Kadampa Meditation Center New York City

Happy Vajrayogini Day! Here is our Sangha enjoying a celebratory Offering to the Spiritual Guide puja on this special day! In New Guide to Dakini Land, Venerable Geshe Kelsang Gyatso writes It is said in the Condensed Root Tantra of Heruka that the benefits to be gained from engaging in the practice of Vajrayogini are limitless and that a thousand voices could never fully enumerate them. How lucky we are to have the practice of Vajrayogini to purify our mind and world!

Happy Vajrayogini Day! Join us for Offering to the Spiritual Guide puja at 12:30pm today to celebrate. Livestream link: https://event.webinarjam.com/channel/puja

We're now in our second week of Lamrim retreat and Kadam Morten has been guiding us through the great scope meditations which explain how we can develop the exalted minds of universal love and compassion. While it may not seem intuitive to us, all the happiness we long for lies in switching the object of our cherishing from ourself to others! #wisdom #budhadharmasangha #buddhism #kadampabuddhism #happiness #wordsofwisdom #buddhadharma

We've now completed week 1 of our January City Retreats! A sublime journey of 16 sessions on the meditations that comprise the first half of the Lamrim, the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment. Tomorrow we begin the second and final week of our Lamrim journey with Kadam Morten: Love, Compassion and Becoming a Bodhisattva. Check out these pics from the first week, including many from our online participants. All up, we had around 330 people join us! Whether or not you participated in our first week of retreat, you are welcome to join us for part two starting tomorrow! Learn more and register at https://meditationinnewyork.org/essential-meditations-for-/

During this week's retreat, our first of five week-long retreats, Kadam Morten also explored the Buddhist perspective on desire. Buddha isn't saying that desire is bad. He is explaining that if we want to become enlightened, we need to create the causes of true happiness in our mind and learn to enjoy objects of desire without grasping. #happiness #buddhism #lovelife #desire #budhadharmasangha #kadampanyc #kadampabuddhism

During week one of our five, one-week City Retreats, Kadam Morten talked about the importance of not grasping at results from our meditation practice, which only ever leads to discouragement. An important part of going for refuge in Dharma, Buddha’s teachings, is having the belief that they will definitely lead us to the results we're looking for. #wisdom kadampabuddhism #buddhism #buddhadharma #happiness #kadampanyc

We are continuing our journey through the Lamrim Meditations on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment. On Sunday, Kadam Morten shared the Buddhist perspective on death - that the death of our body is not the death of our mind. Our gross mind of this one life ceases, but our consciousness itself continues. How would we live differently, how would our priorities and our relationships change if we truly believed this? #meaningfullife #dharma #WisdomLife #kadampabuddhism #kadampanyc #buddha #buddhism

Love without Pain: One-day Retreat this Saturday with Kadam Morten! Register at: https://meditationinnewyork.org/love-without-pain-retreat/ Everyone welcome! ... __________________ We have all heard that "all you need is love." Is this true? Love brings us great rewards and joys. However, we are confused about love. Paradoxically, love can also bring us enormous pain. So is it possible to love without pain? Yes, it is. But to do so we need to distinguish between authentic love and insecure, needy minds that come disguised as love. In this one-day course, we will learn how to connect with our natural capacity to cultivate authentic love. We will learn to let go of the insecure minds that undermine our love and that give rise to tension and conflict in our relations. Doing this will allow us to reevaluate all of our relationships, past and present. Rather than seeking happiness in others, we will bring joy to our relationships, which then become the field in which we cultivate good qualities - joy, acceptance, kindness, compassion - that enable us to fulfill our highest potential.

The Buddhist path explained in under four minutes! Check out this video from one of our retreat sessions earlier this week where Kadam Morten explores the nature of blessings, the function of Buddhas and our journey from hallucination to reality. #kadampanyc #kadampabuddhism #dharma #buddha #meaningfullife #WisdomLife

Tonight Kadam Morten will begin a new General Program series, The Power to Change. This is the perfect series with which to begin our new year. If we wish to attain the happy life we long for in these highly uncertain times and to finally become the person we long to be, we need to engage in a process of internal transformation. Buddhist teachings and the practice of meditation enables us to do precisely that. Everyone welcome! https://meditationinnewyork.org/monday-general-program/

