In-Person and Online: Investigating the Three Characteristics of Existence
with Elaine Retholtz
Mondays, March 17th – April 21st, 2025 (skips April 14th) | 9:30am – 11:30am ET
In-Person Location: New York Insight at 115 West 29th Street, 12th Floor
These days, the world feels more precarious than ever—political divisions are widening, the climate crisis is accelerating, wars are multiplying, and the foundations of democracy appear more fragile than ever.
In times of such uncertainty, we often reflexively cling to our identities, opinions, and the need for control. But this grasping–whether to a sense of self, certainty, or the way we think things should be—only intensifies our suffering.
The Buddha’s teachings on anatta (not-self), anicca (impermanence), and dukkha (suffering) offer a path to navigating this intensity with more clarity and resilience.
In this new in-person and online course, meditation teacher Elaine Retholtz will lead an exploration of how these teachings apply to the challenges we face today. How can we engage with the world without becoming consumed by outrage or despair? How do we work for change without rigidly attaching to our views? How do we meet uncertainty without shutting down?
Through meditation, reflection, and discussion, we’ll explore practical ways to loosen our grip on fixed identities, stay present in difficult times, and develop a deeper, more sustainable way of responding to the world around us.
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.)
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.
Online 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.)
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)
Elaine Retholtz
Elaine Retholtz has been studying and practicing the Dharma since 1988. In addition to teaching Dharma at New York Insight, she is a certified Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) teacher and an MBSR Teacher Trainer. She has a deep interest in helping students integrate mindfulness practice into daily life. Elaine is committed to deepening her own understanding of issues of diversity and the way racial conditioning in the United States affects all of us — both as individuals and in relationship to the institutions we are a part of, including New York Insight. She’s been involved in New York Insight’s diversity efforts for many years, serving on the diversity committee, and working with others to create spaces – for diverse groups of practitioners as well as for white practitioners meeting separately – to explore these issues within a Dharma frame.