New York Insight Meditation Center

Join us on Friday, July 26th, 2024 from 6:00pm - 8:00pm for a warm and welcoming volunteer orientation at New York Insight!

Whether you're a current volunteer, considering returning, or a completely new to volunteering with us, we invite you to an in-person orientation in our new home on 115 West 29th Street, 12th Floor in Manhattan, NY.

During this evening you’ll discover what it means to volunteer at NYI, receive the necessary training, learn how to sign up to support sits & programs, as well as explore other opportunities to offer dana, or generosity, through service.

Click to RSVP!

In-Person: New York Insight Volunteer Orientation and Training - New York Insight Meditation Center In-Person: New York Insight Volunteer Orientation and Training   Friday, July 26th, 2024 | 6:00pm - 8:00pm   Location: New York Insight at 115

Join us for a special evening discussion on Thursday, August 15th, 2024, with Jeff Warren, meditation teacher and co-author with Dan Harris of the best-selling book "Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics". In this online or in-person session, we’ll delve into the fundamental skills of meditation and their profound impacts on our lives.

We’ll explore how meditation can shift our mental state, providing immediate relief and clarity and examine how these practices can build and change our habits of mind and heart, fostering greater mindfulness, compassion, and emotional resilience.

We’ll also discuss how meditation can transform our relationship with life, opening us up to new perspectives and ways of being and investigate how meditation connects us to our humanity, grounding us in the present moment and our shared human experience, as well as to something beyond ourselves.

Click for more info and to reserve your spot!

In-Person or Online: The Power of Meditation - Shifting Perspectives and Enriching Lives - New York Insight Meditation Center In-Person or Online: The Power of Meditation - Shifting Perspectives and Enriching Lives   with Jeff Warren   Thursday, August 15th, 2024 | 7:00pm

In our busy modern lives, it can often feel like we are rushing through our days, accumulating stress, missing out on meaningful moments, and making reactionary decisions. And even though we know that pace isn’t good for us, it's hard to slow down.

That’s why a day of silent retreat can make such a difference. It’s a chance to hit pause, reset, and find some much-needed mental space and clarity.

Join New York Insight Guiding Teacher Leslie Booker on Saturday, July 20th, for a special online or in-person daylong meditation retreat for those who want to reconnect and deepen their practice.

Click for more information and to reserve your spot!

In-Person and Online: Day of Insight - A Daylong Meditation Retreat - New York Insight Meditation Center In-Person and Online: Day of Insight - A Daylong Meditation Retreat   with Leslie Booker   Saturday, July 20th, 2024 | 10:00am - 4:00pm

Join New York Insight Teacher Angela Dews and Practice Leader Felicia Dickerson on Sunday, July 14th, 2024, for a morning meditation in the park, as well as the opportunity to engage in community activities and enjoy social time in our city's beautiful Central Park.

Click for more info and to RSVP!

In-Person: Summer Sunday Sangha - New York Insight Meditation Center In-Person: Summer Sunday Sangha   with Angela Dews and Felicia Dickerson   Sunday, July 14th, 2024 | 10:00am - 12:00pm ET  

Join us for the return of one of New York Insight's most popular programs: Sitting on Sunday!

On Sunday, July 28th, 2024 from 10:00am – 12:00pm ET, New York Insight Teacher Jon Aaron will lead participants in both seated and moving meditation, offer a Dharma talk, and engage in dialogue with the community.

Online and In-person registration is by donation. Click for more info and to reserve your spot!

In-Person and Online: Sitting on Sunday - New York Insight Meditation Center In-Person and Online: Sitting on Sunday   with Jon Aaron   Sunday, July 28th, 2024 | 10:00am - 12:00pm ET  

New York Insight's Artist Salon and Café is a new monthly gathering is designed for artists and art lovers to come together, socialize, and exchange ideas in a mindful and creative space.

Join us on Friday, July 12th, 2024 from 6:00pm - 9:00pm ET at our beautiful new center at 115 West 29th Street, 12th floor in New York City for our inaugural meeting!

Click to learn more and to reserve your spot.

In-Person: New York Insight Artist Salon and Café - New York Insight Meditation Center In-Person: New York Insight Artist Salon and Café   Friday, July 12th, 2024 | 6:00pm - 9:00pm ET   Location: New York Insight at

Listening to our bodies is a profound practice. Former Buddhist nun Kaira Jewel Lingo explains that by asking, “What does my body want?” and responding with compassion, we can cultivate a deeper connection with ourselves and our surroundings, honoring our needs and responding to life from a place of inner wisdom.

