Sacramento Insight Meditation

Sacramento Insight Meditation Continuing support for those practicing in the Insight/Vipassana tradition. SIM meets every Thursday evening for sitting and dharma talks.

Sacramento Insight Meditation (SIM) is a non-profit organization that supports insight meditation training and practice in the Sacramento area. Our organization is based on the teachings of the historic Buddha as passed down in the Theravada Buddhist lineage represented in the United States by the teachers and students of the Insight Meditation Society in Massachusetts and the Spirit Rock Meditation Center in California, as well as a number of monastics in the Thai Forest and Burmese Mahasi traditions. A range of Buddhist-based teachings are offered at SIM—including insight meditation (also known as vipassana or mindfulness meditation), daily life practice, formal study of Buddhist texts, kalyana mitta spiritual friendship groups, and volunteer service. With the guidance of senior dharma teacher John Travis, our founding instructor Dennis Warren formed SIM in 2002. SIM provides a community of support for meditation practitioners regardless of age, gender,
sexual orientation, religious affiliation, race, ethnicity or economic status. We are an all-volunteer group that is cooperatively guided by a board of directors and an instructional team consisting of community-trained
mentors. No membership dues or fees are collected and most programs are funded by voluntary donations (dana in Pali) from community members. Dana is used to support operational expenses (rent, supplies, etc.), special programs such as daylong retreats and classes, and senior visiting teachers and our community mentors. The first Thursday of each month our format changes slightly to include small group discussion. This past year we have focused on the Paramis in our small group discussions. Additionally, there is a daylong meditation retreat on the last Saturday of each month and an annual six day residential retreat. We currently meet at The Sacramento Dharma Center at 3111 Wissemann Drive, Sacramento, CA. The SIM website, www.sactoinsight.org, includes a calendar of current events, resources such as downloadable dharma talks and instructional handouts, and information on how to contact us. This year the SIM community is excited about a joint project with two other local sanghas to establish a shared location for a multi-sangha dharma center. The new center will be operated by its own board of directors and each of the participating sanghas will retain its own organizational structure and programs. SIM looks forward to having a location dedicated to Buddhist teaching and practice and also to working in cooperation with the other Buddhist communities.

11/16/2025
11/10/2025
This holiday season, SIM is once again participating in the Saint John’s Adopt-a-Family Program. Our goal is to raise $1...
11/05/2025

This holiday season, SIM is once again participating in the Saint John’s Adopt-a-Family Program. Our goal is to raise $1,500 to purchase gifts for a family, helping bring warmth and joy to women and children who are working hard to build brighter futures.

Any funds raised beyond what is needed for holiday gifts will go toward SIM’s monthly meal for St. John’s residents. Each month, SIM volunteers shop for groceries, cook, and serve a comforting dinner of meatloaf, broccoli, rice, salad, and clementines for more than 80 people. This cherished tradition costs about $300 each month and is deeply appreciated by all who share in it.

Your generosity helps keep this beautiful circle of giving alive. Thank you for helping us make the season brighter for the women and children at St. John’s Program for Real Change.

To make a donation, visit https://sactoinsight.org/adopt-a-family-2025/

Reflection questions on equanimity 1. Some practitioners may be put off by their ideas of equanimity, fearing that it as...
10/04/2025

Reflection questions on equanimity
1. Some practitioners may be put off by their ideas of equanimity, fearing that it asks us to have a cool aloofness and indifference to our experience and the world around us. What are your ideas about equanimity? How do you distinguish it from indifference, aloofness
or dry neutrality?
2. Which of the “eight worldly winds” (praise & blame, gain & loss, pleasure & pain, fame & disrepute) tends to sweep you up most often? What might equanimity look like in those moments?
3. Consider the number of thoughts you have in a day. Consider how many thoughts are occurring in the universe at any given moment. Do we have to believe all thoughts? What thoughts do we have that are fleeting, ephemeral and don’t indicate anything
significant? How might these reflections on the number and nature of thoughts support equanimity?
4. Choose an everyday activity (like cooking, doing emails, chores, waiting in line) where you might experiment with practicing equanimity by bringing steady attention to the entire process, from beginning to end, including preparation and cleaning up. What is
that experience like? What impact does it have on you to consider every aspect of an activity similarly?
* These reflections were shared after Diana Clark’s talk on Sept 25. 2025 “Equanimity: Holding Lightly, Living Fully”. To listen to a recording of the talk or to download a PDF file of the talk handout, visit

This talk explores equanimity—a steadiness of heart that allows us to meet life’s challenges. Through stories, similes, and reflections, we’ll see how equanimity is not indifference but a warm, caring […]

We are offering a four-week online course facilitated by SIM Teacher Diana Clark and registration is now open!-Course Ti...
10/03/2025

We are offering a four-week online course facilitated by SIM Teacher Diana Clark and registration is now open!
-Course Title
From Meditation Obstacles to Meditation Objects - Practicing with the Five Hindrances

-Course Overview - As anyone who has tried to establish a meditation practice knows, different mind states often arise that make meditation (and living our wisest life) difficult. Please join us as we explore and discuss well-known obstructions, the “Five Hindrances.” In this course we’ll explore how to skillfully address sensual desire, ill will, sloth & torpor, restlessness & worry and doubt using mindfulness and practical antidotes. We’ll practice how to turn these potential stumbling blocks into stepping stones to greater ease and happiness. The course will include talks, guided meditations and discussions.

-Course Schedule - This course meets remotely via Zoom for four consecutive Tuesday evenings on November 4, 11, 18, 25, 2025 from 7pm to 8:30pm.

To register to this or to other upcoming courses, visit

Dana is a Buddhist word that means generosity or heart. Nearly all Sacramento Insight Meditation activities are offered on a dana (donations) basis. This means our programs are sustained by the generosity of instructors in offering teachings freely and on the generosity of students and members of th...

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3111 Wissemann Drive
Sacramento, CA
95826

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