Events
Events hosted by Buddhism & Mindfulness at All Souls
Currently, all programs are online.
No experience is necessary. Join us!
For information about the Zoom login and password,
please go to the All Souls NYC website calendar,
go to the Events page in All Souls Connext, our virtual community,
or consult the most recent email sent out by Pamela Patton.
If you aren’t on Pamela’s email list and would like to join,
please let her know via our Contact Us page.
Ongoing events
Mondays, 10:00am–11:30am
Meditation & Discussion led by Pamela Patton
Please join us!
Join us for a talk and a meditation followed by a discussion (you can choose whether you’d like to go to a breakout room or stay in the main room for a larger group conversation). The topics are different each week — some examples include destructive emotions and the Buddhist understanding of impermanence.
Recordings of these sessions
Alternating Tuesdays, 1:00pm–2:30pm
Dharma Study Group led by Harry Miller
Please join us!
This is a drop-in group — all are welcome to attend once or as many times as you like. We explore basic teachings of Buddhism using both a philosophical and, more importantly, a practical, approach, starting with Bhikkhu Bodhi’s In the Words of the Buddha to acquire a strong foundation in core teachings. Subsequently we will use this foundation to study important Mahayana texts like the Heart Sutra and the Diamond Sutra. We perform a close reading of the texts, paragraph by paragraph and line by line when necessary. It is a very interactive class — what is most important is that everyone be comfortable with the material and make progress in their own way.
Harry Miller’s resources page
Thursdays, 10:00am–11:30am
Transforming Our Suffering led by Pamela Patton
Please join us!
Please join us for a discussion of Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life’s Most Important Skill by Matthieu Ricard. You are most welcome to attend whether or not you’ve done the reading. We start with a short meditation; Pamela summarizes the chapter and shows a video to support the reading; Harry Miller reflects on the teachings, and then we have a discussion (you can choose whether you’d like to go to a breakout room or stay in the main room for a larger group conversation). Each session is standalone, so you can drop in whenever you wish.
About the book:
In this groundbreaking book, Matthieu Ricard makes a passionate case for happiness as a goal that deserves as least as much energy as any other in our lives.
Wealth? Fitness? Career success? How can we possibly place these above true and lasting well-being? Drawing from works of fiction and poetry, Western philosophy, Buddhist beliefs, scientific research, and personal experience, Ricard weaves an inspirational and forward-looking account of how we can begin to rethink our realities in a fast-moving modern world. With its revelatory lessons and exercises, Happiness is an eloquent and stimulating guide to a happier life.
About the author:
Matthieu Ricard is a Buddhist monk, an author, translator, and photographer. He has lived, studied, and worked in the Himalayan region for over forty years. The son of French philosopher Jean-François Revel and artist Yahne Le Toumelin, Matthieu was born in France in 1946 and grew up among the personalities and ideas of Paris' intellectual and artistic circles. He earned a Ph.D. degree in cell genetics at the renowned Institut Pasteur under the Nobel Laureate Francois Jacob.
In 1967, he traveled to India to meet great spiritual masters from Tibet. After completing his doctoral thesis in 1972, he decided to concentrate on Buddhist studies and practice. Since then, he has lived in India, Bhutan, and Nepal and studied with some of the greatest teachers of that tradition. He is the author of several books including The Monk and the Philosopher, a dialogue with his father; The Quantum and the Lotus, a dialogue with the astrophysicist Trinh Xuan Thuan; and Why Meditate? His books have been translated into over twenty languages.
Other books we’ve read include: When Things Fall Apart by Pema Chödrön, A Fearless Heart by Thupten Jinpa, and The Misleading Mind by Karuna Cayton.
Meditation & Discussion led by Pamela Patton
Please join us!
Join us for a talk and a meditation followed by a discussion (you can choose whether you’d like to go to a breakout room or stay in the main room for a larger group conversation). The topics are different each week — some examples include destructive emotions and the Buddhist understanding of impermanence.
Recordings of these sessions
Alternating Tuesdays, 1:00pm–2:30pm
Dharma Study Group led by Harry Miller
Please join us!
This is a drop-in group — all are welcome to attend once or as many times as you like. We explore basic teachings of Buddhism using both a philosophical and, more importantly, a practical, approach, starting with Bhikkhu Bodhi’s In the Words of the Buddha to acquire a strong foundation in core teachings. Subsequently we will use this foundation to study important Mahayana texts like the Heart Sutra and the Diamond Sutra. We perform a close reading of the texts, paragraph by paragraph and line by line when necessary. It is a very interactive class — what is most important is that everyone be comfortable with the material and make progress in their own way.
Harry Miller’s resources page
Thursdays, 10:00am–11:30am
Transforming Our Suffering led by Pamela Patton
Please join us!
