Mind Games: A Meditation Party at Omega Institute

It’s Friday night, and the Omega Institute dining room is packed with people. Hundreds of attendees for the retreat centers’ weekend program chat at tables or help themselves to the healthy cuisine offered at the self-service buffet. I find a seat and tuck into my plate of noodles and General Tso’s tofu – because no visit to a retreat center seems complete without at least one serving of tofu.

I am here for a weekend meditation retreat, but the vibe in the dining room feels more like the opening night of an elated leisure and tourism conference than an exploration into the nature of consciousness. That’s okay, though. I once met a yogi on the banks of the Ganges who turned out to be a former IBM executive, so – you know – you can’t always judge by appearances.

After finishing my meal, I crossed the campus to the main hall where the course will take place. The event, billed as a ‘meditation party,’ is the culmination of the retreat’s summer season (Omega shuts down for the winter), and it’s true that the atmosphere among the 300-plus attendees, seated in the large main hall, feels positively festive.

Ahead of us, the stage has been set for the arrival of our three teachers: Dan Harris, Jeff Warren, and Sebene Selassie. The buoyant mood in the hall might be explained in part by the crowd’s excitement at their imminent arrival. After all, these three are significant figures in the mindfulness world, in high demand on its lucrative teaching circuit, and with a number of best-selling books under their belts.

As I take my seat, I can’t pretend I’m not a little triggered by the party vibes, which run counter to the atmosphere of quiet introspection you would normally associate with an event like this. Nor are my doubts eased by the arrival of our three teachers. While Warren and Selassie walk casually to their seats, it’s Harris’ arrival that courts the most attention. This is unsurprising, as Dan Harris is the most well-known of the three, with a popular podcast and a successful memoir, 10% Happier, which recounts how he discovered meditation after having a panic attack live on air while working as a news anchor for ABC News.

Harris emerges on stage in a mustard yellow fleece and slicked-back gray hair, setting a playful tone as he greets the audience with: “Namaste motherf**kers!“ The crowd loves it. As he takes his seat, he doesn’t let up with the f-bombs, cracking jokes and exchanging banter with Warren, while Selassie rolls her eyes.

The term’ spiritual materialism‘ was first coined by the Tibetan Buddhist teacher Chögyam Trungpa in the early 1970s. Trungpa, the founder of the Shambhala spiritual movement, originally used the term to describe how spiritual practices can be co-opted as a way of boosting the ego rather than transcending it – the fundamental goal of meditation.

The term has since been adopted as a catch-all for the commodification of spiritual traditions, a phenomenon that is widespread. According to figures from the Business Research Company, the global market for products and services relating to meditation, which includes meditation retreats, was worth nearly $8 billion in 2024. More broadly, the Global Wellness Institute estimates that the global wellness economy – of which meditation is a part – was worth $6.3 trillion in 2023, a staggering 6% of global GDP.

In the face of statistics like these, it is easy to be cynical about the commercialization of a set of spiritual precepts that in their original form were never meant to be used to turn a profit. But for better or worse, Western consumer capitalism is the water we swim in, and if the only way these vital teachings are going to reach a wider audience is via the smiley, happy lens of mass market media culture, then why throw the baby out with the bathwater?

After all, the potential peace of mind offered by mindfulness and meditation practices is sorely needed in our anxious and stressed-out culture. I know this from experience. Meditation and mindfulness helped me back from the brink when I was going through my own personal crisis about a year ago.

The chink of daylight it offered by teaching me to separate myself from my thoughts and feelings, even by just a sliver, provided much-needed relief at a time in my life when I was struggling to stay grounded. I’m not the only one here for whom the discovery of these teachings has been transformative.

There is Kate, a young mom from the Boston area who has found mindfulness invaluable in managing her depression, and Jane, a retiree, who has used meditation as a way of processing the grief that accompanied her husband’s passing. I met both women during the get-to-know-you sessions. I usually hate that kind of stuff, but in the course of the two-day retreat, my inhibitions relax; admittedly not enough to cut loose on the dance floor at the Saturday night disco.

One of its pioneers in the West, Jon Kabat-Zinn, has defined mindfulness as “paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment, non-judgmentally.“ And it’s true that as I submit myself to their teachings, my judgments about the three teachers gradually fall away. For one thing, it’s obvious that they know what they are doing. They guide us skillfully through meditations and offer valuable insights from their own practice.

