Now Online: Insight Meditation 101 – Six-Week Beginners’ Course
with Elaine Retholtz
Mondays, May 4th – June 15th, 2020 | 2:00pm – 4:00pm ET
(Class will not meet on May 25th)
The teachings of the Buddha have an experiential emphasis. It is not a question of believing that practicing meditation is beneficial, but of actually trying it out and experiencing the results for oneself. Insight meditation is a way to develop wisdom and compassion. The core of the practice is the cultivation of mindfulness. In the past few years, there has been a great increase in the study of mindfulness and its benefits.
Within the past few decades, through fMRI technology and new brain imaging, scientists have come to discover what they call neuroplasticity… that the brain has the ongoing ability to change, develop and even to renew itself. Meditation has shown to play a part in these brain changes and can decrease the negative effects of stress, mild depression, and anxiety.
Researchers have found that the attentional skills cultivated in meditation helps us be more resilient in stressful times. Given the current global pandemic, cultivating the skills of mindfulness and compassion are a key support in helping each of us stay connected to what we most value.
This course will provide fundamental instruction in insight meditation. Emphasis is placed on the practices of sitting and walking meditation and developing mindfulness in daily life. Explanation and discussion of the teachings central to insight meditation are part of each class. The course is appropriate for beginners as well as experienced meditators who wish to maintain their “beginner’s mind.”
Registration:
Please register at the highest level that your generosity offers.
Explanations of levels follow below.
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. Please contact registration@nyimc.org if you need assistance.
Registration Fees include Teacher Support
New York Insight Meditation Center has streamlined the registration fee levels. Members of our Circle of Friends are eligible to receive 20% off of the Sustaining Rate via a code provided in the email confirming membership, which you can enter after clicking the Sustaining Level registration.
*Benefactor Level: Supports NYI’s ability to offer the Subsidized Base.
**Sustaining Level: This level reflects the actual costs to support this program. Circle of Friends members eligible for 20% discount with code. Click here to join.
***Subsidized Base: Made possible by the generosity of Benefactor Level above and other donations to ensure participation by those requiring financial assistance.
If you have questions about your registration (cancellation policy, membership discount, email confirmation, etc.), please read our FAQs. If your question is not addressed in the FAQs, please email registration@nyimc.org.
If you are unable to pay the Subsidized Base Fee, you can learn about volunteering to offer work exchange and letting us know how much you are able to pay for this program by emailing registration@nyimc.org.
Teacher(s)
Elaine Retholtz
Elaine Retholtz has been studying and practicing the Dharma since 1988. In addition to teaching Dharma at New York Insight, she is a certified Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction teacher and has a deep interest in helping students integrate mindfulness practice into daily life. Elaine is committed to deepening her own understanding of issues of diversity and the way racial conditioning in the United States affects all of us — both as individuals and in relationship to the institutions we are a part of, including New York Insight. She’s been involved in New York Insight’s diversity efforts for many years, serving on the diversity committee, and working with others to create spaces – for diverse groups of practitioners as well as for white practitioners meeting separately – to explore these issues within a Dharma frame.