On Saturday we began our 5-week City Retreat. This week and next, Kadam Morten is taking us step by step through the Lamrim Stages of the Path meditations, based on the presentation in Venerable Geshe Kelsang's book, The Mirror of Dharma. In the introduction, Kadam Morten introduced us to the first meditation, The Preciousness of Our Human Life. This is the lift-off meditation, the one that gives us the motivation to engage in all the subsequent Lamrim meditations in order to actualize our highest goal, full enlightenment. Kadam Morten emphasized the importance of cultivating joy in this meditation. This helps ensure we don't miss the opportunity our human life presents us with, which is profoundly rare and supremely fortunate. #goodfortune #kadampabuddhism #buddha #dharma #sangha #MeaningfulLife #happiness #joyfulliving #wordsofwisdom

Tomorrow we begin our 30-day Meditation Challenge. If you haven't signed up but you're keen to become a better meditator, this is your opportunity! Learn more and register here: https://meditationinnewyork.org/30-minutes-30-days-meditat/ Everyone welcome!

Today, we celebrate Buddha's extraordinary kindness in demonstrating how to attain enlightenment in this world over 2,600 years ago.

We all want more happiness, peace, and freedom, but without guidance, how do we know how to make this a reality? Buddha's teachings reveal how every one of us has the power to change our world into one of pure happiness and breathtaking beauty. It starts with connecting to our own peaceful states of mind, our Buddha nature, and through this connecting to the inner experience of enlightened beings. It is through this connection that we can quickly ripen our potential for enlig...htenment in this very life! This coming weekend at KMC NYC, there will be a special opportunity to connect with Buddha Avalokiteshvara, the enlightened being embodying the perfection of compassion. Check out this video with Kadam Morten to find out more. Everyone is welcome to join us at the empowerment and the subsequent commentaries which will be based on the beautiful and concise practice of Avalokiteshvara given by Venerable Geshe Kelsang in The Mirror of Dharma. Learn More and Register at: https://meditationinnewyork.org/buddha-of-compassion-empow/ Everyone Welcome!

We're now just a week away from a very special weekend event! Bringing Everybody to the Pure Land: Buddha of Compassion Empowerment & Commentary, with Kadam Morten. The commentary will be based on Geshe Kelsang Gyatso's beautiful and concise presentation in the The Mirror of Dharma. This event begins on Friday night and continues through to Sunday. ... Learn more at: https://meditationinnewyork.org/buddha-of-compassion-empow/ Everyone welcome!

Emptiness Musings - Part 3 Tonight, our emptiness retreat weekend, "How to Lose the Ordinary Self," begins. https://meditationinnewyork.org/how-to-lose-the-ordinary-s/ What is the ordinary self? Put simply, it is any self-identification that stops us from being extraordinary. When we see ourself as angry, resentful, or insecure, for example, we're relating to ourself as ordinary. It's important to note, the self has many levels and manifestations. We don't need to be in acut...e psychological pain to be viewing ourself as ordinary. Whenever we see ourself as fixed or lacking incredible potential, it indicates our life is being run by an ordinary, and therefore, limited sense of self. It is these versions of ourself that are the cause of all our suffering. Buddha was a profoundly wise psychologist who's startling insight into the nature of the self has given millions of practitioners through the ages access to the wisdom to end all suffering. Suffering, it turns out, is a quality of mind we can dispel permanently. It is through understanding emptiness that things do not exist outside the mind, but as mere appearances arising from our mind that we can come to solve all our problems, find freedom from all limitation and be of maximum benefit to the world. Everyone is welcome to join us this weekend! When you register you are also given access to attend in-person at our Chelsea center at no additional cost.

Emptiness Musings - Part 2 We all have versions of ourself that are limiting. These identities can become so powerful they literally dictate how we live every aspect of our lives. Enter Buddha with a radical idea - while who you think you are -- the jealous, unlovable, or perhaps angry self -- appears vividly to your mind, it is not really there. It's like an illusion, a projection of mind. It literally has no more substance that that!... When we recognize this deeply, the power of our wisdom will enable us to spontaneously drop our limiting identities and embody the freedom and expansiveness that is our true nature. Check out this video, the second in a series of three in which Kadam Morten talks about how Buddha's teachings on emptiness are the key to transforming any aspect of ourself and our life. Join us for the annual KMC NYC "Country" Retreat online this weekend to learn the techniques taught by Buddha for releasing ourself from grips of the illusory self once and for all. Everyone welcome https://meditationinnewyork.org/how-to-lose-the-ordinary-s/

