Mudita | Appreciative Joy: Turning Away from Envy, Comparison and Greed with Aishah Shahidah Simmons

In a world plagued by greed, hatred, and delusion, joy can feel radical, or impossible. How many of us have burned up trying to move through it all? How many of us are burning up right now? Mudita, often translated as appreciative joy, is one of four heart practices in Buddhist teaching known as the Brahmavihārās, and perhaps the least discussed. Bigger than personal pleasure, mudita is what arises when we are genuinely moved by the happiness of another, when we welcome in their lessening of suffering and are truly affected by their joy. It is also what protects our compassion practice from caving into despair. When we lose intimacy with suffering, something each one of us knows in one way or another, we can fall quickly into cruelty and further from humankind and all sentient beings. Cultivating mudita supports our turning away from envy, comparison, and greed.

This daylong retreat invites practitioners of all experience levels to explore mudita together through meditation, dharma teachings, relational practice, and chanting, not as an escape from a world on fire, but as a way of staying human within it.

This retreat is freely offered, and dana (generous donations) may be given in support of DVI and Aishah in support of her teaching and guidance. Join us on Saturday, December 12, 2026 from 10am to 4pm. Attend in person with Aishah at Summit Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, or online via Zoom.

Teacher Bio

Aishah Shahidah Simmons (she/her) is a Black feminist lesbian survivor-healer. She is a Sufi Muslim-raised Buddhist practitioner, Insight meditation teacher, and filmmaker-writer. She has practiced vipassanā since 2002, beginning in the S. N. Goenka tradition, where she trained for 17 years before continuing in the Insight tradition, with over a year of silent retreat practice in the United States and India. Aishah serves as Resident Teacher at Delaware Valley Insight and is a trainee in the 2025–2028 Spirit Rock and Insight Meditation Society Residential Retreat Teacher Training Program, with her primary teachers Tuere Sala, DaRa Williams, and Shelly Graf. Her award-winning survivor-centered cultural works, NO! The Rape Documentary, and love WITH accountability, illuminate truth-telling, healing, and non-carceral responses to harm. Learn more at aishahshahidahsimmons.com.