Moreover, as I watch the presenters work, it becomes clear that the rapport between them is genuine. When Selassie responds to an audience question about how to stay mindful in the face of physical pain, she talks about her own ongoing battle with stage-four cancer, and mentions how Harris has been at her side during many of her hospital visits.

Later that Saturday, I see Warren and Selassie walking arm in arm through the grounds of the retreat center. It’s a poignant moment and one that reminds me that, for all the justifiable criticism of how the Buddhist dharma has been misunderstood and even corrupted in its transfer to the West, the collision with Western values has brought good things too.

Not least of which is the softening of the teacher’s persona into someone altogether more relatable and human; this is undoubtedly the case with Harris, where you feel that you’re receiving meditation instruction less from an austere master than from your dad’s best friend.

“Life is so much more fun in the car pool lane,“ Harris says at one point, explaining the rationale behind the ‘meditation party.‘ I understand what he’s getting at. In its Asian homelands, meditation is usually practiced in a community setting, known in Buddhism as the ‘sangha.‘ But in the West, we tend to practice alone. Part of the purpose of the weekend, therefore, is to emphasize the value of the broader meditation community.

I even find myself enjoying some of the banter, though the best one-liner of the weekend comes from Selassie when, deadpan, she wonders aloud why, as a black woman, it has been her karma “to play the straight man to two straight white men.“

One person who has no intention of playing straight man to Harris and Warren is Ofosu Jones-Quartey, a DC-based meditation teacher and musician, who treats the attendees to a live performance of tracks from his latest hip-hop album ahead of the Saturday night dance party. Jones-Quartey, who goes by the stage name Born I, is a gifted lyricist, infusing his rhymes with insights from his years of Zen practice. 

Yet Harris is gracious in ceding the stage to Jones-Quartey, as he is in allowing himself to be the butt of the joke. In one extended gag, Warren leads us through a visualization in which we are invited to envision Harris at the prow of a boat, his shirt ripped open to reveal his torso, with tousled hair blowing in the wind. If this all sounds like it has nothing to do with meditation, it doesn’t. And yet it sort of does.

“Compassion,“ notes the Buddhist teacher James Low in his book Simply Being, “involves us staying in the dance of becoming and inviting others to join us. It also means not letting other people switch the music off. The world is not a serious place, but it is turned into hell by serious people.”

We should also be mindful of this tendency towards seriousness in ourselves. Because it is the basis of our separateness, the source of so much conflict, and the reason why a fairly open-minded journalist can walk into a meditation event on a Friday night filled with preconceptions. The reason he can come out of it two days later cleansed of this cynicism has everything to do with the extraordinary power that comes from simply watching the mind go through its motions.

As the poet T.S. Eliot once put it, there is no competition, “only the fight to recover what has been lost. And found and lost again and again.”

“For us,“ wrote Eliot, “there is only the trying. The rest is not our business.”

Omega Institute Meditation Party 2026

Meditation Party is one of Omega’s most popular workshops, attracting over 300 participants. Register now for next year’s workshop and learn how to develop mindful connections with yourself and others, and elevate your meditation practice with superfriends Dan Harris, Sebene Selassie, and Jeff Warren. This workshop is part of Omega’s Mindfulness initiative.

“Many people practice meditation alone, but there’s something powerful—and joyful—about doing it together,” said Carla Goldstein, president and CEO at Omega. “Meditation Party is a weekend where people can deepen their practice, try new approaches, and feel the power of meditating in community. This kind of experiential learning is at the heart of Omega’s mission, and also part of our long-standing commitment to mindfulness.”

Unlike a traditional silent retreat, Meditation Party is intentionally designed as a lively, communal experience. Participants can expect a mix of meditation sessions, movement, rest, and playful exploration, all aimed at helping beginners and seasoned practitioners alike deepen their practice both “on the cushion” and in everyday life.

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About Omega Institute for Holistic Studies
Founded in 1977, Omega Institute for Holistic Studies is the nation’s most trusted source for wellness and personal growth. As a nonprofit organization, Omega offers diverse and innovative educational experiences that inspire an integrated approach to personal and social change. Located on 250 acres in the beautiful Hudson Valley, Omega welcomes people to its workshops, conferences, and retreats in Rhinebeck, New York, and online at eOmega.org.

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