Online: At the Crossroads of Secular and Socially Engaged Buddhism – Four Week Course
with Mike Slott, Katya de Kadt, and Karsten Struhl
Thursdays, October 5th – 26th, 2023 | 7:00pm – 8:30pm ET
On this four-evening workshop series we’ll explore two key trends in Buddhism today: a secular or naturalistic approach to the dharma and socially engaged Buddhism. We will discuss how the secular dharma and socially engaged Buddhism contribute both to individual transformation and social change.
You can register for the whole course or for individual sessions via the registration forms below.
October 5: Secular Buddhism
In this workshop, we’ll explore the development of secular Buddhism as a distinct form, the relationship of secular Buddhism to the broader trend of “Buddhist modernism”, and the application of secular Buddhist ideas and practices to everyday life.
Facilitator: Mike Slott
Panel Presenters: Ted Meissner, Lenorë Lambert, and Winton Higgins
October 12: Socially Engaged Buddhism
In this workshop, we’ll explore different approaches to socially engaged Buddhism. These approaches are based on a variety of perspectives, including feminism, theories of human flourishing, and radical critiques of our social, economic, and political systems.
Facilitator: Mike Slott
Panel Presenters: Seth Segall, Karsten Struhl, and Pamela Weiss
October 19: Socially Engaged Buddhist Approaches to the Climate Crisis
In this workshop, we’ll explore how a socially engaged dharma can contribute to addressing the climate crisis in a just and equitable way. We’ll discuss how the climate crisis is rooted in a broader systemic crisis and identify a variety of dharmic responses to the climate crisis, including forms of non-violent, direct action, community action, and the creation of broad, popular movements.
Facilitator: Mike Slott
Panel Presenters: Tom Carling, Mark Graham, and Karsten Struhl
October 26: Socially Engaged Buddhist Approaches to Racism
In this workshop, we’ll explore how Buddhists – both white people and people of color – can respond to the structural roots of racism and the ways in which racism is internalized. We’ll discuss how, through meditation practices and political movements, we can contribute to the creation of a multiracial society based on mindfulness, compassion, and justice.
Facilitator: Katya de Kadt
Panel Presenters: Reggie Hubbard and Barbara Barnes
Registration For Full Course:
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Please contact registration@nyimc.org if you need assistance.
Registration For Individual Sessions:
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.
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If you have any questions, please contact registration@nyimc.org.
Teacher(s)
Mike Slott
Mike Slott is a long-time political and labor movement activist who has focused on exploring the intersection of a secular approach to the dharma with a socially engaged Buddhism oriented toward
systemic change. He is a practice leader of two New York Insight sanghas: the New Jersey sangha and the recently formed Secular sangha. Mike is active in the secular Buddhist community. He is the editor of the Secular Buddhist Network (SBN) website and its monthly newsletter, Rethinking the Dharma/Reimagining Community.
A part-time lecturer at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, NJ, Mike has published a number of articles on the development of labor unions, philosophy, and Buddhism. His “Can You Be a Buddhist and a
Marxist?” (2011) and “Secular, Radically Engaged Buddhism” (2015) both appeared in the journal Contemporary Buddhism.
Karsten Struhl
Karsten J. Struhl teaches political philosophy and cross-cultural philosophy at the New School for Public Engagement in New York City. He also taught for many years at John Jay College of Criminal Justice (CUNY) and at Adelphi University. In addition, he has taught in a number of adult education programs and at the Queens House of Detention. He has co-edited Philosophy Now, Ethics in Perspective, The Philosophical Quest: A Cross-Cultural Reader, and When Young People Break the Law: Debating Issues on Punishment for Juveniles. He writes about Buddhist philosophy, human nature, problems of revenge and punishment, eco-philosophy, just war theory, philosophy of nonviolence, global ethics, and Marxism. He has a special interest in the intersection of Buddhism and Marxism and the possibility of a radically engaged Buddhism. His articles have appeared in a variety of journals, books, and encyclopedias. He is currently writing a book entitled Interrogating Buddhist Philosophy: A Sympathetic Reconstruction. He has practiced vipassana meditation for the last 35 years.
Katya de Kadt
Katya de Kadt has been an antiracist activist for the past 60 years. She was a Theravada practitioner and a member of a Theravada sangha in New York City for 20 years before joining the Secular Buddhist Network. She believes that the end of suffering is not only a task for individuals, either on or off the cushion, but also requires active participation in dismantling systems of oppression like racism, capitalism, sexism, homophobia and ableism.
Lenorë Lambert
Lenorë Lambert is a psychologist, World Champion Masters track & field athlete, entrepreneur, coach, and teacher associated with Sydney Insight Meditators and the Secular Buddhist Network. She leads the Beaches sangha and is the author of The Buddha for Modern Minds: A non-religious guide to the Buddha and his teachings.
Winton Higgins
A member of the Tuwhiri editorial board, Winton Higgins is a writer and academic, as well as a senior dharma and meditation teacher associated with Sydney Insight Meditators and the Secular Buddhist Network. He is the author of Revamp: Writing on Secular Buddhism.
Ted Meissner
Ted Meissner has been a meditator since the early 90’s, is a UMass Center for Mindfulness Certified MBSR teacher, and is the host of the podcast Present Moment: Mindfulness Practice and Science. He has been interviewed for Books and Ideas, Mindful Lives, and The Whole Leader as well as several other podcasts, and has presented about mindfulness to various groups including the University of Massachusetts Medical School, Harvard Humanist Hub, and Be the Match, the national marrow donor program. Ted has been published in *Perspectives on Psychological Science, Mindful,* and the *International Journal of Whole Person Care*, and teaches mindfulness, resilience, and hosts the in-person Mindfulness Practice Center community.