The jhanas are eight progressive altered states of consciousness that can be identified with the aspect of the Buddha's Eightfold Path called Right Concentration. Training in concentration leads to these states, each of which yields a deeper and subtler state of awareness than the previous one.

The jhanas are a skillful means for stilling the mind in a way that leads to awakening and is helpful for gaining the deep insights necessary for ending personal suffering.

Join visiting teacher Leigh Brasington on Saturday, August 10th, 2024 for a daylong online retreat exploring the jhanas in detail.

Click for more info and to reserve your spot!

Online: Introduction to the Jhanas Online: Introduction to the Jhanas   with Leigh Brasington   Saturday, August 10th, 2024 | 10:00am - 4:00pm ET     The jhanas are eight progressive

Love these simple instructions from on how to meditate.

🏳️‍🌈Join New York Insight Meditation Center's LGBTQI+ vibrant community group and allies to radiate lovingkindness and offer compassion to our beautiful selves, our caring mentors, our dear friends and the whole rainbow community.

On Monday, June 24th, 2024, we invite you to celebrate NYC Pride with us, in-person or online. This special gathering will include a short meditation practice and time for socializing, embracing our pride, freedom, and liberation.

🗓️ Date: Monday, June 24th, 2024
⏰ Time: 6:30pm-8:30pm ET
📍 Location: New York Insight Meditation Center or online

Open to all LGBTQI+ individuals and allies. Space is limited, so click to reserve your spot! Registration is by donation.🏳️‍🌈

In-Person and Online: Radiating Metta for NYC Pride In-Person and Online: Radiating Metta for NYC Pride   with Leslie Booker and InsightOUT Refuge LGBTQI Sangha and Allies   Monday, June 24th, 2024

While we may come to meditation hoping to experience calmness of mind, as we practice, we find that we are visited by “guests” such as desire, ill will, restlessness and worry, sleepiness, and doubt. These are the energies of the “Five Hindrances”.

This in-person course with meditation teacher Elaine Retholtz beginning on Wednesday, July 10th, 2024, will offer an opportunity to explore how to practice with and understand these energies in our formal meditation practice as well as in our daily lives so that they can be skillfully abandoned.

Click to find out more and to reserve your spot!

In-Person: Obstacles to Practice - Exploring the Five Hindrances In-Person: Obstacles to Practice - Exploring the Five Hindrances   with Eliane Retholtz   Wednesdays July 10th - August 7th, 2024 | 9:30am -

In her recent piece for , New York Insight Guiding Teacher Leslie Booker () discusses the power of faith and how the flower of our practice is born from the seed of faith. Read the full article at tricycle.org!

Have you been wanting to learn how to meditate? Or perhaps looking for a way to refresh or renew your existing practice?

Learn the basics of Insight/Mindfulness Meditation Practice in a warm supportive environment. This three hour comprehensive workshop on Saturday, June 22nd, 2024 with New York Insight Meditation Center Teacher Lani Miller includes clear instructions and time to meditate, with guidance from New York Insight teacher Lani Miller, and plenty of time for sharing and Q&A.

The workshop includes useful information for developing and continuing a meditation practice.

Click for more info and registration!

In-Person and Online: You Can Meditate! Beginner's Meditation Workshop In-Person and Online: You Can Meditate! Beginner's Meditation Workshop   with Lani Miller   Saturday, June 22nd, 2024 | 10:00am - 1:00pm ET  

New York Insight Guiding Teacher Leslie Booker just published this great new piece in Tricycle: The Buddhist Review.

"I’m a huge fan of the writer, poet, and activist Audre Lorde and am inspired by her teachings. To me, everything she did was straight dharma. There is a gorgeous photograph of her standing in front of a chalkboard, and on the board, it says “Women are powerful, and dangerous.” I don’t know the context in which that photo was taken. But I interpret it to be saying that within the feminine, there is an inherent nature, to be collective, to be patient, to be receptive, to be open. And these are all the qualities that we need to know the fullness and the complexity of the dharma. That can be dangerous to some because it means that we can get free. And that freedom begins with releasing ourselves from that doubt, that holds us back as we lean in toward our faith. I think that’s really powerful."

Click below to read the full article.

The Power of Faith The flower of our practice is born from the seed of faith.

Our deepest meditations are often guided ones.

It helps to have someone on hand to interrupt our mind-wandering and to bring us back gently, over and over, into the present moment.

