Sunday Morning Insight Meditation Practice Group

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Welcome to the Sunday Morning Insight Meditation Practice Group

If you are interested in deepening your meditation practice and understanding of the Buddha’s teachings, we invite you to join us in a practice, study, and discussion of talks by esteemed and dedicated Buddhist teachers in the Insight Meditation tradition.

We meet Sunday mornings at McFarland House, 716 Queen Street, in Saskatoon, SK, from 10 to 11 am, for 30 minutes of meditation followed by 30 minutes of sharing ideas generated by an audio talk we listened to in the previous week. The session is facilitated by one of the members of the guiding collaborative. We round out the morning with conversation and tea. It’s a time for us to get to know each other and share on another level.

The focus of our Sunday Morning group is the study of Theravāda Buddhism in the Insight (vipassanā) tradition.

Dharma talk for December 15th

Welcome to our Sunday Morning meditation and discussion group. We are a peer led group that meets each Sunday at 10 am in the lower level of McFarland House, 716 Queen St., east side entrance. We sit together in silent meditation for about 30 minutes followed by a talk and discussion. Everyone present is invited to join in.

This week, we will listen to a talk by Greg Scharf: Javana Hamsa – The Swift Swan
“This talk uses an interpretation of a Jataka Story as an introduction to the reflection on opening to impermanence on the path of awakening.”

Listen online:
https://www.dharmaseed.org/talks/audio_player/229/59522.html
or download
https://www.dharmaseed.org/teacher/229/talk/59522/20191118-Greg_Scharf-IMSRC-javana_hamsa_the_swift_swan-59522.mp3

A version of the Jakata Story (translated by W.H.D. Rouse in 1905) is available at
https://suttacentral.net/ja476/en/rouse

Please note we do not have a teacher. Each session is opened and facilitated by a member of the guiding collective. However, everyone who is present is equally qualified and welcome to speak about the dharma and their practice.

This session will be facilitated by Andrea Grzesina.

Please note that the west entrance is open for anyone who has difficulty with the stairs on the east side. Just knock.

Sunday Morning Meeting report (Dec 8)

Today 10 of us met (2 regrets) to discuss the continuation of our Sunday Morning sangha. We’re happy to report that there was unanimous agreement that we want to continue together as a community. We value the deepening of understanding of the dharma that our peer-led meetings have fostered for four years.

We also recognize that too few people are now responsible for opening and leading and that presenting the dharma talk instead of being a joy and privilege has often been a burden.

So we discussed ways and means of lightening the work load to make it possible for more people to participate in the leadership role. This will evolve in the new year. We are pleased and excited about the possibility of having a variety of ways and styles to present the dharma.

Thanks to everyone who has supported us in this adventure together.

Special meeting December 8: The Way Forward

Please attend an evaluation and planning meeting about the future of the Sunday Morning Insight Meditation Practice Group on Sunday December 8 at 10 am.

Our meetings for 4 years have been made possible by a small group of people opening the facility and leading the sits but life’s demands have caused some members to step back from the leadership role. We are now a group of 3 which is too small to sustain the community. We need your energy and ideas to continue.

The survey responses we received indicate that we value our community—our meditating together, listening to dharma talks, having dharma discussions, and receiving emails about the talk for following Sunday.

Let’s get together to imagine new possibilities that could revitalize our community We will have a brief meditation of about 20 minutes followed by a discussion of the situation and close by 11:30.

For more background information and questions to be addressed on December 8, please go to:
https://1drv.ms/w/s!AlfFHMcrbsnj0BDXtQGfwaJAvHwJ?e=McuuqB

With warm good wishes,
Andrea Grzesina, Doris Larson, Susan Gingell

Sunday Morning Dharma Talk December 1: Generosity by Jennifer Keane

This week Jennifer invites you to reflect on the ways of generosity, suggesting these words by Philip Moffit:

Be generous with your attention when you’re listening to someone.
Be generous in celebrating another person’s happiness.
Be generous with your sympathy toward someone who has experienced loss.
Be generous with your compliments and praise of others.
Be generous with your unconditional respect of others.
Be generous with your willingness to be helpful.

Philip’s complete text can be found at:
http://dharmawisdom.org/teachings/articles/gift-generosity-0

Please note that the west entrance is open for anyone who has difficulty with the stairs on the east side. Just knock.

Dharma talk for November 24th

We invite you to reflect on this poem by Sri Ramana Maharshi. Just reflect, don’t try to figure it out. The poem is titled What is sleep?

Question: What is sleep?
Maharishi: How can you know sleep when you are awake?
The answer is to go to sleep and find out
what it is.
Question: But I cannot know it in this way.
Maharishi: This question must be raised in sleep.
Question: But I cannot raise the question then.
Maharishi: So that is sleep.

You might allow your reflection to include the context of the talk by Nikki Mirghafori on our perceptions of time and reality which we listened to last week,
https://www.audiodharma.org/talks/audio_player/10493.html

The sit will be facilitated by Doris Larson

Please note that the west entrance is open for anyone who has difficulty with the stairs on the east side. Just knock.

Dharma talk for November 17th

Welcome to our Sunday Morning meditation and discussion group. We are a peer led group that meets each Sunday at 10 am in the lower level of McFarland House, 716 Queen St, east side entrance. We sit together in silent meditation for 30 minutes followed by listening to a summary of a dharma talk presented by one of the peer leaders or a short recorded talk. Everyone present is invited to join in reflecting on what we have heard.

This week we will listen to a talk by Nikki Mirghafori on Our Perceptions of Time:
https://www.audiodharma.org/talks/audio_player/10493.html

A YouTube video of the talk is available at
https://youtu.be/pq8lUHFAbl4

This session will be facilitated by Susan Gingell.

Please note that the west entrance is open for anyone who has difficulty with the stairs on the east side. Just knock.

Sunday Morning Dharma Talk November 10: Loneliness by Jennifer Keane

Please note we are a peer-led group. We do not have a teacher. Each session is opened and facilitated by a member of the guiding collective. However, everyone who is present is equally qualified and welcome to speak about the dharma and their practice.

This week Jennifer Keane will present the topic of Loneliness, a condition which is very prevalent in our connected age.

What impact did this talk have for you? How is it reflected in your life experience? Join in the conversation if you wish or practice listening.

Please note that the west entrance is open for anyone who has difficulty with the stairs on the east side. Just knock.