Fee: $99. Code MC2N18.
Open for registration until October 1st.

Based on techniques from his latest book, Mark Coleman delivers a powerfully practical and experiential online course filled with lightness, compassion, and humor… a reminder to not take yourself too seriously! Have you ever noticed how cluttered your mind can be? Is it ever quiet? And why, sometimes, can it be so critical… especially of yourself? Join Mark as he shows you how to recognize the way your thoughts impact your experience. Explore how to cultivate freedom, happiness and a flourishing life through easy-to-implement mindfulness and self-compassion techniques. Develop constructive insights into what creates, drives, and disarms the inner critic. Change the story of the mind to set yourself on a path to a more peaceful and happier life. Through mindfulness and compassion, you can break free from your inner critic.

This course is useful for newer students as well as more experienced meditators who want to refresh their knowledge.

Course includes:

• 2 hours of video instruction, divided into eight 15-min segments
• 8 reflections/at-home exercise techniques you can easily employ in your daily life
• A sample excerpt from Mark Coleman’s latest book: Make Peace with Your Mind: How Mindfulness and Compassion Can Free You from the Inner Critic
• Downloadable audio

This online class will help you effectively:

• Deal effectively with self-judgment / and inner critic attacks
• Distinguish between judgment and discernment
• See the role of a healthy conscience versus reliance on the inner critic
• Develop greater self-acceptance, self-compassion and loving-kindness as an antidote to the self-judgment
• Cultivate forgiveness as a support for working with judgment

Recommended Reading:
Make Peace with Your Mind: How Mindfulness and Compassion Can Free You from Your Inner Critic by Mark Coleman

Registration, Payment, and Accessing the Class Material:
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email with the link to the class page where the course materials will be available beginning January 1, 2018. This is a self-paced course: there is no required time frame to watch the videos or be available for class material. This course is useful for newer students as well as those with more experienced who want to refresh their knowledge.

Sliding Scale: $75 – 200. Code M10D18.

Nowhere is the power of contemplative meditation more profound than the serenity of nature. In this tranquil, rejuvenating day, we will explore how meditation is supported by the stillness of nature as we sit and walk in meditation among the hills and meadows of Spirit Rock.

Through various Buddhist and nature meditation practices, the quality of mindfulness meditation will support us being awake to our direct experience. We will explore the natural joy and well-being that arises in nature, the interconnection between our inner and outer landscape, and how nature evokes the beautiful qualities of peace, wonder, and love.

Young Adults (18-26) and Seniors (65+ with limited income) are invited to attend this day for $45.

Fee: $99. Code MC2N18.
Open for registration until October 1st.

Based on techniques from his latest book, Mark Coleman delivers a powerfully practical and experiential online course filled with lightness, compassion, and humor… a reminder to not take yourself too seriously! Have you ever noticed how cluttered your mind can be? Is it ever quiet? And why, sometimes, can it be so critical… especially of yourself? Join Mark as he shows you how to recognize the way your thoughts impact your experience. Explore how to cultivate freedom, happiness and a flourishing life through easy-to-implement mindfulness and self-compassion techniques. Develop constructive insights into what creates, drives, and disarms the inner critic. Change the story of the mind to set yourself on a path to a more peaceful and happier life. Through mindfulness and compassion, you can break free from your inner critic.

This course is useful for newer students as well as more experienced meditators who want to refresh their knowledge.

Course includes:

• 2 hours of video instruction, divided into eight 15-min segments
• 8 reflections/at-home exercise techniques you can easily employ in your daily life
• A sample excerpt from Mark Coleman’s latest book: Make Peace with Your Mind: How Mindfulness and Compassion Can Free You from the Inner Critic
• Downloadable audio

This online class will help you effectively:

• Deal effectively with self-judgment / and inner critic attacks
• Distinguish between judgment and discernment
• See the role of a healthy conscience versus reliance on the inner critic
• Develop greater self-acceptance, self-compassion and loving-kindness as an antidote to the self-judgment
• Cultivate forgiveness as a support for working with judgment

Recommended Reading:
Make Peace with Your Mind: How Mindfulness and Compassion Can Free You from Your Inner Critic by Mark Coleman

Registration, Payment, and Accessing the Class Material:
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email with the link to the class page where the course materials will be available beginning January 1, 2018. This is a self-paced course: there is no required time frame to watch the videos or be available for class material. This course is useful for newer students as well as those with more experienced who want to refresh their knowledge.

