Sunday Morning Insight Meditation Practice Group

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Gratitude for your participation in and contribution to the Sunday Morning Meditation sessions

Thank you for your participation in the Sunday Morning Meditation community.

Dear friends,

Due to your generosity in supporting our Sunday Morning dharma practice for the past 4 years, we were able to make a donation of the balance of cash remaining in our brown bag bank as of December 10th, 2020 of $608.00 to the Food Banks of Saskatchewan.

Thanks to everyone who participated with their open inquiring minds and generous loving hearts. If a phoenix should arise out of the ashes of this pandemic, perhaps we will gather again to inquire, learn and support each other in our dharma travels.

We extend very warm wishes for your well being and happiness and gratitude for the privilege of guiding this group over the past four years,
Andrea Grzesina, Doris Larson, Laurie Fayant, Jennifer Keane, Neil Collins, Susan Gingell, Vicki Herman

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Future Meetings for Sunday Morning Meditators

Dear friends,

Reluctantly, we are not able to safely and responsibly invite you to join together Sunday mornings for meditation and conversation for the foreseeable future. The uncertainty continues around what is a wise action in these pandemic times. The small space of McFarland House with its low ceiling and uncertain ventilation is very problematic for a group like ours with many members over 50 years of age. We were always a small group (one of the appeals of our meetings) but the participants of the group change so it’s not possible to have a stable more or less “safe bubble”. If causes and conditions occur that make safe meetings possible, we can consider beginning again. But for the time being we have closed that door.

Sadly, we will miss each other. There are other meditation possibilities in the community—-small more stable groups and of course a multitude of online offerings. May your practice, whatever form it takes, support. enrich and strengthen you.

We have a small account balance which will be held until such time as we make a final decision about the future.

May we all be healthy and strong. peaceful and at ease, protected from inner and outer harm, and committed to caring joyfully for ourselves and others.

With warm best wishes,
The Leadership Collective,
Andrea, Doris and Susan

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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.

Mindful Action in Response to Racism led by SIMC and Jeanne Corrigal

Wise action in response to racism

Dear friends,

We want to join our voices to stand for care, compassion, safety, dignity, and justice for all people in the world, in the face of the racism that is being more widely revealed, in Canada and the United States at this time. Our hearts are with the Indigenous people, Black people, and People of Colour who have known the reality of this suffering for generations.

This is a wound which affects all our hearts, and we are all called to wise response.

Many leaders in the anti-racist movement have identified mindfulness as a key part of wise response – a powerful path to heal the trauma of racism for Indigenous people, Black people, and People of Colour, and to support white people in unwinding racist conditioning internally, and externally. Ruth King’s book Mindful of Race, and Resmaa Menakem’s My Grandmother’s Hands both have mindfulness at the heart of their anti-racist approach. And so we want to offer meditation as best we can, in our ongoing support of Reconciliation amongst all cultures, in three ways:

a group for white folks to explore unwinding racism;
an evening for Indigenous people, Black people, and People of Colour, with Indigenous Buddhist teachers Bonnie Duran, Jeanne Corrigal, and Elvina Charley; and
a weekend retreat with these three teachers, open to everyone.

Please see the SIMC web site for details.

With much metta,
Jeanne Corrigal and the Saskatoon Insight Meditation Community
Email: contact
Web: https://www.saskatooninsight.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/saskatooninsight/

Sunday Morning Dharma Talks on Pause until the Fall 2020

Dear friends,

This will be the last email from the Sunday meditation group until the fall. At that time we will ask for your input to decide what to do next . Many things have changed and are changing in this extraordinary time. The pause will allow us to consider our priorities, needs and strengths so that we can better determine the way forward.

Balance and equanimity are a basis for the wisdom that’s needed to make wise choices.

Jill Shepherd presents this guided meditation on Equanimity as Spaciousness at
https://dharmaseed.org/talks/audio_player/637/62009.html

There are many sources for on-line dharma talks including Dharma Seed (https://dharmaseed.org/) and Audio Dharma (https://www.audiodharma.org/). This is the source for most of the dharma talks we have offered.

If you are interested in SIMC’s virtual meditation and dharma talk event with Jeanne Corrigal Wednesday nights at 7 pm, please register for the interactive Zoom platform through SIMC’s website at: https://saskatooninsight.com/wp/

May we all be healthy and strong, peaceful and at ease, protected from inner and outer harm, and committed to caring joyfully for ourselves and others.

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

Sunday Morning Dharma Talk for June 7, 2020

Dear friends,

Best wishes for your well-being as this time of being isolated from each other continues. Although we can’t meet face to face, we continue with the regular e-mail notices with suggested talks in the hope that this service is supportive and of benefit to you.

Here is a talk by Nikki Mirghafori on The Illusion of Separateness and Racial Injustice:
https://www.audiodharma.org/talks/audio_player/11481.html

If you would potentially like to participate in a phone tree to provide refuge in the sangha, either as a caller and/or a person called, please email susan dot gingell at usask dot ca, and she will send you a document with suggestions about how this taking and/or offering of refuge might work.

