Online: 31 Days of Practice with New York Insight

Leslie Booker

Leslie Booker is a Guiding Teacher at New York Insight. She brings her heart and wisdom to the intersection of Dharma, Embodied Wisdom, and Liberation. Using this framework, she supports folks in creating a culture of belonging through her teaching and writing on changing the paradigm of self and community care.

After training as a yoga teacher in 2007, Booker was drawn to Spirit Rock Meditation Center’s Mindful Yoga and Meditation training which she completed in 2012. Supported by her teacher Gina Sharpe, she continued her formal teacher training at Spirit Rock through their Community Dharma Leaders Training, graduating in 2017, and their Retreat Teacher training program which she completed in 2020. Throughout these years, she worked as the Director of Teacher Trainings for Lineage Project, where she shared the practices of yoga and mindfulness with incarcerated and system-involved youth for over a decade. She also worked with the youth population on Rikers Island through the LionHeart Foundation and at the National Institute of Health for two years.

Booker has spoken at venues including the Mind & Life Institute’s International Symposium, Contemplative Minds in Higher Education, the Fetzer Institute, and Vassar Colleges. She is a co-author of ‘Best Practices for Yoga in a Criminal Justice Setting’, and a contributor to Sharon Salzberg’s book ‘Happiness at Work’ and Dr. Rima Vesely–Flad’s book ‘Black Buddhist and the Black Radical Tradition’. Her writing and other work can also be found in Lion’s Roar, Tricycle Magazine, Yoga Journal and Ten Percent Happier. She currently lives in Philadelphia with her partner and pup.

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Sharon Salzberg

Sharon Salzberg is a central figure in the field of meditation, a world-renowned teacher and NY Times bestselling author. She has played a crucial role in bringing meditation and mindfulness practices to the West and into mainstream culture since 1974, when she first began teaching.

She is the co-founder of the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, MA and the author of ten books including NY Times bestseller, Real Happiness, her seminal work, Lovingkindness, and Real Love.

Beloved for her for her down-to-earth teaching style, Sharon offers a secular, modern approach to Buddhist teachings, making them instantly accessible. She is a regular columnist for On Being, a contributor to Huffington Post, and the host of her own podcast, The Metta Hour. For more information, visit www.SharonSalzberg.com.

Dan Harris

Dan Harris is an author, podcaster, and entrepreneur. For 21 years, he worked as an anchor and correspondent for ABC News, hosting such shows as Nightline and the Weekend editions of Good Morning America. Dan has reported from all over the planet, covering wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and producing investigative reports in Haiti, Cambodia, and the Amazon. After having a nationally televised panic attack on Good Morning America, Dan discovered meditation and then wrote the best-selling book “10% Happier” as a way to encourage fellow skeptics to give the practice a shot. After that first book, Dan launched the Ten Percent Happier app, wrote a second book, and started a podcast where he interviews celebrities, entrepreneurs, authors, scientists, and meditation teachers about how to do life better.

JoAnna Hardy

JoAnna Hardy has been exploring and practicing multiple traditions since 1999. In 2005, her focus landed on Buddhism and Vipassana meditation. Helping communities and individuals that don’t typically have access to traditional dharma settings, social/racial justice, and building multicultural community is top on her list of priorities. She is an empowered teacher in the Spirit Rock, IMS lineage, on faculty at USC and a Mindfulness Trainer for Apple Fitness Plus.

Jeff Warren

Jeff Warren is a meditation instructor and writer, known for his dynamic and accessible style of teaching. He is the co-author of The New York Times best-selling Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics, founder of the nonprofit Consciousness Explorers Club, and co-host of the Mind Bod Adventure Pod. Jeff’s Do Nothing Project streams for free every Sunday night on YouTube; his guided meditations reach millions of people through the Ten Percent Happier and Calm apps, as well as through his Substack, Home Base.

Jeff’s mission is to empower people to care for their mental health, through the realistic, intelligent and sometimes irreverent exploration of meditation and personal growth practices. As someone with both ADHD and bipolar, he is big on destigmatizing mental health issues, and championing a neurodiverse outlook on life and practice.

Alexis Santos

Alexis Santos has practiced Insight Meditation in India, Burma and the US since 2001. He met Sayadaw U Tejaniya in Burma in 2003 and has been his long-time student, including several years of training as a Buddhist Monk under his guidance. Alexis’ teaching emphasizes knowing the mind through a natural and relaxed continuity. He brings a practical, intuitive and compassionate approach to the development of wisdom. Alexis teaches meditation at retreat centers throughout the US and internationally and is a featured teacher in the Ten Percent Happier meditation app.

Pamela Ayo Yetunde

Pamela Ayo Yetunde, J.D., Th.D. is a Community Dharma Leader, a pastoral counselor, and founder of Marabella StoryCraft (www.pamelaayoyetunde). She is the founder of Buddhist Justice Reporter (www.buddhistjustice.com). Ayo is the author of Casting Indra’s Net: Fostering Spiritual Kinship and Community, co-editor of Nautilus Book Award-winning Black and Buddhist: What Buddhist Can Teach Us About Race, Resilience, Transformation, and Freedom and author of the Frederick J. Streng Book Award-winning Buddhist-Christian Dialogue, U.S. Law, and Womanist Theology for Transgender Spiritual Care. Ayo is also an associate editor for Lion’s Roar Foundation. She is working on a film project called Birdsong, a modern rendering of the Kisa Gotami/Mustard Seed story.

