Insight Meditation Center

11/30/2023

Guided Meditation on Forgiveness
By Gil Fronsdal
September 6, 2001

https://www.audiodharma.org/talks/45

01/05/2022

The Satipatthana Sutta, translated by Gil Fronsdal

https://www.insightmeditationcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Satipatthana-Sutta-tr.-GFronsdal.pdf

07/25/2021

In today’s Sunday’s dharma talk, Gil announced that due to the Delta coronavirus variant, IMC’s in person reopening will be put on hold until further notice. Online teachings will continue. 🙏

07/21/2021

IMC is currently considering ways to reopen IMC and IRC to in-person programs. As of now, plans are to begin a gradual reopening beginning in August. IMC is committed to creating a safe and welcoming practice environment for all and will continue to monitor the pandemic.

Please check our website calendar for updates:
https://www.insightmeditationcenter.org/calendar/

IMC’s youTube Channel:
https://www.YouTube.com/insightmed
IMC’s YouTube Live Stream:
https://www.YouTube.com/insightmed/live
YouTube Live Stream on IMC Website: https://www.insightmeditationcenter.org/live-video/

07/04/2021

IMC Newsletter July – September 2021

https://www.insightmeditationcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/IMC_Newsletter_07_2021.pdf?mc_cid=2ac1536e3e&mc_eid=882d513117

06/08/2021

Metta Sutta
Translated By Gil Fronsdal

To reach the state of peace
One skilled in the good
Should be
Capable and upright,
Straightforward and easy to speak to,
Gentle and not proud,
Contented and easily supported,
Living lightly and with few duties,
Wise and with senses calmed,
Not arrogant and without greed for supporters,
And should not do the least thing that the wise would criticize.

[One should reflect:]
“May all be happy and secure;
May all beings be happy at heart.
All living beings, whether weak or strong,
Tall, large, medium, or short,
Tiny or big,
Seen or unseen,
Near or distant,
Born or to be born,
May they all be happy.
Let no one deceive another
Or despise anyone anywhere;
Let no one through anger or aversion
Wish for others to suffer.”

As a mother would risk her own life
To protect her child, her only child,
So toward all beings should one
Cultivate a boundless heart.
With loving-kindness for the whole world should one
Cultivate a boundless heart,
Above, below, and all around
Without obstruction, without hate and without ill-will.
Standing or walking, sitting or lying down,
Whenever one is awake,
May one stay with this recollection.
This is called a sublime abiding, here and now.

One who is virtuous, endowed with vision,
Not taken by views,
And having overcome all greed for sensual pleasure
Will not be reborn again.

https://www.insightmeditationcenter.org/2021/06/discourse-on-loving-kindness/

Discourse on Loving-Kindness Discourse on Loving-Kindness Posted June 7, 2021 - Reflections from Gil Metta Sutta translated by Gil Fronsdal To reach the state of peace One skilled in the good Should be Capable and upright, Straightforward and easy to speak to, Gentle and not proud, Contented and eas...

06/04/2021

New IMC Online Programs

Currently, all our programs are offered on either YouTube and Zoom.

IMC has a YouTube channel called “Insightmeditationcenter” where video recordings are archived. This channel is where you can find live video broadcasts of Dharma talks here (on YouTube) or here (on IMC’s website). Some of these live sessions begin with\ a period of meditation. IMC’s live channel is open about ten minutes before the scheduled start time (broadcasting IMC’s Buddha).

Please check the calendar on IMC’s website for schedule changes, including postings of new events and the unique Zoom link for each Zoom program.

Our current online YouTube programs are (in California time):

Every Weekday Morning, 7:00 am (meditation) and talk (15-minute talk; From May 4 to May 29 the theme for the talks is the Four Noble Truths, one Truth each week. The meditation is partly guided.

Sunday Mornings, 9:25 am (sitting) and 10:00 am (30-45-minute talk). Usually followed at 10:30 am with 30-minute community discussion facilitated by IMC Dharma Leader in a “Zoom room”; info on IMC calendar.

Monday Evenings, 7:30 pm (sitting) and 8:15 (30-45-minute talk)

Occasional Wednesday Mornings, 11:00 a.m. (sitting) and 11:45 (15-minute talk)

The following programs are offered on Zoom (details in IMC calendar including other programs)

Weekly:

Every Weekday Early Evening: 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. Happy Hour with Diana Clark and Nikki Mirghafori

Every Sunday Evening, 5:00 pm – 6:30 pm, IMC LGBTQueer Sangha with John Martin & bruni dávila

Sunday Evenings, 7:30 pm – 9:00 p.m. At Home in the World for 20 & 30 year-olds (no meeting second Sunday of the month)

Tuesday Evenings, 7:30 pm – 8:30 pm, Dharma en Español with Andrea Castillo

Wednesday Evenings, 6:00 pm – 7:00 pm Happy Hour (Sit and Talk on Loving-kindness with Diana Clark and Nikki Mirghafori)

Thursday Evenings, 6:15 pm – 7:15 p.m. Brief Introduction to Mindfulness Meditation

Monthly:

Second Sunday Evening, 7:30 pm – 9:00, Buddhism and 12-Step Support Group with Jennifer Lemas

Second and Fourth Sunday, 1:00 pm – 2:30 pm, Asian Dharma Circle with Ying Chen and Lilu Chen

Fourth Thursday, 11:00 am 1:00 pm, Senior Sangha Group with David Cohn, Fiona Barner, and Robert Cusick

First and Third Thursday, 12:30 pm – 2:30 pm, Support Group for persons with Life-Threatening Illnesses and Chronic Health Challenges with Ying Chen

12/02/2020

IMC’s Yearend Letter from Gil

November 20, 2020

Dear Friends

IMC seems to expand in ten-year leaps and bounds. I became the guiding teacher in 1990. We found our Redwood City meditation center in 2000. By 2010 we discovered IRC, our retreat center. Unexpectedly, in 2020, we created our “Online Retreat Center” with twenty online retreats for the year.

