Clearing Obstacles For the New Year

A Day-long Retreat with Megan Mook and Jackie Stewart

Balance Arts Center in New York City 151 W. 30th St, 3rd Floor, NY, NY 10001

December 14th, 2024 12:00pm - 5:00pm

For Young Adults ages 18-35

Each New Year marks a new beginning, and with any new beginning, it's wise to prepare as best we can.

Join Dharma Gates in collaboration with Dharma Friends NYC for a one day retreat filled with meditation, community, movement, sound meditation, and specialized practices to help dispel personal and collective obstacles for 2025. During this immersive retreat, Megan Mook and Jackie Stewart will share traditional Tibetan Buddhist practices and meditations, including mantra and special prayers, to help us clear our psyches and open our hearts in preparation for the New Year.

The retreat will open with meditation and accessible yoga, and it will end with a gentle sound meditation using unique and exquisitely beautiful instruments. Please join us as we gather together as a community to collectively transform obstacles into open-heartedness and joy. 

The retreat is run entirely by dāna / donation. Find out more about dāna here

  • Megan Mook holds a Master’s in Buddhist Studies and is a long-term student of both Tibetan Buddhism and yoga. Megan has lived and studied in traditional monastic environments all over the world, thoroughly immersing herself in the practice of Buddhism, yoga, and natural healing. A member of the Tibetan Translators Guild of New York, Megan has worked on Tibetan scriptural translations with Dr. Robert Thurman and Dr. Lozang Jamspal, an 87 year old Tibetan Lama with whom Megan studied and traveled for several years. The heart of Megan’s teaching is tender-hearted clarity, accessed through compassion and embodied awareness. Megan regularly offers Buddhist philosophy classes and meditation retreats, and leads international Buddhist pilgrimages for Tricycle Buddhist Review. MeganMook.com

  • Jackie Stewart resides in NYC, where she teaches meditation and Buddhist Studies while nurturing her two amazing young sons. With a Master’s from NYU's Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development, she leads daily meditation classes on the Journey Live app and is a regularly featured instructor on the Alo Moves education platform. She teaches alongside Ethan Nichtern for Dharma Moon’s Yearlong Buddhist Studies Program, and mentors aspiring educators through MNDFL’s teacher training. She is currently studying with Mingyur Rinpoche, and serves as a practice leader in his international community, Tergar. Her use of storytelling, light-heartedness, and warmth bring traditional teachings to life in an understandable and relatable way. Jackiestewart.com

Logistics

Location : Balance Arts Center in New York City 151 W. 30th St, 3rd Floor, NY, NY 10001

Room: 1

Date: December 14th, 2024

Time : 12:00pm - 5:00pm (Please arrive 10 minutes early at 11:50 am)

Chairs, Cushions, and Yoga Mats will be provided. Please bring anything that will help you sit comfortably. You are welcome to bring your own cushion and sitting supports.

Frequently Asked Questions

  • No. All experience levels are welcome, including beginners.

  • Nope. You do not have to be Buddhist to participate in this retreat. Megan Mook and Jackie Stewart’s teachings are deeply rooted in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition and include beliefs that may be challenging for some. The invitation is to encounter the teachings, to build confidence in the teachings as we verify in our experience, and to maintain a healthy, open, discerning, and inquisitive mind towards what cannot verify in our own experience.

  • The retreat is run on a donation basis in the spirit of dana. There is no required attendance fee.

    We ask you to donate the amount that feels appropriate and generous for you, given your situation and desire for Dharma Gates to continue to exist in the future.

  • Dharma Gates wholeheartedly welcomes people of all cultural, ethnic and racial backgrounds, sexual orientations, and gender identities. There will be gender neutral bathrooms available and we may be able to provide single rooms if that would make you more comfortable. Our aim is to make retreat practice accessible to all young people—if there’s something we can to do help you feel comfortable to attending, please do not hesitate to reach out to us (team@dharma-gates.org.)

Balance Arts Center