Since it’s the beginning of the year, I’ll start with telling you one of the resolutions I made last year: I decided I would give up the word “should.” And I listened to myself! Even in the middle of a sentence, if I said “I should” or “he should have”... It doesn’t matter if he should have—he didn’t. What I really mean, and what is much sweeter for my mind to hear, is “I wish I had done that,” or “I wish he had,” and now that I say it that way. It just keeps my mind a sweeter neighborhood with less bad people in it.
Sylvia Boorstein, PhD
Residential Retreat Teacher
Sylvia Boorstein, PhD, has been teaching Dharma and mindfulness meditation since 1985. She is a founding Spirit Rock teacher, a psychologist, mother, grandmother, and great grandmother. She is particularly interested in emphasizing daily life as mindfulness practice and including informed citizenship and social activism as integral to spiritual maturation. Her books include: It's Easier Than You Think: The Buddhist Way to Happiness; Don't Just Do Something, Sit There: A Mindfulness Retreat; That's Funny, You Don't Look Buddhist: On Being a Faithful Jew and a Passionate Buddhist; Pay Attention for Goodness' Sake: The Buddhist Path of Kindness and Happiness Is an Inside Job: Practicing for a Joyful Life.
Sylvia Boorstein's Upcoming Programs
Retreat | Online Non-Residential
November 23 - November 24, 2024 | Saturday - Sunday | 10:00 AM - 4:00 PM
Hidden in Full View: The Shared Heart of Spiritual Teachings and Practices
In stating “My religion is kindness,” the Dalai Lama highlighted universal principles of ethics, wisdom, and goodness that transcend any particular religion. Throughout this retreat, we’ll combine Buddhist teachings and practices to develop wisdom, ethics, and the awakened heart with various perspectives from other spiritual traditions. In doing so, we’ll connect with universal principles that can be expressed in ordinary, everyday language. Our time together will include meditation, talks and dialogue between Donald and Sylvia, and small- and large-group discussions.
Retreat | On-Land
December 8 - December 18, 2024 | Sunday - Wednesday | 10 nights
December Insight Retreat: Cultivating Calm, Contentment, and Confidence
Spaces Available. In this retreat, we tend to the three qualities of stability, well-being, and confidence, all of which support insight into the three characteristics of existence. Then we explore and befriend these characteristics—namely, aniccā (impermanence, inconstancy), dukkha (stress, unsatisfactoriness, suffering) and anattā (not-self, impersonality, ungovernability)—in our own lived experience. When we understand and make peace with these characteristics, we have more ease, compassion, and freedom in our lives, and we can be of more benefit to ourselves, others, and the world.
Retreat | Online | Hybrid
Wednesday, January 1 | 10:00 AM - 1:00 PM
Welcome the New Year With Intention, Determination, and Joy
Celebrate 2025’s arrival as we respond to the fundamental question, “What, in challenging times, keeps the mind alert and buoyant, and the heart hopeful and generous?” Together we’ll explore the practices that have sustained us throughout the last year and the lessons we’ve learned. We’ll share stories, Dharma, meditation instructions and practice periods, guided mindful movement, and music. Please join us as we, in the words of the Buddha, “Move into the future with confidence.”
Sylvia Boorstein
Retreat | On-Land | Hybrid
Wednesday, January 1 | 10:00 AM - 1:00 PM
Welcome the New Year With Intention, Determination, and Joy
Celebrate 2025’s arrival as we respond to the fundamental question, “What, in challenging times, keeps the mind alert and buoyant, and the heart hopeful and generous?” Together we’ll explore the practices that have sustained us throughout the last year and the lessons we’ve learned. We’ll share stories, Dharma, meditation instructions and practice periods, guided mindful movement, and music. Please join us as we, in the words of the Buddha, “Move into the future with confidence.”
Sylvia Boorstein
Retreat | On-Land
January 10 - January 17, 2025 | Friday - Friday | 7 nights
Mettā Retreat: Teachings and Practices to Cultivate a Wise, Awakened, and Responsive Heart
Registration Open - September 10. Mettā, or lovingkindness, practice is the cultivation of the intention of benevolence as the orientation of our heart and mind. It is also a path to wisdom. We develop our capacity for mettā through meditation in order for it to manifest in our daily lives. Mettā practice strengthens self-confidence, self-acceptance, and steadiness of mind and heart, revealing our fundamental disposition toward kindness. We’ll be joined on one day of the retreat by Sylvia Boorstein, a beloved long-time teacher of mettā.
Donald Rothberg
Gullu Singh
Beth Sternlieb
Diana Winston
Sylvia Boorstein
Jonathan Relucio
Upcoming Drop-Ins
Drop-in | Online
Wednesday, November 6 | 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Wednesday Morning Meditation & Talk
Our Wednesday Morning Meditation & Talk is led by Sylvia Boorstein, Donald Rothberg, Heidi Bourne, or other guest teachers. This group welcomes beginners and experienced practitioners to explore the Dharma.
Dharma Library
Can't join us live online or on the land? Study and practice at your convenience with Sylvia Boorstein through our new library of recordings, articles, and self-paced online courses.
