We have three online meditations a week, on Wednesday morning, Thursday evening, and Saturday morning. The Zoom links for those meetings can be found on the Events Calendar and you will also find more detailed information below. You’re welcome to join us online for any of the 3 meetings each week.
In addition to our regular online meetings, we are now meeting for in-person meditation sessions every Wednesday and Saturday Morning. Please see the Events Calendar for specific details.
During the Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday online meetings, we “sit together” for meditation for half an hour. Meditations include guided meditations, meditations with some initial guidance and instruction, and silent meditations. The Wednesday morning meditation starts at 9:30 am, with half an hour of meditation, followed by half an hour of sharing. On Thursday evenings there is a talk or discussion and sharing following meditation. Meditation is from 7:30 until 8:00 pm, with the talk and discussion ending at about 9:00 pm. The Saturday morning meditation starts at 8:00 am, with half an hour of meditation followed by half an hour of sharing.
The current series for upcoming Thursday night meetings will be based on the Buddha’s first and most basic teachings, The Four Noble Truths, which describe stress and suffering, their causes, and the path that can lead to the end of suffering. Chris will emphasize the interpersonal and social aspects of those teachings in this series of talks. An excellent resource for the talks will be Gregory Kramer’s book, Insight Dialogue: The Interpersonal Path to Freedom.
Chris is on a personal meditation retreat at home this week, so the schedule on Thursday, October 21 will be a little different. Heidi Deschamps will host the 7:30 pm meditation and provide an opportunity for sharing afterwards. There won’t be a talk this week.
Chris will return on Thursday, October 28, and will give a talk on the Second Noble Truth, which takes a look at the causes of the stress and dissatisfaction that we sometimes experience in life. Like all of the talks, this will be self-contained, but if you’d like more information on the topic, Chapter 5 of Greg Kramer’s book, Insight Dialogue: The Interpersonal Path to Freedom, would be a good resource for that talk.
If you can’t or don’t wish to join the online sessions you can just meditate at the same time as we’re meeting and know that there are others from the group who are meditating with you. I’ve had many people contact me to say they were doing that for our meditation sessions recently, and that it can help bring a feeling of connection.
Warm regards,
Insight Meditation of the Mid-Columbia