The four brahmaviharas, considered to be the highest qualities of heart and well-being, can be very consciously nurtured and cultivated.  Much like we might dwell at home, over the months and years of practice, we can learn more and more how to dwell in these qualities.  We can actually become that kind, calm, compassionate home and refuge for ourselves and others.  Kindness, compassion, appreciative joy and equanimity can be the actual home from which we dwell. 
 
Gratitude is an incredibly rich practice and one of the powers we can use to discover more balance in our lives.  When everything around us seems to be coming undone, the fourth brahmavihara, equanimity, can bring about balanced awareness, almost like the ground beneath our feet that we can access when things get difficult.
 
Gratitude, or appreciation, can seem like a simple practice.  We all know what it feels like to practice gratitude.  But the truth is, modern science has shown that it really isn’t in our nature to nurture this quality or even be aware of it most of the time.
 
We humans are actually wired to be aware of things that can go wrong, rather than appreciate of all the things that are actually going right in our lives.  As human beings, the strongest emotion that we feel is Fear.  It’s actually built right into our DNA.  While we have needed this trait in our collective past, as our environment has become increasingly relatively safe, fear is showing up as what we now call “negative bias”.
 
When we are so focused on what’s wrong all the time, we create groves in the mind that act as the default for our mind habits.  But the good news is that we can use the practice of mindfulness meditation to literally change the way our mind works, to create new neuro pathways.  We can use our meditation practice on a daily basis to notice what we are feeling grateful for, as a counterbalance to that built-in negativity bias. 
 
As a way of practicing the incredibly transformative quality of gratitude, it’s been said that instead of focusing on everything that’s wrong with ourselves, other people, or the world … we should ask: “What’s NOT wrong?”  This quality of thankfulness is so powerful, in fact, it’s considered one of two main antidotes to our experience of fear. It also cultivates the very highest fruit of our practice, equanimity.
 
When we can use our mindfulness practice to access this quality more and more often, eventually, we can live from a place of thankfulness, rather than from a place of complaint.  It's simply a practice of looking for what’s right, rather than what’s wrong, especially when it comes to combating our fear. 

Shop at our garage sale – Tomorrow, Friday September 2^nd from 8 until 3pm at Sangha House, 2332 Sandpoint Road.  All proceeds go to UNICEF in support of Ukrainian children affected by the war.

We had a fantastic and energetic crew of people who helped clean Sangha House in August.  Thank you very much to everyone who stayed to help with a deep cleaning.  We really accomplished a great deal!

We are excited about all of the fall offerings at IMFW. 

• Book Group will be doing a peer led study of the book; The Skill of Living: The Buddha’s Path for Developing Skillful Qualities by Peter Doobinin.  Please note the change; Book Group will be meeting in person on the third Tuesday of the month (a change from the first Tuesday).  All are welcome.  Please sign up here.
• We will host a nonresidential retreat with visiting teacher, Joan Staubach who is teaching on the Ānāpānasati Sutta (mindfulness of breathing) October 7, 8 and 9^th.  The retreat is offered freely and we gratefully accept dana, for the teacher and the space.  The dana boxes are near the entry to the meditation hall. The Friday evening talk, Oct. 7 at 7pm, is open to the public.  Registration is required for the Saturday and Sunday sessions.  Anyone interested in signing up for the weekend, please enroll here.
• IMFW resident teacher Drew Consalvo is teaching the very popular Introduction to Insight Meditation class, every Monday evening in November.   Drew is a wise and accessible teacher.  Please sign up early as this class fills up quickly.  The class is in-person only, there will be no Zoom offering.  You can sign up here.
• Annual Meeting and Potluck – save the date!  November 8^th immediately following the dharma talk.  Bring a dish, enjoy a meal and community.  We will have a brief meeting about how IMFW is doing, with a look at what is coming up.  We look forward to seeing everyone there.

Our mission is to provide for the study and practice of Insight (Vipassanā) Meditation according to the Theravāda Buddhist religious tradition and to support and encourage the development of community based upon Buddhist ideals, teachings and practices.

IMFW is entirely supported by voluntary donations that embody the ancient practice of dāna or generosity. The teachings are always offered freely and practitioners are invited to offer support that matches their own financial means, and/or by volunteering time and talents to support the teachers and the upkeep of Sangha House.

Proceeds to benefit Insight Meditation Fort Wayne (IMFW)

Visit our Fall Garage Sale on Friday, September 2nd from 8 am until 3 pm

Shop till you drop at our fall garage sale at 2332 Sandpoint Road, on Friday September 2nd from 8a.m. to 3 p.m. for some good deals, great finds and to support the Ukrainian refugees. All proceeds will be donated to UNICEF who is working to feed the millions of displaced Ukrainian children.

