Length: 5-7 nights (residential)

Dates: Saturday, December 19, 2:00pm – Wednesday, December 23, 10:30am; 5 days.
Sliding Scale: TBD, PLUS a donation to the teacher(s) and retreat staff. Code 224R20.
CECs Pending. 

Please Note: This retreat is now offered online only. We invite you to try this creative form of practice as we take care of one another and respond skillfully to COVID-19.

Retreat Description:
In this retreat, we will emphasize centering ourselves at the time of the holidays and the New Year, quieting our minds, grounding in our bodies, opening up our hearts, and using inquiry to help give energy to our practice. There will be a special emphasis on opening to the darkness, including to the unknown, to the creative and generative dimensions of darkness, and to our difficulties and challenges, as well as to the coming light–to our beauty, joy, wisdom, and love. The retreat will include complete meditation instructions, sitting and walking meditation, daily lovingkindness practice, daily Qigong practice, late afternoon talks, practice discussions, and a Winter Solstice ceremony.

PENDING — Continuing Education (CE) credit available. 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. See below for attendance requirements and more information.

Learning Objectives for participating health care professionals-
At the end of the program you will be better able to:

• List 4 ways of developing mindfulness of different elements of experience;
• Describe a loving-kindness meditation that may be useful during difficult times;
• Incorporate mindfulness of breath practices to settle and stabilize awareness and to calm the mind, that may be used in preparation for and when working with clients.
• Incorporate various mindfulness practices to improve emotional self-regulation, that may be used while working with clients;
• Utilize body awareness practices to deepen presence and the ability to listen well with clients;
• Demonstrate three ways to bring mindfulness into daily life in ways that improve well-being;
• Demonstrate three ways to bring lovingkindness into daily life in ways that improve well-being;
• Describe the applicability of mindfulness meditation as a resource for health care providers;
• Utilize Qigong movements to develop the centering and grounding of the body, and settling and calming of the mind and body.

Continuing Education content level: Introductory

Dates: December 28, 2020 – January 1, 2021. 5 days (2 partial, 3 full).
Sliding Scale: $225 – $1008, PLUS a donation to the teacher(s). Code 228R20.

Please Note: This retreat is now offered online only. We invite you to try this creative form of practice as we take care of one another and respond skillfully to COVID-19.

Pre-requisite: For teens ages 15 -19 years old.

Retreat Description:
Get your head straight, learn to deal with stress and appreciate life to its fullest! Explore your heart and mind. Connect with other teens in a positive, meaningful way.

This retreat will be an opportunity for teenagers to explore mindfulness practice through guided periods of silent sitting and walking meditation, small group discussions, and creative activities. Besides learning meditation practices, there will also be plenty of time to connect with each other, tell stories and enjoy each others’ company. Since meditation practice may be new to some teens, each period of sitting and walking meditation will be limited to 30 minutes.

Facilitators will be available to give extra support to teens whenever needed.

All applications go through an initial screening process. Scholarships are available for this retreat, please be sure to complete this section during the application process if you are in need.

Dates: Monday, December 28, 2020, 3:00pm – Saturday, January 2, 2021, 11:00am; 6 days.
Sliding Scale: $245 – $1,800, PLUS a donation to the teacher(s) and retreat staff. Code 226R20.

Please Note: This retreat is now offered online only. We invite you to try this creative form of practice as we take care of one another and respond skillfully to COVID-19.

Retreat Description:
This is a traditional Insight Meditation (Vipassana) retreat with sitting and walking in silence, and regular meetings with teachers. Each day there will be systematic meditation instructions, Dharma talks and gentle yoga. We will mark the turning of the year with a late evening sitting and simple ceremony on New Year’s Eve. In celebration of the New Year, our focus will be on cultivating loving awareness and embracing each moment as fresh and new. All are welcome.

Dates: December 28, 2020 – January 1, 2021. 5 days (2 partial, 3 full).
Sliding Scale: $225 – $1008, PLUS a donation to the teacher(s). Code 228R20.

Please Note: This retreat is now offered online only. We invite you to try this creative form of practice as we take care of one another and respond skillfully to COVID-19.

Pre-requisite: For teens ages 15 -19 years old.

Retreat Description:
Get your head straight, learn to deal with stress and appreciate life to its fullest! Explore your heart and mind. Connect with other teens in a positive, meaningful way.

This retreat will be an opportunity for teenagers to explore mindfulness practice through guided periods of silent sitting and walking meditation, small group discussions, and creative activities. Besides learning meditation practices, there will also be plenty of time to connect with each other, tell stories and enjoy each others’ company. Since meditation practice may be new to some teens, each period of sitting and walking meditation will be limited to 30 minutes.

Facilitators will be available to give extra support to teens whenever needed.

All applications go through an initial screening process. Scholarships are available for this retreat, please be sure to complete this section during the application process if you are in need.

Dates: Monday, December 28, 2020, 3:00pm – Saturday, January 2, 2021, 11:00am; 6 days.
Sliding Scale: $245 – $1,800, PLUS a donation to the teacher(s) and retreat staff. Code 226R20.

Please Note: This retreat is now offered online only. We invite you to try this creative form of practice as we take care of one another and respond skillfully to COVID-19.

Retreat Description:
This is a traditional Insight Meditation (Vipassana) retreat with sitting and walking in silence, and regular meetings with teachers. Each day there will be systematic meditation instructions, Dharma talks and gentle yoga. We will mark the turning of the year with a late evening sitting and simple ceremony on New Year’s Eve. In celebration of the New Year, our focus will be on cultivating loving awareness and embracing each moment as fresh and new. All are welcome.

