Meditation in Westchester

Vajra Light Kadampa Buddhist Center is a non-profit Buddhist meditation center in Westchester, NY. We offer instruction in meditation and Buddhist spiritual practice through meditation classes, retreats and special events. Taught by qualified Western teachers, Vajra Light's meditation classes are very easy to understand and apply to our daily lives. The classes are suitable for both beginners and more advanced meditation practitioners. Everyone welcome!

Where to Start

All of the classes listed below are a great place to start for both beginners and experienced meditators.

Classes are especially designed to help busy, modern people find more inner peace and happiness. No prior experience with Buddhism or meditation is necessary. Everyone is welcome! Please follow the links to individual class pages for more details about the current topics and pricing.

New Series!

Sunday Mornings
10:30am -12:00pm

The Confidence to Change 

WITH kadam donna campanelli

VAJRA LIGHT KADAMPA BUDDHIST CENTER
875 MAMARONECK AVENUE
SUITE 205
MAMARONECK, NY 10543

Everybody wants to change. We want to be less insecure, fearful, lazy, angry, depressed, etc. We want to be more confident, courageous, happy, creative and so forth. We wish for more success, more harmony in our relationships, and a more fulfilling life. But we actually find it difficult to change ourselves and to bring about the changes we long for in our life. Instead, we often feel ourselves to be stuck in unhealthy and unhappy habits. Buddha’s teachings on the practice of joyful effort help us to understand what it is we need to change as well as give us the confidence and skill to bring the desired changes about. Through applying these methods we can begin to have the joyful and meaningful life we all long for.

Everyone welcome; suitable for both beginners and experienced meditators.

Prayers for World Peace

Sunday Mornings
9:45am -10:15am

Vajra Light kadampa Buddhist Center
875 Mamaroneck Avenue
Suite 205
Mamaroneck, NY 10543

Join us for Prayers for World Peace, beautiful prayers set to music, that give us the opportunity to develop a warm and loving heart and to help create both inner and outer peace. 

Through contemplating these prayers compiled by Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, we learn to cherish all living beings. If everyone sincerely prays to be able to cherish others, then gradually through the power of this prayer, everyone will actually cherish each other.  The world will then be permanently at peace, and pure and everlasting happiness will pervade the entire world.

Everyone welcome!

Wednesday Evenings
7:00pm - 8:30pm

Training Our Mind In Challenging Times

with kadam Donna Campanelli

Vajra Light kadampa Buddhist Center
875 Mamaroneck Avenue
Suite 205
Mamaroneck, NY 10543

Buddha presented a special set of practices known as ‘training the mind”. These meditations are especially powerful in these spiritually challenging times. The heart of the practice is learning to transform adverse conditions into our spiritual training, and responding to difficulties with a special wisdom and skill, so that we let go of our self-centered, small-minded fearful mind. Instead, we open our heart with love and compassion and in this way learn to live confidently and fearlessly.



Based on the thousand year old famous Buddhist poem, Eight Verses of Training the Mind, in this course, Kadam Donna will take us on a step-by-step journey to expanding our heart and experiences of authentic, peaceful, and stable happiness.



Everyone welcome; suitable for both beginners and experienced meditators.

Special Events

Yoga of Buddha Vajrapani Post-Empowerment Retreat

Saturday, March 22, 2025
With Kadam Donna Campanelli

10:00am - 1:00pm (with tea break)

Vajra Light Buddhist Center
875 Mamaroneck Avenue
Suite 205
Mamaroneck, NY 10543

For those who attended the Buddha Vajrapani empowerment on March 8, Kadam Donna will lead a half-day retreat. This retreat consists of two sessions, offering you the opportunity to deepen your understanding and build confidence in practicing on your own.

Northeast Dharma Celebration 2025
Healing The World Within

Medicine Buddha Empowerment & Teachings on Self-Generation

April 25-27, 2025
with Kadam Morten Clausen

Kadampa Meditation Center New York
47 Sweeney Road , Glen Spey, NY 12737

Healing our world begins with healing our mind. There is a close connection between our mind, our body, and our experience of our world. By healing the three poisons of our attachment, anger and ignorance, we start to heal everything else around us and gain the ability to help others.

Medicine Buddha practice is a special meditation method that has been used for thousands of years. In this course, we will learn how to guide ourselves in this practice, how to use it to heal our mind and body, and then how to use this to benefit others. We will look at the radical practice of Tantric self generation, where we transform our experience of our self, world, and others through imagination and wisdom. It will leave us uplifted and inspired that we can truly change for the better, and that this change will make a real difference - for ourselves, our communities, and our whole world.

A Life Beyond Fear

Thursday, September 11
7:00 - 8:30pm
with Gen-la Kelsang Dekyong, Spiritual Director of the New Kadampa Tradition

THE TOWN HALL
123 W 43rd St
New York, NY 10036

In times as stressful and uncertain as the ones we seem to be experiencing more and more often, we may ask, is a life beyond fear even possible?

In truth, fear arises from our mind, not from our environment. The fear and the anxiety that so many experience is not inevitable. If we come to recognize their underlying sources, we can learn to change our relationship to them.

Through the practice of meditation, we can learn to work skillfully with our fear. Instead of allowing it to overwhelm us, we learn to redirect it, so that it moves us towards developing those states of mind that naturally give rise to peace, confidence and a strong sense of purpose.

Based on her nearly 40 years of experience of meditation, Buddhist nun Gen-la Kelsang Dekyong, senior disciple of the great Buddhist teacher, Venerable Geshe Kelsang Gyatso Rinpoche and Spiritual Director of the New Kadampa Tradition, will guide us into recognizing our potential for a meaningful and joyful life truly beyond fear.

Become a Vajra Light Member! 

When you become a Member of Vajra Light Kadampa Buddhist Center you're actively supporting the flourishing of Dharma in Westchester and throughout the world.

General Membership includes:
· Unlimited General Program (GP) classes at Vajra Light
· Unlimited day courses, workshops and retreats at Vajra Light
· Live-stream availability for Sunday ONLY General Program classes
· 50% off empowerments at Vajra Light
· Three guest passes per year to GP in-person classes at VLKBC.