Event Type: Residential Retreat

Dates: Tuesday to Sunday, May 18 – 23, 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 262R21.

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.

Description:
Nobody tells us this when we’re growing up, but being human is a big deal. It feels great, it hurts, it’s intense. We know it won’t go on forever. Given this, what kind of happiness is possible? The Buddha suggested that we have underestimated the capacity of our heart. Retreat helps us to remember. In mindfulness meditation, we practice resting, looking deeply, knowing moment-by-moment what it’s like to be human. The more deeply we look, the more reason we have to love.

Together, we’ll sit in the refuge provided by a 2,600-year legacy of wisdom and kindness. In the silence, we come to know the preciousness of our life and the poignancy of the human condition. From this openness, so much goodness unfolds. In this silent retreat, we’ll offer systematic instructions in mindfulness and lovingkindness practice. Throughout the retreat there are meetings with teachers to support you in your practice.

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: Wednesday to Sunday, May 26 – 30, 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 264R21.

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.

Open to folks age 55 and older.

Retreat Description:
Living life fully includes aging and dying. It’s a natural process and ripe with spiritual possibilities. Aging brings loss; what we once assumed to be “ours” slips away, revealing the pervasive truth of impermanence. But even as our memory slides, our cognitive speed slows down, our bodies become more fragile, and qualities of the heart reveal themselves. We see that the potential for wisdom and compassion does not depend on the state of the body or on our age, but rather on the training of the mind to abide in timeless awareness. It is best to begin this training before you are ill or dying. Then, like a treasured friend, your own mind can accompany you through the challenges of aging, loss, illness and dying. Right now, we know we will die but we do not know when or how. Through engaging in a variety of contemplations on death in the communal space of retreat, our confidence in our capacity to meet death peacefully increases.

Join a group of your peers who are interested in life after 55 as a new stage of life, one which offers opportunities for deepening in wisdom and compassion, and loosening our fears around dying. Teachings will offer a blend of the traditional ancient wisdom of the Buddhadharma with more contemporary views and resources for helping us prepare for death. This is a silent retreat with one period a day of interactive contemplative inquiry in dyads or small groups. In addition, there will be daily instructions in mindfulness, meetings with the teachers, dharma talks and qigong.

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

Dates: Monday to Saturday, June 7 – 12, 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 268R21.

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:
“It is that gladness connected with the wholesome that I call an equipment of mind…for developing a mind that is without hostility and without ill will.” ~The Buddha

The Buddha was known as “The Happy One.” However, the teachings often seem to emphasize working with suffering. Joy and happiness can seem frivolous or unspiritual even though joy is one of the Seven Factors of Awakening. In this retreat we will practice with an emphasis on cultivating wholesome states to develop our natural capacity for well-being and happiness. Our own development of well-being and joy then becomes our gift to a troubled world.

The retreat includes silent sitting and walking periods with instructions and practice meetings with teachers, as well as some experiential exercises during the six days. This retreat is appropriate for both experienced as well as new/beginning students.

Practices will include:

• Inclining the mind toward wholesome states;
• The power of wholesome intention;
• Mindfulness as appreciation practice (wonder and gratitude);
• Embracing suffering as a path to joy;
• How letting go leads to true freedom;
• Integrity as a foundation for well-being;
• Metta (loving-kindness) for self and others;
• Mudita (sympathetic joy);
• Compassion—the expression of a wise heart; and
• The joy of simply being.

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: Tuesday to Saturday, June 14 – 19, 2021 (6 days). A daily schedule will be posted closer to the retreat.
Sliding Scale: $150-$900, PLUS a donation to the teacher(s). Code 270R21.

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:
Most people practice mindfulness in a focused way—attending to their breathing, and returning to their breath when their attention has wandered. But there are actually many different ways to practice mindfulness.

In this retreat, we will learn about the Spectrum of Awareness Practices, from focused awareness to investigative and choiceless awareness, to natural awareness. Natural awareness is an effortless, radiant, and spacious state of being that includes awareness of awareness.

Over the retreat, through sitting, walking meditations, lectures. exercises, and meetings with teachers, we will practice each type of awareness and explore how these different approaches relate to one another. We will also make each practice relevant to daily life and will practice with them in our families, homes, and daily activities.

The retreat is based on Diana Winston’s book, The Little Book of Being: Practices and Guidance for Uncovering your Natural Awareness.

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 Sunday, June 20 – 27, 2021 (8 days). A daily schedule will be posted closer to the retreat.
Sliding Scale: $320-$2400, PLUS a donation to the teacher(s). Code 272R21.

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.

