In-Person: Embracing Climate Crisis as a Spiritual Path Yearlong Course
with Jon Aaron and Lin Wang Gordon
One Sunday a month, February 27th, 2022 – December, 2022
This is an in-person course, with the intention to build community and connections. The community’s health and safety, however, is also our priority. At this time, the hope is to hold the first two classes indoors (at Integral Yoga Institute in the West Village) with the protocols listed below. Beginning in April, classes will be held outdoors in various parks and natural environments throughout NYC.
“Action on behalf of life transforms. Because the relationship between self and the world is reciprocal, it is not a question of first getting enlightened or saved and then acting. As we work to heal the earth, the earth heals us.”
― Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants
As the climate crisis intensifies, society and life on Earth are changing in ways we have never imagined before. Life as we’ve come to know it, is in the midst of massive change and upheaval as a result of many interrelated causes. How do we hold this? How do we face our anxiety, fear, anger, grief, guilt, and overwhelm with compassion and wisdom, and cultivate a sense of resilience? What are our individual and collective responses to respond to the climate crisis? Where do we fit into what Joanna Macy has called The Great Turning? How do we cultivate a sense of agency and empowerment?
Over the months of this course we will discover how our embodied Buddhist practice can help us face difficult emotions with compassion and how that impacts our response to the crisis. We will explore healing and cultivating compassion, wisdom, resilience, equanimity through our practices. Embracing the climate crisis is as much a spiritual, sacred path as healing from our personal crisis. We will explore diverse voices who have been working on the responses – diversity that includes gender, race, and age – to provide a wide range of perspectives. We will also explore nature-based practices – integrating wisdom from our natural environment into our practices and understanding.
The course will include four daylong-retreats, six half-day retreats, ongoing small groups and regular readings. This is a hybrid course both online and in-person, with the intention to build and nurture community throughout the course. Each participant will be expected to take on some project related to this work – including meditating outdoors throughout the year, and a local volunteering project of choice related to the environment. Core reading will include:
A Time to Stand Up by Thanissara;
Active Hope by Joanna Macy;
All We Can Save by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Katharine Wilkinson
And other additional resources
NYI’s Covid Protocol for In-Person Indoors Programs:
All participants must be fully vaccinated and have received a Booster shot – Proof of vaccination and booster is required.
All participants must register in advance before attending the program.
All participants must wear masks at all times.
Disclaimer:
Procedures adhere to current CDC, NY State, NYC, and Integral Yoga Institute guidelines.
Changes may be applied at any time, based on these third-party guidelines.
For the health and safety of our staff, teachers, and community, please do not come onsite if you are feeling unwell.
Course Meetings:
Sunday, February 27th, 2022 – (Integral Yoga Institute) full day, 10am-5pm
Sunday, March 20th, 2022 – half day, 1-5pm
Sunday, April 24th, 2022 – TBD – (Outdoor) full day, 10am – 5pm
Sunday, May 15th, 2022 – (Outdoor – TBD) half day, 1-5pm
Sunday, June 19th, 2022- (Outdoor – TBD) half day, 1-5pm
Sunday, August 21st, 2022 – (Outdoor – TBD) half day, 1-5pm
Sunday, September 18th, 2022 – (Outdoor – TBD) full day, 10am – 5pm
Sunday, October 16th, 2022 – (Outdoor – TBD) half day, 1-5pm
Sunday, November 13th, 2022 – (Outdoor – TBD) full day, 10am – 5pm
Sunday, December, 2022 – Date TBD
Please Note the course will not meet in July 2022
Registration:
Please register at the highest level that your generosity offers.
Explanations of levels follow below.
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. Please contact registration@nyimc.org if you need assistance.
NYI offers a payment plan for the course for each of our registration levels. To learn more and register with a payment plan, please email us at: registration@nyimc.org [Please include the subject line: “Yearlong Course Payment Plan”]
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.
If you have any questions, please contact registration@nyimc.org.
Teacher(s)
Jon Aaron
Jon Aaron is a Dharma and mindfulness teacher based in New York and Chicago. Since 2006, he has taught at the New York Insight Meditation Center, offering Dharma and MBSR classes. He regularly leads retreats around the U.S. He is primarily grounded in the Theravāda tradition, alongside non-dual and Mahayana approaches. His teaching emphasizes integrating Dharma and mindfulness into daily life to foster clarity in addressing personal and social challenges. His teachers include Matthew Flickstein and, more recently, Kittisaro and Thanissara through their Dharmapala program. Jon also studied contemplative care at the Zen Center for Contemplative Care and completed the Integrated Study and Practice program at the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies. He is a certified MBSR teacher and teacher trainer and a Somatic Experience Practitioner®. In response to the pandemic, he and his partner, Upayadhi, launched the Space2Meditate community, offering daily meditation since March 2020. Additionally, he co-hosts the podcast Diggin’ the Dharma with scholar Doug Smith, now in its third season. JonAaron.net
Lin Wang Gordon
Lin has dedicated over a decade to studying insight meditation (Vipassana) and has recently deepened her practice through the Tibetan Dzogchen traditions. Through her meditation journey, she discovers the transformative power of Buddhist philosophy and practices to help live a life of flow, joy, wonder, and resilience.
She graduated from Mark Coleman’s Awake in the Wild Nature Meditation Teacher Training in 2017 and is currently enrolled in the Community Dharma Leaders Program (CDL7) at the Spirit Rock Meditation Center. Lin has gained experience leading ecodharma retreats and co-founded the Sacred Earth Sangha of the New York Insight Meditation Center. In addition to sharing earth-based practices and ecodharma, she hopes to guide others in meditation to foster inner transformation and cultivate a deeper sense of purpose and belonging in everyday life.
Lin has served on the Board of the New York Insight Meditation Center and the Rocky Mountain Ecodharma Retreat Center. linwanggordon.com