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With Leslie Booker & Rashid Hughes
Leaning into the heart practices is a radical act of defiance in the face of separation and violence. Fear is rampant - leading to an influx of rash decisions that are directly impacting our communities, bodies, mental health and hearts. With the world being in a constant state of uncertainty, we can trust that the heart can hold all that we are feeling.
As practitioners who are Black, Indigenous, and People of color (including Asian, Pacific Islander, Middle Eastern, and/or Latinx people of color), practicing with equanimity and the rest of the heart practices of the Brahmaviharas, can be a salve, deeply restoring and healing the soul.
In this 4-day residential retreat, we will use silence not as a weapon, but as a place of refuge to tap into the wisdom of our hearts. We’ll spend time as a collective in nature, in restorative silence, genuine connection and living together in Beloved Community.
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Sunday, June 7th, 2026 | 10:00am – 12:00pm ET
with Leslie Booker
Sitting on Sunday is an opportunity to practice with New York Insight’s Guiding Teacher in a more intimate setting. We practice together and then have time to get advice on fine tuning your practice, asking those questions about how to integrate it into the world, and gather with community, the first Sunday morning of each month. It’s a very sweet way to end your week, and to get your heart, mind, and body aligned and ready for the week ahead.
Suggested donation is $20 but whatever you offer is greatly appreciated. No one will be turned away for lack of funds.
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Registration Coming Soon
Thursday, May 14th, 2026 | 6:30pm – 7:30pm ET
In June, New York Insight is holding its second-ever non-residential retreat, designed to help integrate practice into your daily life and life into your practice.
We often think of retreat as a chance to get away—traveling to a quiet meditation center in a serene natural setting. But for those of us who live in cities, this can create a split: retreat happens there, life happens here. Practicing together in the same city where we live, work, and navigate daily challenges creates a powerful opportunity: we can begin to carry the clarity and presence of retreat into the rhythms of ordinary life.
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Register Here for June
with Leslie Booker, Jay Michaelson, and Jacoby Ballard.
Four Tuesday evening classes plus a Saturday half-day retreat
Evening Classes: Tuesdays, February 17th, March 17th, May 12th, and June 16th 2026 | 6:30pm – 8:30pm ET
Half-Day Retreat: Saturday, April 18th, 2026 | 10:00am – 1:00pm ET
Sign up for the full course, a single session, or anything in-between!In-Person Location: New York Insight at 115 West 29th Street, 12th Floor
The Five Precepts form the foundation of Buddhist ethics in the insight tradition. Yet for queer people in 21st century America, they can also be a little…. fraught. What counts as “sexual misconduct” (if that’s even the right term to use)? Do all drugs “lead to confusion”? What counts as “harsh language” in a culture that is often serving tea?
In this 5 month series, we’re going to take an honest, deep, and participatory dive into the precepts. We’ll explore where they serve us, and where they may not. We’ll work with the complexities that come with any 2500-year-old tradition, particularly one which often promotes monasticism as an ideal.
There will be a ½ day retreat mid way through the course, and we’ll also have the opportunity to meet in small groups and with a teacher in between the monthly sessions for support to deepen our personal understanding and to cultivate spiritual friendships.
Ultimately, we hope to arrive at multiple ways of navigating ethics and community together. (And since we take an expansive definition of queerness, you’re welcome to join if that word speaks to your experience.)
Grounded and Spacious: Mindful Yoga and Embodied Meditation
Booker brings her heart and wisdom to the intersection of Dharma, embodied practice, and activism. She began working with system-involved populations in 2005 and was a senior teacher and Director of Trainings with Lineage Project for 10 years, and facilitated an intervention on Riker’s Island from 2009-2011 through NYU.
Finding True Refuge: A Retreat for LGBTQIA+ and GNC Communities
with John Martin + JD Doyle