Teacher(s): Mark Coleman. For the schedule of teachers, click here.
Sliding Scale: $0 – 108. Code 41ML18.

PLEASE NOTE: This is the LIVESTREAM registration page. To attend in person, just come! Learn more here.

Join us for “Spirit Rock Live: Monday Nights with Jack Kornfield and Friends”, a Livestream of Monday Night.

Now in its 33rd year, the Monday Night sitting group at Spirit Rock has been a welcoming refuge to gather, hear the teachings of the Buddha, and practice insight meditation together as a community. The program includes a 30-40 min guided meditation, a short break, and a dharma talk.

If you’re unable to tune in Monday Night for the Livestream, register anyway! The recorded program will be available for 2 weeks. PLEASE NOTE: Registration available until midnight.

View a recording of Spirit Rock Live: Monday Nights with Jack Kornfield & Friends...

Teacher(s): Mark Coleman. For the schedule of teachers, click here.
Sliding Scale: $0 – 108. Code 45ML18.
Will open for registration soon. 

PLEASE NOTE: This is the LIVESTREAM registration page. To attend in person, just come! Learn more here.

Join us for “Spirit Rock Live: Monday Nights with Jack Kornfield and Friends”, a Livestream of Monday Night.

Now in its 33rd year, the Monday Night sitting group at Spirit Rock has been a welcoming refuge to gather, hear the teachings of the Buddha, and practice insight meditation together as a community. The program includes a 30-40 min guided meditation, a short break, and a dharma talk.

If you’re unable to tune in Monday Night for the Livestream, register anyway! The recorded program will be available for 2 weeks. PLEASE NOTE: Registration available until midnight.

View a recording of Spirit Rock Live: Monday Nights with Jack Kornfield & Friends...

Sliding Scale: $75 – 200. Code M11D18.
5.5 CE credits available for $55 for psychologists and California licensed MFTs, LCSWs, LEPs, LPCCs, nurses, chiropractors, and acupuncturists.

Do you experience the painful effects of self-judgment, from telling yourself you are never good enough? If you wish to be free from the torment of the inner critic, then this day is for you.

We will explore how to mindfully and skillfully work with self-judgment, and develop greater self- acceptance, self-compassion and forgiveness as antidotes to criticism.

The day will be a combination of talks, and interactive exercises, mindfulness and kindness techniques. This will be a practical and experiential day taught with lightness, compassion, and humor as a reminder not to take ourselves too seriously!

Teachings are appropriate for health care professionals as well as the general public. Health care professionals will be able to incorporate the tools and practices offered in this program in ways beneficial to clients or patients. Continuing Education (CE) credit available. See below for attendance requirements and more information.

Learning Objectives for participating health care professionals-
Based on the content of this program, you will be able to:

• Describe the practice of mindful awareness, and how this relates to understanding the inner-critic;
• Contrast judgment and discernment, and their effects on well being;
• Incorporate self-acceptance, self-compassion and loving kindness practices when working with clients as an antidote to self-judgment;
• Describe a forgiveness practice to patents or clients as a support for working with judgment.

Young Adults (18-26) and Seniors (65+ with limited income) are invited to attend this day for $45.

Dates: Monday, November 26, 3:00pm – Sunday, December 2, 11:30am
Sliding Scale: $1505 – $685, PLUS a donation to the teacher(s) and retreat staff. Code 217R18.

This retreat is full. Please submit an application if you are interested in being on the residential wait list or a commuter. We do have cancellations, so the longer you’re able to wait, the better your chances of getting in.

Please Note: All Young Adult rates for this retreat have been allocated.

If you are interested and need financial assistance, we may have a work exchange available.

A unique scholarship opportunity! If you are an Educator, Health Care Professional, or Artist that has never attended a residential retreat longer than a weekend retreat (1-3 nights), you may qualify for a Hemera Foundation Fellowship to assist in attending your first week-long residential retreat. Hemera Foundation Fellowships: Click link for more information. ONE scholarship allowed per person, per calendar year.

