5:30 – 7:00 PM
Guiding Teacher: Karen Summer
The sit consists of meditation and discussion of various topics and is appropriate for beginning and experienced meditators.
All Valley Insight sits are being held on Zoom until further notice. Each week, Karen will email you the Zoom login and sit discussion topic. If you are not already receiving these emails or if you’d like to sign up, please email Karen at karen.summer2@gmail.com. If you have not previously attended a sit, and want to attend that day, please email Karen by Monday morning.
To offer dana to Karen, please visit our Giving web page for options.
We welcome all levels of meditators, whether novice or experienced. Karen Summer leads the weekly sit. We usually start with a 35 to 40-minute meditation, followed by group discussion.
If you are wholly new to meditation or wish to discuss your practice one-on-one, feel free to email Karen to schedule a meeting. karen.summer2@gmail.com.
(map and directions) (directly adjacent to Hanover High School)
In September, 2020, we began a series on “mindful living” using the paramis as our structure. We are spending 2 weeks on each parami . Gil Fronsdal’s talks on the paramis and Aj. Sucitto’s Parami Ways to Cross Life’s Floods are excellent resources. It is not necessary to have reviewed the material to participate in the discussions.
Aj. Sucitto’s book can be read as an ebook, available here in several formats. It is not commercially available.
If you would like to read Parami on a Kindle, follow these steps: (1) Download the book in .mobi format, (2) Plug your Kindle into your computer with a USB cable, (3) open the ‘Kindle’ drive on My Computer (Windows) or Finder (Mac), (4) and then drag/drop or copy/paste the downloaded .mobi file from where you downloaded it to the ‘documents’ folder on your Kindle. Now, unplug your Kindle, and the book should appear.
Prior to our parami discussions, we focused on Gil Fronsdal’s superb talks, including the Four Noble Truths, the Brahmaviharas, refuge, and fear.
VIMS Teacher Karen Summer Reflects on Lessons Learned from a Recent Accident “I like my mind,” a friend recently said during a casual conversation. Can I say the same for myself ? After reflection, the answer is a hearty Yes. Since I fell on April 28 during an encounter with a dog, my mind, with its virtuous quality of mindfulness, has been an essential support through the pain and now into the recuperation cycle.
With metta, Karen
During the latter part of ’18, and into ’19, we enjoyed discussing metta, compassion, joy, and equanimity, using excerpts from Christine Feldman’s Boundless Heart, then the paramis using Sylvia Boostein’s Pay Attention for Goodness Sake.
During the summer and fall of ’18, we used Bante Gunaratana’s Mindfulness in Plain English as a resource for our ongoing practice and discussions about meditation. This is an excellent book for beginning and experienced meditators. The book is available as a free download here.
On Monday, June 25, 2018 nationally-known dharma teacher Ruth King gave a dharma talk and book signing of her new book “Being Mindful of Race“. Her website with many dharma talks and articles is here. As a follow-up to her inspiring talk, Doreen and Peg offered a 3-session book club to read her book. Currently, an ongoing group led by Doreen is enrolled in Ruth’s nation-wide consciousness-raising network. (This group was formed in early summer ’20 and is not open to new members.)
On March 20, 2017 there was a special presentation on the story of ordained women in the Buddhist Insight tradition and the current campaign for full ordination of Buddhist nuns. Doreen describes the program here in her March ’17 essay.