Hugh Byrne

02/06/2025

Friends interested in a spiritually engaged approach to meeting our current crisis with resilience and compassion:

I'm leading a 5-session monthly program (Feb to June) to help us work with our inner responses to all that is happening--fear, anger, grief, and other emotions--and to engage in compassionate and effective action in the country and world.

In Buddhism, the bodhisattva path involves committing to open our own heart and work for the freedom and awakening of all beings. The goal is the same one envisioned by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.--to create the beloved community grounded in love and compassion I hope you join us:

Among the teachings of the Dharma, the ideal and practice of the Bodhisattva Path can be a particularly potent source of support and direction as we commit to our own awakening and the freedom of all beings and face the challenging times ahead. Consciously committing to seeing all beings as worthy o...

01/21/2025

Join Tara Brach, Sharon Salzberg, Rob Thurman, Kazu Haga, Larry and Peggy Ward, myself and other Buddhist teachers this weekend, January 24-26, to explore how to respond with wisdom, compassion, and courage in these challenging times:

We’re living in times that deeply challenge our ability to bring the compassion and wisdom we cultivate on the cushion into our everyday lives. How do Buddhist teachings help us examine the perceptions and biases that fuel separation and hatred? What’s the meaning of fierce compassion? Is equani...

03/23/2024

One of my favorite poems, 'Ten thousand flowers in spring' by Wu Men (12th Century Chinese Zen teacher)

'Ten thousand flowers in spring, the moon in autumn,
a cool breeze in summer, snow in winter.
If your mind is not clouded with unnecessary things,
this is the best season of your life.'

(Photo: MLK among the cherry blossoms on the Mall, 3/21/2024

09/12/2022

Join me for a half-day mini-retreat on mindfulness and loving-kindness. Learn to befriend your experience--meeting what is present with kindness and acceptance and without judgment. We'll have periods of guided mindfulness and loving-kindness meditations, short talks, with poems, stories, and sharing. An opportunity to train your mind and open your heart!

Learn more here:

Mini Retreat: A Day of Mindfulness and Loving-Kindness with Hugh Byrne

03/19/2022

If you could use a pause and some solace in these troubling times, I'm teaching a 3-hour workshop/mini-retreat tomorrow, Sat. March 19, 12 - 3 pm eastern, 'Poetry for Meditation and Contemplation.' I often begin programs with my friend Martha Postlethwaite's poem 'Clearing':
Do not try to save
the whole world
or do anything grandiose.
Instead, create
a clearing
in the dense forest
of your life
and wait there
patiently,
until the song
that is yours alone to sing
falls into your open cupped hands
and you recognize and greet it.
Only then will you know
how to give yourself to this world
so worthy of rescue.
Join us, if you can, and keep working to build 'the more beautiful world our hearts know is possible' (Charles Eisenstein):

Join Hugh for this experiential workshop. Together you will incorporate poetry into your understanding and practice of meditation, helping you to drop out of conceptual thought and rest more fully and open-heartedly in the present moment.

04/17/2021

I'm teaching a six-week online course, beginning this coming Monday, April 19, on the Buddha's Four Noble Truths, his central teaching on freedom and the ending of suffering. He said, just as the footprint of all animals fit within the elephant's footprint, so all of his teachings fit within this core teaching on suffering and the end of suffering.

In keeping with the teachings and practices we're exploring, the course is experiential--investigating suffering in our own lives and the potential for finding freedom in the midst of all the challenges we face in these difficult times. Each class will include a period of guided meditation, a talk on the week's theme, small-group and full-group sharing, and at-home practices.

As the course is online, registration is open right up to the start of the first class. Please let me know if you have any questions--and join us, if you are able:

The first discourse of the Buddha after his awakening was the Four Noble Truths, his teaching on the existence of suffering, its cause, its end, and the path to its cessation—and all of the teachings point back to and support the ending of suffering in this very life. 

02/25/2021

This Saturday, Feb 27, 9:30 am to 4:30 pm Eastern, I'm teaching a daylong (or optional half-day) online meditation retreat, Opening to Change and Hope. We'll be cultivating practices of mindfulness, compassion, and loving-kindness to work with challenging emotions and orient our heart and spirit to wise hope for ourselves and our world. All are welcome:

In these tumultuous times of loss and hope, our practice is a powerful refuge—helping us open to and transform our suffering and access wise hope for ourselves and our world. 

02/17/2021

Join my all new event with practices of mindfulness, compassion, and loving-kindness, supported by poems, stories, mindful movement, and sharing, we’ll invite a letting go of attitudes and mind states that lead to stress and suffering. And deepen those that support well-being, happiness, and freedom of the heart.

Learn more here: https://imcw.org/Calendar/Event-Calendar/EventId/3925/e/opening-our-hearts-to-change-and-hope-27-feb-2021

02/11/2021

"In these tumultuous times of loss and hope, our practice is a powerful refuge—helping us open to and transform our suffering and access wise hope for ourselves and our world."

Join me for an all new online retreat. With practices of mindfulness, compassion, and loving-kindness, supported by poems, stories, mindful movement, and sharing, we'll invite a letting go of attitudes and mind states that lead to stress and suffering. And deepen those that support well-being, happiness, and freedom of the heart.

Participants are invited to attend for the full day or for the morning or afternoon session.

Learn more about how you can be apart of this event here: https://imcw.org/Calendar/Event-Calendar/EventId/3925/e/opening-our-hearts-to-change-and-hope-27-feb-2021

02/09/2021

All new event this February 27th. Please visit: https://imcw.org/Calendar/Event-Calendar/EventId/3925/e/opening-our-hearts-to-change-and-hope-27-feb-2021 to learn more.

01/05/2021

There is still time to join my virtual retreat to cultivate practices of hope and renewal.

This event allows you the option for a full day, morning, or afternoon access. I hope you will join me for the entire event, but please choose the time that best fits your availability.

Click the link to learn more or to register: https://bit.ly/3lycxbG

See you then,
– Hugh

12/22/2020

Join me for a virtual retreat to cultivate practices of hope and renewal. With practices of mindfulness, compassion, and loving-kindness, supported by poems, stories, mindful movement, and sharing, we’ll invite a letting go of attitudes and mental states that lead to stress and suffering and deepen those that support well-being, happiness, and freedom of the heart.

Click the link to learn more or to register: https://bit.ly/3lycxbG

– Hugh