Four Week Series on the Brahmaviharas

Sundays, September 21 to October 12, 2025, 3:00-4:15pm Eastern time via Zoom

Facilitated by Subha Srinivasan

This series will begin on Sunday, September 21 and meet for four consecutive Sundays from 3:00 – 4:15pm Eastern time via Zoom. The dates for this course are 9/21, 9/28, 10/5 and 10/12. The structure of each meeting will include meditation, exploration of the themes via contemplation in small groups and large group sharing. Each week, there will be a talk from Dharma Seed to listen to and some practice suggestions, both optional. We will use the Insight Dialogue guidelines (Pause – Relax – Open – Attune to Emergence – Listen Deeply – Speak the Truth) during contemplations; if this is new to you, please visit here for more information. 

The teachings will be offered freely and any donations can be made through Valley Insight. Please register using this google form. Please don’t hesitate to email if you have any questions or concerns at shub50@me.com. 

Insight Dialogue Study Group Spring 2025

Third Saturday of the Month: March 15, April 19, May 17, 2025 (10:30 to Noon Eastern time)  via Zoom, facilitated by Subha Srinivasan

This group is an opportunity to explore the three characteristics of impermanence (anicca), vulnerability (dukkha) and non-self (anatta) using Insight Dialogue (ID) as a framework for contemplation. We will use the six ID guidelines of Pause, Relax, Open, Attune to emergence, Listen Deeply and Speak the Truth as supports for our relational practice. Participation in this group assumes prior experience with using these ID guidelines. 

Each session will include guided meditation and contemplative dialogue practice focusing on one characteristic each month. You can attend as many sessions as you wish. There will be an optional longer in person practice opportunity on Saturday, June 21  with support from Doreen Schweizer, to contemplate all three characteristics through ID and Dharma contemplation. 

Please use this link to register and if you have any questions, please email shub50@me.com.

Three Week Online Offering of Introduction to Insight Dialogue

Saturdays, February 1, 8 and 15th from 9:00 am to 10:45 am Eastern Time

Marsha Lawson and Subha Srinivasan

This Online Introduction to Insight Dialogue is a three-week offering that covers the six Insight Dialogue relational meditation guidelines using Dhamma teachings as a contemplative frame.  All are welcome. This is an opportunity for experienced Insight Dialogue practitioners to refresh their relationship to the guidelines. This is also a chance for beginners to learn and apply these guidelines in their relational practice. 

Participants will meet for three consecutive weeks in real-time via Zoom for 105 minutes. Each week will include instruction on individual guidelines and their role in crafting a contemplative dialogue practice. What is offered will be informed by the Three Bases of Insight Dialogue: the wisdom teachings of the Buddha, meditative qualities, and the power of relationship.

Please use this link to register for the three-week offering. If you have any questions, please email shub50@me.com

Drop-in Saturday Mindfulness Group

Saturday, January 18, 2025, 10:30 am to Noon Eastern Time via Zoom

Subha Srinivasan

The theme of this session will be the three refuges. We will begin as always with a guided meditation, short dharmette on the three refuges and open to exploration in small groups. Email shub50@me.com for the Zoom link.

A Monthly Drop-in Mindfulness Series

Fourth Saturday ( Sept through Nov), 10:30 am to Noon Eastern Time via zoom (Dates: Sept 28, Oct 26, Nov 23)

Led by Valley Insight teacher Subha Srinivasan

In this series which will meet once a month,  we will practice mindfulness together in community and explore the insight dialogue guidelines of pause, relax, open, attuning to emergence, listening deeply and speaking the truth.  All levels of meditation experience are welcome, and the structure for each session will include a guided meditation, reflections/dialogue in small groups and sharing or Q/A. This course will be offered via zoom and participants will be expected to engage in the contemplations via audio and video. 

Please email shub50@me.com for the zoom link and if you have any questions. The teachings will be offered at no charge. If you’d like to support the steady presence of mindfulness in our community, donations can be made to Valley Insight; this is appreciated and entirely optional.