Prerequisite: Completion of one (or more) 6-night (or longer) silent, residential insight meditation retreat(s).

Description:
The Nine Bodies Insight meditations and teachings presented in this online retreat offer a new method of practicing Insight meditation. We start with establishing mindfulness through the practice of arriving and then turn towards the consciousness of the physical body. Through a series of guided meditations, we will explore ever more subtle levels of consciousness. This map offers a means for tracking and classifying meditative experiences which can help you stay present with whatever arises. Moreover, this method of practice may increase the stability and clarity of your mindfulness and enable the arising of insight.

This method integrates the Nine Bodies teachings on the nature of consciousness from Himalayan yoga master Premvarni Balyogi with Insight meditation dharma teachings.

This retreat includes 3-4 detailed guided meditations per day, dharma talks, walking meditations, and small group meetings. Due to the progressive nature of these teachings, please plan to attend all teaching sessions.

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: Tuesday to Tuesday, July 6-13,2021 (8 days). A daily schedule will be posted closer to the retreat.
Sliding Scale: $320-$2400, PLUS a donation to the teacher(s). Code 276R21.

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 is the Pali term for friendship, goodwill or lovingkindness. In this retreat, we will develop metta as a meditation practice, which cultivates our natural capacity for an open and loving heart towards ourselves and all other beings. We will also develop the practices of compassion, joy, and equanimity. Metta practice leads to greater acceptance of ourselves and others, revealing our fundamental connectedness to all life.

Given the length of this retreat, we will also teach metta meditation for deeper states of refuge, seclusion, and a power of conviction from which we can live in our complex world.

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: Friday to Monday, July 16-19, 2021; 4 full days. Tentative daily schedule below.
Sliding Scale: $108-$1200, PLUS a donation to the teacher(s). Code 278R21.

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. This retreat will be a LIVESTREAM.

Description:
The emphasis during this retreat will be on the continuity of awareness in all activities, which stabilizes and balances the mind. Relaxed acceptance of our moment-to-moment experience becomes the platform for investigation and wisdom. Particular attention will be paid to the attitudes in the mind that condition our understanding. This retreat is suitable for both beginners and experienced meditators. We welcome people from all life experiences, backgrounds and diverse communities.

TENTATIVE Daily Teaching Schedule – sessions listed in Pacific Time; this is a TENTATIVE schedule for all four days.

7:00 a.m.    Optional – Early Morning Meditation
10:00 a.m.  Guided Sit with Instructions, Q&A and/or Dharma Talk (75-90 minutes)
1:00 p.m.    Dharma Talk and/or Q&A (75-90 minutes)
4:00 p.m.    Guided Brahma Vihara, Q&A and/or Dharma Talk (75-90 minutes)
7:00 p.m.    Dharma Talk and/or Q&A (75-90 minutes)
8:45 p.m.    Optional – Evening Sit or Chanting (30 minutes)

Teachers will offer recommendations for self-scheduled practice between session times.

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: Tuesday to Saturday, August 3 – 7, 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 282R21.

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.

Open to all Young Adults ages 18 to 32 years.

Description:
Please join us as we practice silent mindfulness and Insight Meditation within a group of your peers.

Give yourself a break from constant stress and external demands as we create a supportive space for cultivating greater inner calm, spaciousness, and presence.

We will explore honoring our experience through radical self-awareness and deeper embodiment through the ancient practices of guided and silent sitting, walking, heart meditations, movement, practice meetings with teachers, and dharma talks. Over the course of the week, we will extend these practices until the entire day is one of steady, continuous awareness.

On the last day of the retreat we practice coming in and out of silence to learn conscious connection with the community around us. This is a fully silent retreat, and we will ask you to turn off and put away all electronic devices outside of what is needed to participate on this online 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: Saturday to Tuesday, August 14 – 31, 2021 (17 nights/18 days). A daily schedule will be posted closer to the retreat.
Sliding Scale: $850-$5108, PLUS a donation to the teacher(s). Code 286R21.

This retreat will be held in-person!

Prerequisite: Completion of at least two 7-day silent residential insight meditation retreats (in-person retreat experience; online retreats are not eligible).

Description:
The first half of this retreat will focus on the development of concentration (samadhi), the collectedness and unification of mind that gives it strength and stability. The development of concentration, which comes from cultivating a relaxed attention and ease of mind, can bring joy to your practice and lead to the skillful use of pleasure in the meditative process. Concentration is also a key ingredient in the deepening of meditative insight.

The second half of the retreat will build on the foundation of concentration to explore the nature of awareness, or consciousness, which is the heart of sentient life. Awareness is always with us, revealing the phenomena of our experience, yet we may not have learned how to use it as a focus in meditation. As we deepen our connection to and understanding of this mysterious capacity for knowing, it becomes a powerful pathway to inner freedom and liberation.