Dates: Sunday to Saturday, January 10 – 16, 2021 (7 days). A daily schedule will be posted closer to the retreat.
Sliding Scale: $280-$2100, PLUS a donation to the teacher(s). Code 232R21.

Please Note: This retreat is offered online only. We invite you to try this creative form of practice as we take care of one another and respond skillfully to COVID-19.

Retreat Description:
Metta, or loving-kindness, practice is the cultivation of the intention of benevolence as the orientation of our heart and mind. It is also a path to wisdom. We develop our capacity for metta through meditation (which is practiced steadfastly on retreat) in order for it to manifest in an ongoing way in our daily lives.

In this retreat, we will learn the formal practice of metta along with its companion practices of compassion, joy, and equanimity. All four of these practices – known as the Brahma Viharas or Divine Abodes – strengthen self-confidence, self-acceptance, and steadiness of mind and heart, revealing our fundamental disposition toward kindness.

All are welcome! No one will be turned away for lack of funds as space allows. For more information, please email Registration@spiritrock.org.

Dates: Sunday to Friday, January 24 – 29, 2021 (6 days). A daily schedule will be posted closer to the retreat.
Sliding Scale: $245-$1800, PLUS a donation to the teacher(s). Code 236R21.

Please Note: This retreat is offered online only. We invite you to try this creative form of practice as we take care of one another and respond skillfully to COVID-19.

Retreat Description:
The Buddha called sickness, aging, and death “Heavenly Messengers” because they can powerfully guide us toward awakening. At this retreat we’ll learn to open our hearts and minds to all aspects of life, including the Heavenly Messengers. This opening cultivates the awareness, acceptance, and nourishing wisdom needed to meet life’s inevitable changes with more ease. Learning to embrace impermanence helps us embody the awakened heart-mind that holds our fears, vulnerabilities, and sorrows in wisdom, compassion, and peace. Practices for meeting suffering and fear with mindfulness and loving-kindness will be taught daily.

This retreat will be an inspiring and powerful opportunity to develop a more accepting relationship with change and death. This new relationship to change brings more freedom to enjoy life and a fresh appreciation for this precious moment.

This “workshop style” retreat will be held in morning and evening silence, with interactive exercises each afternoon.

All are welcome! No one will be turned away for lack of funds as space allows. For more information, please email Registration@spiritrock.org.

Dates: Thursday to Monday, February 18 – 22, 2021 (5 days). A daily schedule will be posted closer to the retreat.
Sliding Scale: $225-$1500, PLUS a donation to the teacher(s). Code 239R21.
Continuing Education Credits pending.

Please Note: This retreat is offered online only. We invite you to try this creative form of practice as we take care of one another and respond skillfully to COVID-19.

Retreat Description:
Awareness is the secret jewel innate in everyone. Awareness illuminates experience that supports clarity, understanding and insight. It is the foundation for wisdom, compassion and awakening.

In this silent meditation retreat we will explore this innate quality of awareness—what it is and how to cultivate and abide in that serene awake presence. We will investigate how mindfulness supports a depth of awareness through various meditation practices, and look at what obscures the clarity of awareness both in meditation and in life. As mindfulness grows we discover how this capacity for awareness is available in every moment.

We will also explore the fusion of love and awareness and how developing awareness allows a natural opening of the heart, which fosters a kind and compassionate awareness to ourselves, to others and to all experience.

Ideally participants will have already attended one silent mindfulness retreat prior to this retreat.

All are welcome! No one will be turned away for lack of funds as space allows. For more information, please email Registration@spiritrock.org.

Dates: Thursday to Monday, March 18 – 22, 2021 (5 days). A daily schedule will be posted closer to the retreat.
Sliding Scale: 225-$1500, PLUS a donation to the teacher(s). Code 242R21.
Continuing Education Credits pending.

Please Note: This retreat is offered online only. We invite you to try this creative form of practice as we take care of one another and respond skillfully to COVID-19.

Retreat Description:
The Buddha encouraged Maranasati practice to live an awakened life. This practice supports our appreciation of the preciousness of human birth and the development of equanimity with the difficulties of human existence. It helps us gain freedom from rigidity and clinging through a more expansive perspective of the inevitable and natural letting go. Maranasati matures our insight into impermanence and change, nourishing a skillful orientation to both life and death. In the retreat we will utilize the skills of loving awareness, compassion and investigation in our sitting practice, with some guided visualization and a period of contemplative inquiry each day.

All are welcome! No one will be turned away for lack of funds as space allows. For more information, please email Registration@spiritrock.org.

Dates: Sunday to Saturday, April 25 – May 1, 2021 (7 days). A daily schedule will be posted closer to the retreat.
Sliding Scale: $280-$2100, PLUS a donation to the teacher(s). Code 254R21.

Please Note: This retreat is offered online only. We invite you to try this creative form of practice as we take care of one another and respond skillfully to COVID-19.

Retreat Description:
This is a silent retreat designed especially for those relatively new to the practices of Insight Meditation (Vipassana). The retreat includes systematic instructions in Vipassana meditation—both sitting and walking—as well as lovingkindness practice, meetings with teachers, and evening talks highlighting the central teachings of the Buddha and their practical application to our lives.

All are welcome! No one will be turned away for lack of funds as space allows. For more information, please email Registration@spiritrock.org.