Ethan Nichtern

Ethan Nichtern is a Buddhist teacher and is the author of the acclaimed book The Road Home: A Contemporary Exploration of the Buddhist Path (Farrar Straus and Giroux, North Point Press), which was selected as one of Library Journal’s Best Books of 2015, and one of Tech Insider’s “9 Books That Define 2015.” His newest book, Confidence: Holding Your Seat Through Life’s Eight Worldly Winds, was released on June 4, 2024 (New World Library)

For the past 20+ years, Ethan has taught meditation and Buddhist psychology classes and workshops around New York City and North America and Europe, along with working with students privately. He has primarily studied in the Shambhala and other Tibetan traditions, but has also studied Theravadan and Soto Zen Buddhism. He is also an avid yoga practitioner.

Ethan is also the founder and former director of The Interdependence Project, an organization dedicated to Buddhist-inspired meditation and psychology, transformational activism, mindful arts, and meaningful media. He teaches and lectures around the world and is based in New York City.

His The Road Home podcast is available on iTunes and Stitcher.

Kaira Jewel Lingo

Kaira Jewel Lingo is a Dharma teacher with a lifelong interest in spirituality and social justice. Her work continues the Engaged Buddhism developed by Thich Nhat Hanh, and she draws inspiration from her parents’ lives of service and her dad’s work with Martin Luther King, Jr. After living as an ordained nun for 15 years in Thich Nhat Hanh’s monastic community, Kaira Jewel now teaches internationally in the Zen lineage and the Vipassana tradition, as well as in secular mindfulness, at the intersection of racial, climate and social justice with a focus on activists, Black, Indigenous, and People of Color, artists, educators, families, and youth. Based in New York, she offers spiritual mentoring to groups and is author of We Were Made for These Times: Ten Lessons in Moving through Change, Loss and Disruption from Parallax Press. Her teachings and writings can be found at www.kairajewel.com.

Dr. Rima Vesely-Flad

Dr. Rima Vesely-Flad is the author of Black Buddhists and the Black Radical Tradition: The Practice of Stillness in the Movement for Liberation (NYU Press, 2022) and Racial Purity and Dangerous Bodies: Moral Pollution, Black Lives, and the Struggle for Justice (Fortress Press, 2017). She is currently at work on a new manuscript, The Fire Within: The Dharma of James Baldwin and Audre Lorde. She is the Founding Director of the Initiative for Black Buddhist Studies and a Visiting Fellow at Princeton University. She leads retreats and classes for dharma centers throughout the U.S.

Devin Berry

Devin’s practice primarily focuses on daily life and long retreat practices. He co-founded Deep Time Liberation, an ancestral healing journey that explores the impact of ancestral legacy and intergenerational trauma on Black Americans. Devin is passionate about the power of witnessing and storytelling as a liberation tool. He is deeply committed to the personal and collective liberation of marginalized communities knowing that through the integration of reflection and insight, clarity and wisdom give rise to wise action.

Oren Jay Sofer

Oren Jay Sofer teaches Buddhist meditation, mindfulness and Nonviolent Communication nationally. A member of the Spirit Rock Teachers Council, he holds a degree in Comparative Religion from Columbia University, is a Certified Trainer of Nonviolent Communication and a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner for the healing of trauma. Oren is the author of Say What You Mean: A Mindful Approach to Nonviolent Communication and co-author of Teaching Mindfulness to Empower Adolescents. He is co-founder of Mindful Healthcare and the founder of Next Step Dharma, an innovative online program that helps meditators integrate their retreat experiences into daily life. Find him on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook, or check out his newsletter.

Dave Smith

Dave Smith is an internationally recognized Buddhist meditation teacher, addiction treatment specialist, and published author. His background is rooted in the Insight Meditation tradition and he was empowered to teach through the Against the Stream Buddhist Meditation Society. He has extensive experience bringing meditative interventions into jails, prisons, youth detention centers and addiction treatment facilities. Dave teaches residential meditation retreats and classes, provides trainings and consulting in both secular and Buddhist contexts, and works with students through his meditation mentoring program. He recently founded the Secular Dharma Foundation and lives in Paonia, Colorado.

Bradley Donaldson

Bradley Donaldson (previously Bhante Sumano) is a writer and teacher. A former Buddhist monk, he now guides contemplative practice informed by critical approaches to Buddhism and philosophy, especially in relation to black and queer experiences. Seeing that the Dharma is ultimately a practice of the heart, he is most interested in the teachings that emphasize care and wisdom.

La Sarmiento

La Sarmiento has been practicing Vipassana meditation and has been a member of the Insight Meditation Community of Washington (IMCW) since 1998. La is a graduate of the Community Dharma Leadership IV program sponsored by Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Woodacre, CA in 2012.

