New York Insight lost a dear friend on Wednesday, September 13th, 2023, as Sandra Weinberg transitioned peacefully from this life into the next while in hospice near Fort Lauderdale.
Sandra was a co-founder of New York Insight. Her deep practice, engaging presence and humor brought a welcoming energy to all who come to New York Insight. To the New York Insight teaching sangha, she was an inspiration and an important mentor. To NYI’s Maha Sangha, she introduced many to their first meditation experience and exploration of the Dharma. For newcomers or old-timers, she brought a smile to our faces whenever she was present.
From the very beginning in early 1997, Sandra was instrumental in creating, establishing, and nurturing New York Insight. The very idea of NYI was conceived in her Manhattan apartment where she hosted the initial meetings with other co-founders. During these meetings, she was an energetic force in exploring ideas and bringing clarity and coherence to the early vision of what NYI was to become. Her quick wit and genuine sense of goodwill helped ensure that the founders maintained the necessary spirit of teamwork as they worked through any disagreements. Once the early vision of NYI was established, Sandra took on the key responsibility to head up our programming efforts. She was tireless in this challenging role, reaching out and cultivating relationships with the many beloved insight teachers in the US and from around the globe. In addition, she was responsible for developing our programming schedule so that a comprehensive calendar of events could be communicated to our sangha in our bi-annual catalogues.
In the last seven or eight years, as her memory started to fade, she cut back on most of her teaching and was not as present physically at the Center. When covid hit in 2020 and everything went online, she was never comfortable in that medium. Her spirit, however, has always been at the heart of what New York Insight is.
She will be deeply missed.
To live in this world
you must be able
to do three things:
to love what is mortal;
to hold it
against your bones knowing
your own life depends on it;
and, when the time comes to let it go,
to let it go.
-from In Blackwater Woods, Mary Oliver
In the comment section below, please post your reflections and memories of Sandra. A celebration of her life is being planned for the near future.
I have just learned that my long-time therapist, friend, and mindfulness guide, SANDRA WEINBERG, passed away a few months ago. Our many years of work together had completed, but I kept in touch, particularly during the pandemic. Our last visit was a bittersweet lunch as she acknowledged her memory and cognitive decline, saying in an upbeat way: “I may not remember a lot about you, but you seem quite nice, so let’s just have a nice meal and get to know each other again.” She was.always in the moment. Always present. She bought me my first Thích Nhất Hanh book and showed me how meditation helped with addictions. I miss her terribly.
I will be always grateful to Sandra, especially for pairing up with me to embark on James Baraz’s Awakening Joy course. As our homework required, we diligently ended each day for many months emailing each other our daily statements of gratitude, before retiring. I so enjoyed meeting almost weekly over the years at Scotty’s Diner for breakfasts, talking about anything & everything. Thank you, Sandra, for helping to awaken so much joy in me. May you be peaceful & joyful forever.
Reading all these comments is so moving. Sandra was a mentor, colleague and fierce friend. So many times, we’d be discussing something personal and she’d raise a question in a way that truly turned me around. Even in her last years, when we would meet for lunch she never lost that capacity to challenge my normal way of thinking. Teaching together, as we did many times, enriched my practice and my own teaching. It was a times tender, at times hilarious and always insightful. I missed her when she moved to Florida, and her passing left a large void in my heart which is filled by the love which she leaves behind.
I met Sandra back in the early 80’s through my mentor and teacher who was her best friend since childhood. I would travel to NY from Buffalo knowing for certain I was moving to NYC. Sandra was so generous, kind and loving and was filled with guidance and advice for this young gal in her 20’s so eager to live life. Once I moved here, I would often meet her for lunches or visit her in her lovely apartment on Lexington Avenue. She was truly lovely, witty and so elegant. She was a perfect person for me to learn from and be graced with her wisdom. She will be missed by many.
Sandra was my aunt, and whenever i would have conversations with her, i would come away the wiser for something she would say or offer. She had a way of framing an issue that made complicated things in life seem easier to tackle. Over the years we spoke about marriage and parenting and work and balance and more. When i would visit with her, i would say to myself, make this visit all about Sandra, and somehow within minutes she would say something that i would want to write down to remember because i could apply it in my life. My father would always say how smart Sandra was, and even as of a month ago when she was physically fading, i thought to myself during a visit how sharp she continued to be. Rest in Peace Sandra.
