Friends,

For this July 17 sit we’ll be exploring a wonderful Tibetan text – the 37 practices of a bodhisattva – which is also completely relevant to our Theravada practice.

Here’s a link to one very good translation of this text - https://garchencanada.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/The-Thirty-Seven-Practices-of-a-Bodhisattva-by-Ngukchu-Thogme-Zangpo.pdf

If you look at it, you’ll see a steady focus on the goal of freedom and enlightenment, and an incisive cutting through of any form of clinging. Also, as this is a text for bodhisattvas, there’s a constant focus on awakening for the benefit of all beings.

We’ll be exploring a selection of these verses, to benefit your own practice and journey.

We’ll be gathering at 7 p.m. on Thursday, July 17.

The URL for the evening will be https://tinyurl.com/Eastside-Insight-2025, or please come in person to the chapel at Northlake Unitarian Universalist Church, 315 3rd Ave S., Kirkland, WA 98033.

Please consider offering dana to Northlake Unitarian Universalist Church, which makes this space available on a dana-only basis, in a very kind and generous way. If you do, please mention you’re from Eastside Insight Meditation.

https://tinyurl.com/NorthlakeUU-Paypal2022

Also you're invited to offer dana to the teacher, with links and addresses below. Many thanks for your generous dana, which helps turn the wheel of the dharma.

paypal.me/SteveWilhelm48
 
Steve Wilhelm
17623 184th Ave. NE
Woodinville, WA 98072

Big bows to the kind sangha members who help set up for Thursday evenings. It’s a spiritual practice to do this good work with others, for others. Helping set up is a way to share the dharma for the community. Signing up is a big help, to know if assistance is coming.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/18OKEUO7ubunOG_q9r8MaBFWXqmWScOm4LIsv8MdnBU8/edit

As an additional item of interest, here’s the just-released summer issue of Northwest Dharma News. In there you’ll find extraordinary stories of sanghas moving ahead, and sharing the dhamma in myriad ways.

https://northwestdharma.org/summer-2025-volume-38-2/

Big bows to all of you for your practice, your goodwill, your kindness.

See you soon!

Steve

Friends,

For this July 3 sit we’re happy to be welcoming Sooz Appel, one of the Seattle Insight Meditation assistant teachers, and a very experienced practitioner.

Many of you know her as a warm and friendly teacher, from daylongs we’ve offered on the Eastside, and from times when she’s offered teachings here.

Here’s a bit of bio:

Sooz Appel was introduced to Vipassana meditation in 1983 at a death and dying retreat with Stephen Levine. Later that year, she and two friends established Shanti Seattle, which offered emotional support to people who were dying. She joined SIMS when it formed and served on the Board and as President from 2001-2003.

Over the years, Sooz has filled nearly every volunteer position in SIMS and continues to give of her time and energy to the sangha. In addition to issues of death and dying, Sooz has offered mindfulness opportunities (classes and retreats) to teenagers through both the Seattle Teen Mindfulness Circle and Inward Bound Mindfulness Education (iBme).

The title of her talk will be: “Right View and Right Intention—our foundations for wholesome action.”

She wrote:

“As we walk through our lives, our practice asks us to bring mindfulness and honest attention to each moment. We’ll explore how view and intention are essential for this to happen.”

We’ll be gathering at 7 p.m. on Thursday, July 3.

The URL for the evening will be https://tinyurl.com/Eastside-Insight-2025, or please come in person to the chapel at Northlake Unitarian Universalist Church, 315 3rd Ave S., Kirkland, WA 98033.

While Sooz will be Zooming in from Seattle, we’ll still be hybrid, thus we’ll be both in person and online.

Please consider offering dana to Northlake Unitarian Universalist Church, which makes this space available on a dana-only basis, in a very kind and generous way. If you do, please mention you’re from Eastside Insight Meditation.

https://tinyurl.com/NorthlakeUU-Paypal2022

Also you're invited to offer dana to Sooz. Through the Venmo link below. Many thanks for your generous dana, which helps turn the wheel of the dharma.

https://account.venmo.com/u/sooz-appel
 

Big bows to the kind sangha members who help set up for Thursday evenings. It’s a spiritual practice to do this good work with others, for others. Helping set up is a way to share the dharma for the community. Signing up is a big help, to know if assistance is coming.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/18OKEUO7ubunOG_q9r8MaBFWXqmWScOm4LIsv8MdnBU8/edit

In our local gathering and practice, simple though it may seem, we uphold and bring to life the wheel of dharma the Buddha set in motion 2,600 years ago. What we do is precious and brings light to the world.
See you soon!

