Topic: Dependent Origination - How Suffering Comes Together and Falls Apart
Five Sundays with Adam Stonebraker
Dates: Sundays, October 25, November 1, 8, 15, & 22, 2026
Times: Weeks 1 to 4, 2:00 to 3:30 pm PT
Closing half-day, 12:30 to 3:30 pm PT
Location: In Person & Virtual
Nevada City Insight Center, 710 Zion St, Nevada City, CA 95959
Or join us via Zoom; see below
Cost: Our programs are offered on a sliding scale
$40 - ($8.00/Class: Partial scholarship price)
$75 - ($15.00/Class)
$100 ($20.00/Class)
$125 ($25/Class)
Pre-registration is required.
To register: Square online payment link coming soon.
Your emailed payment receipt is your registration confirmation.
The Zoom meeting link will be provided to everyone once registered and paid in full.
Course Description: The Buddha called dependent origination the heart of his teaching, and he warned his student Ananda in the same breath that it only looks simple. It's the map of how suffering assembles itself, moment by moment, and the map of how it can come undone.
Over five Sundays we'll take our time with it, one turn of the wheel at a time, until it moves from abstraction into something we can work with directly in our own experience. The whole purpose of this teaching is to be able to work with it, moment to moment.
The workshop stays rooted in the Buddha’s teaching from the Suttas and the down-to-earth, experiential approach of the Thai Forest teachers (Ajahn Chah and those who carried his lineage forward). We'll also borrow from the Tibetan wheel of life as a map for the journey.
Because the teaching builds week by week, this series is offered as a whole. Every session will be recorded and shared, along with articles, suggested practices, and other resources to work with between Sundays, so missing a week isn’t a problem.
Week 1. The Whole Wheel. An overview of the teaching and why the Buddha placed it at the center of everything.
Week 2. How Experience Arrives. The senses, contact, and feeling, and how a moment puts itself together before we've consciously done anything.
Week 3. The Turning Point. Where craving takes hold, and the small gap where practice reaches in.
Week 4. The Birth of a Self. How an "I" gets built, again and again, throughout an ordinary day.
Week 5. The Way Through. A closing half-day. How the whole process comes apart, with time to sit with it and let it ripen, and the movement from suffering toward freedom.
The first four Sundays run 2:00 to 3:30 pm. The closing session on November 22 runs longer, 12:30 to 3:30 pm, with a tea break, giving us room to practice together and let the teaching settle.
A little meditation experience helps but not required, and the teaching stands on its own for newer practitioners as well.
Teacher Support: During the course series, there is an opportunity to offer a financial donation to Adam as part of the Buddhist practice of dana (the practice of giving and receiving). All offerings are gratefully received and support the continuation of the Buddha’s teachings.
To donate by credit card: ADAM STONEBRAKER DONATION (DANA)
Or to offer a donation by check:
Mountain Stream Meditation
PO Box 2510
Nevada City, CA 95959
In the memo line, please indicate the program date you are donating to.
Thank you for all the ways you participate and for your generosity!
Bio - Adam Stonebraker has been dedicated to Buddhist practice and meditation since 1999 and serves as the Guiding Teacher for Mountain Stream Meditation in Nevada City, CA. Since 2010, he has been sharing the Buddha’s teachings with diverse audiences locally and internationally. His approach is deeply influenced by the Thai Forest Tradition, the Bodhisattva path, and the transformative power of meditation.
Adam has been mentored closely by Kittisaro & Thanissara as a retreat and meditation teacher in the lineage of Ajahn Chah and the Kuan Yin Dharmas as taught by Master Hsuan Hua. His teaching emphasizes trust in one’s innate wisdom, the cultivation of an open heart, and an embodied understanding of interdependence. While his primary focus is on Buddhism and meditation, his background in yoga and somatic practice informs his approach to embodied awareness and the integration of insight with daily life. Deeply attuned to the natural world, he draws inspiration from its rhythms and resilience as a source of practice and insight.
Adam has studied with a wide range of teachers, including Kittisaro & Thanissara, Sarah & Ty Powers, Zen Master Dae Gak, and Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche. In 2019, he earned a Master’s degree in Mindfulness Studies from Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He is currently in the four-year Spirit Rock/IMS teacher training, further deepening his commitment to sharing the Dharma. Since 2020, his teaching and practice have been exclusively dedicated to Buddhism and meditation. To learn more about Adam, visit, www.mtstream.org/adam-stonebraker