In-Person and Online: Dharma Practice Amidst Love, Grief & Helplessness
with Matthew Brensilver
Sunday, June 29th, 2025 | 7:00pm – 8:30pm ET
In-Person Location: New York Insight at 115 West 29th Street, 12th Floor
The ascendancy of greed, hatred, and delusion in our public life can overwhelm the heart. We have a lot of love to give, but it’s not always clear how to spend it. In compassion, our heart trembles in the face of suffering. When our love feels insufficient to alleviate that suffering, we recognize grief as an irreducible aspect of a committed life. At some point, our heart must rest.
Compassion is counterbalanced by equanimity—we stop bartering with samsara and recognize the ungovernability of suffering. Through dharma practice, we learn to cultivate love in the face of helplessness, and to stay open-hearted without burning out or turning away.
New York Insight is excited to welcome back Matthew Brensilver, PhD, a teacher in the Insight tradition who regularly offers retreats at Spirit Rock and the Insight Retreat Center, for a special evening of practice, teaching, and dialogue.
Together, we’ll explore:
- How to sustain compassion without being overwhelmed by grief
- The role of equanimity in staying grounded amidst suffering
- What it means to love when we can’t fix or change the world
- How the dharma helps us rest the heart without closing it
All are welcome, and all proceeds from this event go to benefit NYI.
Registration
Please register below. If you are able, registering at the “Supporter” level enables others to attend at the “Subsidized” level. Thank you for your generosity! (Please note that the registration price includes a base level of teacher support, and you will have the opportunity to donate more after the program.)
If you are registering via a mobile device such as a phone or tablet, you can scroll right and left and up and down within the below form if it is partially obscured or cut off.
CLICK HERE to open the registration form in a new browser window.
Online Registration:
Please register below. If you are able, registering at the “Supporter” level enables others to attend at the “Subsidized” level. Thank you for your generosity! (Please note that the registration price includes a base level of teacher support, and you will have the opportunity to donate more after the program.)
If you are registering via a mobile device such as a phone or tablet, you can scroll right and left and up and down within the below form if it is partially obscured or cut off.
CLICK HERE to open the registration form in a new browser window.
Volunteering
All of our programs rely on volunteers to support our teachers and staff with various tasks and responsibilities. Volunteering allows you to participate in our programs at no cost. To inquire about volunteering opportunities, please fill out our inquiry form, and we will get back to you as soon as possible.
Teacher(s)
Matthew Brensilver
Matthew Brensilver, MSW, PhD teaches retreats at the Insight Retreat Center, Spirit Rock and other Buddhist centers. He was previously program director for Mindful Schools and for more than a decade, was a core teacher at Against the Stream Buddhist Meditation Society. Matthew worked as a clinical social worker, serving severely and persistently mentally ill adults and adolescents. He subsequently earned a PhD from the School of Social Work at USC. His dissertation examined the mechanisms of risk and resilience in maltreated adolescents in a large, longitudinal study in South Los Angeles. Before committing to teach meditation full-time, he spent years doing research on addiction pharmacotherapy at the UCLA Center for Behavioral and Addiction Medicine. Each year, he offers a course examining the synergy between Buddhist psychology and evidence-based psychotherapy. Matthew serves on the Board of Directors at Spirit Rock and Insight Meditation Center.