During this half-day online workshop on Saturday, June 29th, 2024, with meditation teacher Bodhipaksa, we'll learn to be our own teacher and student simultaneously. We’ll learn how to be a wise and kind spiritual friend to ourselves — so that we’re present, responsive, kind, and helpful toward ourselves as we go through the process of settling more deeply into our own experience.

And we’ll learn to be receptive to what’s most wholesome within us, allowing it in, trusting it, and allowing ourselves to be guided by our own inner wisdom.

Click for more info and to reserve your spot!

Online: The Thinking that Stills Thinking Online: The Thinking that Stills Thinking   with Bodhipaksa   Saturday, June 29th, 2024 | 9:30am - 1:00pm ET     Our deepest meditations are often

There are three characteristics core to Buddhist practice: anatta (not-self), dukkha (suffering or dissatisfaction), our anicca (impermanence).

Author and meditation teacher Ruth King’s shorthand way of talking about these three characteristics is to say: Nothing in life is personal, permanent, and not perfect.

Join meditation teacher and longtime author, Tracy Cochran on Saturday, June 8th, 2024, for an in-person workshop at New York Insight's new Center at 115 West 29th Street, 12th floor, combining mindfulness meditation with mindful writing prompts to awaken sense memories and images.

During this workshop, we will share our writing–or not–in a relaxed, nonjudgmental atmosphere.

Inspired by ancient Buddhist teachings and other poems, quotes, and stories, we will practice remembering our own stories of wisdom and compassion.

Click for more info and registration.

In-Person: Mindfulness and Mindful Writing In-Person: Mindfulness and Mindful Writing   with Tracy Cochran   Saturday, June 8th, 2024 | 1:00pm - 4:00pm ET  

Over the 6 months of this new in-person course led by New York Insight meditation teacher Lin Wang Gordon, we will discover how our embodied Buddhist practices can help us face difficult emotions with compassion and how that impacts our response to the climate crisis.

Beginning this Saturday, May 18th, we'll explore healing and cultivating compassion, wisdom, resilience, equanimity through our meditation practices and partner with The Battery Park Urban Farm to volunteer from the planting season through harvest time (May to October) during our monthly daylong classes.

Embracing the climate crisis is as much a spiritual, sacred path as healing from our personal crisis. We will explore diverse voices who have been thinking through the responses – a diversity that includes gender, race, and age – to provide a wide range of perspectives. We will also engage in nature-based meditation practices – integrating wisdom from our natural environment into our practices and understanding.

Click for more info and to reserve your spot!

In-Person: Urban Farm Ecodharma - Cultivating Local and Personal Resilience in a Time of Climate Crisis In-Person: Urban Farm Ecodharma - Cultivating Local and Personal Resilience in a Time of Climate Crisis   with Lin Wang Gordon   Saturday, May

There are many types of meditation and many reasons why one might be drawn to it. Meditation can be a powerful way to reduce stress. It can also help us to understand and relate to challenging feelings in healthier ways.

If you’ve been wanting to learn how to meditate or refresh and renew the meditation practice you already have, we invite you to join longtime meditation teacher Jon Aaron on Tuesdays, June 11th – July 23rd, 2024, for this six-week meditation course to explore the practice of Insight (Vipassana) meditation in a warm, supportive environment.

We will emphasize experiential practice, including instructions for sitting and walking meditation, and explore how we can bring this practice of presence into our everyday lives.

Classes will include time for practice, talks, guidance from the teacher, and plenty of time for sharing and Q&A. There will be home practice assignments each week to support you in establishing and/or sustaining your practice.

In-Person or Online: Insight 101 - Six Week Beginner’s Course In-Person or Online: Insight 101 - Six Week Beginner’s Course   with Jon Aaron   Tuesdays, June 11th - July 23rd, 2024 | 6:30pm

Most Buddhist traditions consider the teacher-student relationship central to the path of awakening.

In this program with meditation teacher nico hase on Thursday, June 6th, 2024 from 7:00pm - 8:30pm ET, we will explore how different traditions emphasize the roles of instruction, commitment, and devotion in the teacher-student relationship, and we’ll explore issues of help and harm as they arise in the contemporary context.

Click for more info and to reserve your spot!

Online: What is a Teacher For? Online: What is a Teacher For?   with nico hase   Thursday, June 6th, 2024 | 7:00pm - 8:30pm ET     Most Buddhist traditions consider

It's natural to fear change -- but it is possible transform those fears into courage and ease.

This in-person and online daylong program with meditation teacher Brian Simmons on Saturday, June 1st, 2024 will provide you with effective skills to reframe and navigate the emotional challenges of major life changes and transitions with a sense of equanimity and purpose.