We’ve added new teachers at a growing pace. In 1990, I was the only teacher. Andrea Fella started teaching in 2005, Ines Freedman in 2011, Max Erdstein and Nikki Mirghafori in 2016, and Andrea Castillo, bruni dávila, and Diana Clark in 2019 (the same year that Ying Chen started her teacher training).

The number of people listening to our teachings has increased dramatically. In 1990, it was 12–15 people a week in a small church library. Now, through Audio Dharma and YouTube, tens of thousands of people have access to IMC programs and teachings each week.

All this is beyond anything we imagined in 1990.

It has been inspiring and heartwarming to know of all the people who benefit from what IMC offers. It motivates us to do even more, aiming to change the whole world for the better.

We are very grateful for all the support we receive from volunteers, donors, practitioners, and listeners. Thank you all!

If you like to offer an end-of-year donation to support our activities and continued growth, please click here or go to the donate button on IMC’s website.

Warmly,

Gil Fronsdal

11/08/2020

All the peace and happiness of the whole globe,
the peace and happiness of societies,
the peace and happiness of family,
the peace and happiness in the individual persons' life,
and the peace and happiness of even the animals and so forth,
all depends on having loving kindness toward each other.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche

11/03/2020

Gil Fronsdal: Nibbāna for our Challenged World
Recorded: Sunday, November 1, 2020

https://www.audiodharma.org/talks/audio_player/12356.html

Dharma talk given by Gil Fronsdal at the Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, CA. Recorded on 2020-11-01

10/05/2020

There are thousands of visible stars. It is the mind’s eye that sees Orion the Hunter, Cassiopeia the vain queen, and a Saucepan, or is it a Big Bear? Right and wrong, good and bad, beautiful and ugly are not real. They are also what conditioned mind makes up. So, when we find something unacceptable we want to remember that in practice we are not asked to condone or agree with unconsciousness, injustice, or evil. We are asked, as a first step, to examine the conditioning that creates the division of acceptable and unacceptable.
– Ashwini Narayanan

10/02/2020

Metta Sutta
(translated by Gil Fronsdal)

To reach the state of peace
One skilled in the good
Should be
Capable and upright,
Straightforward and easy to speak to,
Gentle and not proud,
Contented and easily supported,
Living lightly and with few duties,
Wise and with senses calmed,
Not arrogant and without greed for supporters,
And should not do the least thing that the wise would criticize.

[One should reflect:]
“May all be happy and secure;
May all beings be happy at heart.
All living beings, whether weak or strong,
Tall, large, medium, or short,
Tiny or big,
Seen or unseen,
Near or distant,
Born or to be born,
May they all be happy.
Let no one deceive another
Or despise anyone anywhere;
Let no one through anger or aversion
Wish for others to suffer.”

As a mother would risk her own life
To protect her child, her only child,
So toward all beings should one
Cultivate a boundless heart.
With loving-kindness for the whole world should one
Cultivate a boundless heart,
Above, below, and all around
Without obstruction, without hate and without ill-will.
Standing or walking, sitting or lying down,
Whenever one is awake,
May one stay with this recollection.
This is called a sublime abiding, here and now.

One who is virtuous, endowed with vision,
Not taken by views,
And having overcome all greed for sensual pleasure
Will not be reborn again.

09/10/2020

Gil Fronsdal: Expanding Our Perspectives
Recorded: Wednesday, March 9, 2011

The more perspectives and angles from which we can see any particular thing, the more compassionate, caring, and wise we can be.

https://www.audiodharma.org/talks/audio_player/2337.html

The more perspectives and angles from which we can see any particular thing, the more compassionate, caring, and wise we can be.

09/03/2020

Cultivate the habit of being grateful for every good thing that comes
to you, and to give thanks continuously. And because all things have
contributed to your advancement, you should include all things in your
gratitude.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

08/05/2020

Renunciation

The ground of renunciation is realizing that we already have exactly what we need, that what we have already is good. Every moment of time has enormous energy in it, and we could connect with that.

—Pema Chödrön, "Renunciation"

08/04/2020

Virtue
Gil Fronsdal: Reflections on Sila
Recorded: Sunday, March 10, 2013

https://audiodharma.org/talks/audio_player/3928.html

Dharma talk given by Gil Fronsdal at the Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, CA. Recorded on 2013-03-10

08/03/2020

Generosity

I see a fearless generosity in the flowers and trees, in the way birds sing out at dawn, in the steady drumming of the rain. As I grew older and found I had things to protect, I forgot. I completely forgot that I had always had enough in the first place. Now I am trying to learn this once again—total abundance, nothing begrudged.

- Sallie Tisdale
"As If There Is Nothing to Lose"

07/31/2020

Direct Experience - Guided Meditation by Gil Fronsdal
Recorded: Sunday, March 14, 2004

“The doorway to the dharma, the doorway to our freedom is through our direct experience”

https://www.audiodharma.org/talks/audio_player/453.html

Dharma talk given by Gil Fronsdal at the Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, CA. Recorded on 2004-03-14