Path of Practice

IMCC offers a path of practice that can help you move from beginning Buddhist meditation and understanding basic teachings to becoming a mature and seasoned practitioner dedicated to living a life informed by kindness, ethics, awareness and wisdom.

Beginning Practice -- Getting Started

• Participate in a 6-week Introduction to Meditation course by signing up online
• Read “How to Meditate” 
• Attend Tuesday evening meetings at JABA. 
• Listen to recent IMCC talks via Podcast or YouTube or from the Talks Archive.
• Establish a regular time and place to meditate every day, beginning with 10-15 minutes. Use guided meditations from the IMCC website or other sources.
• Four things you may do at the start of a sitting: 
  

1. Gratitude
2. Why am I doing this (what's my motivation)?
3. Kindness (metta) for yourself, for others
4. "Breathing in I calm body and mind, breathing out I smile."

• Five things you may do at the end of a sitting:

1. Recapitulation - what did I notice and how did I respond
2. Impermanence - all these high, but mundane, states are now gone
3. Insights - did I have any; what were they
4. Dedicate the merit from this sitting for the liberation of all beings
5. Resolve to be mindful as I get up and go about my activities

• Drop in for an hour-long guided meditation and discussion about practice at Common Ground on Wednesdays or Fridays.
• Attend half-day or daylong retreats.
• Sign up for our newsletter.
  

Establishing practice – moving along the path of spiritual awakening

• Attend Tuesday evening meetings and drop-in meditation sits regularly.
• Lengthen your home practice time.
• Join a spiritual friends KM (Kalyana Mitta) group, which usually meets twice a month to explore bringing the teachings into your daily life.
• Talk with a teacher to get support and advice about your practice.
• Sign up when IMCC courses are offered on different aspects of Buddhist understandings. (Check the website www.imeditation.org for offerings.)
• Listen to dharma talks on www.dharmaseed.org
• Listen to talk series by Buddhist teacher/scholars such as Gil Fronsdal. (www.audiodharma.org)
• Attend residential weekend or weeklong meditation retreats. (www.imeditation.org or www.southerndharma.org or www.imcw.org or www.bcbsdharma.org or www.spiritrock.org or www.dharma.org)

Deepening Practice – a life-long awareness

• Continue establishing your practice as above.
• Lengthen home practices and attend a longer meditation retreats. (www.southerndharma.org or www.imcw.org or www.bcbsdharma.org or www.spiritrock.org or www.dharma.org)
• Repeating any Buddhist course or retreat, re-reading Buddhist books will deepen the understanding in practice; teachings are heard at a different level.
• Use www.accesstoinsight.org or www.bodhimonastery.org or www.amaravati.org as a resource for reading suttas and other material (i.e., socially engaged Buddhism) from teacher/scholars to gain a deeper understanding of Buddhist thought.
• Sign up for an extended course through the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies (MA) or one of the advanced study programs at Spirit Rock (CA) such as the Dedicated Practitioner Program.
• Sign up for a relational meditation (Insight Dialogue) retreat (www.metta.org).