Dates: Friday to Monday, September 3-6, 2021 (4 days). A daily schedule will be posted closer to the retreat.
Sliding Scale: $155-$1200, PLUS a donation to the teacher(s). Code 288R21.

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.

Description:
This retreat emphasizes quieting the mind, opening the heart, and developing clarity and depth of practice. Traditional instructions will be combined with a spirit of lovingkindness, silent sitting and walking meditation, Dharma talks, and meetings with the teachers.

This retreat is for experienced as well as new students. We welcome you to do this retreat in any way that works given your situation. It is our intention to create a supportive community where practice will hold your experience, whether doing it as a full-on silent retreat with minimal external input, or life circumstances necessitate that you attend to family or other obligations.

The retreat includes a schedule of silent sitting and walking periods with instructions, and guided yoga/movement sessions, as well as practice meetings with teachers and daily Dharma talks.

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 Sunday, September 9-12, 2021 (4 days). A daily schedule will be posted closer to the retreat.
Sliding Scale: $155-$1200, PLUS a donation to the teacher(s). Code 290R21.

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.

Description:
This online retreat will provide a conceptual framework and practice guidelines for Mindful “Indigenous Presence” meditation—a way of coming into harmony with the present moment and our world—and provides space for acceptance, and the cultivation of clarity, confidence, resilience and strength. This practice maps the fundamental wellness-optimizing characteristics of Indigenous Ceremony onto the methods and outcomes of another ancient traditional expression of sacred presence, that of mindfulness and lovingkindness meditation.

This retreat will be instructional, experiential, and interactive. Together we will explore the techniques of mindfulness/insight meditation and come to understand the strength-based and resilience optimizing characteristics of retreat as Ceremony.

This retreat is open to all: Indigenous people from around the world, and allies.

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: Tuesday to Saturday, September 21-25, 2021 (5 days). A daily schedule will be posted closer to the retreat.
Sliding Scale: $125-$1500, PLUS a donation to the teacher(s). Code 294R21.

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.

Open to self-identified LGBT*QI2 and GNC Community

Description:
The beauty of the Buddhist practice comes alive when practicing together as LGBTQI and GNC (gender non-conforming) people. We take refuge together in the diversity of our community and in embracing ourselves fully, no part left out. With our practice we cultivate mindfulness, lovingkindness and compassion to support healing our hearts and the potential to realize a peace that is not dependent on the external conditions of the world. This retreat is open to those with all levels of experience.

Instructions for Insight Meditation practice including guided meditations, Dharma talks, and practice meetings will be offered. Each day will include alternating periods of sitting and walking meditation, and will emphasize the continuity of practice in all activities throughout the 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, September 25-October 2, 2021 (8 days). A daily schedule will be posted closer to the retreat.
Sliding Scale: $320-$2400, PLUS a donation to the teacher(s). Code 295R21.

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.

Description:
Beneath the fragmentation and pain of this time, something is rumbling deep in our minds. It is as if the tectonic plates are moving inside us, but we don’t know exactly where everything will land. How can we stabilize ourselves and leverage the moment to understand the Dharma more deeply and soften our hearts more fully?

This Insight retreat will explore the power of goodness amidst the intensity of our human condition. The pāramīs serve to guide our hearts: generosity, morality, renunciation, wisdom, energy, patience, truthfulness, resolution, lovingkindness, and equanimity. These forces of goodness do not erase suffering, but guide us towards wisdom and compassion.

Practicing within our own homes offers an unusual opportunity. Our home can offer a sense of comfort but our habit energies are often strongest there. Home retreat can be transformative in ways we do not experience in residential retreats. It allows us to deeply integrate this spiritual path into our living space, creating the visual and temporal reminders of path and practice in our own home.

Traditional meditation instruction will be combined with a spirit of lovingkindness and silent sitting and walking meditation, Dharma talks, and small group practice meetings with teachers. This retreat is open to new and experienced meditators.

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: Monday to Friday, September 27-October 1, 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 296R21.

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.

All who self-identify as womxn are welcome!

Description:
This silent meditation retreat will offer myths, stories, and archetypes of Buddhist womxn, past and present, as inspiration to illuminate and embrace all aspects of our wisdom, compassion, and desire for freedom. We will weave diverse expressions of feminine energies and the innate ways womxn know and understand into the fabric of the retreat, community, and practice.

Our time together will include silent sitting and walking, meditation instruction, daily embodied movement, Dharma talks, meetings with teachers, and creative expression.

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