Space2Meditate offers the opportunity to sit on-line with the support of community 7 days a week. Wild, right? We can do this thanks to a wonderful team of teachers and volunteers, and the incredible support of our community. We also host residential retreats and a range of other events and gatherings.
We invite you to join us and to get to know us. You will discover that we like poetry (a lot), coffee (also a lot), keeping it real and a good laugh now and again. Cause it’s rough out there.
Our practice style? We don’t avoid the headlines. Instead, we work with what is happening in the world right here, in the crucible of meditation and community. Together, we try to metabolize what the heck is going on, the macro, the micro, and everything in between.
Give yourself Space2Meditate.
Stop, Drop, Sit and Connect
Silent meditation 7am EST 7days/week
Guided meditation 8am EST 7days/week
BIPOC Community Sit 2X month on Sat 8:45am
Monthly Dharma Nights - 2nd Sundays 7pm EST
Monthly Sangha Nights - 4th Sundays 7pm EST
And a bunch of other cool resources and wonderful humans
We’re chill. We don’t take attendance! Some folks come every day, others drop in from time to time, and everything in between. It’s all good.
There is a core group that is quite steady and will always delight in seeing new and returning faces.
Some folks just want to meditate. Others like to also connect with one another. No pressure either way. Engage in a way that works for you.
How does it all work? We operate on the basis of gift economics.
Everything we do is fueled by the generosity of community.
No one is turned away for lack of funds.
Office hours! Come chat.
Jon and Upayadhi, the founding and guiding teachers at Space2Meditate, welcome folks to book time with either of them to check-in about your practice, meditation, and how you might be working to apply the teachings in daily life. You don’t have to be a member of Space2Meditate to book time with us. We meet with individuals on the basis of mutual generosity, on a sliding scale. At the links below, find out more about us, and about what we might talk about when we meet.
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My journey in the Dharma began in 2004 at the London Buddhist Centre in Bethnal Green. Since stumbling onto my first meditation cushion, I've trained across a range of Buddhist traditions, but I remain rooted in the Triratna Buddhist Order, to which I was ordained in 2018.
My professional background is in leadership development, executive education, and coaching. The 2016 elections were a turning point — I entered Union Theological Seminary in New York, where I studied Buddhism and Inter-religious Engagement. I'm currently pursuing doctoral work in Religious Studies at the University of Chicago Divinity School.
I co-founded Awareness is Revolutionary, a collective cultivating Beloved Community and racial literacy within a Dharmic framework. I'm also a certified MBSR teacher and have practiced as an interfaith chaplain in hospice and hospital settings. When the pandemic hit, Jon Aaron and I co-founded Space2Meditate.
I was born and raised in France, and am of Italian heritage. My name is a reference to the qualities of wisdom (dhi) and compassion in action (upaya) in the Buddhist tradition.
You can find out more about me and my training pathway on my personal website.
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My zig-zag of a life has taken quite a few 180-degree turns — which makes me a good conversation partner for anyone living with paradox or standing at some kind of crossroads. I'm a Third Culture Kid, a Buddhist chaplain, a mindfulness-based coach, a recovering corporate executive, and a queer white woman doing anti-racism work in Buddhist spaces. Also: a card-carrying nerd addicted to learning (currently in grad school for the third time), and a deep introvert who genuinely wants to connect but needs a little coaxing out from under her rock. (That's your cue — book a chat.)
Here's the kind of territory I love exploring with people: meditation and Dharma practice; belonging and identity; big scary life transitions; messy race, sexuality, and gender stuff; and the group dynamics and intercultural misreads that drive us nuts. We might go deep on what collective liberation actually feels/looks like; what healing really takes; how to survive late-stage capitalism with your heart somewhat intact; or why pleasure is crucial for resistance. Theological rabbit holes? Career and what-do-I-do-with-my-life conundrums? Difficult communication with loved ones, and lesser loved ones? Existential dread at 2am? All welcome. I'm here for it. Let's talk.
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I first encountered meditation in the 1970s, and by the late 1990s I had found my way into the Insight Meditation community, where mindfulness and Buddhism became central to my life. What began as personal practice gradually evolved into teaching. That has included bridging into more secular forms of mindfulness meditation.
I've now taught over 130 cycles of the Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) curriculum and train MBSR teachers across the US, Hungary, and Japan. To deepen my understanding of trauma, I've also trained as a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner.
I teach regularly at the New York Insight Meditation Center, lead a weekly Insight Sangha in Chicago, and co-founded the Space2Meditate community in 2020. I'm also a co-founder of the Mindfulness Teacher Training Alliance and a founding member of the Global Mindfulness Collaborative.
Before turning to teaching full-time, I spent over 30 years as an agent and producer in the performing arts. That chapter shaped me — and this one continues to.
You can find out more about me, my path of training and my teachers on my personal website, as well as through my podcast, Diggin’ the Dharma.
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I spent over 30 years as an agent and producer in the performing arts — then somehow ended up as a meditation teacher. No master plan, just a slow drift toward what felt most alive.
Here's what I am now: a lifelong student of Buddhism and meditation who keeps finding there's more to learn, a trauma-informed practitioner, and someone who believes paying attention might be the most radical thing any of us can do.
Here's the kind of territory I love exploring with people: uncertainty, stress, burnout, loss, and the overwhelm of modern life; sitting with pain — physical, emotional, existential; what it actually means to show up for your own experience; and the slow, unglamorous, deeply worthwhile work of waking up.
New to meditation? Seasoned practitioner hitting a wall? Teacher looking for support? Curious about MBSR? Humanoid just trying to get through the day? All welcome.
Basically: if you're interested in living with a little more awareness and a little less suffering — let's talk!
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