Jan 14 & 21
Wednesdays,
7–9 PM EST

Cost: $55|40|25

Cost includes both sessions and recordings of each (available at the end of the series).

Wednesdays, January 14 &21
7 PM–9 PM EST

Teachings on karma (Skt; kamma in Pāli), which simply means “action,” form the basis of Buddhist practice. Over two sessions, we will explore teachings from the Pāli texts about kamma, placing them in the context of ancient Indian “theories of action,” as well as relating them to our modern lives and our journey toward awakening. These teachings offer clear guidance on wise living, while also displaying remarkable nuance.

Open to all levels of experience. Each class begins with a period of zazen (silent meditation).

The cost for this dharma study series is offered in tiered pricing. Please offer as much as you’re able when registering, knowing that your generous contribution allows us to make the dharma available to everyone.

Thank you for your practice and support. We look forward to practicing with you.

Guest Teacher Kim Allen teaches traditional Dharma for people in today's world. Meditation, study, and daily life practice nourish a life dedicated to the Buddhist path. Lay practice can be profound and transformational with proper dedication and guidance. Kim teaches in the Western Insight tradition of Theravada Buddhism.

The Dharma is deep and profound, and yet is fully present in everyday experiences. In the broadest sense, Dharma simply means “nature,” and Kim’s original training was in science (PhD in physics and a master’s degree in environmental sustainability). The spiritual path encompasses mind and body, human and Universe.
 
Spurred on by a life change and associated suffering, Kim began meditation training in 2003, and met her primary teacher Gil Fronsdal at the Insight Meditation Center shortly thereafter. She took up the study and practice of Buddhism in earnest through retreats, studying the suttas (early discourses of the Buddha), and aligning her life with the Eightfold Path.
 
Engaging with wisdom texts is a vital part of practicing the Dharma. Kim nurtures a deep and ongoing relationship with texts, studying first with Gil and Shaila Catherine and later with Bhikkhu Anālayo and Bhikkhu Bodhi, and now teaches these texts. Far from merely imparting information or offering evocative images (although they do these things), the suttas speak from the minds of earlier practitioners to our own minds. They are a link in the stream of living Dharma. It is especially meaningful to read the suttas in the original Pāli language, although excellent English translations are now available.
 
Retreat practice is also essential for most practitioners. Silence and stillness nourish the ability to see clearly, to open the heart, and to discover what the Buddhist teachings point toward. Kim has sat over 1,000 days of silent retreat, up to months at a time. She has practiced on retreat in Sri Lanka and visited Buddhist temples and centers in six other Asian countries. (She feels especially fortunate to have met Ven. Katukurunde Ñānananda in Sri Lanka, whose innovative teachings have supported her understanding). Kim lived at the Insight Retreat Center, one of the few lay Insight spiritual communities in the West, from its founding in 2012 until 2015. 
 
Kim was asked to begin teaching at IMC, and now teaches at many Bay Area centers, as well as farther afield, with a focus on retreats, sutta study, and programs for integrating deep Dharma into everyday life. She teaches in the US, internationally, and online. She is fully authorized as both a Dharma teacher and a Buddhist minister through IMC.

​Kim’s teaching emphasizes the willingness to look truthfully at experience, feel it fully, and soften into it with wisdom. She teaches fundamental practices like Satipatthāna and Ānāpānasati, as well as trainings in inquiry, wise perception, and samādhi. With diligence, the heart can develop a supple strength that is based on wisdom and compassion. This very life is our place of freedom.
 
In 2020, Kim took formal commitment through Gil Fronsdal to living as a Lay Contemplative – basing her life on practice, study, and furthering of the Dharma – and was given the Dharma name Sumatimittā (“wise friend” or "friend of the wise"). ​Her own practice continues to unfold, and has expanded to include some trainings and study in the later Buddhist traditions. The Dharma path has a life of its own.

Please know that your generous dana supports the operations of the Ocean Mind Sangha and makes it possible for us to offer event scholarships for those who need them.