Emptiness Musings - Part 1 The past... it's over and done with but for so many of us it lives on, defining and shaping our present, and our future. According to Buddha, this happens because we believe the past is fixed, which causes us to also relate to ourselves in a fixed way. As a consequence we drag old and worn out conceptions of ourself into every new moment. Is it any wonder that so many of us feel deep discouragement, even depression when we think about the future? Th...e teachings on emptiness show us is that the rigid conceptions we have about who we are and what has happened to us are just that - rigid conceptions. They are ideas that live only in our minds and when we understand that, we can radically change how we view our past and how we envisage the future. Join us for the annual KMC NYC "Country" Retreat to learn how to let go of all and any sense of limitation relating to who you were and who you are becoming. https://meditationinnewyork.org/how-to-lose-the-ordinary-s/

Our sister center in Boston has an amazing weekend course on offer, starting this Friday with Gen-la Kelsang Khyenrab, the national spiritual director of Canada. Gen-la will give a commentary to a verse of the Heart Sutra, based on The Mirror of Dharma with Additions. In the Heart Sutra, Buddha said that there is no form other than emptiness. The meaning of these words is: Because the real nature of form is the emptiness of form, when we perceive form, in truth we perceive o...nly the emptiness of form, but because of ignorance we cannot understand this. During this weekend of teachings and meditation Gen-la Khyenrab will guide attendees to an understanding of these words of wisdom. If we put this advice into practice in our own lives we can solve our daily problems of uncontrolled desire, anger and ignorance and make our human life meaningful. Learn more about this special event here: https://meditationinboston.org/even/the-peace-of-emptiness/

Real self-love isn't about pampering yourself because that's not the way to bring about radical transformation. Real self-love is about recognizing your limitless potential - for love, joy, wisdom, happiness - and nurturing that. The more you develop this kind of self-love, the better your life will become. Guaranteed!

It's the perfect day to stay inside and learn all about how to increase your positive energy through using your mind. Join us at 10am with Kadam Morten! Register at: https://meditationinnewyork.org/feeling-depleted-how-to-in/

Will you be joining us at 7pm tonight for our special event? Register at: https://meditationinnewyork.org/why-this-day-matters/ When you wake up do you feel that this day matters? Why? What would you say is its purpose? Is it just to get the things on your to-do list done? Or is there something more?... Why do you do the things you do? Do your various activities and habits provide real value? In the short-term and in the long-term? Is there a big picture? Do we ask ourselves these questions? Perhaps now, during lockdown, we have been doing so. Are we coming up with good answers? According to Buddha, there is definitely real purpose and meaning that can be extracted from each and every day. Through the practice of meditation we can discover an extraordinary reservoir of untapped potential in our minds - a potential for real internal fulfillment and spiritual development leading to authentic inner peace, happiness, and the ability to be of benefit to others and our world. As we approach the one-year mark of Covid-19 and lockdown-life, there's no better time to stop and consider why today, and everyday matters, and how we can make the most of every single moment. Join us tonight for our special talk with Kadam Morten. This special event is also the introductory talk to a five week follow-up series in which Kadam Morten will explore these questions at length. For those wanting to create deep and lasting change, this course is a must! Register for the special event and five week series and save $25. Everyone welcome - Buddhist and non-Buddhists alike!

We are now just a few days away from our special event with Kadam Morten, Why this Day Matters. We hope you'll be joining us for what will no doubt be a truly uplifting talk, packed with Buddhist wisdom. Expect to walk away with a new understanding of how we can view each day so that we are inspired to use every single one as an important stepping stone on our journey to becoming the greatest version of ourselves. Everyone is welcome to join us! Register at: https://meditationinnewyork.org/why-this-day-matters/

In recent years, during non-Covid times, we've had the pleasure of an extended January/February visit with Kadam Lucy. We're thrilled that we can host Kadam Lucy again this year, albeit virtually! Check out Kadam Lucy's teaching schedule here: https://meditationinnewyork.org/kadam-lucys-teaching-sched/. The highlight of her visit with us is this Saturday's half-day course on love - a Valentine's Day special. Everyone welcome!

Listening to the advice of enlightened beings (Buddhas) will never deceive us. They only ever reveal things we need to know for greater happiness and freedom. We will never feel lonely again with our friend of listening around...

Very inspiring happenings in Malaga!

Buddha said, all meetings end in parting. This is because appearances inevitably change due to karmic seeds ripening, like waves and currents in an ever-changing ocean. By training our mind we can learn to enjoy every moment and every experience, despite their ever-changing nature.