Please join us for a discussion of Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life’s Most Important Skill by Matthieu Ricard. You are most welcome to attend whether or not you’ve done the reading. We start with a short meditation; Pamela summarizes the chapter and shows a video to support the reading; Harry Miller reflects on the teachings, and then we have a discussion (you can choose whether you’d like to go to a breakout room or stay in the main room for a larger group conversation). Each session is standalone, so you can drop in whenever you wish.
About the book:
In this groundbreaking book, Matthieu Ricard makes a passionate case for happiness as a goal that deserves as least as much energy as any other in our lives.
Wealth? Fitness? Career success? How can we possibly place these above true and lasting well-being? Drawing from works of fiction and poetry, Western philosophy, Buddhist beliefs, scientific research, and personal experience, Ricard weaves an inspirational and forward-looking account of how we can begin to rethink our realities in a fast-moving modern world. With its revelatory lessons and exercises, Happiness is an eloquent and stimulating guide to a happier life.
About the author:
Matthieu Ricard is a Buddhist monk, an author, translator, and photographer. He has lived, studied, and worked in the Himalayan region for over forty years. The son of French philosopher Jean-François Revel and artist Yahne Le Toumelin, Matthieu was born in France in 1946 and grew up among the personalities and ideas of Paris' intellectual and artistic circles. He earned a Ph.D. degree in cell genetics at the renowned Institut Pasteur under the Nobel Laureate Francois Jacob.
In 1967, he traveled to India to meet great spiritual masters from Tibet. After completing his doctoral thesis in 1972, he decided to concentrate on Buddhist studies and practice. Since then, he has lived in India, Bhutan, and Nepal and studied with some of the greatest teachers of that tradition. He is the author of several books including The Monk and the Philosopher, a dialogue with his father; The Quantum and the Lotus, a dialogue with the astrophysicist Trinh Xuan Thuan; and Why Meditate? His books have been translated into over twenty languages.
Other books we’ve read include: When Things Fall Apart by Pema Chödrön, A Fearless Heart by Thupten Jinpa, and The Misleading Mind by Karuna Cayton.
Series
How to be in Relationship: A Buddhist and Psychotherapeutic Exploration with Pilar Jennings
Mondays 6:30-8pm, October 25 – December 13, plus a daylong retreat on Saturday, January 22
You can learn more about the course in this short video: https://vimeo.com/626585996/0468cce4d8
In this 8-week online course, we will explore the healing potential and challenges of interpersonal relationships. Through the lens of Buddhist teachings and psychotherapeutic models of development, Dr. Pilar Jennings will examine the pervasive wish for fulfilling relationships with friends, family, and mentors, alongside the many difficulties we face in these complex efforts. Together we will talk through the key similarities and differences in the following dyads: therapists and patients; spiritual mentors and students; and parents and children. Each session will include a Dharma talk, guided meditation, and Q&A.
We are asking for donations for this course: $150 for 8 weeks or $25 per class. Please let Pamela know if you’d like to take this course and it would be difficult for you to donate the suggested amount; a sliding scale is available. If you register you will have access to recordings of the classes.
When you fill in the form to sign up for the course, you will receive the Zoom link and the instructions for making an offering. There is an optional reading to consider for the course: Mixing Minds: The Power of Relationship in Psychoanalysis and Buddhism, by Pilar Jennings.
Topics for each week are as follows:
10/25 – The Beginning: The Buddha Shakyamuni’s History of Relationship & Freud’s
11/01 – Our Beginnings: Early Infant Attachment & Buddhist Non-attachment
11/08 – Selfhood & Subjectivity: How Self is Formed in Relationship
11/15 – How Buddhist Teachers Approach Relationship
11/22 – How Psychotherapists Understand Relationship
11/29 – Desire & Aggression: Navigating these Common Pitfalls
12/06 – The Role of Culture in Relationship
12/13 – Bringing Psyche & Spirit into Relationship
1/22 – Daylong Retreat
Please join us!
Mondays 6:30-8pm, October 25 – December 13, plus a daylong retreat on Saturday, January 22
You can learn more about the course in this short video: https://vimeo.com/626585996/0468cce4d8
In this 8-week online course, we will explore the healing potential and challenges of interpersonal relationships. Through the lens of Buddhist teachings and psychotherapeutic models of development, Dr. Pilar Jennings will examine the pervasive wish for fulfilling relationships with friends, family, and mentors, alongside the many difficulties we face in these complex efforts. Together we will talk through the key similarities and differences in the following dyads: therapists and patients; spiritual mentors and students; and parents and children. Each session will include a Dharma talk, guided meditation, and Q&A.
We are asking for donations for this course: $150 for 8 weeks or $25 per class. Please let Pamela know if you’d like to take this course and it would be difficult for you to donate the suggested amount; a sliding scale is available. If you register you will have access to recordings of the classes.
When you fill in the form to sign up for the course, you will receive the Zoom link and the instructions for making an offering. There is an optional reading to consider for the course: Mixing Minds: The Power of Relationship in Psychoanalysis and Buddhism, by Pilar Jennings.
