​Meditation Schedule

In-person classes with Peter Doobinin

Monday Night Meditation
every Monday night
37 West 17th St., #6W, NYC (Still Mind Zendo)
6pm – 7:30pm
fee by donation

If you're new to the group and plan to attend the Monday Night Meditation class for the first time, please send an RSVP.

March Daylong Retreat
March 18
PS 3, Hudson & Grove Sts., NYC
10am – 5pm
fee by donation


Please visit the Schedule page for more information about classes including health protocols.
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Residential retreats with Peter Doobinin

April Eight-Day Retreat
April 13 - 21
Powell House, Old Chatham, NY

Please visit the Retreats page for more information.

New York Dharma is a refuge for insight meditation/Theravada Buddhist practice in New York City.  The group is led by Peter Doobinin.  Participation is open to all sincere meditation students.  We welcome all people regardless of cultural and religious background, race, socio-economic class, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, education, physical ability, or ability to pay.  We look forward to seeing you.

The insight meditation teachings offered in the group come from the Theravada Buddhist tradition. Theravada practice is derived from the core teachings of the Buddha, as found in the Pali Canon, the earliest surviving record of what the Buddha taught.  At NY Dharma, we practice primarily in the style of the Thai Forest tradition.  

Community is an integral component of dharma practice.  As the Buddha taught, community is made of kalyana mItta - spiritual friends, including teachers and our fellow dharma students.  In NY Dharma it is our vision to provide a community of likeminded people committed to dharma practice.  Being part of a community that embodies trust, care, kindness, and joyful companionship, we are able to make a wholehearted effort to alleviate suffering and find greater happiness in our lives.  

Peter Doobinin is the guiding teacher at NY Dharma. Peter has dedicated his life, for more than 20 years, to teaching the dharma.   As a founder of New York Insight, Downtown Meditation Community, and Berlin Dharma, Peter has sought to teach students to develop dharma practice as lay people, living amidst the speed and complexity of contemporary life.  Over the years, Peter's focus has been to work with small numbers of students, in an effort to provide a close teacher-to-student relationship. 
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​NY Dharma - Our Message

NY Dharma is a place where likeminded beings practice insight meditation/Theravada Buddhism in an effort to achieve mental, emotional & spiritual growth.  Our message to you is the message of the heart, the message of wisdom, lovingkindness, compassion, joy, peace & freedom.


NY Dharma - Our Practice

The elements of dharma practice that we make effort to develop:

 1- To cultivate parami.
   -Parami is the expression of our goodness.  It includes the skillful qualities of generosity, ethical conduct, renunciation, truthfulness, effort, determination, discernment, lovingkindness, patience, equanimity.  As we develop these qualities, we find joy in our goodness,            
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 2- To cultivate concentration, specifically the qualities of jhana.
   -We develop concentration according to the Buddha's instructions, by practicing mindfulness of breathing.  In doing so, we cultivate the jhana qualities: singleness of mind, ease, internal pleasure & contentment, equanimity.  Developing these qualities, we become established in concentration that is maintainable throughout the course of our days.
 
 3-To maintain present moment awareness and the qualities of jhana in all postures.
   -We learn skills to support us in our efforts to maintain mindfulness of breath and body, and an easeful abiding, in all our activities, as we go through our days.

 4-To develop in skillful action.
   -We cultivate the skill of heedfulness.  Heedfulness enables us to abandon unskillful action: action that brings about affliction for ourselves and others.  In turn, practicing heedfulness, we're able to take skillful action: action informed by wisdom, compassion, & lovingkindness.

 5- To cultivate insight.
   -We develop the skills for practicing in accord with the Buddha's teaching on the four noble truths.  We learn to comprehend and thereby abandon what we're doing that's preventing us from the happiness of the heart.   

 6- To know transcendent happiness.
    -We learn to incline to the state of awakened awareness -the quality of unconditioned happiness- that becomes available to us as we abandon what's blocking us from the heart.