanting

Devotion and faith are beautiful qualities of the open heart, as well as being necessary and powerful supports on any spiritual Path.  They manifest in the core Buddhist practice of going for Refuge, and when strong can sustain us through the deepest challenges of practice and life.  In this day of retreat, we’ll practice sitting and walking meditation, discuss the wonderful and sometimes charged teachings on devotion and faith, and bring in the ancient practice of chanting, learning mantras and verses from the Buddhist tradition.  Everyone is welcome.  Meditation instructions will be given, and all chants taught.

Please bring a vegetarian dish to share for lunch if you wish, and anything else you need to stay warm and cozy through the day.  Hot water and tea will be provided.  Please bring a cushion if you wish to sit on the floor.  Chairs will be available.

Sean’s teaching is dedicated to the integration of yoga and meditation, and draws on 17 years of practice in both.  He was a monk in Burma in 2002, and has studied with many wonderful teachers including Jack Kornfield, Sylvia Boorstein and Eugene Cash (Dharma/meditation), David Moreno and Alice Joanou (yoga), and Steve Hoskinson (Somatic Experiencing).  Sean teaches at Yoga Mandala and SF Insight, is recording a CD of Buddhist devotional chants, and leads kirtan, offering the practice of Bhakti Yoga as an integral aspect of a heart-centered Path.  nadalila.org

Links to the talk this evening

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Here are links for the talk we listened to tonight by Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche at Spirit Rock in July:

Neuroscience of Meditation & Joy of the Present Moment, Part 1 of 2

Present Moment Awareness & The Neuroscience of Meditation, part 2 of 2

Here is a link to his website where there are some video teachings by Mingyur Rinpoche:

http://tergar.org/

And here is another talk by Mingyur Rinpoche from Buddhist Geeks:

Meditation is Good for Your Life

And an article from the NY Times:

Special daylong on August 21st with Robert Cusick

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The Buddha advised that we should remember often that we are of the nature to grow old, we are of the nature to become sick, we are of the nature to die, we will be separated and parted from all that is dear and beloved to us.  Being human means that all of us are touched by death – our own and of those we love. This doesn’t have to be bad news. Understanding the impermanent nature of life and the inevitability of death can open us up to appreciate and embrace the preciousness of each moment and to let go when we get entangled in the small, unimportant stuff that contributes to our stress and suffering.  We can experience life more vibrantly and fully – embracing both the joys and sorrows that come our way.

Please join us for a day of meditation on the topic of mindfulness of death as a subject for contemplation and concentration led by Robert Cusick.  The daylong will start at 9am and will end at 4pm.  There will be periods of guided and silent meditation as well as time for discussion.  Please bring a vegetarian potluck dish to share for lunch.  There will be a limited number of cushions – please bring your own, if possible.  For more information, please see the flyer:

Robert Cusick Daylong Flyer

This day is offered freely for all to attend – donations will be gladly accepted.