Since 2006, La has been the guiding teacher/leader of the IMCW Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex and Queer (LGBTIQ) Sangha and the IMCW People of Color Sangha. They* integrate the Kalyana Mitta process and the concepts of Respectful Confrontation and Non-violent Communication into their gatherings to create a sacred space for group wisdom to arise. La is also a senior retreat/event manager committed to bringing diverse teachers and programs to IMCW and to making the Dharma accessible to all.

La has been a lead teacher of mindfulness teen retreats in Virginia through Inward Bound Mindfulness Education since 2011, has co-taught the LGBTIQ Retreat at the Garrison Institute in Garrison, NY since 2014, and has co-taught the Young Adults Retreat at the Spirit Rock Meditation Center since 2014. They are currently a mentor in the Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Program with Tara Brach and Jack Kornfield.

La lives with their partner Wendy and their rescue pups Annabel and Bader in Towson, MD.

*La’s 3rd-person pronouns are they/their/them.

Scott Tusa

Scott Tusa is a Buddhist meditation teacher and practitioner with over two decades of experience in the exploration and embodiment of the Buddhist path. Ordained as a Buddhist monk by His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama at twenty-eight, Scott spent nine years deepening his understanding of the Dharma through solitary meditation retreats and in-depth study. He has trained with masters including Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Tsoknyi Rinpoche, and Tulku Sangag Rinpoche. Since 2008, he has been sharing his knowledge and guidance, teaching meditation to individuals and groups worldwide, both in person and online . For more information please visit: https://scotttusa.com

Ayya Santacitta

Ayya Santacitta was born in Austria and did her graduate studies in Cultural Anthropology, focusing on dance, theatre and ritual. She also worked in avant-garde dance theatre as a performer and costume designer. In 1988 she met Ajahn Buddhadasa in southern Thailand, who sparked her interest in Buddhist monastic life. She trained as a nun in England and Asia from 1993 until 2009, primarily in the lineage of Ajahn Chah. Since 2002, she has also received teachings in the lineage of Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche. Ayya Santacitta co-founded Aloka Vihara in 2009 and received Bhikkhuni Ordination in 2011. She is committed to Gaia as a living being and resides at Aloka Earth Room, currently located in San Rafael, CA.

Jon Aaron

Jon has been a teacher at NYI since 2006.  His principal dharma teachers have been Matthew Flickstein of The Forest Way and Kittisaro and Thanissara of The Sacred Mountain Sangha. He is a Certified Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction Teacher and Teacher Trainer and has taught over 100 cycles of the seminal curriculum.  He leads retreats in the US and in Europe.  He is the co-guiding teacher of the Makom Meditation Havurah program at the Jewish Community Center.  He is a certified Somatic Experience Practitioner® and an Accredited teacher of Mindfulness for Heath from Breathworks in the UK.  Jon is a co-founder of the MBSR Teachers Collaborative of Greater New York, and a founding member of the Global Mindfulness Collaborative.  Recently with his partner Upayadhi, he established  Space2Meditate.com, an online community for meditators which started in the context of the pandemic and has been thriving ever since.  JonAaron.net

Jill Satterfield

Jill Satterfield is an international embodied mindfulness and meditation teacher. She integrates mindfulness, somatic and contemplative psychology with decades of silent retreat practice.

Jill develops Applied Embodied Mindfulness for UCLA’s Mindful Awareness Research Center trainings. She is a mentor for Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach’s Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Training and was a founding member of Spirit Rock’s Mindful Yoga and Meditation Teacher Training, teaching programs at Spirit Rock regularly.

Currently, Jill is a consultant and collaborator with GKI: Global Knowledge Initiative, a leader in supporting social change.

She is a graduate of Sati Center’s Buddhist Chaplaincy Training, and is a consultant for hospitals, trauma centers and addiction organizations nationally. Jill has been featured in many publications, including the NY Times and Tricycle Magazine. www.jillsatterfield.org

Angela Dews

Angela Dews found the dharma in 1996 on retreat from journalism, politics and government at Vallecitos Mountain Ranch in New Mexico. She is fictionalizing those experiences in a series of novels set in Harlem. Harlem Hit & Run is the first and is available now. She is a graduate of the fourth Community Dharma Leaders Program at Spirit Rock. She began dedicated practice at Deer Park In California with Venerable Thich Nhat Hanh. Venerable Pannavati Bhikkhuni is her teacher now and she is building community in her Harlem Insight Sangha.

Lin Wang Gordon

Lin has dedicated over a decade to studying insight meditation under the guidance of Jonathan Foust, Mark Coleman, and Sebene Selassie. Since 2020, she has also been learning about the Dzogchen tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. Lin was particularly moved by the power of nature meditation to connect with a deep sense of well-being, love, wonder, resilience, and interconnection with all beings.

Graduating from Mark Coleman’s Awake in the Wild Nature Meditation Teacher Training in 2017, Lin was motivated to share nature meditation and ecodharma as pathways for personal transformation and environmental activism. Since 2018, she has been learning to lead ecodharma retreats under David Loy and Johann Robbins. She has taught at the New York Insight Meditation Center and around the country. She is enrolled in the Spirit Rock Community Dharma Leaders Program (CDL6). linwanggordon.com