We’re nearly finished with the series of talks on the Buddha’s eightfold path for the release of stress and suffering. For the next series of talks we’ll explore topics related to meditation in more detail, starting with the approaches recommended for developing mindfulness. The talks for the next couple of months will be based on the Satipatthana Sutta, the Buddha’s discourse on the foundations of mindfulness. In that discourse the Buddha gave a clear description of many different approaches to mindfulness meditation, beginning with the body, but also including mindfulness meditation of feelings, thoughts and emotions, and other topics. A good resource for this series of talks would be the book “Satipatthana Meditation: A Practice Guide” by Bhikkhu Analayo. However, the talks will be self-contained, so it won’t be necessary to read the book, and we’ll give other resources for the meditation approaches covered in the talks.
This Thursday, 7/28, after the 7:30 pm meditation, Heidi will lead a discussion of the practice of concentration and gathering in meditation, finishing up our discussion of wise concentration (samadhi). The following week, 8/4, Chris will begin the new series of talks with a talk on mindfulness of the body, and especially mindfulness of breathing. Chapter 1 of Analayo’s book, “Satipatthana Meditation: A Practice Guide” would be a good resource for the topic covered in the talk, and additional resources are listed below.
Weekly Meditation Schedule:
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 outdoor in-person meditation sessions every Wednesday morning (9:30am) and Saturday morning (8:00am) at All Saints Episcopal Church in Richland. Bring whatever you would like to sit on and join us in the beautiful outdoors. 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.
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.
Warm regards,
Insight Meditation of the Mid-Columbia