You might be interested in SIMC’s virtual meditation and dharma talk event with Jeanne Corrigal Wednesday nights at 7 pm To connect with the interactive platform Zoom please go to SIMC’s website for registration instructions:
https://saskatooninsight.com/wp/

If you would like to comment on the talk or any other practice matter, you can click the post to comment here!

May we all be healthy and strong, peaceful and at ease, protected from inner and outer harm, and committed to caring joyfully for ourselves and others.

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

Sunday Morning Dharma Talk for May 31, 2020

Dear friends,

Here is a talk by Tara Brach on the theme of Awakening from the Prison of Blame
https://dharmaseed.org/talks/audio_player/175/61749.html

You might be interested in SIMC’s virtual meditation and dharma talk event with Jeanne Corrigal Wednesday nights at 7 pm. To connect with the interactive platform Zoom please go to SIMC’s website for registration instructions:
https://saskatooninsight.com/wp/

If you would like to comment on the talk or any other practice matter, you can click the post to comment here!

May we all be healthy and strong, peaceful and at ease, protected from inner and outer harm, and committed to caring joyfully for ourselves and others.

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

Sunday Morning Dharma Talk for May 24, 2020

Dear friends,

This talk by Matthew Brensilver on Vulnerability, Porousness, Equanimity and Love can be found at
https://dharmaseed.org/talks/audio_player/496/61761.html

Matthew quotes the last stanza of Leonard Cohen’s song Hallelujah. You might enjoy this lovely violin version without lyrics by G Pinto
https://youtu.be/0s1lTNjQjvg

If you would like to comment on the talk or any other practice matter, you can click the post to comment here!

May we all be healthy and strong, peaceful and at ease, protected from inner and outer harm, and committed to caring joyfully for ourselves and others.

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

Sunday Morning Dharma Talk for May 10, 2020

Dear friends,

Best wishes for your good spiritual, mental and physical health in this time of turbulence and uncertainty. To help protect ourselves and our community from the spread of the COVID 19 virus, we are not meeting in person until it is considered safe by our health authority to do so. In the meantime the regular e-mail notices with suggested talks will continue in the hope that this service is supportive and of benefit to you.

This week’s talk is by Tara Brach on the theme of loneliness:
“The root of suffering is the pain of separation, the fears and loneliness that arise when we have forgotten our intrinsic belonging to each other and to all of life. Here we explore how a courageous practice of compassionate presence – with our inner life, and in relationships – can turn the energy of loneliness into a current of healing and freedom.”
Loneliness as the Portal to Sacred Presence can be found at
https://dharmaseed.org/talks/audio_player/175/61687.html

You might be interested in SIMC’s virtual meditation and dharma talk event with Jeanne Corrigal Wednesday nights at 7 pm

Jeanne’s talk is live-streamed to the SIMC Facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/saskatooninsight/
or to connect with the interactive platform Zoom please go to SIMC’s website for registration instructions:
https://saskatooninsight.com/wp/

If you would like to comment on the talk or any other practice matter, you can click the post to comment here!

May we all be healthy and strong, peaceful and at ease, protected from inner and outer harm, and committed to caring joyfully for ourselves and others.

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

Sunday Morning Dharma Talk for May 3, 2020

Dear friends,

Pascal Auclair is a Canadian Insight Meditation teacher, a founder of the True North Sangha outside Ottawa. He will be leading a retreat in Saskatoon next year. Here he is talking about the nature of reality, How our World is Constructed, which can be found at
https://dharmaseed.org/talks/audio_player/198/59960.html

If you would potentially like to participate in a phone tree to provide refuge in the sangha, either as a caller and/or a person called, please email
susan dot gingell at usask dot ca, and she will send you a document with suggestions about how this taking and/or offering of refuge might work.

You might be interested in SIMC’s virtual meditation and dharma talk event with Jeanne Corrigal Wednesday nights at 7 pm

Jeanne’s talk is live-streamed to the SIMC Facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/saskatooninsight/

or to connect with the interactive platform Zoom please go to SIMC’s website for registration instructions:
https://saskatooninsight.com/wp/

If you would like to comment on the talk or any other practice matter, you can click the post to comment here!

May we all be healthy and strong, peaceful and at ease, protected from inner and outer harm, and committed to caring joyfully for ourselves and others.

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

Sunday Morning Dharma Talk for April 26, 2020

Dear friends,

Joseph Goldstein is one of the co-founders of IMS in Barre, MS and one of the first Vipassana teachers in the US. Here is his talk about Equanimity and Compassion in Challenging Times:
https://www.dharmaseed.org/talks/audio_player/96/51314.html

If you would potentially like to participate in a phone tree to provide refuge in the sangha, either as a caller and/or a person called, please email susan dot gingell at usask dot ca, and she will send you a document with suggestions about how this taking and/or offering of refuge might work.

You might be interested in SIMC’s virtual meditation and dharma talk event with Jeanne Corrigal Wednesday nights at 7 pm

If you would like to comment on the talk or any other practice matter, you can click the post to comment here!

May we all be healthy and strong, peaceful and at ease, protected from inner and outer harm, and committed to caring joyfully for ourselves and others.

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