Steve

Friends,

For this June 19 sit we’ll be exploring the phrase "not clinging" in Buddhist practice, and why we care.

This simple phrase – not clinging - reaches far more deeply, with much greater import, than might seem at first. When we don't cling we're free, and in practice we slowly discover how much of our life is dedicated to clinging in ways we don't see.

Over time, we see how profound is this freedom from clinging, both to things outside us, and to our sticky sense of self. In a way not clinging is at the core of what the Buddha taught, at the core of the awakening he directed us toward.

We’ll be gathering at 7 p.m. on Thursday, June 19.

The URL for the evening will be https://tinyurl.com/Eastside-Insight-2025, or please come in person to the chapel at Northlake Unitarian Universalist Church, 315 3rd Ave S., Kirkland, WA 98033.

Please consider offering dana to Northlake Unitarian Universalist Church, which makes this space available on a dana-only basis, in a very kind and generous way. If you do, please mention you’re from Eastside Insight Meditation.

https://tinyurl.com/NorthlakeUU-Paypal2022

Also you're invited to offer dana to the teacher, with links and addresses below. Many thanks for your generous dana, which helps turn the wheel of the dharma.

paypal.me/SteveWilhelm48
 
Steve Wilhelm
17623 184th Ave. NE
Woodinville, WA 98072

Big bows to the kind sangha members who help set up for Thursday evenings. It’s a spiritual practice to do this good work with others, for others. Helping set up is a way to share the dharma for the community. Signing up is a big help, to know if assistance is coming.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/18OKEUO7ubunOG_q9r8MaBFWXqmWScOm4LIsv8MdnBU8/edit

In our local gathering and practice, simple though it may seem, we uphold and bring to life the wheel of dharma the Buddha set in motion 2,600 years ago. What we do is precious and brings light to the world.

See you soon!

Steve

Friends,

First off deep bows of gratitude for your dana offerings, which helped cover the costs of the 12-day “Nature of Awareness” retreat I just completed at Spirit Rock, plus dana offerings to the kind teachers.

Your generosity in this way helped keep the wheels of dharma rolling, benefitting many beings, so this is a great boon and contribution. Thank you.

For this June 5 sit we’ll be exploring a question central to our spiritual journey: How the "story of me" arises, and what to do about it.

As we all discover in our practice, our attachment to “I“ drives our most compulsive behaviors, and complicates our lives when we confuse mental and physical arisings with a sense of ultimate self. Learning to discern between ultimate not-self, and our conventional sense of self-identity, is at the root of how we progress on the path, finding more peace, freedom and lightness on the way.

Hoping that some of you were able to hear Ajahn Jundee when he taught at Clear Mountain Monastery on May 15. His radiant simplicity, his evident happiness, were very much reflections of his seeing through the stickiness of attachment to the “story of me.”

We’ll be gathering at 7 p.m. on Thursday, June 5.

The URL for the evening will be https://tinyurl.com/Eastside-Insight-2025, or please come in person to the chapel at Northlake Unitarian Universalist Church, 315 3rd Ave S., Kirkland, WA 98033.

Please consider offering dana to Northlake Unitarian Universalist Church, which makes this space available on a dana-only basis, in a very kind and generous way. If you do, please mention you’re from Eastside Insight Meditation.

https://tinyurl.com/NorthlakeUU-Paypal2022

Also you're invited to offer dana to the teacher, with links and addresses below. Many thanks for your generous dana, which helps turn the wheel of the dharma.

paypal.me/SteveWilhelm48
 
Steve Wilhelm
17623 184th Ave. NE
Woodinville, WA 98072

Big bows to the kind sangha members who help set up for Thursday evenings. It’s a blessing to do this good work with others, for others. Helping set up is a way to share the dharma for the community, so please sign up below!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/18OKEUO7ubunOG_q9r8MaBFWXqmWScOm4LIsv8MdnBU8/edit

On retreat it was happy to think of Eastside Insight, and the good work we do together. The sparkle of light we share together is a source of uplift for the world, so bows to all of you for your participation.

