Accessible Buddhist meditation in NYC + online. Weekly sits, dharma talks & retreats. A diverse, welcoming sangha for wisdom, connection & healing.
The Community Meditation Center is located on Manhattan’s upper west side in New York City. With a relaxed and comfortable atmosphere the CMC offers classes, Insight Meditation (Vipassana) instruction and practice, daylong retreats, workshops, and social events. Some of the world’s most renowned teachers join with guiding teacher Allan Lokos as we endeavor to develop greater compassion, lovingkind
ness, wisdom, generosity, and equanimity. The CMC exists for all who would seek a more joyful and meaningful life.
04/26/2026
Can letting go empower us?
This Sunday, we sit with a question the Buddha posed directly: Have we familiarized ourselves with letting go? Have we understood the reward of renunciation?
Letting go doesn’t mean pushing anything away. It can be a gentle loosening — meeting experience with a little more space, a little more ease.
What might you be ready to release?
🗓 April 26
⏰ 10:30am–12pm ET | 16:30–18:00 CET
📍 Online via Zoom | By donation — all are welcome
“To avoid all evil, to cultivate good, and to purify one’s mind — this is the teaching of the Buddhas.”
— the Buddha
Today, Vera Ruangtragool will continue our series: 10 Perfections — 10 qualities that deserve our ongoing cultivation.
We turn to virtue: the courage to live in alignment with our values, the care we bring to our actions and speech, and the quiet strength of integrity in a complex world.
🗓 April 19 | ⏰ 10:30am–12pm ET | 16:30–18:00 CET
📍 Online via Zoom
By donation – all are welcome at Community Meditation Center
We’re delighted that guest teacher Nolitha Tsengiwe will be joining us this Sunday to explore exactly that!
This session will look at how dullness and sleepiness quietly drain our energy and cloud our clarity. What feeds them? What nourishes wakefulness and vitality?
Together, we’ll explore how to befriend laziness wisely: resting with care, without letting it take over.
This teaching is part of our ongoing theme ‘Befriending Difficulty’
🗓 Sunday, Feb 15 Community Meditation Center
⏰ 10:30am–12:00pm ET | 16:30–18:00 CET
📍 Zoom | link in bio
✨ By donation — all are welcome
11/22/2025
Join us for “Rejoicing in Generosity,” a special hybrid evening celebrating our Community Meditation Center New York and the many ways generosity shapes our lives.
Together, we’ll explore a simple but powerful question: What is the impact of generosity for you?
We’ll hear from our panel about how giving and receiving have touched their lives — and we’ll also take time in small groups to reflect on this same question as a community.
This evening is also a fundraiser supporting CMC, helping sustain our programs and our commitment to making these teachings accessible to all.
🗓 Saturday, December 6, 6:30–8:30pm ET
📍 Join in person at NY Insight Meditation Center or online via Zoom
We’d love to have you with us — to celebrate, to reflect, and to rejoice in the goodness we create together.
With Oneika Mays, Vera Ruangtragool, Pilar Jennings & Jessica Mingus
10/25/2025
“What would wisdom do, right now?”
This Sunday, we conclude our Back to Basics series with an exploration of mindfulness of dhammas — the fourth foundation of mindfulness.
If mindfulness helps us name the weather of the mind — stormy, foggy, bright, or still — mindfulness of dhammas helps us understand why the weather forms as it does, and what allows it to pass. By bringing the lens of the Buddha’s teachings into our practice, we learn to meet each moment with kindness and to gently guide the mind toward freedom.
🗓 Sunday, Oct 26, 2025
⏰ 10:30 am–12:00 pm ET | 16:30–18:00 CET
📍 Zoom (link in bio or www.CMC-NY.org/event-calendar)
✨ By donation – all are welcome at Community Meditation Center
09/27/2025
Whose voices help you return to balance when life feels out of rhythm?
This Sunday we’ll turn toward equanimity - a heart quality that expands our view. It allows us to be less disturbed by pain, blame, or loss, and less intoxicated by pleasure, praise, or gain. A steady heart that keeps kindness, compassion, and joy grounded.
A question we’ll explore together: What do I trust when there is equanimity?
🧘 Join us online with Community Meditation Center to explore equanimity through practice and reflection.
🗓 Sunday, Sept 28, 2025
⏰ 10:30am–12pm ET | 16:30–18:00 CET
📍 Zoom (link in bio or www.CMC-NY.org/event-calendar)
✨ By donation – all are welcome.
09/20/2025
“Being happy for others is way easier without comparing yourself to them.”
At the Community Meditation Center, we are exploring the Four Heart Qualities. This week we turn to being happy for the successes and the happiness of others.
✨ Join us as we reflect together:
🌿 For whom can we be happy?
🌿 How does joy feel?
🌿 What helps us when joy for others is difficult to find?
Through Dharma reflections, meditation, and shared presence, we’ll explore how joy steadies the heart, nourishes community, and helps us meet the world with ease.
🗓 Sunday, September 21
🕥 10:30am–12pm ET | 16:30–18:00 CET
💻 Online via Zoom
💞 By donation – all are welcome
🔗 www.CMC-NY.org/event-calendar
09/16/2025
✨New In-Person Offering: Waking Up Together ✨
Starting Sept 25, join CMC’s new monthly Thursday gatherings (6:30–8:30pm). With meditation, mindful movement, and Insight Dialogue, we’ll explore Dharma themes in community. Our first evening centers on joy for others—celebrating and holding life’s joys and sorrows together.
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Contact The Practice
Send a message to Community Meditation Center New York:
The Community Meditation Center is located on Manhattan’s vibrant Upper West Side. With a relaxed and comfortable atmosphere, in the company of a welcoming community, CMC offers instruction and practice in Vipassana (Insight) meditation and in-depth explorations into the teachings of the Buddha. Some of the world’s most renowned teachers comprise the CMC faculty and inspire the development of greater compassion, lovingkindness, wisdom, generosity, and equanimity. CMC exists for all who seek a more meaningful and joyful life.
Sangha gatherings are twice a week and all are welcome:
Sundays from 10:30 AM - 12 PM on Manhattan's Upper West Side at 593 Columbus Avenue on the NE corner of 88th Street. [PLEASE NOTE Due to renovations, Sunday sessions from February16th – March 29th will be held at the Bernie Wohl Center, 647 Columbus Ave (NE corner 91st St. WITH THE EXCEPTION OF March 15th, which will be held at
15 West 86th Street (The SAJ Building))
Wednesdays from 6:30 - 7:30 PM at 15 West 86th Street (the SAJ building), between Central Park West and Columbus.
The Sunday and Wednesday sessions are free, with donations appreciated: Sunday suggested donation is $20, Wednesday is $15.