If you would like to help Josh by setting up or working the day of the garage sale you may contact us via email at InsightMeditationFW@gmail.com.

You can learn more about UNICEF by clicking here.

Save the date! 
 
IMFW welcomes back, Tri-state Dharma teacher, Joan Staubach, for a two and a half day, nonresidential retreat in Fort Wayne.
 
Joan will be teaching on the Anapanasati Sutta, which is one of most revered teachings of the Buddha.  The sutta starts with mindfulness of breathing, but it goes way deeper than that.  On this retreat with Joan, we explore this teaching in detail.  It is suitable for beginning as well as experienced practitioners.
 
Joan will offer a public talk on Friday night October 7^th from 7-8 pm which is open to all, even if you do not plan to attend the retreat.  There is no need to register for this talk.  The weekend retreat on Saturday is from 9:00 am-5:00 pm and the Sunday session is from 9:00 am-3:00 pm.  It is preferred that all registered retreatants attend all sessions if at all possible.  A more detailed schedule will be sent to registered attendees.

The Ānāpānasati Sutta (Pāli), "Breath-Mindfulness Discourse," Majjhima Nikaya 118, is a discourse that details the Buddha's instruction on using awareness of the breath (anapana) as an initial focus for meditation. The sutta includes sixteen steps of practice, and groups them into four tetrads, associating them with the four satipatthanas (placings of mindfulness). According to American scholar monk, Thanissaro Bhikkhu, this sutta contains the most detailed meditation instructions in the Pali Canon. The Theravada version of the Anapanasati Sutta lists sixteen steps to relax and compose the mind and body. According to Ajahn Sujato, the ultimate goal of Anapanasati is to bear insight and understanding into the Four Foundations of Mindfulness (Satipaṭṭhāna), the Seven Factors of Awakening (Bojjhangas), and ultimately Nibbana.
 
Joan Staubach is an active member and past president of Tri-State Dharma in Cincinnati, OH. She is an experienced practitioner of Insight Meditation. She has been practicing since 1999. She has taught and co-taught Tri-State’s New Year’s Retreat for over 10 years, led daylong retreats, and taught numerous Insight Meditation classes.  She has undertaken training retreats with Matthew Flickstein on Sharing the Dharma.
 
There is no fee for this retreat, but you will be given the opportunity to offer dana (Pali for generosity) in whatever amount you’re comfortable with.

Sign-up will be available on our website soon.

A new date.
A new book.
A new year.

Book Study resumes this fall.  Our next book study begins October 18th, on the third Tuesday of the month, immediately following the Dharma talk. The Skill of Living: The Buddha’s Path for Developing Skillful Qualities by Peter Doobinin is the book we will be exploring.   

We meet immediately after Sangha at 2332 Sandpoint Road, from about 7:00 to 8:00 p.m. on the third Tuesday of each month October 2022 through May 2023.  (This is a change of dates from previous years.)  We welcome anyone who is interested in pursuing a deeper understanding of the book.  It is a peer-led study group.

You need to procure your own book.  It is available on Amazon here and on Bookshop here.

Everyone is welcome.  If you have questions about this study group, please feel free to contact Rachel Taykowski at rltakowski@gmail.com  or contact us at insightmeditationFW@gmail.com. You can sign up here.

A four-week Introduction to Insight Meditation Class will be offered by the Insight Meditation Fort Wayne meditation community starting Monday, November 7 and running until November 28, beginning at 6:30 p.m. and lasting about an hour.  Drew Consalvo is teaching.

The classes will be held at the Sangha House at 2332 Sandpoint Rd.    

While there is no fee for the class, a donation box will be available for those who wish to express their gratitude to the Insight Meditation Fort Wayne community for freely offering this class.  Please sign up for the class on our website; https://www.imfw.org/intro-scheduled

We teach Insight Meditation, a practice that trains the mind to be aware of what is happening, when it is happening. When we begin to see our experience more clearly, we become better able to make choices about how we might live our lives with less stress and anxiety.  As the mind settles and can see more clearly into the difficult situations of our lives, the qualities of love, compassion and wisdom naturally arise.

Insight Meditation, or Vipassana, has been practiced for over 2,600 years, since the time of the Buddha.  This lineage is practiced primarily in Thailand, Burma, India, Sri Lanka and now in Europe, Australia, many parts of Africa, and the United States.

Learning to meditate is not about becoming a Buddhist; it is not about adopting new concepts or dogmas.  It is not a scholarly pursuit nor is it tied to a belief system. Insight Meditation practice is useful no matter what your religious or spiritual orientation and can support your existing spiritual path, no matter what it is.