The Port Townsend Sangha

Welcome to the Port Townsend Sangha

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The Port Townsend Sangha website provides information on Meditation, Fellowship and Dharma Study opportunities in Port Townsend, Washington. While our focus is on Vipassana, or Insight Meditation, all who wish to meditate or who are interested in the dharma are welcome at all announced events. Program details and schedules are below.

The Sangha is an informal, leaderless, volunteer-driven, peer-led group. It’s members include all seekers interested in the Buddhist path. Sangha members and friends have gathered weekly for over 23 years. If you have questions, please email us.

WEDNESDAY MEDITATION ON ZOOM: The Sangha meets every Wednesday evening at 7 PM on Zoom to meditate, listen to a dharma talk, and discuss our practice. The links to these meetings are below, or will be sent if you subscribe to our newsletter.

MONDAY MEDITATION AT THE FRIENDS MEETINGHOUSE: On Mondays, participants gather in person at 7 PM at the Friends Meetinghouse. Details are below.

OUTDOOR MEDITATION IN THE PARK ON THURSDAYS NEXT SUMMER: This summer and early fall, the Sangha met weekly, each Thursday at 6:30 PM in Chetzemoka Park, in Port Townsend. We hope to resume in the Summer of 2025.

RETREATS: The Sangha offers weekend and one-day Retreats, open to the public. The most recent was held on July 19th and 20th, and was led by Tuere Sala, of Seattle Insight Meditation Society.

NEWSLETTER: A weekly newsletter is sent to subscribers with the link to the Wednesday Zoom meetings and information on events and programs.

CHANT: At the start of weekly meditation, we often play the devotional chant known as the Salutation to the Buddha. A recording and the words of the chant may be found here.

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Wednesday October 16 Meditation on Zoom

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Alan Alda

Please Join us on October 16

At 7 PM on Zoom for

Meditation and a Talk with

Alan Alda & Roger Rosenblatt

Here is the link to this online gathering

This week we will listen to an interview with Alan Alda and Roger Rosenblatt. It may be found here for anyone who wishes to listen before the meeting.

Alan talks with Roger Rosenblatt about his new book “A Steinway on the beach.” It explores that great mystery of how being wounded—emotionally or physically—is both an inescapable part of life and a chance to illuminate it. It’s seeing the wound as the place where the light enters you.

Alan Alda is an American actor. A six-time Emmy Award and Golden Globe Award winner and a three-time Tony Award nominee, he is best known for playing Captain Benjamin Franklin “Hawkeye” Pierce in the CBS wartime sitcom MA*S*H.

He is the creator and host of the podcast, “Clear and Vivid” which brings the excitement, mystery and marvels of science to a worldwide audience.

Roger Rosenblatt is an American memoirist, essayist, and novelist. He was a long-time essayist for Time magazine and PBS NewsHour. He began writing professionally in his mid-30s, when he became literary editor and a columnist for The New Republic. Before that, he taught at Harvard, where he earned his Ph.D. In 2005 he was the Edward R. Murrow visiting professor at Harvard. In 2010 he was selected for the Robert Foster Cherry Award as one of the three most gifted university teachers in the country.

All are welcome to join us for meditation, this talk and an evening chat.

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Wednesday October 23rd Zoom Meditation & Discussion

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Please Join us Wednesday

At 7 PM, November 6th

On Zoom for meditation

And a Talk by Jack Kornfied,

Followed by a Discussion.

Here is the link to this online gathering

Our host for the evening writes: The talk for the evening will be a selection from a presentation that Jack Kornfield gave on Monday, October 7th entitled “Reconciliation.”

It may be previewed here.

Jack Kornfield trained with Buddhist monks in Thailand, India, and Burma. He holds a Ph.D. in clinical psychology and is a founding teacher of the Insight Meditation Society in Massachusetts and Spirit Rock Meditation Center in California. He has taught internationally since 1974, and is the author of 16 books.

