Even a dedicated meditation practice can quietly become a routine — and that's exactly when renewal matters most.

In this talk, Rafi Rahman reflects on what it means to bring freshness back to practice, not by starting over, but by loosening the grip of what we think we already know.

About Rafi Rahman

Rafi was born and raised in Bangladesh and has been practicing Insight meditation since 2015. He has been part of the Insight Meditation Houston (IMH) community since 2018 and currently serves as Chair of the IMH Board. He is passionate about helping build a warm and welcoming practice community.

His path has been shaped by silent retreats, the loss of close family members, and a lifelong curiosity about what it means to live with wisdom and compassion. Alongside Buddhist practice, he enjoys studying Jungian psychology and exploring the meeting place between Eastern and Western approaches to awakening and healing.

By profession, he is an engineer, and outside of work he enjoys listening to bamboo flute music, taking walks at Memorial Park, and sharing meaningful conversations with friends.

What would it mean to move through daily life with genuine generosity — not as a transaction, but as a way of being?

In this talk, Ginger Clarkson reflects on the Zen precept "Do not be stingy," exploring generosity through small moments of kindness, unexpected gestures, and the simple act of paying attention to others.

Drawing on Buddhist teachings on dana, a Zen meal chant, the image of Indra's net, and a vivid poem by Rumi, Ginger weaves together personal stories — from smiling at airport workers to her hospice visits with her service dog Amanda — to show how generosity flows in both directions and costs less than we think. She also gently points to what withholding does to the heart, and what opens up when we let go of the impoverished mindset that says there isn't enough to give.

About Ginger Clarkson

Ginger is a Community Dharma Leader certified by Spirit Rock Meditation Center in California, where she studied under the mentorship of Jack Kornfield and completed the Dedicated Dharma Practitioner program with Eugene Cash and other senior teachers.

Most of us sit down to meditate and jump straight into watching the breath — but what if a few minutes of preparation made the whole practice easier? In this talk, Travis Hicks explores the idea of preliminary practices, drawing on Mahasi Sayadaw's recommendation of six things worth doing before formal meditation begins.

The six include reflecting on your own virtuous conduct, recalling the benefits of practice, cultivating confidence in the teachings, bringing to mind the qualities of the Buddha, practicing a little loving-kindness, and recollecting death as a nudge toward urgency. Travis shares honestly how he has been experimenting with these in his own practice, and makes a case especially for two: metta as a way of softening the heart before settling the mind, and the simple reflection on good things we have done — something our culture, he notes, doesn't make particularly easy. The talk is practical and personal, with a bug catcher making a memorable appearance along the way.

About Travis

Travis Hicks has been practicing Vipassana meditation since 1995 and teaching since 2005. He completed a two-year teacher training program at Spirit Rock Meditation Center under the guidance of senior teachers in the Theravada tradition. Travis brings a warm, accessible style to the dharma, drawing on both classical Buddhist teachings and contemporary psychology. He leads weekly sittings, daylong retreats, and occasional residential retreats for the IMH community.