Topics for each week are as follows:
10/25 – The Beginning: The Buddha Shakyamuni’s History of Relationship & Freud’s
11/01 – Our Beginnings: Early Infant Attachment & Buddhist Non-attachment
11/08 – Selfhood & Subjectivity: How Self is Formed in Relationship
11/15 – How Buddhist Teachers Approach Relationship
11/22 – How Psychotherapists Understand Relationship
11/29 – Desire & Aggression: Navigating these Common Pitfalls
12/06 – The Role of Culture in Relationship
12/13 – Bringing Psyche & Spirit into Relationship
1/22 – Daylong Retreat
Please join us!
Creating a Joyous Meditation Practice with Bob Lyster
Saturdays 9-10am, December 4, 11, 18
If you are interested in starting or deepening a meditation practice, please join Bob Lyster for this 3-week series. We ask that you commit to all three meetings. All are welcome, but the class size is limited (first come, first served).
Please join us!
Saturdays 9-10am, December 4, 11, 18
If you are interested in starting or deepening a meditation practice, please join Bob Lyster for this 3-week series. We ask that you commit to all three meetings. All are welcome, but the class size is limited (first come, first served).
Please join us!
One-time-only events
Sunday October 17 at 2pm on Zoom, join us for Inspire Deep Connection Through Mindful Conversation with Martha Williams and John Scilipote. Mindful Conversation is a transformational practice where we learn to deepen our ability to listen, increase our capacity for curiosity and compassion, and take more agency as active participants in collaboratively shaping the conversations we desire. Join Martha Williams and John Scilipote, creators of Mindful Conversation, for a 90-minute participatory experience where we explore and have fun with some of the basic concepts and methods of this connection-building practice.
Martha Williams and John Scilipote are co-founders of Culture Shift Agency, Inc. and the creators of BreakBread World (https://www.breakbread.world/) a growing global community dedicated to reweaving our common humanity over active and inspired conversation while sharing in the intimate act of breaking bread together. Together they are developing and teaching their process, Mindful Conversation, to help inspire better listening, increase capacity for curiosity, and foster deeper compassion and connection to self, others, and our communities. John and Martha only recently joined forces and combine very diverse backgrounds as artists, thinkers, creators, and entrepreneurs.
Please join us!
Martha Williams and John Scilipote are co-founders of Culture Shift Agency, Inc. and the creators of BreakBread World (https://www.breakbread.world/) a growing global community dedicated to reweaving our common humanity over active and inspired conversation while sharing in the intimate act of breaking bread together. Together they are developing and teaching their process, Mindful Conversation, to help inspire better listening, increase capacity for curiosity, and foster deeper compassion and connection to self, others, and our communities. John and Martha only recently joined forces and combine very diverse backgrounds as artists, thinkers, creators, and entrepreneurs.
Please join us!
Mindfulness and Implicit Bias with Cathy Trentalancia
Sunday, November 21 at 2pm
This session will look at how mindfulness increases our awareness of our emotions, thoughts and surroundings, expanding our ability to accept what’s happening without judgment. The ability to pay attention, on purpose in the present moment without judgment, helps us see the full context of what’s happening, which greatly reduces our prejudice and bias. The program will include a talk, a guided meditation, and time for Q&A. All are welcome, no experience with meditation is necessary.
Cathy’s work bridges the processes of scientific inquiry and meditation. Having the fortune to work on two Cosmos series with Carl Sagan and Neil DeGrasse Tyson, Cathy found the connection between first-person method of investigating the mind through Buddhist contemplative practices and scientific methods of observation. Learn more about Cathy at www.cathytrentalancia.com.
Please join us!
Sunday, November 21 at 2pm
This session will look at how mindfulness increases our awareness of our emotions, thoughts and surroundings, expanding our ability to accept what’s happening without judgment. The ability to pay attention, on purpose in the present moment without judgment, helps us see the full context of what’s happening, which greatly reduces our prejudice and bias. The program will include a talk, a guided meditation, and time for Q&A. All are welcome, no experience with meditation is necessary.
Cathy’s work bridges the processes of scientific inquiry and meditation. Having the fortune to work on two Cosmos series with Carl Sagan and Neil DeGrasse Tyson, Cathy found the connection between first-person method of investigating the mind through Buddhist contemplative practices and scientific methods of observation. Learn more about Cathy at www.cathytrentalancia.com.
Please join us!
Events hosted by Shantideva Center
Our Dharma partner, Shantideva Center, offers Dharma courses, teachings and retreats, meditation for every level of practice from complete beginners to advanced practitioners, and courses for wellness and mindful living. Click here to go to the Shantideva Center calendar of events.
Other Events beyond All Souls
We have lots of suggestions for events happening beyond All Souls, and we’d like to hear your suggestions as well. Please visit All Souls Connext, our virtual community, and go to the Buddhism & Mindfulness Group to learn about recommended events and to add your own suggestions.