A Mindfulness group for Young Adults (Ages 18 – 25 welcome)

Second Sunday of the Month, 3:00 – 4:00 pm Eastern Time via zoom

(Dates: Oct 13th, Nov 10th, Dec 8th)

Facilitated by Valley Insight meditation teacher Subha Srinivasan

The intention for this group is  to help foster connections and use the support of mindfulness practices in helping navigate life transitions with ease, compassion and wisdom. All levels of meditation experience are welcome, and the structure for each session will include a guided meditation, reflections/dialogue in small groups and sharing or Q/A. This course will be offered via zoom and participants will be expected to engage in the contemplations via audio and video. Please email shub50@me.com for the zoom link and if you have any questions. 

A day of Loving-kindness practice with me

Saturday, August 3rd, 2024, Online from 10:30 – 4:00 pm Eastern time.

Loving-kindness (metta, in pali) is a practice of abiding in good-will and friendship towards ourselves and the world. Metta also offers us a practice of cultivating an attitude of care and kindness as a way of relating to our experience of the moment. 

Metta was first offered by the Buddha 2600 years ago, as a way of protection – protecting our hearts and minds from ill-will – and increasingly, I have found this practice to be timely, necessary and transformative in my own life as a householder and yogi. My intention in offering this daylong is to offer a space to practice metta together in community. The day will be structured into three sessions, which can be seen below. Guidance for meditation will be provided for each session, and we will use insight dialogue guidelines for contemplation in small groups. This day-long is suitable for beginners or experienced practitioners and is offered freely. In the tradition of Dana, donations to support these teachings can be made through Valley Insight by choosing Teacher Dana. Please email me shub50@me.com for the zoom link.

Session 1 (10:30 – Noon): Metta towards self and relating with kindness.

Session 2 (1:00 – 2:30): Metta as absence of ill-will towards difficult people/experiences.

Session 3: (3:00 – 4:00): Metta towards all beings: calling on your future self.

“This moment, This LOVE comes to rest in me, many beings in one being. In one wheat-grain a thousand sheaf stacks. Inside the needle’s eye a turning night of stars.” – Rumi

Insight Dialogue for People with Asian Heritage

An Insight Dialogue group for People with Asian Heritage will be offered by Yenkuei Chuang and Subha Srinivasan. It is a five-session series every other Thursday 4:15-5:45 pm Eastern Time on March 28, April 11, April 25, May 9, and May 23, 2024. 

Our hope is to introduce the six guidelines of Insight Dialogue – Pause, Relax, Open, Attune to Emergence, Listen Deeply, and Speak the Truth. We can use these guidelines as meditative tools to help us slow down and contemplate what it means to show up Asian with each other. 

Together we will explore understandings that may be unavailable in a BIPOC or majority White spaces. In addition to the six ID guidelines, we will allow dhamma teachings and the relational support to help name and loosen some of the identifications and views.

Registration information can be found here.

Insight Dialogue Study Group

Second Saturday of the Month: Jan 13th, Feb 10th, March 9th, April 13th, May 11th, June 8th via Zoom, 10:30 to Noon Eastern time.

Insight dialogue is a powerful practice that helps bring mindfulness, wisdom and compassion into our inter-relational life using the six guidelines of Pause, Relax, Open, Attune to emergence, Listen Deeply and Speak the Truth. In this on-going study group, we will practice with these guidelines using the book ‘Insight Dialogue’ by Gregory Kramer as reference. We will use these guidelines to explore the four noble truths and apply them to dharma contemplation.

Experience with insight dialogue practice is not required; an on-going commitment towards study and practice with the group is! This group will meet monthly on the second Saturday of the month from 10:30 to Noon. Please email shub50@me.com if you are interested.

Valley Insight Retreat: Sharing Refuge in Stillness and Community

Doreen Schweizer and Subha Srinivasan

Fri., Dec. 8, 7-8:30 pm; Sat., Dec. 9, 9:30 am – 4:30 pm

In Valley Insight’s Online Dharma Hall and In Person (Lebanon NH)

“Refuge is a shelter that you never have to leave.” — Stephen Fulder, Israeli Dharma Teacher

In this year’s Annual Valley Insight end-of-year retreat, offered via Zoom and in person in Lebanon, NH, we will rest our hearts together and find moments of peace and balance. As a community, we will explore the Buddha’s teachings on kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity. In these difficult times of rapid change, upheaval, war, political chaos, and climate crisis, these practices can help soothe the trembling heart’s tendency towards reactivity and cultivate a stillness from which wise action can continually emerge. Participating in the retreat is in and of itself a wise action — one of the many compassionate and wholesome answers to the very immediate question of “What can I do to help?”. Find more details and registration information at valleyinsight.org.