May all of you find balance and happiness in your hearts,

Steve

Dear Eastside Insight sangha,

As anticipated, I’m happy to share that Luang Por Liem, the most direct successor of Ven. Ajahn Chah, will be in Seattle this week through connections with Clear Mountain Monastery.

Luang Por Liem, and Luang Por Jundee, will be giving dharma talks at 6 p.m., Thursday, May 15, at Bloedel Hall at St. Mark’s Cathedral on Capitol Hill. Thus we will be cancelling Eastside Insight Meditation at the Northlake chapel, and then encouraging you, even urging you, to attend Luang Por Liem’s talk instead.

The talk will be in person and online, so please do whatever works for you. I’m going to be there in person.

This visit is very significant due to Ajahn Liem’s very deep practice and attainment for many decades, similar to the practice of Ajahn Jundee.

This morning at Clear Mountain, Ajahn Nisabho said, “It’s rare in a lifetime to meet beings like this.”

Here’s the Clear Mountain link about Ajahn Liem’s visit:

https://www.clearmountainmonastery.org/events/lp-liem-lp-jundee/

In 1982 Luang Por Liem was chosen by legendary 20th century Thai master Ajahn Chah, to lead Wat Nong Pah Pong, the wat Ajahn Chah founded, after the latter became ill.

Often in teachings we explore the importance of contact with highly awakened beings, in attuning our inner spiritual compass. There is almost magic there, the way in which contact with a highly awakened being helps us better see our own way forward on the path, our own potential for realization.

The visit is also a deep affirmation of the growth and deep ethics of Clear Mountain Monastery.

Rejoicing in the continued bright energy, kind energy, of Eastside Insight. Just by what we share together, we offer peace and equanimity to many.
 
May all of you find balance and happiness in your hearts,

Steve

Friends,

Often in teachings we explore the importance of contact with highly awakened beings, in honing our inner spiritual compass. There is almost magic there, the way in which contact with a highly awakened being helps us attune to our own way forward on the path, to our own potential for realization.

Looking ahead a bit, this region will in mid-May be blessed with a visit by Ajahn Liem, a Theravada monk who was one of the closest disciples of Ajahn Chah, the great 20th century Thai master. Ajahn Liem has been abbot of Wat Pah Pong, the monastery Ajahn Chah created, since Ajahn Chah’s death.

On May 15, Ajahn Liem may be teaching at St. Mark’s Cathedral at Capitol Hill through Clear Mountain Monastery.

If this does happen, we’ll cancel Eastside Insight for May 15, so you can attend his teaching either in person or online.

With all that in mind, for the upcoming Thursday, May 1 sit, I am planning to share some of my experience with great masters over the decades, in Asia and the United States. I’ve sought out contact with such contacts as a core part of the spiritual path, and I’ll be honored to share some of that transmission with you.

I’ll be doing my best to share what they gave, therefore not so much about my own journey, because ultimately this isn’t about “me.”

Thinking that this will give some preparation for contact with Ajahn Liem, if he does indeed teach on May 15.

This idea was originally proposed by sangha member Jonathan Stenberg, and thank you. (As an aside, any requests from sangha members for teachings or sets of teachings are always welcome..so keep them coming!)

We’ll be gathering at 7 p.m. on Thursday, May 1.

The URL for the evening will be https://tinyurl.com/Eastside-Insight-2025, or please come in person to the chapel at Northlake Unitarian Universalist Church, 315 3rd Ave S., Kirkland, WA 98033.

