From the Anguttara Nikaya Sutta:
 
"There are two persons who are rare in the world. Which two? First the person who volunteers to help others selflessly and second, the one who is grateful and helps in return.”

The Buddha frequently referenced gratitude in his teachings, and in the above sutta he discusses how rare it is to find someone who is truly grateful for help he or she receives.
 
The Board of Directors is profoundly grateful for your support and your practice, especially as we reached out to you in our fundraising efforts to replace the roof of our beloved Sangha House and garage.  Your generosity to Insight Meditation Fort Wayne allows you and everyone who practices here to be nourished by teachings of wisdom and compassion.  We, then, more wisely contribute to world we all share.
 
Practicing the act of giving cultivates a spirit of caring and acknowledges our deep interconnectedness.  Your generosity is a concrete manifestation of your metta practice-your intention to offer goodwill to all beings.
 
“When people in great numbers choose to practice, integrate and embody gratitude, the cumulative force that is generated can help create the kind of world we all hope for and desire, for ourselves and for future generations.”  Gil Fronsdal
 
Over the years that I have taught at IMFW, my gratitude to the IMFW community has grown.  It has been my good fortune to be a part of a community of people who have so much interest in the practice and teachings of the Buddha.  The more IMFW has grown, the more we aspire to benefit the world around us.  It feels natural to follow the Buddha’s encouragement to work “for the welfare and happiness of this world.”
 
We appreciate all you contribute to our ability to support many people and want our continuing efforts at IMFW to continue to inspire and delight you. 

With lovingkindness
Tammy Dyer
Founding and Guiding Teacher

We did it!  We all did it.  We raised $19,000! This number includes the generous matching funds and reflects what has been donated through the end of July. I am thrilled to announce that we raised enough money to replace our roof shingles on both the main building and garage.  We have raised enough to cover the cost of the roof repairs and a little to spare. Any money in excess of the cost of roofing will be held in account for further work on our building.  The building had once belonged to an interior decorator and sat empty for 20 years before IMFW renovated it.  However, it is still the old structure at heart and we know other needs will arise.  We are so grateful for the spirit of generosity in which so many people financially supported this needed repair. 
 
Joan Staubach returns to guide our Fall Retreat. Joan is a teacher with Tri-State Dharma and a student of Matt Flickstein. The retreat begins on Friday, October 20^th with an evening talk, which is open to the public.  We meet on Saturday and Sunday, Oct 21 and 22 at 2332 Sandpoint Road.  All teachings are offered freely, we ask that you support our organization and our teachers through your generous gift of dana.  Please sign up for the retreat here.
 
Book Group is beginning in October 17^th with a new book: Real Life: The Journey from Isolation to Openness and Freedom, by Sharon Salzberg.  Please sign up here.  Book Group meets on the third Tuesday of the month, immediately following the Tuesday night Dharma talk.  Join us for a deeper look at Sharon’s book.
 
Our popular Introduction to Insight Meditation class is being offered Monday evenings this November.  This class fills up quickly, so if you are interested, please sign up here.  Drew Consalvo, one of the resident teachers at IMFW, is a wise and humorous teacher, who has a way of making difficult subjects accessible.

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 Welcomes Joan Staubach to Fort Wayne to lead our Fall Retreat. Joan Staubach will be facilitating the IMFW Fall Retreat October 20-22, 2023, entitled “You Are What You Think: Being Kind to Your Mind.”

Joan Staubach is an active member and past president of Tri-State Dharma. She is an experienced practitioner of Insight Meditation. She has been on over 30 week-long or longer residential retreats. She has taught and co-taught the New Years Retreat for many years, led daylong retreats, and taught numerous Insight Meditation classes. She has taken training retreats with Matthew Flickstein on Sharing the Dharma. 

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO REGISTER FOR THIS CLASS OR TO LEARN MORE, PLEASE ENTER YOUR CONTACT INFO HERE.
 

Join us for an exploration of the book Real Life: The Journey from Isolation to Openness and Freedom by Sharon Salzberg.  We begin meeting on October 17.  We meet on the third Tuesday of the month immediately following Tuesday night meditation and the dharma talk, usually 7:15 to 8:15 pm.  You do need to have your own copy of the book and please read the first chapter by the first meeting.

Anyone interested in doing this study of the book, please sign up on line at https://www.imfw.org/book-study.  We ask that you do sign up in order to receive any communication about this meeting.  As always at IMFW, all courses are offered freely.  This course is offered in person only at 2332 Sandpoint Road, Fort Wayne, IN.

You can find the book online at Amazon or Bookshop.

Sharon Salzberg is a revered teacher of Insight Meditation and one of the founders of the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Mass. She is also a New York Times bestselling author.  Real Life is her latest book and is currently only available in hardback.

We are offering the very popular Introduction to Insight Meditation course. This four week class meets every Monday evening during November, beginning at 6:30 pm lasting for about an hour.  Drew Consalvo, resident teacher at IMFW, is teaching.  This class is offered in person only and meets at 2332 Sandpoint Road, Fort Wayne, In.  If you are interested in attending or would like more information about the course, please sign up here.

Insight Meditation is 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 is a way to help cultivate that state of mind.

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 is and can support your existing spiritual path, no matter what that is.

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

While there is no fee for the class, donation boxes will be available for those who wish to express their gratitude to the teacher, or the Insight Meditation Fort Wayne community for freely offering this class.

A word about Scholarships:
 
We offer financial assistance through IMFW to our sangha members who, wishing to deepen their practice through a retreat, have found the cost to be prohibitive.  You can ask any board member about applying for this assistance. 
 
Many teachers speak about the importance of being diligent in pursuing a daily meditation practice. After developing such a practice myself and staying with it for several years, the benefits have begun to show themselves. I’ve come to think of it as my daily meditation “habit.” Teachers also talk about how retreats, especially longer retreats, can serve to really deepen one’s practice in more profound ways.

I’ve been on many one-day and weekend retreats over the past several years but never felt like a weeklong retreat was in the cards for me as long as I was still working. I had desire but felt like, being self-employed, it just wasn’t fair to my partner for me to take time off work as well as spend our income on something just for myself. The scholarship program at IMFW always felt like something others could use more than I could. I certainly wouldn’t consider myself to be poor or destitute so I felt unworthy of taking financial assistance especially if there was someone else who wanted and needed it more than I. I felt guilty for not going on retreat, guilty for spending too much to go on retreat, and guilty for asking for assistance to go on retreat! That’s a lot of guilt!

After much encouragement from the board members at IMFW, I finally came to the conclusion that I am indeed worthy of being considered for a scholarship. I was denying myself the opportunity to deepen my practice because of how much it would cost and I believe that is exactly the purpose for the scholarship fund’s existence.

The gift of receiving a scholarship reduced my stress and allowed me to focus on studying the dharma. So I attended a weeklong retreat in July and the teachers were right again! After 3-4 days the mind starts to give up its fight to be heard. Space opens up. Possibilities are more accessible. These as well as other benefits followed me home and back into my daily meditation practice too. Now I’m looking forward to my next weeklong retreat and hold much gratitude towards IMFW for helping me get there.