A Drop-in Mindfulness Series

Last Saturday of each month, 10:30am to Noon, Eastern Time via zoom

(Dates: Aug 26, Sept 30, Oct 28, Nov 25, Dec 30, 2023)

Led by Valley Insight teacher Subha Srinivasan

In this series which will meet once a month, we will practice mindfulness together in community and explore the themes of equanimity, renunciation, gratitude, joy and beginner’s mind.  All levels of meditation experience are welcome, and the structure for each session will include a centering/check-in, guided meditation, reflection on the particular theme and sharing or Q/A. This course will be offered via zoom. The teachings will be offered at no charge. Please email shub50@me.com for the zoom link and to be on the mailing list for this series.

Spiritual Friendship on the Path: Practice in Insight Dialogue Meditation and Dharma Contemplation

3 Saturdays:  September 9, October 14, and November 11
1:30 – 4:30 pm (in-person only)

Led by Marsha Lawson with assistance from Doreen Schweizer, Subhadra Srinivasan

These study/practice retreats will combine Insight Dialogue and Dharma Contemplation. We’ll explore the Dharma together through direct engagement with each other and with the teachings of the Buddha from the Pali Canon, the collection of suttas in the Theravada Buddhist tradition.

Insight Dialogue aims at helping practitioners develop mindfulness, compassion, and liberating insight through meditation, mindful listening, and speaking. The practice is conducive to building and strengthening spiritual friendship and community, while weaving together meditative awareness and Buddhist teachings. (More information here.)

Dharma Contemplation is a multilayered relational practice used to explore and engage with texts from the Pali Canon. The practice involves a step-by-step deepening process, as a group engages with these ancient Buddhist texts together, guiding practitioners into the meaning, applicability, depth, and beauty to be found in these texts. (More information here.)

This series will be open only to Valley Insight practitioners. Meditation experience required. The maximum number of registrants will be limited to 9 people, with preference for those who can attend all three sessions.

Please register for this series by Friday, August 25. Register here. For more information, or if you have any questions, please email Subha Srinivasan at shub50@me.com.

Introduction to Mindfulness course for BIPOC community:

Four Saturdays: May 27, June 3, June 10 and June 17, 10:30am -noon EST, Online via Zoom

This course will introduce participants to the basics of mindfulness meditation practices, and will be structured in four sessions. Sessions will incorporate mindfulness of body and breath; mindfulness of emotions; mindfulness of thoughts and beliefs and Metta (lovingkindness) and other heart practices. The structure of each session will typically include: Guided Meditation, Reflection/Teaching, Small Group Reflection and Large Sharing Circle, with Q and A, if time allows.

This course is open to those who self-identify as people of color and is appropriate for beginners as well as those with meditation experience. Participants are strongly encouraged to attend all four sessions and signups will be limited to sixteen participants. The teachings will be offered at no charge. If you’d like to support the steady presence of mindfulness and lovingkindness  in our community through this practice, donations can be made to Valley Insight; this is entirely optional. For more information or to register, please use this google form or email: shub50@me.com. Please pass along this information to a BIPOC friend who might be interested! 

Life as Practice: Cultivating Mindfulness as a Guide for Living Well:

Saturdays, Feb 18th to March 18th, 10:30 – 11:45 am and optional hybrid retreat day: March 25th, 10:00 am – Noon)

In this five week series offered via Zoom, we will explore the five mindfulness trainings as a way of embodying and integrating our practice into our life and as a road map to living with greater freedom, ease, peace and well-being. Each session will focus on one of the five training precepts.

‘The Five Mindfulness Trainings represent the Buddhist vision for a global spirituality and ethic. They are a concrete expression of the Buddha’s teachings on the Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path, the path of right understanding and true love, leading to healing, transformation, and happiness for ourselves and for the world.‘ – Thich Nhat Hanh

The structure for this series will include a centering/check-in, guided meditation and reflection on the particular training. The series will culminate in an optional two-hour hybrid mini-retreat offering the space to reflect on all five trainings and their ongoing impact on our lives. The mini-retreat will be co-led by Valley insight teachers Subha Srinivasan and Michael Stoner. Location for the retreat is TBD. We welcome diversity in age, meditation experience, race and national origin, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation and financial means. Teachings will be offered freely and donations can be made via Valley Insight: https://valleyinsight.org/

You can register for this series using this google form: https://forms.gle/nwY1nrtmVs8vMp8X7 

New Year’s Sit

Sunday, Jan 1, 2023, 4 pm – 5 pm EST

I have found it very useful and grounding these past few years to begin the year with setting an intention and using a word to welcome the year, something I learned via a blog many years ago. My word for 2022 was Embrace. And certainly, it has been a beautiful year of embracing the opportunities for growth and joy this year! And I would like to invite you to join me this new year to meditate and set an intention/word that reflects your deepest aspiration for the upcoming year. 