Please consider offering dana to Northlake Unitarian Universalist Church, which makes this space available on a dana-only basis, in a very kind and generous way. If you do, please mention you’re from Eastside Insight Meditation.

https://tinyurl.com/NorthlakeUU-Paypal2022

Also you're invited to offer dana to the teacher, with links and addresses below. Many thanks for your generous dana, which will be helping to pay for an upcoming retreat, to help me come back and better offer to all of you.

paypal.me/SteveWilhelm48
 
Steve Wilhelm
17623 184th Ave. NE
Woodinville, WA 98072

Big bows to the growing numbers of sangha members who have been stepping up to help set up for Thursday evenings. It’s a blessing to do this good work with others, and we have fun before everyone arrives, so please sign up below!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/18OKEUO7ubunOG_q9r8MaBFWXqmWScOm4LIsv8MdnBU8/edit

Hoping that Ajahn Liem will be teaching with Clear Mountain on May 15, so I’ll tell you as soon as this clarifies.

Also I will have some extra time in coming weeks, so very happy to sit down with anyone for a one-on-one dharma discussion about your practice, or your inner journey, or working with obstacles. We can do this in person or online. Just email me, and we’ll set something up.

Rejoicing in the continued bright energy, kind energy, of Eastside Insight. Just by what we share together, we offer peace and equanimity to many.

 
May all of you find balance and happiness in your hearts,

Steve

Friends,

The broader our compassion toward all beings, to include all beings seen and unseen, beings we agree with or not, beings we're close to or not, the bigger are our hearts and the better we can survive the vagaries of human existence.

For this upcoming Thursday, April 16 meeting of Eastside  Insight Meditation, we’ll be  exploring great compassion in Buddhist  tradition. We’ll see how great compassion directs us toward freedom, and not suffering, no matter the  outward conditions.

We’ll be gathering at 7 p.m. on Thursday, April 16.

The URL for the evening will be https://tinyurl.com/Eastside-Insight-2025,   or please come in person to the chapel at Northlake Unitarian Universalist Church, 315 3rd Ave S., Kirkland, WA 98033.

Please consider offering dana to Northlake Unitarian Universalist Church, which makes this space available on a dana-only basis, in a very kind and generous way. If you do, please mention you’re from Eastside Insight Meditation.

https://tinyurl.com/NorthlakeUU-Paypal2022

Also you're invited to offer dana to the teacher, with links and addresses below. Many thanks for your generous dana, which will be helping to pay for an upcoming retreat, to help me come back and better offer to all of you.

paypal.me/SteveWilhelm48
 
Steve Wilhelm
17623 184th Ave. NE
Woodinville, WA 98072

Big bows to the growing numbers of sangha members who have been stepping up to help set up for Thursday  evenings. It’s a blessing to do this good work with others, and we have fun before everyone arrives, so please sign up below!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/18OKEUO7ubunOG_q9r8MaBFWXqmWScOm4LIsv8MdnBU8/edit

Also, this Saturday, April 19, I’ll be offering a daylong in Port Townsend, on the theme of “No Enemies,” about cultivating loving-kindness and compassion toward all beings, even those with whom we disagree. Offering this acknowledging that the divisions of 2025 are difficult for so many of us.

https://www.ptsangha.org/day-long-retreat-april-19th/

All of you are welcome to join, either in person or  online. Some of you joining from the Eastside Insight  sangha would be a delightful addition to the good people of Port Townsend.

We are fortunate to be in sangha, to practice  the dharma together, in difficult times. Just in our practice, we have an opportunity to offer equanimity and kindness to others.
 
May all of you find peace and steadiness in your hearts,

Steve

Friends,

For this upcoming Thursday, April 3 Eastside Insight Meditation sit, we are happy to  again welcome friend and  colleague Emily Carpenter as a guest teacher.
 
Emily has visited Eastside Insight many times before, and is teaching this April 3, and last session March 20, while Ellen and  I are on Southwest pilgrimage. For these two weeks, Eastside Insight will only be online, because Emily will be Zooming from Portland.
 
Emily’s talk will be “Joy  on the path.”

She wrote:

 “We’ll explore joy in the Buddhist teachings, and as an experience in our practice and lives, and explore how it can help us stay balanced in times of great change and uncertainty.”

