Dear Friends,

Tuesday evening, at 6 pm, January 31, all sangha members are invited to attend the annual Refuge-Precepts Ceremony.  It is the time each year when IMFW gathers to participate in reaffirming our commitment to Buddhist practice.

The New Year often brings fresh intention and resolution.  However, the goals we set for the year are often difficult to reach, and we end up feeling needless guilt and shame.  The Buddhist teachings offer another way to look at intention and aspiration, to see it more as a practice rather than some goal to attain.

The Precepts Ceremony done each year at IMFW, and sometimes daily or weekly in monasteries, reminds us of the foundation of our moral and ethical conduct practice.  The five precepts provide us with an orientation that can help spark virtuous activity in our every-day life.

Virtue can have a heavily moralistic or religious overtone, but Buddhist practice views ethical conduct as our determination to develop the wisdom to clearly see how the world works and the compassion to always hold the welfare of others in mind.

The precepts are guidelines, not rules to make us feel guilt or shame.  They are ways to help raise our level of awareness to what is going on at a particular moment in our life and whether practicing them leads to happiness, if practiced.  They are a basic structure that can form our life path to Do No Harm.

The Precepts ceremony on January 31, invites those present to undertake the five basic precepts to not harm others through our speech and actions. The precepts are:

1. I undertake to refrain from killing and harming living beings.
2. I undertake to refrain from stealing and taking that which is not mine.
3. I undertake to refrain from causing harm through sexual misconduct.
4. I undertake to refrain from false speech, harmful speech, gossip, and slander.
5. I undertake to refrain from the misuse of intoxicants or substances such as alcohol or drugs that cause carelessness or loss of awareness.

"The positive power of virtue is enormous.  When we don’t live by these precepts, it is said we live like wild beasts; without them, all other spiritual practice is a sham.  Imagine trying to sit down to meditate after a day of lying and stealing.  Then imagine what a different world this would be if everyone kept even one precept-not to kill, not to lie, not to steal.  We would truly create a new world order."

(Jack Kornfield, A Path with Heart)

Preceding the precepts ceremony, we will chant the three refuges. This will be a call and response chanting of taking refuge in the Buddha, the Dhamma and the Sangha.  The following is a brief description of each refuge.

1. I go to the Buddha for refuge.  When we take refuge in the Buddha, it is not taking refuge in the man who was called Buddha as a god or energy source but refuge in the “awakened,” knowing faculty of all hearts and minds. After enlightenment, the Buddha was asked by those he met along the road, “Who are you?”  He answered, “I am awake.”  We make a commitment to mindfulness, to awaken.  We make a commitment to our knowing what is true in the present moment.  When we take refuge in the Buddha, we are acknowledging confidence in the practice of wakefulness.

2. I go to the Dhamma for refuge.  When we take refuge in the Dhamma, it is more than the words that were spoken by Buddha.  We take refuge in truth, the way it is in the here and now.  When we take refuge in the Dhamma, we are surrendering to the impermanent, selfless nature, and unsatisfactoriness of life, not our belief of how life should be if we could control it. We have confidence that “letting go” of beliefs and opinions can lead to happiness. We have awareness that trying to “hold on” to things causes suffering.  We have faith in the natural law of experience—that all causes have effects.  We open to the truth, to the way life actually is; the orderliness of the truth of nature itself and how it functions.  There is no refuge in the conditioned reality of greed, hatred and delusion.  The world our mind creates and that we cling to is illusion and causes suffering.  Therefore we take refuge in the here and now.

3. I go to the Sangha for refuge.  We have faith and commitment to those who are practicing to awaken to the truth.  It is you and I, those of us who recognize this as a path to Truth.  It is individuals and groups committed to recognizing the truth in the now.  We place confidence in this group that is practicing together and supporting each other in our practice.  In the Sangha we have faith that letting go of self-centered views and self-concern is necessary and that this leads to a noble, unselfish response to life.

When the awakened heart knows the way things truly are, what springs forth is harmonious and virtuous action.

Happy New Year!  If you are like most people, you’ve made several New Year’s resolutions to be a better human, get fit, and walk a spiritual path.  We are here to help you realize one of your goals by offering support along a spiritual path.

To help keep your practice fresh and relevant in 2023 we continue to offer:

• Tuesday Meditation at 6 pm, followed by a Dharma talk.  Come and see for yourself what a difference it makes to meditate with like-minded people.  We offer a Zoom option for Tuesday nights if you are not able to join us in person.
• Sunday at 10 am, we offer a 45 minute silent meditation, which is usually followed by hot tea and lively talk.
• Second Tuesday Tea, which is immediately following the dharma talk.  Join us for tea and conversation.
• Book Group continues to explore Peter Doobinin’s book, The Skill of Living, and meets on the third Tuesday, immediately following the Dharma talk.
• We help facilitate KM groups.  If you are interested in starting a spiritual friends’ group –https://www.imfw.org/kalyana-mitta click here.
• During the cold and dark winter months we keep our offerings close to our core.  Our teachers are willing to help with one-on-one facilitation of deepening your practice.  You can contact them via email at insightmeditationfw@gmail.com

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.