This Week's Events

Tuesday Mar 19 at 7:00 pm. Meditation: Hybrid meditation.

Sunday Mar 24 at 10:00 am. Sangha Mamas: zoom with Sangha Mamas.

Tuesday Mar 26 at 7:00 pm. Meditation: Hybrid meditation.

Tuesday Mar 26 at 7:40 pm. Dharma Program: Mindful Self Compassion.


Classes


Retreats

Welcome to Bellingham Insight

Bellingham Insight Meditation Society (BIMS) supports meditation and practice in the Buddhist Theravada tradition. We do not have a single guiding teacher. Rather, we are a sangha-led community. We bring in regional and national teachers, including monastics, for residential and non-residential retreats. Our weekly programs are facilitated by senior members in coordination with our Board and Program Committee.

Bellingham Insight Meditation Society welcomes visitors. To receive announcements and links to our Zoom meetings, join our list-serve by emailing bellinghaminsight+subscribe@googlegroups.com or by e-mailing the listserv moderator.

Insight meditation is a simple and direct practice, the moment-to-moment investigation of the mind/body process through calm and focused awareness. Learning to observe experience from a place of stillness enables one to relate to life with less fear and clinging. Seeing life as a constantly changing process, one begins to accept pleasure, pain, fear, joy and all aspects of life with increasing equanimity and balance. As insight deepens, wisdom and compassion arise. This practice is sometimes called "vipassana", which is a Pali word for insight.

We meet at the Bellingham Unitarian Fellowship (BUF): 1207 Ellsworth Street (at the corner of Ellsworth and I Street a few blocks north of downtown). The main entrance faces Ellsworth Street.

You can become a member of the Bellingham Insight Meditation Society by completing the Membership form found on the Supporting BIMS page.


News

Tuesday March 19th - Kate Davies "in person" - dharma talk on the Fire Sermon

Our meditation will continue in a hybrid format: in-person at Bellingham Unitarian Fellowship (1207 Ellsworth Street, at the corner of Ellsworth and I Street) and also via Zoom. Our greeters will be at the main entrance of BUF until 6:55pm to let you into the building.

Kate Davies will be joining us. Kate is a dharma teacher who lives on Whidbey Island. She has often "zoomed" in to be with us. On Tuesday she will be with us in the Hall. Kate will lead us in a guided meditation and then offer a talk on "Mindfulness of the Senses and the Fire Sermon." There will be time for discussion afterwards.

6:30 Hall opens for meditation

6:45 Zoom room opens

7:00 Guided meditation with Kate

7:40 Introductions and Announcements

7:50 Dharma Talk and discussion

We look forward to seeing you, either in person or on the screen.

3/17/24

Tuesday March 12th - Soup, Meditation & Dharma talk with Tim

This Tuesday from 6-6:50 PM we will be hosting Soup with the Sangha, a simple vegetarian meal of soup and bread - a chance to gather as a community before our meditation. No need to bring anything, though of course you can. We will be eating in the space near the Bellingham Unitarian kitchen which is right off our meditation space.

Our meditation will continue in a hybrid format: in-person at Bellingham Unitarian Fellowship (1207 Ellsworth Street, at the corner of Ellsworth and I Street) and also via Zoom. Our greeters will be at the main entrance of BUF until 6:55pm to let you into the building.

Following Introductions and Announcements, Tim Harlan-Marks will offer a dharma talk: Nature as Teacher, Practitioner as Naturalist. Tim says "For most Western dharma practitioners, most of our meditation life is spent indoors, in dharma halls, bedrooms, and retreat centers. In contrast, the Buddha spent much of his life outside in nature, taught practitioners to sit in meditation at the roots of trees, and commonly used nature metaphors and similes to help convey dharmic wisdom. What would be different if we practiced similarly? What do we have to learn from and about nature in dharma practice? This will be the topic of Tuesday"s dharma talk and discussion.

6:00 Soup with the Sangha

6:45 Zoom room opens

7:00 Silent meditation

7:30 Introductions & Announcements

7:40 Dharma talk and discussion

We hope to see you this Tuesday evening.

3/8/24

April 2024 Retreat at Camp Samish

****THIS RETREAT IS FULLY BOOKED.

If you are still interested in attending this retreat, please write to us at this address: bimsretreats@gmail.com. We will add you to a waiting list and let you know if an opening occurs. ****


Cultivating Insight

We are excited to again offer a residential retreat at the lovely Camp Samish location, with teachers Tuere Sala and Tim Geil!

Insight meditation (vipassana in Pali, the language of the original Buddhist teachings) is the simple and direct practice of moment-to-moment mindfulness. Through careful and sustained observation, we experience for ourselves the ever-changing flow of the mind/body process. This awareness leads us to accept more fully the pleasure and pain, fear and joy, sadness and happiness that life inevitably brings. As insight deepens, we develop greater equanimity and peace in the face of change, and wisdom and compassion increasingly become the guiding principles of our lives.

This retreat emphasizes quieting the mind, opening the heart, and developing clarity and depth of practice. Traditional instructions will be combined with a spirit of loving-kindness, silent sitting and walking meditation, Dharma talks, and meetings with the teachers. This retreat is for experienced as well as newer students. This retreat will be held in Noble Silence except for teacher-led practice meetings.

See the retreat flyer and registration form here.

See a video of the history of BIMS at Camp Samish on the Retreats page.

2/17/24

Tuesday February 20 - Meditation and Wise Motivation - Tim Harlan-Marks

Wise Motivation Part 2: Gardening the Heart

On January 30th, we began an inquiry into how to cultivate and sustain motivation for dharma practice. In that talk, Tim walked thru the Buddhist qualities of Sadha (faith/confidence) and Chanda (wholesome desire/interest) and their roles in supporting motivation for practice. This coming Tuesday we"ll look into one final quality known as Viriya, which is commonly translated as persistence, energy or courage. So many of us have inherited a societal tendency to push and force ourselves when practice is difficult, slow or uncomfortable. This approach makes sense in certain parts of life, but in meditation it is nearly guaranteed to lead to tightness and tiredness. We"ll explore instead what it can be like to invite a courageous willingness that inspires energy and resolve, leading us onward.

6:00 Orientation

6:30 Hall opens for meditation

6:45 Zoom room opens

7:00 Silent Meditation

7:45 Introductions and Announcements

7:50 Dharma Talk and discussion

We look forward to seeing you, either in person or on the screen.

2/15/24

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