Please join me if you are free, on January 1st, 2023, from 4:00-5:00pm EST to sit, reflect and share with friends. Email shub50@me.com for zoom link.

Finding Refuge in Stillness and Community

Friday, Dec 9, 7pm – 8:30pm
and Saturday, Dec 10, 9:30am – 4:30pm

Led by Doreen Schweizer and Subha Srinivasan
No registration fee but you may offer dana to the teachers

‘Find a place of rest in the middle of things’ – Frank Ostaseski

In this Valley Insight day-long retreat, offered via Zoom, we will practice resting our hearts together, finding peace and community through the Buddha’s teachings on kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity. In these difficult times of rapid change, upheaval, and climate crisis, the practices can help soothe the trembling heart and cultivate a stillness from which wise action can emerge.

The structure of the retreat will include meditation instructions and reflections with time for Q/A – as well as periods of silent sitting and walking practice. Participants are encouraged to join the optional, introductory Friday evening session to become more familiar with the structure of the retreat, the teachers, and one another. This retreat is suitable for all levels of meditation experience, including beginners. It is being co-taught by Doreen Schweizer, senior teacher, and Subha Srinivasan (see Subha’s website). Subha has been sitting with Valley Insight since 2007.

Awakening together through gratitude and joy

Saturdays, 10:00 – 11:30 am EST in November (Nov 5th, 12th, 19th, 26th, 2022), via Zoom.

“When suffering falls away what is revealed is not a big blank but a natural sense of gratitude, good wishes for others, freedom and ease.” – Rick Hansen

Please join me in practicing gratitude together on Saturdays in November, from 10:00am to 11:30am EST via zoom. We will explore how holding the intention of gratitude and inclining our attention towards joy can help us be more present and awake in our lives. You can register via this google form for some or all of the four sessions.

Cultivating Heart Practices of Lovingkindness, Compassion, Joy and Equanimity

Wednesdays, 5:00 – 6:30 EST on July 20, July 27, August 3 and August 10 2022, via Zoom.

This four-week series will offer an invitation to train, develop, and nurture the seeds of loving-kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity that are innate qualities of the heart.  Also known as the four heavenly abodes, these practices train the heart in wisdom and compassion.  They help us to cultivate more ease in our relationships with ourselves and the world around us, and they move us toward greater healing. This series will be suitable for participants who have completed an Introduction to Mindfulness course or who have had an established meditation practice for at least a year. Sign-ups for the course will be limited to sixteen participants. Please email shub50@me.com to register.

Subha Srinivasan has been a member of the Valley Insight community since 2007 and is in the midst of a mindfulness teacher training program. This course will be her second teaching practicum. Each session will have a talk, guided meditation, and Q&A. The teachings will be offered at no charge. If you’d like to support the steady presence of the Dharma in our community, donations can be made to Valley Insight on our website; this is entirely optional.

An Introduction to Mindfulness Meditation

Six Saturdays: February 19, 26; March 5, 12, 19, 26, 2022, 10:30-11:45 am EST, Online via Zoom

This class will introduce participants to the basics of mindfulness meditation practices, and will be structured in six sessions. Sessions will incorporate mindfulness of body and breath; mindfulness of emotions; mindfulness of thoughts and beliefs; Metta (lovingkindness) and other heart practices; and how to bring your practice into the world. Each session will have a talk, guided meditation and Q/A. Participants are strongly encouraged to attend all six sessions. Subha is in the midst of a mindfulness teacher training program. This course will be her first teaching practicum. Each session will have a talk, guided meditation, and Q&A. The teachings will be offered at no charge. If you’d like to support the steady presence of the Dharma in our community, donations can be made to Valley Insight on our webpage; this is entirely optional.

For more information or to register, please email: shub50@me.com