Emily has been practicing insight meditation since 1998. She was on staff at the Insight Meditation Society from 2009-2012 and graduated from Spirit Rock’s Community Dharma Leaders program in 2017. She deeply appreciates retreat practice and has completed over a year of silent retreat, mostly at IMS. Emily calls Portland home, where she owns a web design business and also works as an Internal Family Systems-informed life coach. In her free time, you can often find her enjoying the beautiful Pacific

The URL for the evening will be  https://tinyurl.com/Eastside-Insight-2025. Just to repeat, this sit will only be online.

You’re invited to offer dana to Emily, with the  Venmo link below.

@Emily-Carpenter-10

 Rejoicing in the  depth  and goodwill of this  sangha, as we share light, not-clinging and compassion together.  

 
Steve

Friends,

For this upcoming Thursday, March 20 Eastside Insight Meditation sit, we are happy to  welcome friend and  colleague Emily Carpenter as a guest teacher.
 

Emily has visited Eastside Insight many times before, and this time she’ll be offering the dharma on March 20 and April 3, while Ellen and  I are on Southwest pilgrimage. For these two weeks, Eastside Insight will only be online, because Emily will be Zooming from Portland.
 
Emily’s talk will be “Exploring what steadies us in times of great change,” a theme she may continue into the second  week.

She wrote:

 “What practices help us stay grounded and in our bodies, and what teachings support us to understand and practice wisdom and compassion right now, in our own lives and out in the world?

There will be a dhamma reflection, some time for dyad practice (for those who are interested) and also group discussion.”

 
Emily has been practicing insight meditation since 1998. She was on staff at the Insight Meditation Society from 2009-2012 and graduated from Spirit Rock’s Community Dharma Leaders program in 2017. She deeply appreciates retreat practice and has completed over a year of silent retreat, mostly at IMS. Emily calls Portland Oregon home where she owns a web design business and also works as an Internal Family Systems-informed life coach. In her free time, you can often find her enjoying the beautiful Pacific

The URL for the evening will be  https://tinyurl.com/Eastside-Insight-2025. Just to repeat, this sit will only be online.

You’re invited to offer dana to Emily, with the  Venmo link below.

@Emily-Carpenter-10

 Rejoicing in the  depth  and goodwill of this  sangha, as we share light, not-clinging and compassion together.  

 
Steve

We invite you to join Seattle Insight co-guiding teacher Tim Geil and assistant teacher Steve Wilhelm, and members of the graduating Eastside and Seattle Insight Introductory Meditation Classes in a day of sitting and walking meditation in the Vipassana tradition on Saturday, March 15th, from 9 am to 4:30 pm PDT. This event, to which all interested meditation practitioners are welcome, will be meet in a hybrid setting, both In-Person and Online simultaneously. Zoom log in information and more detailed information about how the Day of Mindfulness will unfold will be emailed to registrants by the day before the event.

Registration and Information here: Day of Mindfulness (In Person and Online)

Despite the "Introduction to Meditation" title, this series is really for anyone, whether you've just starting practicing or have for years. The goal is to give you tools and understandings that will keep your meditation practices alive, growing and fruitful, to serve you in coming years.

The series will include teachings, meditation, discussion and camaraderie. Always in these classes we build community, so it's a warm and delightful time.

Below is the URL to sign up. While there's a requested donation from Seattle Insight, nobody for whom the donation does not work is turned away. Yes, we'd be happy to have a few volunteers to help set up.

Eastside Introductory Class Series (In-Person and Online)

Friends,

For these two sessions we’re exploring the core Buddhist ethics – the five  precepts – and their pivotal role in the spiritual path, and in living a happy  daily life.

(Big thanks to sangha member Bonnie  Kosmyna, whose idea this was.)

As many of you know, Buddhist ethics -  sila in Pali – isn’t exactly a moral code but  rather a way of cultivating healthy  actions of body, speech and mind that support us  and others in life. Also it’s not a crisp boundary of right and wrong, but rather a training, a core part of our Dharma practice.

For the first session we explored the three most straightforward of the five:  training in not killing, training in not lying, training in not stealing. We saw how subtle these three can be, and how much these become a diamond edge in our practice.

For this upcoming second session we’re going to be exploring the far more ambiguous last two – training in not abusing intoxicants and cloud the mind, and training in avoiding sexual misconduct. These are more ambiguous because they’re so  connected to activities that to some of us, some of the  time, are acceptable, because these are conditioned by cultural standards, and because they have so much to do with intent.