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Wednesday, October 30th Meditation on Zoom

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Please Join us on Zoom

At 7 PM on October 30th,

For meditation and a talk,

Presented by Tara Mulay

A discussion will follow.

Here is the link to this online gathering

After a half hour sit, beginning at 7 PM, we will hear a dharma talk by Tara Mulay delivered at Meditation Society as part of a multi-month retreat. It may be previewed here. The dharma talk itself begins about 10:23 minutes into the recording.

Our host for the evening writes: “This week Tara Malay of the Insight Meditation Society presents a talk on the Aggregate of Perception, and how we can use our meditation practice to remember that the ‘elimination of perception’ is at the root of awakening. She also ties our understanding of perception to present day social justice issues.”

Tara Mulay writes at her website: “I teach and mentor Insight Meditation practitioners to refine their mindfulness practice, both on the meditation cushion and in daily life… to uproot the habits of mind that hinder them from experiencing presence, ease, and joy, and that limit their potential to live from their deepest intentions.

“I have practiced Insight Meditation since 2003. In the early years of my practice, I received instruction from a teacher in the lineage of Mahasi Sayadaw, a Burmese Theravada Buddhist monk and meditation master….This opened my heart to more liberating insights into the universal characteristics of impermanence, not-self, and the unsatisfactory nature of conditioned phenomena.”

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Wednesday, November 6th Meditation and Discussion on Zoom

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Please Join us Wednesday

At 7 PM, November 6th on Zoom

For Meditation and a Talk

By Sister Kinh Nghiem

Followed by a Discussion.

Here is the link to this online gathering

After 30 minutes of meditation, we will watch a dharma talk and enjoy some short sitting and nice sounding bell tones.

The presentation is led by Sister Chan Kinh Nghiem, a Plum Village nun and a presenter at an August Zen Buddhist retreat held in the United States at the YMCA of the Rockies.

The talk is called “The Emergence of Awareness”. The video is a 41 minute excerpt from the longer presentation which can be found here.

Our evening’s facilitator writes: “I call it the 100% talk, about being fully present and focused on whatever you are doing.”

It is a delightful presentation.

Sister Chân Kinh Nghiêm is a senior Dharma teacher in Thich Nhat Hanh’s international community of Engaged Buddhism. She was Thây’s personal attendant for over 15 years, leading mindfulness and meditation retreats all over the world. She currently resides at Deer Park Monastery in southern California.

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Meditation at the Port Townsend Friends – Every Monday

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You Are Invited to Attend

Meditation and Discussion

At 7 PM in Port Townsend

Each Monday at the Friends

The sangha gathers each Monday, at the Friends Meeting House on the corner of Sheridan and 19th Streets in Port Townsend, WA.

The subject matter of dharma talks is chosen, and discussions are led by volunteers on topics most often related to insight meditation (vipassana). On the first Monday of the month, a dharma talk is led by Ed Haber from Moon Water Dojo.

We arrive silently before 7 PM, begin mediation at 7 PM. After about 20 minutes, a bell rings as a signal for who wish begin walking meditation. The group takes a break for tea at 7:40 – for socializing. At 8 PM, dharma talks, presentations and discussions begin.

More information on the weekly format is found here. All are welcome.

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The Sangha Lending Library

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The PT Sangha Library shares space with the Quaker’s Library at the Friends Meetinghouse. It is open on Monday evenings when the Sangha meets.

We have a wide variety of books on Buddhism, Buddhist practice, meditation and other spiritual traditions.

Search Our Library Collection Online

Learn more about how the library works at the the Lending Library.

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Service and Dana

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Dana is charitable giving. Every year, members of the Port Townsend Sangha contribute time and funds to support services for the most vulnerable members of our community. In 2023, Sangha volunteers purchased food, donated funds and prepared meals to support Port Townsend’s Winter Shelter Program.

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Port Townsend Sangha’s Nonresidential Weekend Retreats

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The Port Townsend Sangha conducts non-residential weekend retreats with visiting teachers live, in person, and on Zoom. Information on the Sangha’s Retreat Program is found h ere.