Come join us Thursday, April 7th at 7:00pm at the Ark for a community meditation gathering to investigate the nature of mind while being taken on a journey of world music with instruments including the didgeridoo, Hang drum/handpan, Native American flute and hand drum, Tibetan singing bowls, African ngoni and mbira combined with medicine songs from various Native American traditions and Tuvan overtone throat singing.

This meditation gathering will also be a philosophical dharma study and discussion of the teachings of world renowned spiritual figures such as Chogyam Trungpa of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj and Sri Ramana Maharshi of the Advaita Vedanta tradition of India, S.N. Goenka of the Vipassana tradition, while drawing on the teachings from various indigenous shamanic traditions of the Americas and beyond. We will focus on a particular set of teachings for several classes and use the material for discussion and sharing at the end of the meditation practice.

We will engage in questions such as: how can meditation apply beyond the sitting cushion into a practical application of mindfulness and compassion in everyday life, how can we cultivate equanimity around physical and psychological pain, what is the nature of self, how do we create and sustain sangha (spiritual community), what is spirituality without dogma, and more.

Suggested donation is $10-$20 but no one will be turned away for lack of fund 

The class will be taught by Jerry Walsh (Bio below) 

Jerry Walsh has been a student of the dharma for the past eight years and a vipassana meditator for five years. Jerry has also been a student of Maestro Manuel Rufino for four years, studying the sacred traditions of humanity focusing primarily on the shamanic traditions of the Indigenous cultures of the Americas. He has travelled to over twenty-five different countries on five continents and spent a full year studying Buddhism and Himalayan culture in India, Nepal, and Bhutan from 2010-2011. He currently works with BEAT NYC, a non-profit that teaches Hip-Hop and Beatboxing in NYC public schools. He is a founding member of the Sacred Arts Research Foundation 501 (c) 3 and the Ark in Greenpoint, Brooklyn where he resides with the Golden Drum community. 

Jerry is a musician, vocalist, and beatboxer mixing ancient instruments and techniques such as the didgeridoo, Peruvian pan flute, Native American Fute, hang drum (handpan), and Tuvan throat singing with experimental hip-hop rhythms and lyrics revolving around mysticism and social activism. He has performed and taught at Sonic Bloom Festival, Gratitude Festival, Mysteryland Festival in Chile, Unifier Festival, Alex Grey's Chapel of Sacred Mirrors, and Cosmic Convergence Festival in Guatemala performing solo and in collaboration with Merkaba (Kalya Scintilla) and Srikalogy. Jerry has worked alongside internationally acclaimed sculpture artist, Kate Raudenbush, for the past three years bringing large scale laser-cut steel allegorical and spiritually inspired installations to New York City, San Francisco, Baltimore, Black Rock City, Amsterdam in the Netherlands, and Santiago in Chile.