Click for more info and to reserve your spot.

In-Person and Online: That's Life! Navigating Major Life Changes with Confidence and Clarity In-Person and Online: That's Life! Navigating Major Life Changes with Confidence and Clarity   with Brian Simmons   Saturday, June 1st, 2024 | 10:00am

Is it possible to have a steady and peaceful mind in the midst of unstable and un-peaceful times?

The promise of the Buddha’s teaching is that it is — not by banishing unwanted emotions or pretending that everything is okay, but by reducing the mind’s habitual tendency to make matters even worse.

Join meditation teacher Melissa McKay on Monday, May 20th, 2024, for an evening of meditation and a discussion of how meditation helps us to reduce the negativity of the mind.

Click for more info and to reserve your spot!

In-Person: A Steady, Peaceful Mind In-Person: A Steady, Peaceful Mind   with Melissa McKay   Monday, May 20th, 2024 | 7:00pm - 8:30pm  

A repost from our Guiding Teacher, Leslie Booker about the upcoming course she is co-teaching with the fantastic Kate Johnson!

"First of all, no. Kate and I did not get married! But my platonic life partner and I will be we teaching a 4 week course together at New York Insight Meditation Center starting Thursday, May 2nd!

We belong to one another. Yet our culture often creates barriers that separate us, that tell some people that they do not belong, and that creates artificial divisions between our spiritual liberation on the one hand, and creating communities of belonging on the other.

Our course, Liberation Through Relationship, is a look at the Buddha's teaching on the 4 Wise Efforts through the lens of all the ways we interact and care for one another. We'll explore what we cultivate, preserve, abandon and protect to stay in good relationship with ourselves and others.

To ensure accessibility for all who want to participate, this will be a hybrid course; I will be in person in New York, and Kate will be online. All courses will be recorded, so you can review or participate when it works for you."

More info: https://www.nyimc.org/event/liberation-through-relationship-the-four-wise-efforts/

First of all, no. Kate and I did not get married! But my platonic life partner and I will be we teaching a 4 week course together starting Thursday, May 2nd!

We belong to one another. Yet our culture often creates barriers that separate us, that tell some people that they do not belong, and that creates artificial divisions between our spiritual liberation on the one hand, and creating communities of belonging on the other.

Our course, Liberation Through Relationship, is a look at the Buddha's teaching on the 4 Wise Efforts through the lens of all the ways we interact and care for one another. We'll explore what we cultivate, preserve, abandon and protect to stay in good relationship with ourselves and others.

To ensure accessibility for all who want to participate, this will be a hybrid course; I will be in person in New York, and Kate will be online. All courses will be recorded, so you can review or participate when it works for you.

Link in Bio

Mahapajapati, the Buddha’s aunt who raised him after his mother’s death, stands as a symbol of wisdom, care, nurturing, and leadership—an embodiment of caregivers, mothers, and leaders alike.

Despite her significant role as a great Bodhisattva, her story remains untold and underappreciated in many discussions even today.

During this two-day program on Friday, May 10th - Saturday, May 11th, 2024, led by NY Insight Teacher Wildecy de Fatima Jury, we will delve deeper into the life of Mahapajapati, drawing connections to our modern-day experiences.

Together we will explore and Mahapajapati’s profound wisdom, and learn ways to integrate her insights into our daily lives for a richer understanding of the Dharma.

Click for more info and to reserve your spot!

In-Person: Celebrating and Embodying Mahajapati In-Person: Celebrating and Embodying Mahajapati   with Wildecy de Fátima Jury   Friday, May 10th, 2024 | 6:30pm - 9:00pm ET Saturday, May 11th, 2024

Over the 6 months of this new in-person course led by meditation teachers Lin Wang Gordon and Jon Aaron, we will discover how our embodied Buddhist practices can help us face difficult emotions with compassion and how that impacts our response to the climate crisis.

We will explore healing and cultivating compassion, wisdom, resilience, equanimity through our meditation practices and partner with The Battery Park Urban Farm to volunteer from the planting season through harvest time (May to October) during our monthly daylong classes.

Embracing the climate crisis is as much a spiritual, sacred path as healing from our personal crisis. We will explore diverse voices who have been thinking through the responses – a diversity that includes gender, race, and age – to provide a wide range of perspectives. We will also engage in nature-based meditation practices – integrating wisdom from our natural environment into our practices and understanding.

Click for more info and to reserve your spot!

