In-Person and Online: Demystifying Metta – How to Be Kind in an Unkind World
with Lani Miller and Guillaume Caron
Saturday, May 3rd, 2025 | 10:00am – 5:00pm ET
In-Person Location: New York Insight at 115 West 29th Street, 12th Floor
Our hearts are capable of so much beauty, kindness, warmth. We long for this for ourselves and our world. And yet, in certain moments—faced with particular situations, or aspects of ourselves—these qualities can feel distant or blocked. Fear, doubt, numbness, and past wounds can stand in the way, even when our deepest intention is to open.
Perhaps the first step would be to ask yourself: how do I find the way to my own heart right now?
In orienting the inquiry towards our actual experience, we start to listen and attune to what is here instead of jumping ahead to an idea of how the heart “should” feel. This is the first step of Metta practice, also known as Loving Kindness. It is a practice of radiating kindness which can be practiced with or without words.
Metta can also mean “loving friendship” and is first and foremost a process of listening and responding with a spirit of friendliness, benevolence and care. In this way we explore what is being asked to be felt or known and we can practice being creative with how we respond. It is a unique journey for each of us.
During this daylong, teachers Lani Miller and Guillaume Caron will share practices that offer us an opportunity to connect with our hearts. Through listening within and using a range of Metta practices, visualizations, chanting, and small group inquiries, we will explore different doorways into connecting with our hearts. This includes bringing kindness to and allowing whatever is present to emerge.
The intention of this daylong is to demystify Metta practice, make it more accessible, exploratory, and enjoyable.
Join us on Saturday, May 3, for a day of deep listening, gentle exploration, and discovering the subtle art of befriending the heart.
In-Person 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.)
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Online Registration:
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.
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)
Lani Miller
Lani Miller has been practicing Insight Meditation since 1976. She is a graduate of the third Community Dharma Leaders Program. Lani is also a graduate of the MMTCP – “Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Program” and “The Mindful Mentor Training Program.”
As a teacher, Lani values the opportunity to be a “channel” for supporting individuals and groups to find and explore spiritual truth through their own present moment experience. As part of this, she feels honored to introduce beginning meditators to meditation.
Lani is also a Singer/ Songwriter who is interested in how music and other creative arts can be a vehicle for sharing spiritual truths and values.
“You must have shadow and light source both. Listen, and lay your head under the tree of awe.” Rumi
Guillaume Caron
Guillaume Caron is a dharma practitioner and mindfulness teacher rooted in the Western Theravada lineage. He discovered meditation through New York Insight in 2014 and gradually fell in love with the path of awakening. His main teachers and mentors are Bart van Melik and Martin Aylward.
Guillaume graduated from the Mindfulness Training Institute, taught by Martin Aylward and Mark Coleman, in 2023. He teaches workshops, courses, facilitates gatherings and serves as a Practice Leader for Generation Meditation, New York Insight’s young adults sangha.