Retreat Description:
Mindful awareness is the foundation for living with wisdom and compassion and is the seed from which springs much joy and peace. Through this retreat you will learn skillful methods to establish and refine mindful presence that develops self-awareness, clarity and insight. We will draw on the Buddha’s discourse on the Four Foundations of Mindfulness as understood in Early Buddhist Teachings.

Participants will learn to cultivate mindfulness through meditations on:
1. The body, the 4 elements, exploring impermanence.
2. Responding to the changing nature of experience.
3. Understanding reactive emotions and states of mind that cause stress.
4. Cultivating qualities that support awakening.

The retreat will be a variety of sitting and walking meditations, talks on meditation and opportunity for questions and meetings with the teacher. Much of the day will be self-led where participants create their own rhythm of practice. This retreat is ideally suited for experienced meditators who wish to deepen their understanding of mindfulness.

Teachings are appropriate for health care professionals as well as the general public. Health care professionals will be able to incorporate the tools and practices offered in this program in ways beneficial to clients or patients. Continuing Education (CE) credit available. See below for more information.

Learning Objectives for participating health care professionals-
Based on the content of this program, you will be able to:

• Identify the definition of mindfulness and what practices develop mindfulness;
• Identify at least four benefits of the effect of mindfulness meditation on health care professionals;
• Describe the relationship between health care professionals’ mindfulness practice and improved patient care;
• Describe how practicing the Four Foundations of Mindfulness develops present awareness, and can improve patient care;
• Utilize mindful breathing techniques to develop present moment awareness when working with clients;
• Utilize mindful breathing practices to reduce stress;
• Describe how mindfulness of feelings can result in reduced emotional reactivity;
• Describe how mindfulness of feelings practices may be supportive for calming difficult mental states such as anxiety and depression;
• Utilize compassion practices to reduce emotional exhaustion and professional burn-out;
• Apply, in a clinical setting, perspectives from Buddhist teachings on happiness and causes of happiness; on suffering and the causes of suffering;
• Utilize the powerful principles of equanimity and compassion for meeting the full range of human experience with balance and openness;
• Integrate the practices of equanimity and compassion for meeting stress, pain, and burnout with kindness and wisdom.

Dates: Monday, November 26, 3:00pm – Sunday, December 2, 11:30am
Sliding Scale: $1505 – $685, PLUS a donation to the teacher(s) and retreat staff. Code 217R18.

This retreat is full. Please submit an application if you are interested in being on the residential wait list or a commuter. We do have cancellations, so the longer you’re able to wait, the better your chances of getting in.

Please Note: All Young Adult rates for this retreat have been allocated.

If you are interested and need financial assistance, we may have a work exchange available.

A unique scholarship opportunity! If you are an Educator, Health Care Professional, or Artist that has never attended a residential retreat longer than a weekend retreat (1-3 nights), you may qualify for a Hemera Foundation Fellowship to assist in attending your first week-long residential retreat. Hemera Foundation Fellowships: Click link for more information. ONE scholarship allowed per person, per calendar year.

Retreat Description:
Mindful awareness is the foundation for living with wisdom and compassion and is the seed from which springs much joy and peace. Through this retreat you will learn skillful methods to establish and refine mindful presence that develops self-awareness, clarity and insight. We will draw on the Buddha’s discourse on the Four Foundations of Mindfulness as understood in Early Buddhist Teachings.

Participants will learn to cultivate mindfulness through meditations on:
1. The body, the 4 elements, exploring impermanence.
2. Responding to the changing nature of experience.
3. Understanding reactive emotions and states of mind that cause stress.
4. Cultivating qualities that support awakening.

The retreat will be a variety of sitting and walking meditations, talks on meditation and opportunity for questions and meetings with the teacher. Much of the day will be self-led where participants create their own rhythm of practice. This retreat is ideally suited for experienced meditators who wish to deepen their understanding of mindfulness.

Teachings are appropriate for health care professionals as well as the general public. Health care professionals will be able to incorporate the tools and practices offered in this program in ways beneficial to clients or patients. Continuing Education (CE) credit available. See below for more information.

