In light of evolving information about COVID-19 and out of an abundance of caution, we are canceling this event.

Based on recommendations from public health officials, all non-essential events of more than 25 people on campus will be canceled or postponed. If we are able to reschedule the event at a later date, we will be in touch.

Thank you for your understanding.

Can the Theravadan understanding of anatta or “not-self” be the implicit recognition of our interdependence that impels compassionate active response to both individual and collective suffering?  Can we explore the realization of emptiness as knowing continual and inevitable change, not as an endpoint or goal, but as inspiration for responsive and compassionate activity?

The Thích Nhất Hạnh Program for Engaged Buddhism invites you to join us for our monthly Dharma Talk Series: Emptiness and Social Action. Over the course of nine months, a wide array of Buddhist teachers will take us into the essential teachings of the Buddhadharma and what it looks like to move into action to address the dissatisfaction, distress, and suffering that we meet in relationship with the earth, people, and systems today, in the United States, and around the world.

How does conceptual, inferential, and experiential knowledge into emptiness of an inherent self invite for a response to circumstances that are stressful, painful, and violent? Each evening will be unique, with a combination of a dharma talk, meditation, and a question and answer period exploring these essential and vital questions within Buddhism and our lives’ for this moment in time.

Gina Sharpe is co-founder of New York Insight Meditation Center for which she was Guiding Teacher for close to 20 years. She discovered the Dharma over 40

years ago and has studied and practiced with teachers in the Zen, Tibetan and Theravada traditions (in Asia and the United States). Gina retired from the practice of law in 1993 (after careers in Motion Picture Production and Public Policy) and has been teaching silent retreats and workshops since 1995 at Retreat and Community Centers and for several years, in a New York maximum-security prison for women. She has been a leader in the work of diversity at Buddhist Retreat and Community Centers for 15 years. She is currently a member of Spirit Rock’s Teachers Council and is one of 3 core teachers in its current Teacher Training Program in which there are 18 Trainees of Color.