We’ll be gathering at 7 p.m. on Thursday, March 6.

The URL for the evening will be https://tinyurl.com/Eastside-Insight-2025,   or please come in person to the chapel at Northlake Unitarian Universalist Church, 315 3rd Ave S., Kirkland, WA 98033.


Please consider offering dana to Northlake Unitarian Universalist Church, which makes this space available on a dana-only basis, in a very kind and generous way. If you do, please mention you’re from Eastside Insight Meditation.

https://tinyurl.com/NorthlakeUU-Paypal2022

Also you're invited to offer dana to the teacher, with links and addresses below. Many thanks for your generous dana, which will be helping to pay for an upcoming retreat, to help me come back and better offer to all of you.

paypal.me/SteveWilhelm48
 
Steve Wilhelm
17623 184th Ave. NE
Woodinville, WA 98072

Big bows to the sangha members who step up to help set up for Thursday  evenings. It’s a blessing to do this good work with others, and we have fun before everyone arrives, so please sign up below!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/18OKEUO7ubunOG_q9r8MaBFWXqmWScOm4LIsv8MdnBU8/edit

Looking ahead, I’m happy to share that Portland teacher Emily Carpenter will be leading Eastside Insight remotely for two upcoming Thursdays, March 20 and April 3. Ellen and I will be on pilgrimage in the Southwest during that period, and big  thanks to Emily!

We are fortunate to be in sangha, to practice  the dharma together, in difficult times. Just in our practice, we have an opportunity to offer equanimity and kindness to others.
 
May all of you find peace and steadiness in your hearts,

Steve

Despite the "Introduction to Meditation" title, this series is really for anyone, whether you've just starting practicing or have for years. The goal is to give you tools and understandings that will keep your meditation practices alive, growing and fruitful, to serve you in coming years.

The series will include teachings, meditation, discussion and camaraderie. Always in these classes we build community, so it's a warm and delightful time.

Below is the URL to sign up. While there's a requested donation from Seattle Insight, nobody for whom the donation does not work is turned away. Yes, we'd be happy to have a few volunteers to help set up.

Eastside Introductory Class Series (In-Person and Online)

Despite the "Introduction to Meditation" title, this series is really for anyone, whether you've just starting practicing or have for years. The goal is to give you tools and understandings that will keep your meditation practices alive, growing and fruitful, to serve you in coming years.

The series will include teachings, meditation, discussion and camaraderie. Always in these classes we build community, so it's a warm and delightful time.

Below is the URL to sign up. While there's a requested donation from Seattle Insight, nobody for whom the donation does not work is turned away. Yes, we'd be happy to have a few volunteers to help set up.

Eastside Introductory Class Series (In-Person and Online)

Friends,

For the next two sessions we’re going to be exploring the core Buddhist ethics – the five  precepts – and their pivotal role in the spiritual path, and in living a happy  daily life.

(Big thanks to sangha member Bonnie  Kosmyna, whose idea this was.)

As many of you know, Buddhist ethics -  sila in Pali – isn’t exactly a moral code but  rather a way of cultivating healthy  actions of body, speech and mind that support us  and others in life. Also it’s not a crisp boundary of right and wrong, but rather a training, a core part of our Dharma practice.

For this first session will be exploring the three most straightforward of the five:  training in not killing, training in not lying, training in not stealing. We’ll see how subtle these three can be, and how much these become a diamond edge in our practice.

We’ll be gathering at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 20.

The URL for the evening will be https://tinyurl.com/Eastside-Insight-2025,   or please come in person to the chapel at Northlake Unitarian Universalist Church, 315 3rd Ave S., Kirkland, WA 98033.