Learning Objectives for participating health care professionals-
Based on the content of this program, you will be able to:

• Identify the definition of mindfulness and what practices develop mindfulness;
• Identify at least four benefits of the effect of mindfulness meditation on health care professionals;
• Describe the relationship between health care professionals’ mindfulness practice and improved patient care;
• Describe how practicing the Four Foundations of Mindfulness develops present awareness, and can improve patient care;
• Utilize mindful breathing techniques to develop present moment awareness when working with clients;
• Utilize mindful breathing practices to reduce stress;
• Describe how mindfulness of feelings can result in reduced emotional reactivity;
• Describe how mindfulness of feelings practices may be supportive for calming difficult mental states such as anxiety and depression;
• Utilize compassion practices to reduce emotional exhaustion and professional burn-out;
• Apply, in a clinical setting, perspectives from Buddhist teachings on happiness and causes of happiness; on suffering and the causes of suffering;
• Utilize the powerful principles of equanimity and compassion for meeting the full range of human experience with balance and openness;
• Integrate the practices of equanimity and compassion for meeting stress, pain, and burnout with kindness and wisdom.

Teacher(s): Mark Coleman. For the schedule of teachers, click here.
Sliding Scale: $0 – 108. Code 49ML18.
Will open for registration soon. 

PLEASE NOTE: This is the LIVESTREAM registration page. To attend in person, just come! Learn more here.

Join us for “Spirit Rock Live: Monday Nights with Jack Kornfield and Friends”, a Livestream of Monday Night.

Now in its 33rd year, the Monday Night sitting group at Spirit Rock has been a welcoming refuge to gather, hear the teachings of the Buddha, and practice insight meditation together as a community. The program includes a 30-40 min guided meditation, a short break, and a dharma talk.

If you’re unable to tune in Monday Night for the Livestream, register anyway! The recorded program will be available for 2 weeks. PLEASE NOTE: Registration available until midnight.

View a recording of Spirit Rock Live: Monday Nights with Jack Kornfield & Friends...

Dates: Monday, April 1, 3:00pm – Friday, April 5, 11:30am; 4 nights
Sliding Scale: $1000 – $500, PLUS a donation to the teacher(s) and retreat staff. Code 240R19.
Will open for registration on 12/19/2018.

Retreat Description:
Have you ever been curious about Insight Meditation? This silent retreat will teach the essentials of this practice and offer key Buddhist teachings. We will explore ways to awaken our mind and heart so that we can learn to live a life of wisdom, compassion, inner peace, and freedom.

This retreat will combine sitting and walking meditations, dharma talks and opportunities to meet with a teacher. An excellent opportunity for those new to retreat practice, and also ideal for experienced practitioners who wish to do a shorter retreat.

Financial assistance is available for all Spirit Rock residential retreats. Our scholarship rate is $40/night and available for all those with financial hardship with special funds allocated to People of Color (POC), folks with serious medical conditions, and young adults (age 18-26). Scholarship funding is offered on a first-come, first-serve basis. Scholarships are budgeted per retreat and because they are in high demand, can run out quickly. We encourage you to register for a retreat as close as possible to the registration opening date (lotteries are an exception).

A unique scholarship opportunity! If you are an Educator, Health Care Professional, or Artist that has never attended a residential retreat longer than a weekend retreat (1-3 nights), you may qualify for a Hemera Foundation Fellowship to assist in attending your first week-long residential retreat. Hemera Foundation Fellowships: Click link for more information. ONE scholarship allowed per person, per calendar year.

Dates: Monday, May 20, 3:00pm – Saturday, May 25, 11:30am; 5 nights
Sliding Scale: TBD, PLUS a donation to the teacher(s) and retreat staff. Code 254R19.
11 CE credits available for $110 for psychologists, and California licensed MFTs, LCSWs, LEPs, LPCCs, nurses, and chiropractors.
Will open for registration on 1/15/2019.

