There’s no need to leave the neighborhood to participate in traditional Buddhist guided meditation: a nonprofit is currently running a weekly event and hosting two upcoming day-long meditation retreats at local business, both of which are facilitated by Buddhist monks and operated on a donation-based model.
Buddhist Insights, the organization founded by American Theravāda monk, Suddhāso Bhikkhu and creative consultant Giovanna Maselli, is a New York City based organization which runs meditation events all over town, from the East Village to the Bronx to the Rockaways.
Bhikkhu comes to Bushwick every Tuesday night to run a 7 p.m. meditation at Bhati Space for Creative Wellness on Flushing Avenue. All levels of practitioners are welcome, and the meditation is followed by a 7:30 p.m. talk and discussion about the session.
In addition to the Tuesday night sessions, Buddhist Insights has organized two day-long retreats that will take place at Boerum Place dance studio Chez Bushwick on Sunday, October 2 and Saturday, October 8.
The October 2 date will be led by Khenmo Drolma, a bhikshuni (nun) in the Drikung Kagyu tradition of Tibetan Buddhism who is the the abbess of Vajra Dakini Nunnery in Lincoln, Vermont. Drolma’s retreat will center around a “subway meditation,” which will utilize the city’s transit infrastructure as a site for experiencing the broad spectrum of humanity and practicing limitless kindness and compassion therein.
The October 8 date will be led by Yuttadhammo Bhikku and will focus on the “Mahasi Method,” “a particular style of insight meditation made popular by the famous Burmese monk Mahasi Sayadaw: by mentally noting each object the mind lands on, one develops a clear understanding of the process of sense-consciousness which underlies our experience of the world,” reads the group’s description of the event.
Enjoy, Bushwick!
Featured image: A Buddhist monk leads meditation. Photo courtesy of Buddhist Insights.