In-Person: Urban Farm Ecodharma - Cultivating Local and Personal Resilience in a Time of Climate Crisis In-Person: Urban Farm Ecodharma - Cultivating Local and Personal Resilience in a Time of Climate Crisis   with Lin Wang Gordon and Jon Aaron  

Across dozens of global studies, people report a wide range of emotional reactions to the climate crisis, including fear, rage, hope, anxiety, grief, interest, and frustration.

How do we cope with this ever-turning wheel of emotions so that they inspire rather than defeat us?

In this online celebration of Earth Day on Tuesday, May 7th, 2024, we invite you to join award-winning author and one of the country’s leading experts on climate change and mental health, Anya Kamenetz, and longtime climate journalist and meditation teacher Jay Michaelson, to explore the wheel of climate emotions (based on the pioneering work of Panu Pihkala) and how we as meditators and engaged citizens can work with it skillfully.
Together we’ll explore noticing and accommodating our emotions, building resilience, and working with the energies of these emotions in the body.

Click for more info and to reserve your spot!

Online: The Wheel of Climate Emotions Online: The Wheel of Climate Emotions   with Anya Kamenetz and Jay Michaelson   Tuesday, May 7th, 2024 | 7:00pm - 8:30pm

Join us as we celebrate the publication of the book, "Presence: The Art of Being at Home In Yourself" on Friday, April 19th, 2024, by a long-time journalist and meditation teacher Tracy Cochran at the Rubin Museum of Art. We'll discuss teachings from the book and explore how the light of presence can illuminate and expand your life.

Click for more info and to reserve your spot!

Rubin Museum of Art The Rubin Museum of Art is a dynamic environment that stimulates learning, promotes understanding, and inspires personal connections to the ideas, cultures, and art of Himalayan Asia.

Could it be possible that human relationships are one of the best ways of cultivating mindfulness?

Join New York Insight Teacher Elaine Retholtz for an online interpersonal mindfulness course beginning on Monday, January 22nd, 2024, exploring how to be more fully present with others and oneself.

The course is designed for graduates of MBSR programs but is suitable for anyone with a mindfulness practice who has experience with or is willing to experience stepping out of silent practice and applying mindfulness in human interaction.

Click for more info and to reserve your spot!

Online: Interpersonal Mindfulness Online: Interpersonal Mindfulness   with Elaine Retholtz   Orientation: Monday, January 22nd, 2024 | 9:15am - 11:45am ET Course: January 29th - March 25th, 2024

Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) is the ground-breaking and time-tested, scientifically researched program that has helped thousands of people decrease the effects of stress in their lives, allowing them to reduce the symptoms of both physical and psychological problems, and to live their lives with more ease, vitality, and enjoyment.

Details about the course:

- MBSR uses meditation, yoga, and inquiry as a way of training people to relate differently to stresses in their lives and in fact, relate differently to each moment of their lives.
- Each class includes various “formal” meditation practices, mindful movement and discussion/inquiry exploring the habits of the mind to discover how these patterns of reactivity become a major cause of stress.

Join MBSR instructor Jon Aaron on Tuesday, January 16th, 2024 from 6:30pm-9pm for a FREE orientation class to get a taste of this in-person evening MBSR course at Balance Arts Center at 151 W 30th St 3rd floor in NYC.

Or MBSR instructor Elaine Retholtz on Wednesday, January 17th, 2024 from 9:30am - 12:00pm ET for an alternative FREE orientation class to get a taste of this in-person morning MBSR course at Still Mind Zendo at 37 W 17th St in NYC.

Click for more information and course registration!

Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) Classes Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) Classes NEW TO MEDITATION BENEFITS OF MEDITATION BEGINNERS PROGRAMS MINDFULNESS BASED STRESS REDUCTION (MBSR) CLASSES STORIES OF TRANSFORMATION WHAT TO EXPECT/FAQ HOW TO MEDITATE

As we usher in a new year, we are given an opportunity to slow down, reflect, and ask ourselves anew: How do I want to be in the world?

Join meditation teacher Mona Chopra on Saturday, January 6th, 2024 as she returns to New York Insight to lead a new online half-day retreat where we’ll explore the Buddhist teachings on generosity, and consider for ourselves, creatively, imaginatively, how we might expand and deepen our understanding.

We will practice sitting meditation, gentle movement, and contemplative journaling. We will use this time to enter the year feeling rested, clear, inspired and enlivened.

Click for more info and to reserve your spot!

Online: New Year's Retreat - Liberating the Heart through the Practice of Generosity Online: New Year's Retreat - Liberating the Heart through the Practice of Generosity   with Mona Chopra   Saturday, January 6th, 2024 | 10:00am