Retreat Description:
In this mindfulness meditation retreat, we will explore the innate quality of awareness as the foundation for cultivating clarity, understanding, and insight into our human experience. We will investigate how, through mindfulness practice, we can develop insight into the causes of stress and the causes of genuine happiness. We will examine what it means to abide, with kindness and awareness, in the midst of life, so we can live with a genuine non-reactive freedom wherever we are.

As well as sitting and walking insight meditation practice, we will emphasize integrating loving kindness and compassion into all moments of the retreat. This allows a kind embrace of ourselves and connects us intimately with each other and the world. In this retreat, there will be periods of meditation, dharma talks, and opportunity for questions and discussion. Suitable for experienced and newer students to meditation.

Financial assistance is available for all Spirit Rock residential retreats. Our scholarship rate is $40/night and available for all those with financial hardship with special funds allocated to People of Color (POC), folks with serious medical conditions, and young adults (age 18-26). Scholarship funding is offered on a first-come, first-serve basis. Scholarships are budgeted per retreat and because they are in high demand, can run out quickly. We encourage you to register for a retreat as close as possible to the registration opening date (lotteries are an exception).

Teachings are appropriate for health care professionals as well as the general public. Health care professionals will be able to incorporate the tools and practices offered in this program in ways beneficial to clients or patients. Continuing Education (CE) credit available. See below for attendance requirements and more information.

Learning Objectives for participating health care professionals-
Based on the content of this program, you will be able to:

• List at least three benefits of how a health care professional cultivating a mindfulness practice can improve patient care;
• Utilize mindfulness practices to steady the mind and opening the heart in preparation for clients and patients, in ways that may improve focus and reduce rumination;
• Describe a mindful communication practice;
• Describe how mindful communication practices can improve interactions with patients, colleagues, and clients;
• Utilize mindfulness exercises and practices to improve emotional regulation during stressful times;
• Apply the principles of equanimity to reduce stress and professional burnout;
• Utilize compassion practices to reduce compassion fatigue when working with clients or patients;
• Utilize mindfulness of the body practices to improve attentional abilities when working with others in a clinical setting;
• Use mindfulness techniques to identify and prevent habitual reactivity, in ways that reduce emotional exhaustion and result in improved patient care

Dates: Monday, June 10, 3:00pm – Sunday, June 16, 11:30am; 6 nights
Sliding Scale: TBD, PLUS a donation to the teacher(s) and retreat staff. Code 261R19.
Will open for registration on 2/13/2019.

Retreat Description:
Following a long Buddhist tradition of meditating in the forest beginning with the Buddha, the majority of the retreat will be spent outside, practicing in the beauty of nature.

During the retreat, we will learn traditional Buddhist meditation practices, and complimentary techniques that help deepen our relationship to ourselves, the earth, and awaken our receptivity to nature as our teacher. We will explore how mindfulness practice is profoundly supported by the teachings of nature as we sit and walk outdoors. This deepening awareness opens us to profound experiences of interconnectedness, insight, and love. It also allows us to experience ourselves as part of the broader web of life and attune to a sense of mystery and wonder.

This is a rare opportunity to sit in community, in silence, in a beautiful natural setting in the woods and hills above the main campus at Spirit Rock.

Suitable for both new and experienced students.

Financial assistance is available for all Spirit Rock residential retreats. Our scholarship rate is $40/night and available for all those with financial hardship with special funds allocated to People of Color (POC), folks with serious medical conditions, and young adults (age 18-26). Scholarship funding is offered on a first-come, first-serve basis. Scholarships are budgeted per retreat and because they are in high demand, can run out quickly. We encourage you to register for a retreat as close as possible to the registration opening date (lotteries are an exception).

Held outdoors, or if bad weather, indoor location: Upper Walking Hall. This retreat is designed as a smaller and more intimate retreat. It will mostly be held outdoors but should bad weather visit us, we will have an indoor location – the upper Walking Hall. We want you to know that this upper walking hall is located at the top of a flight of stairs adjacent to the main meditation hall. It is not accessible by wheelchair or scooter. If you have mobility limitations such that you cannot climb a flight of stairs (or hike a moderate distance) this retreat is not appropriate for you. Please call the registration department for more details BEFORE you register for this retreat if you have concerns related to accessibility to the upper Walking Hall or the short hike to the daily outdoor meditation location.