Dharma/Dhamma Courses and Sittings
Public vipassana (insight and mindfulness) courses and retreats are offered on a Dana basis. Individual work is sometimes available for community members on a dana basis.
Weekly Meditation Group
Deepening Courses
Beginning Courses
Group Information
Individual Work
About Insight Meditation
Weekly Meditation Group (Community)
Monday Evenings 7-8:30 pm
Our Community Sitting and Dharma talk is held every Monday evening, 7-8:30. It is open to both new and experienced people. You are welcome to come one night or every night.
This sitting is offered on a dana basis. The suggested Dana is $10-20 per session.
An introduction to the meditation practice is available on Monday evenings by pre-arrangement. (There are several other options for beginning instruction listed below.)
In this community sitting we work primarily with direct attention to experience, but also with wisdom teachings and heart practices. These include work with the Satipatthana Sutta and Stages of the Path. Our sittings include formal individual practice, various group practices with special focus on interpersonal practices and integration of practices in daily life. There is time for movement practice (yoga, tai chi, and/or walking meditation).
Recommended reading
Current community reading: Insight Dialogue
Recommended first reading: First Reading in Buddhist Meditation
Study themes we have already worked with, (soon available again in ecourse format).
Deeper Training for Transformation
A further training is available for those who have started attending retreats. In these courses we explore source texts in our tradition. Apply for this deeper training at Integrated Study and Practice
A study of source texts in Theravada Buddhism is sometimes offered at 6 PM on Monday evenings. For those who want to study themes we have already worked with, group courses will soon be available again in ecourse format.
Member pages available soon.
Beginning Courses
One Session Introduction:
Those new to practice may also contact us to arrange an introduction to practice before or after a sitting by completing the form on our sangha site - Insight Meditation Community Houston.
Weekend Courses:
For a complete beginning course and a retreat experience with experienced students we offer weekend retreats. These weekend courses are offered every three or four months.
Four to Six Week Course:
We also offer periodic four to six weeks courses . See our community website, Insight Meditation Community Houston, for current offerings.
Do you want to get started right away? Do you want to start on your own? You can get started before scheduled courses are available. These also provide means of preparation for getting extra benefit from the course.
Computer-based Meditation Course:
Gain skills by working with the computer based meditation course on CD, Going Beyond-First Steps, available at citta101.org/nutshell/goingbeyondcd.html. Using the CD course provides an option for interaction with a teacher (listed on CD) by telephone or email.
Online Courses:
Currently not enabled - moving to new webpage
Group Information
Community Mailing List:
Join Citta 101 Deepening mailing list (Yahoo listserve) to stay appraised of all events as they are announced.
Community Sitting Groups:
Information on beginning courses and sitting groups is available on our sangha website, Insight Meditation Community Houston at meditationhouston.org or see Houston groups on this site.
Would you enjoy a gathering of spiritual friends in your neighborhood? - Join with a sangha friend and create an event for spiritual friends, a Kalyana Mitta group. For details on creating a group subscribe for the Kalyana Mitta information.
Individual Work
Work with Mary as you do the computer-based meditation course - Going Beyond what you Believe to be True.
Work with Mary through the mentoring program or arrange for individual practice sessions. See Mentoring, Leadership, and Deepening for more information about advanced work.
It is also possible to work in a private session, one-on-one, without participation in the community. There is a fee for these private sessions. See individual work.
About Insight Meditation
Insight Meditation Tradition
Teachers
Affiliation
Our Intention
Practice/Methods
Terminology
Insight Meditation Tradition
Vipassana, Insight, Mindfulness or "clear seeing" is a simple, direct and powerful practice that can be used to help us open to clear consciousness and to develop calm, focused, and balanced awareness. As we learn to make direct contact with our experience, we open the door to self-knowledge and create the possibilities for conscious choice, for change, for freedom and for deep understanding. 2500-year-old meditation teachings rooted in Theravada Buddhism. These teachings are a component of all Buddhist traditions and compatible with any spiritual practice, whatever the tradition.
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Teachers
Insight Meditation teachers act as spiritual friends, guiding the student through obstacles of the path. Exposure to multiple recognized teachers is encouraged. Students are continually asked to rely on their own hearts for inner guidance, to become aware of and trust their own process and experience. They are also asked to be open and willing to learn, to come to appreciate that much suffering is the result of conditioning and lack of understanding.
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Affiliation
The major retreat centers of the Insight Meditation network include the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, Gaia House in Devon, England, and Spirit Rock in California. Insight Meditation or Vipassana teachings have revolutionized countless lives of those fortunate enough to discover them. A publication containing excellent articles about our tradition and maintaining current information about Insight Meditation connections is Inquiring Mind. You can now find them on line at www.inquiringmind.com .
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Intention
Our intention is to open to innate compassion and wisdom, to come to self-knowledge through exploration and direct contact with experience, to bring arising wisdom into all life experience.
We invite everyone to journey with us in learning a few basic practices that help us plunge deeply into silence and to discover in the stillness:
Truth, accessible through our own experience and through our own hearts
Awareness and connectedness with all of life
Potential of radical freedom in every moment
Most events are offered for expenses only, with free will donations requested for the teaching, making these practices accessible to anyone drawn to them.
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Basic Meditation Practices:
Metta - opening to innate capacities including loving-kindness, compassion, equanimity and empathetic joy
Vipassana - insight, wisdom, or clear seeing through training in concentration, awareness and mindfulness,
Being in touch with immediate experience
Releasing agendas and unskillful activity of mind
Resting in stillness and fullness that contains and permeates all
Manifesting skillful behaviors
Being open to truth of experience, of qualities of mind, whatever they are
Accepting experience rather than denying
Being interested in experience, investigating when appropriate
Releasing views, remembering nothing is substantial as it seems
Watering the seeds of wholesome qualities of mind
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Terminology:
Citta:(a Pali word for mind,"c" pronounced [ch]; sanskrit "chitta"), used here because of limitations in the English word mind. Citta suggests a much more inclusive and basic understanding of mind. It may include mind, heart and consciousness.
Dana or generosity: The teachings are considered priceless, a gift that comes only due to auspicious circumstances or good karma. Dana, a practice of generosity for both students and teachers, is an important practice in itself and manifests uniquely for each individual.
In Dana courses there is no charge for dharma teachings, only for expenses. Free will offerings are requested, accepted and greatly appreciated for the teachings. Sometimes a modest amount is suggested. Please help save this unique and precious practice, develop your own spiritual quality of generosity.
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