Tuesday Evenings will be held online starting April 21, 2020. We will be starting an hour earlier than usual. NEW TIME: 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm While we are all sheltering-at-home, we have moved our regular Tuesday evening meeting online. The starting time has been changed so we can include people from other parts of [...]
Heartfelt thanks to all who support the work of IMSB in so many ways, and especially to the 76 generous donors from near and far who helped us reach our fundraising goal of $35,000 for our 2019 year’s end appeal. Our final total was $35,009.30 which will cover almost half of our operations budget for [...]
Shaila Catherine was invited to join over a thousand spiritual leaders by contributing her answer to this perennial question: what is the meaning of life? Read her response at the Excellence Reporter, and see what other spiritual teachers say gives life meaning.
Shaila Catherine's dhamma talk on Mindfulness of Mind was chosen by Insight Timer as their Staff Pick for the day. We hope you also enjoy listening to it. https://insig.ht/gm_79272
The 11th Global Buddhist Conference in Berkeley concluded with a profound discussion of samadhi and jhana practices. Ajahn Brahm and Shaila Catherine had a riveting dialog, skillfully moderated by Daniel Aitken from Wisdom Publications. The event was filmed and later posted for the public. To watch, click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpPz22DMRS8
We have added a new interview to our page on Written Teachings, Articles, and Interviews. In the newest interview, titled Understanding Deep Meditative States, Shaila Catherine explores profound aspects of the development of samadhi, jhana, vipassana, and awakening.
On January 29th IMSB enjoyed a very special presentation by Rex Naden on Landscape Photography that explored how his art of composition merges with a meditative perspective. Rex shared many examples of landscape compositions, both on-screen and printed, to illustrate how he carefully plans, executes and processes each shot. He described the art of discovering the [...]
Heartfelt thanks to all who support the work of IMSB in so many ways, and especially to the 65 generous donors who helped us reach our fundraising goal of $30,000 for our 2018 year's end appeal. Our final total was $32,330, which will cover almost half of our operations budget for the coming year.
Ian White Maher recently interviewed Shaila Catherine for his online Dharma podcast program. The conversation covers deep dhamma topics that include ethic, deep concentration states of jhana, and the aim of awakening. Enjoy listening at: https://ianwhitemaher.com/shaila-catherine/.
In a program called Joy of Giving, a number of IMSB members practiced mindful giving by donating to a charity of our choice. We thought hard about charities that touched our hearts, donated our own and/or IMSB funds, discussed our choices with other givers, and participated in two discussions exploring the role that generosity can [...]
May all beings everywhere, known and unknown, near and far, be happy, peaceful and at ease. Loving-Kindness (metta) was the theme for the first talk in the lecture series on Brahma Vihara at our weekly Tuesday meditation sitting in Mountain View. Shaila Catherine talked about what loving-kindness is and what it is not. Loving-kindness is [...]
While the nation watched election results come in on Election Night, IMSB held a community building event for members to get to know each other. It was a small and intimate gathering as Shaila asked us to break into three groups based on why we practice: 1) for awakening, 2) for inner peace, and 3) [...]
Our Tuesday meditation group was joined by guest teacher Thanissaro Bhikkhu, the abbot of Metta Forest Monastery in San Diego, CA. The hall in St. Timothy’s Church was packed full of newcomers and seasoned meditators alike. Thanissaro Bhikkhu spoke on the Refuges, which he explained as being the Buddha, the Dharma (Buddha’s teachings), and the [...]
Chade-Meng Tan, author of Joy on Demand, guided joy inspiring micro-meditations and fielded questions about joy practices at IMSB's Thursday evening class. Micro-meditations are brief meditative activities that can be done easily and quickly, by almost anyone. For example: For the length of one breath, collect the mind; for the length of a second breath, [...]
Insight Meditation South Bay is in a valuable period of restructuring, as Shaila passes on several key leadership roles and administrative tasks to new volunteers. Last Sunday Shaila hosted a planning meeting with 15 members volunteers. The meeting brought together volunteers who serve IMSB programs in both Mountain View and Saratoga, and also our daylongs in [...]