Online: Transforming Difficult Emotions and Confusion in Today’s World
with Donald Rothberg
Saturday, February 21st, 2026 | 10:00am – 1:00pm ET
Many of us are very concerned about what is happening in our society and worldwide, and yet may be confused about how to connect our spiritual practice with skillful inner and outer responses.
In our half-day session, we’ll begin with core principles that help us to understand and respond to the current difficult times. Through guided meditations, we’ll also work with the often challenging emotions, thoughts, numbness, and somatic states that arise in relationship to what is happening.
We’ll also sense how we are called to respond to help. In this way, we’ll follow the guidance of the Buddha, who said: “Wander forth… for the welfare of the multitude, for the happiness of the multitude, out of compassion for the world.”
During this half-day retreat, you’ll learn:
- Tools for dealing with difficult emotions, overwhelm, and numbness
- Gentle ways to notice what’s happening in the body
- How to connect spiritual practice with getting clearer about your own best ways of responding to help
Note: This program will be recorded. The recording will be sent to all registrants after the program, so please feel free to sign up even if you cannot join in real time.
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.
Bring a Buddy: If you are a member of our Circle of Friends, you’re invited to bring a Dharma buddy to this program for no additional cost. Simply select “1” from the drop-down next to the Bring a Buddy level, and enter your special discount code (provided in your Circle of Friends welcome email) to reduce the price to that of a single, standard registration. This registration will grant attendance for you and your buddy.
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)
Donald Rothberg, PhD
Donald Rothberg, PhD, is a member of the Teachers Council at the Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Woodacre, CA, a guiding teacher for the Marin Sangha, and a regular teacher at the East Bay Meditation Center in Oakland, California, Southern Dharma Retreat Center, InsightLA, and New York Insight. He has practiced Insight Meditation since 1976 and also received training in Tibetan Dzogchen and Mahamudra practice, in the Hakomi approach to body-based psychotherapy, and in the Somatic Experiencing approach to working with trauma. Formerly on the faculties of the University of Kentucky, Kenyon College, and Saybrook University, he currently teaches and writes on mindfulness and lovingkindness meditation, and the application of these and other practices to transforming the judgmental mind, speech and communication, working with conflict, social service, and social action. Donald is the author of The Engaged Spiritual Life: A Buddhist Approach to Transforming Ourselves and the World, and the co-editor of Ken Wilber in Dialogue: Conversations with Leading Transpersonal Thinkers.