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The Ten Perfections of the Heart, or pāramīs, offer a powerful framework for living with compassion, resilience, and purpose. These teachings—on generosity, ethical conduct, renunciation, wisdom, energy, patience, truthfulness, resolve, lovingkindness, and equanimity—are not just meditation guidelines, they are practical tools for navigating life. According to tradition, these were the very qualities the Buddha cultivated over many lifetimes as he gradually prepared to awaken fully and guide others toward freedom. In this residential retreat, we will explore and practice the pāramīs both on and off the cushion. Our focus will be on how we embody these teachings in everyday life within a community rooted in belonging, shared intention, and a commitment to collective liberation.
This retreat is silent except for teacher-led Q&A, small groups, or other practice meetings.
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Greed, Aversion and Delusion, collectively known as the 3 poisons, are mind states that cloud the heart and mind, and create separation. But these energies contain information that can lead us to a deep healing; mitigating the chaos of the world.
Toni Morrison wrote, "I know the world is bruised and bleeding. And though it is important not to ignore its pain, it is also critical to refuse to succumb to its malevolence. Like failure, chaos contains information that can lead to knowledge, even wisdom. That is how civilizations heal."
By recognizing these 3 poisons, we can meet them with their antidotes: generosity, metta and wisdom. Generosity can expand our ability to feel connected and remind us that we belong to each other. Metta opens the heart protecting us from both inner and outer harm, while wisdom allows us to see things right sized.
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For over 35 years now, the Monday Night sitting group at Spirit Rock has been a welcoming refuge to gather, hear the teachings of the Buddha, and practice insight meditation together as a community. The program includes a 30-40 min guided meditation, a short break, and a dharma talk.
Class time: 6:30pm – 8:30pm US Pacific Time weekly on Monday evenings.
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Sunday, January 25th, 2026 | 10:00am – 5:00pm ET
It can be hard for many of us to integrate what we’re hearing in dharma talks and practicing on the cushion, into our everyday lives. And sometimes these 2600-year-old teachings are hard to reconcile with the level of complexity and nuance of our modern world. The teachings on the Paramis, the 10 attainments of the heart, give us direct instruction on just how to do that. Considered the origin story of the Buddha, they start with the basics: Dana (generosity), Sila (ethical conduct) Nekkhamma (renunciation).
On this Day of Practice, we’ll be exploring what we can offer, how we can care and what we can lay down in order to be released from our suffering. Weaving together early Buddhist stories, lived experience and time for contemplation, we’ll reflect on what these teachings offer around living from a generous heart, acting ethically in a complex world, and discovering the freedom that comes from letting go—of possessions, identities, and views that keep us bound.
This retreat is open to both new and experienced practitioners and will be a day of still and moving practices, journaling, dharma talks and discussion.
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More Information & Registration Here
Belonging, Courage and Love is a ten-month immersion in the pāramīs—the ten heart qualities the Buddha cultivated over countless lifetimes to prepare for awakening.
Before he became the Buddha, he was a bodhisattva devoted to perfecting generosity, patience, truthfulness, and lovingkindness. These were not abstract ideals, but living practices, ways of being in relationship with a complex world.
Guided by Booker—a Black, queer Dharma teacher and lover of liberation whose work bridges wisdom and justice, this program invites you to walk that same human path. Through embodied practice, storytelling, reflection, and community connection, you’ll learn to bring the pāramīs to life in your everyday experience at work, in relationships, and in moments of challenge or joy.
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Folks of African descent carry a rich legacy of contemplation—an enduring wisdom that, even in the face of colonization and enslavement, has taught us how to pause, rest, and reconnect with what is most true.
This February, New York Insight invites you to explore that legacy through a month-long series of Black dharma teachings, offered as a daily practice of reflection, resilience, and connection.
Each weekday throughout February, participants will receive an email with a prerecorded dharma talk from a Black dharma teacher. These teachings are designed to meet you where you are, offering insight and grounding in daily life. All talks remain accessible for at least one year, allowing you to engage at your own pace.
Our ancestors dreamed of freedom, prepared for it, fought for it, and manifested it against all odds. Through resilience, joy, and deep reflection, they embodied profound truths of interdependence and belonging—wisdom we inherit not as history alone, but as a living practice that reminds us none of us stands alone.
From these traditions, the world learns how to hold paradox with care: grief and joy, struggle and beauty, existing side by side. Black dharma teachings show us how reflection becomes resilience, how community sustains practice, and how love functions not as sentiment, but as an ethic for living.
These teachings are offered by experienced Black dharma teachers whose work is rooted in lived experience, ancestral wisdom, and a deep commitment to the path. Together, they offer perspectives that speak directly to resilience, belonging, and collective care.
With twice the number of talks as last year’s offering, this expanded series offers a steady rhythm of teaching and reflection throughout Black History Month.
This offering is open to people of all backgrounds and levels of experience. Whether you’re reconnecting with your practice or exploring these teachings for the first time, you are warmly welcome.
The Unreliability of Identity, and the Undeniability of its Impact
It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.