I, Sandra’s brother and Harriet, her sister-in-law are forever grateful to NYI for adding to her life purpose and fulfillment and friendship.
She gave so much to you and received equally as much in return.
Thank you more than words can express.
Sandra a dear friend and colleague. I am grateful for her warmth, wisdom, and kindness. I am also grateful for her role in helping the Dharma flourish through her efforts in helping to establish NYInsight. May you take a fortunate rebirth dear one!
Sandra was a lovely and loving presence. I am happy to have been a friend and colleague on the dharma. 💖🙏
As a dharma teacher and as a therapist, Sandra changed my life and equipped me with coping tools that continue to be invaluable, decades later. She was compassionate, but not mushy. Wise, but not preachy. I am sad but full of gratitude for the help she gave me and many others.
Sandra was such a powerful presence. She gave a speech at mine and Daniel’s wedding that I’ll try to find a video of. I was blessed to do a year long course with her on death and dying. For some reason right now I’m remembering a story she told about her mom who was passing and had pain everywhere in her body and Sandra helped her to stay present with her pinky finger at the end of her days. Daniel remembers her telling us to tell each other one thing we’re grateful for every night. Her compassion and humor and wisdom was ever present.
I heard that story Martin tells above also but Sandra told me some time later, her mother went to a 5th Avenue souvenir store and bought Sandra her first Buddha statue! Very sweet. I will dearly miss my old friend.
SANDRA INSPIRED ME & SHOWED ME THE UTMOST COMPASSION WHEN I FIRST MET & ALL THROUGH THE FOLLOWING YEARS, THAT I WAS BLESSED TO KNOW HER.
I met Sandra at NYI and did a daylong retreat. During the personal one on one time with her, I told her about the gorilla in my mind and she made me feel heard. I reached out to her and she became my therapist for a few years. I fondly recall visiting her apartment where we did sessions. She had a habit of collecting books she didn’t read, stacks and stacks of them. She helped me through a tumultuous time as I was starting a new relationship and I was overcome with baggage from the past sense of myself. She was a light-hearted presence and a great listener. Her mantra for me always seemed to come back to: “Don’t take the other person for granted. No matter how well you may (think you) know someone, you don’t know them. Start from there.” Sandra was down to earth and unafraid. Peace to her and her family.
Sandra was a gentle and wise teacher – I took the Life, Death, Etc. yearlong with her and sat many Days of Silence with her. She always reminded me how to face death courageously yet still embrace a sense of humor and warmth. She was always humble and down to earth. She never talked about her contribution to New York Insight, even though she was a critical founding member. It was when we celebrated her 80th birthday in 2015, that I learned about her many roles at New York Insight over the years. In the last few years, when she was ill, she was still fiercely independent, caring, and humorous. She still had twinkles in her eyes. Her warmth and loving spirit will be missed. May she journey forth with the blessings of the dharma and the bodhisattvas.
Sandra was such an impressive person, facing life’s vicissitudes, including illness, with courage and also kindness for others (Im inspired when someone is sick or hurting, yet cares about the wellbeing of others yet doesn’t become self absorbed — its not an easy thing and she embodied it. ) May she journey peacefully.
Sandra, you were a constant presence at NYI during my first few years in the dharma. You will be sorely missed.
Very cool woman. She told me a great story once about her mother’s alarm at discovering her interest in meditation and dragging her to their Rabbi (!!!). This would have been I guess in the late 1950’s. The Rabbi patiently asked Sandra a series of questions about her interest in meditation and finally told her mother there was nothing to be worried about, it was a worthwhile and beneficial endeavor – completely kosher, as it were. Her Mom wasn’t completely convinced but relented.
May Sandra be released from the cycle of samsara.
Sandra did the best Buddha and Bill sessions. I would do anything for her notes to those Dharma talks. She was also an exceptional therapist. Thank you.