Pamela Weiss
Pamela Weiss is a dual-lineage Buddhist teacher in both Theravada and Soto Zen. She has been practicing since 1987, including several years as a Zen monastic and retreat teacher training through Spirit Rock. Pamela is the author of “A Bigger Sky: Awakening a Fierce Feminism Buddhism,” and is passionate about weaving the stories of voices of Buddhist women into the fabric of Buddhist practice. She is also a pioneer in bringing mindfulness and Dharma principles to human development and organizational transformation.
Seth Zuihō Segall
Seth Zuihō Segall, Ph.D. was ordained as a Zen Buddhist priest in the White Plum Asanga and Zen Peacemaker Order lineages by Daiken Nelson Roshi and is affiliated with Pamsula Zen of Westchester. Before studying Zen, he was an Insight Meditation practitioner. He is a retired clinical psychologist who was formally Assistant Clinical Professor at the Yale University School of Medicine, Director of Psychology at Waterbury Hospital, and president of the New England Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation.
Seth’s publications include Encountering Buddhism: Western Psychology and Buddhist Teachings (SUNY Press, 2003), Buddhism and Human Flourishing: A Modern Western Perspective (Palgrave MacMillan, 2020), Living Zen: A Practical Guide to a Peaceful, Positive, and Balanced Life (Rockridge Press, 2020), and The House We Live in: Virtue, Wisdom, and Pluralism (Equinox, 2023), as well as chapters in The Routledge Handbook on the Philosophy of Meditation (2022) and the Springer Handbook of Positive Psychology, Religion, and Spirituality (2022). He is a contributing editor for Tricycle Magazine and the science writer for the Mindfulness Research Monthly. His work focuses on integrating Asian and Western approaches to human flourishing within a naturalistic, pragmatic framework.
Tom Carling
Tom Carling is an NYC-based publication designer with twin passions for environmental activism and building Dharma communities. Tom has been active with Extinction Rebellion NY since its beginning, holding multiple roles with the action working group. He is also a long-standing community member of NYIMC, serving in many capacities, currently as board president. In 2019, Tom co-founded the Sacred Earth Sangha at NYIMC, a practice group devoted to consciously engaging in the challenges of the climate crisis.
Mark Graham
Mark Graham joined the climate change activist group, Extinction Rebellion NYC in 2019 and has played a leadership role in that group. Mark began his activism at Radical Dharma Camp and was one of the founding organizers of Buddhist Action Coalition, a coalition of New York City area Buddhists dedicated to bringing Buddhist ethics into action in order to bring about true justice.
Prior to his life as an activist, he was an entrepreneur, an investment banker for 18 years and a stay-at-home dad for twins since leaving banking. Mark began his dharma practice at Shambhala in 2012 and now primarily practices in sanghas with Gala Narezo, David Perrin, Brooklyn Zen and Bodhi College.
Reggie Hubbard
Reggie Hubbard is the founder/chief serving officer of Active Peace Yoga. His yoga and meditation practice was born of curiosity and forged while seeking to alchemize and process extreme professional adversity. Through discipline, focus, dedication to cultivating compassion and serving others, his practice has become a lesson in witnessing the miracles that exist in commitment to personal peace of mind and wellbeing in the present moment.
Reggie shares his practice in service to helping people navigate this thing called life with more creativity, authenticity, peace and ease. He has extensively studied with leading teachers in yogic, meditative and dharmic disciplines while also remembering that the best teacher is an eternal student. He is a graduate of the MMTCP (Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Program) 2023 cohort and is always seeking new ways of sharing ancient wisdom to modern audiences.
Through Active Peace Yoga, he offers asana and meditation classes to help others nurture peace of mind, creativity, equanimity in spirit and physical health – helping people nurture well-being as foundational, rather than an afterthought. Reggie has taught Members of Congress, Congressional Staff, major labor unions, leading progressive organizations and individuals from all walks of life – simple tools for managing stress and bringing peace to mind, body and spirit. Active Peace also offers strategic guidance on creating healthier cultures and organizational norms rooted in wellbeing, compassion and results.
Reggie’s life work sits at the intersection of bringing more peace and balance to activists; guiding the wellness community toward being more engaged, concerned citizens; and, enhancing the well-being of all walks of life. Achieving this balance is how we catalyze transformative change in our society, which we are desperately in need of at this moment. He also is passionate about justice, equity, diversity and inclusion (JEDI); normalizing grief and loss; and, sharing healing rituals with marginalized communities to enhance our collective well-being.
In addition to his teaching practice, Reggie has held many senior strategic and logistical roles across a variety of fields, ranging from global marketing, digital and community organizing, government relations, international education to Presidential campaigning. He is a featured speaker on politics, strategy, wellbeing, social justice, and civic engagement for leading publications, podcasts and platforms including: Be Here Now Network, The Hill, Mind and Life Institute, Sedona Yoga Festival, SoundsTrue Foundation, Upaya Zen Center, Wanderlust, the Wellbeing Project, Yoga Alliance, Yoga International and Yoga Journal.
He received a B.A. in philosophy from Yale University and an MBA in international strategy from the Vlerick Business School in Belgium.
You can find out more at www.activepeaceyoga.com.
Barbara Barnes
Barbara Barnes is white, cisgender, older woman of bourgeois, Christian, New England heritage. She is an educator who has taught in Kenya and Mozambique and worked with teachers and students in the New York City schools on resolving conflicts nonviolently. She was on the faculty at Brooklyn College in the School of Education. Barbara became a secular Buddhist practitioner after years of political activism in peace education and racial and economic justice work, using socialist, feminist, and Marxist frames.