Please consider offering dana to Northlake Unitarian Universalist Church, which makes this space available on a dana-only basis, in a very kind and generous way. If you do, please mention you’re from Eastside Insight Meditation.

https://tinyurl.com/NorthlakeUU-Paypal2022

Also you're invited to offer dana to the teacher, with links and addresses below. Many thanks for your generous dana, which will be helping to pay for an upcoming retreat, to help me come back and better offer to all of you.

paypal.me/SteveWilhelm48
 
Steve Wilhelm
17623 184th Ave. NE
Woodinville, WA 98072

Big bows to the growing numbers of sangha members who have been stepping up to help set up for Thursday  evenings. It’s a blessing to do this good work with others, and we have fun before everyone arrives, so please sign up below!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/18OKEUO7ubunOG_q9r8MaBFWXqmWScOm4LIsv8MdnBU8/edit



Big thanks to Jason Bartlett for his  wonderful teachings on Feb. 6. As promised, here’s a link to a recording of his teachings.

https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/my-drive
 
We are fortunate to be in sangha, to practice  the dharma together, in difficult times. Just in our practice, we have an opportunity to offer equanimity and kindness to others.
 
May all of you find peace and steadiness in your hearts,

Steve

Despite the "Introduction to Meditation" title, this series is really for anyone, whether you've just starting practicing or have for years. The goal is to give you tools and understandings that will keep your meditation practices alive, growing and fruitful, to serve you in coming years.

The series will include teachings, meditation, discussion and camaraderie. Always in these classes we build community, so it's a warm and delightful time.

Below is the URL to sign up. While there's a requested donation from Seattle Insight, nobody for whom the donation does not work is turned away. Yes, we'd be happy to have a few volunteers to help set up.

Eastside Introductory Class Series (In-Person and Online)

Despite the "Introduction to Meditation" title, this series is really for anyone, whether you've just starting practicing or have for years. The goal is to give you tools and understandings that will keep your meditation practices alive, growing and fruitful, to serve you in coming years.

The series will include teachings, meditation, discussion and camaraderie. Always in these classes we build community, so it's a warm and delightful time.

Below is the URL to sign up. While there's a requested donation from Seattle Insight, nobody for whom the donation does not work is turned away. Yes, we'd be happy to have a few volunteers to help set up.

Eastside Introductory Class Series (In-Person and Online)

Friends,

For this upcoming Thursday, Feb. 6 Eastside Insight Meditation sit, we are happy to  welcome friend and  colleague Jason Bartlett as a guest teacher.

As some of you know, Jason leads Luminous  Dharma, an online group. He also leads retreats at Cloud Mountain and  elsewhere across the country.

The title of his talk Thursday will be: Exploring Samādhi and Wise Effort

“Jason will share perspectives on samadhi as part of the path, and how its appearance varies greatly among different practitioners. This will point to the integral roles of wise effort and ethical conduct, the roots of samadhi and liberating insight.”

Jason began training in Buddhism in 1993. He teaches an understanding of Buddhism applicable to the tumult of daily life. His specializations include prajñāpāramitā, emptiness and non-dual practices, liberating insight work, niànfó/recollection of the Buddha, breath meditation methods, jhāna, and Taoist zuòwáng.

The URL for the evening will be  https://tinyurl.com/Eastside-Insight-2025, and please note  that  this is  a new  URL for this year. Don’t use  last year’s  URL, because it won’t work.

Or, please come in person to the chapel at Northlake Unitarian Universalist Church, 315 3rd Ave S., Kirkland, WA 98033. While Jason will be Zooming in, we’ll continue  to gather in  person for the  evening, at 7 p.m. as usual.

Please consider offering dana to Northlake Unitarian Universalist Church, which makes this space available on a dana-only basis, in a very kind and generous way. If you do, please mention you’re from Eastside Insight Meditation.

https://tinyurl.com/NorthlakeUU-Paypal2022

Also you're invited to offer dana to Jason, with the  link below. Any cash dana  will be forwarded to him.

https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/luminousdharma
 

Big bows to the growing numbers of sangha members who have been stepping up to help set up for Thursday  evenings. It’s a blessing to do this good work with others, and we have fun before everyone arrives, so please sign up below!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/18OKEUO7ubunOG_q9r8MaBFWXqmWScOm4LIsv8MdnBU8/edit

 
Last chance  for the six-week meditation course I’m offering in Kirkland, on six Wednesday evenings at 7 p.m., starting Feb. 5. This series is intended for people new to the practice as well as those already practicing who wish to deepen. Please sign up if you’re interested, and mention it to friends who may benefit. I’m happy to answer any questions.