In follow up to last weekend's empowerment, Kadam Morten will guide a half-day retreat today on how we can deepen our connection to Buddha Maitreya, the Buddha of loving-kindness. We hope you can join us! Register at: https://meditationinnewyork.org/buddha-maitreya-retreat/

Kadam Morten's Last Saturday Course this Year! Join us online or in person Everyone welcome! 2020 has been one for the books! It's been a year of epic change, involving radical shifts in how we work, how we live, and how we interact. Many of us experienced big losses this year - of jobs we thought were secure, of our social lives, and for some of us, of our health and wellbeing. All of these changes have taken place against the backdrop of a collective fear of sickness and d...ying, both for ourself and others, as well as the backdrop of social upheaval, a divided country, climate instability, fear of the future etc. Is it any wonder then that so many of us have also experienced an onslaught of painful emotions this year - increased stress, tension, anxiety, depression, grief, and isolation...and maybe now, as we approach this year’s end, a sense of fatigue and depletion? And we know there are hard months ahead of us yet. We all could do with an energy boost. And it turns out there is a natural reservoir of pure energy, love and joy that we can tap into whenever we want ... always there within our hearts. We just need to learn how. Join us on Saturday, December 12 when Kadam Morten will share Buddha's advice and guide meditations on how every single one of us can reboot ourselves right from the source (our minds), so that we're ready to embrace the coming year with wisdom, kindness and vigor... no matter what it serves up! Register at https://meditationinnewyork.org/feeling-depleted-re-energi/

To feel thankful we simply need to contemplate the kindness of others. In Eight Steps to Happiness, Geshe Kelsang Gyatso says Everything we have and everything we enjoy, including our very life, is due to the kindness of others. In fact, all the happiness in the world arises as a result of others’ kindness.

Perhaps one of the most profound affects of Covid-19 is the global impact it is having on our understanding of interconnectedness. Normally, we feel stuck inside our ordinary view, living life as if our decisions only impact ourself, or at most our friends and family, in this very moment. Interconnectedness teaches us something different - that in every moment we are being impacted, and in turn impacting everything, everywhere. And just as a virus can sweep the world through... our collective actions, so can goodness, love, and Buddha's blessings. This weekend we'll have the opportunity to step out of our mundane, ordinary existence and into the enlightened healing reality of Medicine Buddha. Kadampa Festivals give people from cities and towns all over the planet a way to come together and collectively create an enlightened future. Tune into the festival to tune into this global healing. Everyone welcome! Register at https://kadampafestivals.org/fall

Special Thanksgiving Class Tonight at 7:00pm: Gratitude, Wisdom and the Meaning of Life with Joseph Giacona Register at: https://meditationinnewyork.org/wednesday-evening-meditati/ This life we are currently experiencing is both fortunate and rare, with the potential to be extraordinarily meaningful and beneficial. Taking this wisdom into our heart will naturally fill us with a feeling of great good fortune and gratitude, leading to a joyful, energetic motivation to make eve...ry day count. Join us for our gratitude class this Wednesday evening to make this year's Thanksgiving truly meaningful and special. Everyone welcome!

Every living being has the same basic wish to be happy and avoid suffering. Even newborn babies, animals and insects have this wish.

When the world is pervaded entirely by problems and dangers due to uncontrolled minds and inappropriate actions, one of the most important practices is that of Medicine Buddha. Venerable Geshe Kelsang Gyatso Rinpoche 2,500 years ago, when Buddha expounded the Sutra of 800 Verses, he explained that in the future, if living beings rely upon Medicine Buddha they can be cured of otherwise incurable physical disease and mental pain as well as all other outer and inner diseases.... He then shared the methods for receiving blessings from Medicine Buddha that enable us to accomplish a special power of body, speech and mind which we can also use to benefit others through healing actions. How fortunate we are to still have access to the precious teachings and methods for drawing close to the healing power of Medicine Buddha! We have a special opportunity to receive his powerful blessings, and learn how, through relying on him, we can heal ourself and others at the 2020 Online Fall Festival. The Teacher at the Festival will be Gen-la Kelsang Dekyong, General Spiritual Director of NKT-IKBU.During the teaching days the meditations will be guided by Gen Kelsang Chokga, National Spiritual Director of Spain and Portugal. After the teaching days there will be a brief retreat led by Gen Kelsang Rabten, National Spiritual Director of Australasia New Zealand, and South East Asia. Streamed sessions will remain online until 24:00 hours (UK time) on November 12th. Book now to attend: https://kadampafestivals.org/fall Everyone welcome.

