TBA IMG
Insight Meditation Group of Houston

1-Day Meditation Retreat March 23rd, 2013 Beautiful day at the American Bodhi Center (ABC), with more than 20 yogis practiced meditation under the guidance of Ven. Katapunno started 9:00am.  The day ended with a Dharma talk based on the book "In This Very Life" by Sayādaw U Pandita and Metta Sutta chant. One of the many lessons from Sayādaw U Pandita's book is about happiness in letting go or simply living a simple contented life. The story: " ... of a man who worked as a basket weaver. He was a simple man who enjoyed weaving his baskets. He whistled and sang and passed the day happily as he worked. At night he retired to his little hut and slept well. One day a wealthy man passed by and saw this poor wretched basket weaver. He was filled with compassion and gave him a thousand dollars. “Take this,” he said, and go enjoy yourself.” The basket weaver took the money with much appreciation. He had never seen a thousand dollars in his life. He took i...

A beautiful morning arriving at the American Bodhi Center and saw Ven K already waiting to greet us with his faithful companion, "Lai Mew".  For the next hour before people arrived we set around preparing and organizing the meditation hall and the computer projections for the afternoon class. Yogi started arriving and more than 30 yogi came and practice meditation and listen to the teaching January 2013.  It is a strong showing for the beginning of the New Year.  May all be well and happy. CULTIVATING THE FACTORS THAT LEAD TO ENLIGHTENMENT The sixth way of sharpening the controlling faculties is cultivating the factors of enlightenment: mindfulness, investigation, energy, rapture or joy, tranquility, concentration, and equanimity. These qualifies of mind, or mental factors, are actually the causes which bring about enlightenment. When they are present and alive in one’s mind, the moment of enlightenment is being encouraged, and may be said ...

Happy New Year and yes it's time to renew the pursuit "Happiness". Come join us for the first meditation retreat at the American Bodhi Center (ABC) Saturday January 26th starting at 9AM. No this is not and ad to entice you buy more stuff or go to see the world. These are all external stimuli that keeps us entertained but never completely satisfied. Because they not not last. I saw a poster and it tell of a man asking the Buddha "I want happiness" and the Buddha's answer is to take away the "I" that is ego and remove the "want" that is desire. Then we are left with "Happiness". TED video on "The habits of happiness" by Matthieu Ricard ( http://www.ted.com/talks/matthieu_ricard_on_the_habits_of_happiness.html ) To arrange for car pool we have two locations: - SW (near the temple) contact Judy Jeng and - NW contact Josten. No charge and donation welcome. RSVP required for lunch,

End of year 2012 is fast approaching. How have your practice been? This is the last retreat for this year. There will be a 7-Day retreat in November (11/21 to 11/28) and the 14-Day IMG retreat in December (12/1 to 12/14), So mark your calendar for the last 1-Day retreat Saturday, October 27 th , 2012. Since this is the last retreat of the year, we will have a dana offerings to our teacher , Ven. K (Venerable Katapunno). If you like to make a dana offering but cannot make it on 10/27, just simply contact TBA IMG and specify the amount of your dana. In Addition, for the month of October 2012, there is a daily Insight Meditation practice and Dharma talk on the " Anapanasati Sutta " (Breath Meditation) by Ven. U Vimalaramsi, one of the important Insight meditation practice for all serious isngiht meditators. The daily practice has two sittings one at 6:00AM and another 6:00PM. Dharma talk by Ven. Katapunno is at 7:00PM. All are welcome, just come whenever you can.

14 Day Insight Meditation (內觀智慧禪十四) Stilling the restless mind (住於清明與正念之中)   Teacher (主持法師): Ven. Seelananda Activity: Insight Meditation  (活動：內觀智慧禪 ) Date: 12/1/2012 ~ 12/14/2012  (日期：十二月一日至十二月十四日 ) Location: American Bodhi Center (地點：美洲菩提中心) Registration: Jade Buddha Temple (281-498-1616) American Bodhi Center(979-921-6969) (報名：玉佛寺辦公室 (281-498-1616) 菩提中心辦公室(979-921-6969) December 1st to December 14th 2012 Ven. Seelananda will conducted a 14-day Insight Meditation Retreat .  He was here last year leading the 15-day retreat . Bhikkhu T. Seelananda is a meditation teacher living in US for about 10 years. Currently, he is the Vice Abbot and Vice President of Bhavana Society Forest Monastery in West Virginia.   Bhikkhu Seelananda is fluent in English, Pali and Sanskrit, which together with his excellent monastic roots is recognized as a dedicated monk skilled in the teaching of Buddhism and meditation to a wide variety of audiences rangin...

WALKING MEDITATION "Walking meditation develops balance and accuracy of awareness as well as durability of concentration." stated by Sayādaw U Pandita in Chapter 1 of his book "In This Very Life". I felt a good bit of us when we meditate we "sit" seldom do we pay much value to "walking" meditation. In actuality the Buddha taught four forms o meditation: sitting, walking, standing and lay down. Each has its function and benefit. Sayādaw highlighted four benefits in his book( read more online - http://homepage.ntlworld.com/pesala/Pandita/html/morality.html#Walking). They are 1. stamina/physical strength- was important in the Buddha’s time since they do not have cars and it is pertenant to us today since we rely too much on cars and sit in the office all day. 2. to strengthen the capacity for that strong, consistent mental effort all yogis know is crucial to vipassanā practice 3. health- balance between sitting and walking contributes to go...

On the last day when we were about to share our retreat experiences, Ray stood up and said "Hey look. A deer outside our window." That kind of summarized the wonderful environment, the American Bodhi Center, where we spent three days of our insight meditation retreat. The retreat was guided by Ven K (3rd on front row) and Ven. Nanda delivered 2 excellent Dharma talk for two nights (2nd on front row). Picture : Taken on the last day of the retreat. This time were about equal number of male and female meditators. Ven. Nanda expounded wonderful teachings with is fluent Pali recitation and explanation in English. We came to learn that Ven. Nanda was born in Sri Lanka and ordained as a monk in his early age (on his own insistent). Graduated in a University and studied overseas like Taiwan where he learnt Chinese. He currently established several Buddhists centers and on a busy travel schedule. On the fist evening, he explained the importance of sadha- faith, trust and c...