We have one  Eastside volunteer for this series, and a second would be wonderful. This is a way you can support  the dharma, and also support people attending the series, who wish to deepen their dharma practice. Please step forward if you wish to volunteer, and email me at  stevellen95@comcast.net

Here’s a link for the series - https://seattleinsight.org/event/eastside-introductory-class-series-feb-2025-2/
 
With great gratitude for this noble sangha, and for all your kind hearts, as we enter the new year.
 
Steve

Despite the "Introduction to Meditation" title, this series is really for anyone, whether you've just starting practicing or have for years. The goal is to give you tools and understandings that will keep your meditation practices alive, growing and fruitful, to serve you in coming years.

The series will include teachings, meditation, discussion and camaraderie. Always in these classes we build community, so it's a warm and delightful time.

Below is the URL to sign up. While there's a requested donation from Seattle Insight, nobody for whom the donation does not work is turned away. Yes, we'd be happy to have a few volunteers to help set up.

Eastside Introductory Class Series (In-Person and Online)

Eastside Sangha Friends,
 
Here’s a reminder that the Jan. 25 Eastside Insight daylong – In Spite of It All, Finding Joy in 2025 – is at its heart an Eastside daylong.

We would have done it at Northlake Church in Kirkland but couldn’t get the  space  freed, and having  the retreat early in the year  seemed important.

So  please if you are interested, do sign up. It will be in-person and online, so either will work.

The retreat is extremely accessible on transit, if driving across seems challenging. The Metro 255 bus goes through the Kirkland Transit Center near the library, and then on to the South Kirkland Park & Ride, and then directly to the University District.

The bus runs frequently even on Saturdays, and it finishes at Campus Parkway, a five-minute walk to the Seattle Insight Meditation Society center, which is in the University Friends building.

So Eastside is the daylong that we’re even using the Eastside hybrid system. Big  bows to Eric Shinkle, who will be tech wingman during the daylong and who is going over early with me to set up. Bows also to Brittany Levenson, who is doing the dharma talk.

I hope to see you at the daylong, which Lyndal and I are specifically creating to give people dharma tools to navigate what promises to be a difficult year. Here’s the URL - https://seattleinsight.org/event/in-spite-of-it-all-finding-joy-in-2025/

Happy to answer any questions, with smiles and love.

Steve
206-819-5286
 

Friends,

Welcoming Eastside folks, or anyone, to a daylong meditation retreat this Saturday, Nov. 13.

The subject will be the five aspects of our experience that make up our sense of self. The more aware we can be of these five as they arise and pass, the freer we’ll be, the less in their thrall.

Some of you may know these five by various names: skandhas (Sanskrit), khandhas (Pali), or aggregates. The English term alludes to the way these five can set a sense of self as stiff as concrete, until we loosen this with mindfulness.

The daylong will be online and in-person, so take your pick. The in-person gathering will be in the sanctuary of Northlake Unitarian Universalist Church, in Kirkland. The online gathering will be via Zoom, and they’ll be laced together into a hybrid format.

For either approach please register via the Seattle Insight Meditation Society website. There is further information there including directions to the site, plus you need to register to get the link for the retreat. Please also look there for Covid protocols.

https://seattleinsight.org/event/aggregates-unpacking-the-self-111321/

The retreat will be from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., and please plan to be there a few minutes early. If you’re planning to be in-person, please bring something warm like a shawl or blanket for inside, because windows will be open and fans will be running, and also rain gear for walking outside. And maybe lunch.

We won’t be serving coffee or tea, so please bring either in a thermos, to drink outside the hall.

The teachings will be offered by Lyndal Johnson and Steve Wilhelm

There is no requested donation for the event itself, because Northlake is considering the event a boon for church members as well as the larger community, and is offering the space.

There will be opportunities for you to express generosity back by offering support to Northlake; to Seattle Insight Meditation Society, which has provided lots of background support; and to the teachers.

If you have any questions please email Steve Wilhelm at stevellen95@comcast.net.

May this gathering be fruitful for all. We hope to see you there!