CELEBRATING WORK A DAY FOR WORLD PEACE WITH THE FIRST TEMPLEWATCH MÁLAGA VIDEO Today is Work a Day for World Peace when kind benefactors around the world contribute to the International Temples Project. What better reminder of the huge importance of this project than a glimpse of the work beginning on the sixth Temple for World Peace at KMC Spain in Málaga! See the full post including photos at: https://kadampa.org/2020/10/templewatch-malaga-1... Participate in Work a Day for World Peace at: https://www.workadayforworldpeace.org/

During the 2020 Northeast Dharma Celebration, Kadam Morten granted the empowerment of Buddha Shakyamuni and gave teachings on how we can make our meditations more powerful, focused and joyful, so that we naturally enjoy our spiritual training, engage in it effectively and consequently experience its beneficial results quickly. Enjoy this excerpt from the Celebration! Learn more about the Buddhist view on happiness here: https://meditationinnewyork.org/meditation-authentic-happi/

An auspicious development at KMC Barcelona's retreat center in Montserrat as members of the community install the Dharma Wheel, deer and eight auspicious symbols on the exterior walls. These exquisite adornments were made at the Kadampa Art Studio in the UK.

Anti-Stress Retreat with Kadam Morten this Saturday - In-Person + Streaming Live Online Learn more at: https://meditationinnewyork.org/anti-stress-retreat/ Everyone Welcome!

Offering to the Spiritual Guide Puja is starting in 5 minutes. Join us if you can!

Happening now at KMC NYC - our half-day course, How Not to Stress with Kadam Morten. Thanks to everyone who has shown up in person and, of course, everyone who joined via livestream. Join us next Saturday for our half-day retreat where Kadam Morten will guide us deeper in the practices taught today. https://meditationinnewyork.org/anti-stress-retreat/... Everyone welcome!

The Buddhist view of reality is incredibly liberating and profoundly hopeful. Sign up to receive our 7-part email and video series in your inbox for an introduction to some of these life-changing teachings. Emails are sent approximately every two days giving you time to read, re-read and contemplate each teaching. https://meditationinnewyork.org/free-e-course/

Saturday, October 17 Half-day Retreat with Kadam Morten According to Buddha, stress comes from the mind. This is wonderful news! It means with the right techniques we can learn to control our mind in order to eradicate all stress from our lives. Buddhist meditation teaches us how we can do this.... Join us for our half-day retreat this coming Saturday where Kadam Morten will guide us in a surprisingly simple meditation that can bring about a peaceful, clear mind swiftly. Then, using Buddha’s profound insights into the mind, he will uncover where our stressful response comes from, and show how in letting go of that mistaken perception we can respond skillfully and peacefully. Right about now, this advice seems more pertinent than ever! This retreat is in follow-up to the half-day course, How Not to Stress, offered last Saturday. Everyone is welcome to attend including those who weren't able to attend the course. Learn more at: https://meditationinnewyork.org/anti-stress-retreat/ Everyone welcome!

We are more alike than we are different, and in the depths of our hearts we are the same.

Half-day Livestream Course with Kadam Morten this Saturday! 10:30am - 1:30pm + Q&A Register at: https://meditationinnewyork.org/how-not-to-stress/... We all know that stressing out about things just makes them worse. And yet we also feel like we have no choice but to stress and worry about the crises and pressures we are facing at the moment. Actually, our stress does not come from the external situation, but rather from our response to it. Stress comes from our mind. If there were a method to ‘drop out’ of a stressed mind and into a clear and peaceful one, wouldn’t you use it? And if we could learn how to respond to problems differently, in a more centered, flexible and effective way, wouldn’t you want that? In this course we will learn how to do both. Kadam Morten will guide us in a surprisingly simple meditation that can bring about a peaceful, clear mind swiftly. Then, using Buddha’s profound insights into the mind, he will uncover where our stressful response comes from, and show how in letting go of that mistaken perception we can respond skillfully and peacefully. Right about now, this advice seems more pertinent than ever! Everyone welcome! #kadampa #stressrelief #stressmanagement #stressfree #stress #buddhism #meditation #wisdom #innerpeace

This morning at 11am, Kadam Morten will continue teaching on emptiness. While Sunday GP classes are presented as a series, each one is also designed to be self contained. Join us if you can. Register at https://meditationinnewyork.org/sunday-morning-meditation-/. Everyone welcome! Of all Buddha’s teachings, none are more far-reaching and transformative than the teachings on emptiness, the true nature of reality. It is through our understanding of emptiness that things do ...not exist outside the mind, but as mere appearances arising from our mind that we can come to solve all our problems, find freedom from all limitation and be of maximum benefit to the world. There’s no greater method for experiencing peace of mind and happiness than to understand and meditate on emptiness Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, How to Transform Your Life. #profoundteachings #liberatingwisdom #kadampa #buddhism #meditation