Event Type: Residential Retreat

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.

Date: Wednesday to Saturday, January 6 – 9, 2021 (4 days). A daily schedule will be posted closer to the retreat.
Sliding Scale: $155-$1200. Code 230R21.

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:
The Buddha taught that there is nothing more conducive to misery than an untrained, undeveloped mind and there is nothing more conducive to happiness than a well trained, well cultivated heart and mind. His teachings and practices are a reminder that regardless of circumstances it is possible to train our attention to be steady and strong. We can learn to lovingly move toward our pain, resisting the temptation to hide away in fear and dullness. Our practice can bring a reliable happiness that you recognize as your natural mind. Let’s practice together and awaken together.

This online retreat is suitable for all levels of experience. All that’s needed is you come as you are, have a comfortable place to meditate and some space for walking meditation and mindful yoga.

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, 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: Wednesday to Saturday, January 20 – 23, 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 234R21.

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:
In this retreat, we will explore the Four Noble Truths. We can learn to transform obstacles into the path itself as we follow our deep biological imperative for freedom.

Experiences both on and off the cushion can become practice opportunities to find freedom from suffering. It is then possible to experience the peace that comes from knowing ourselves beyond the transient conditions of our lives.

This retreat will include guided meditation instructions outlining how to practice within the framework of the Four Noble Truths in sitting and walking meditation, as well as in daily activities. To support continuity of mindfulness, a practice schedule will be provided. Participants will have the opportunity to engage in small groups for discussion and question/response periods with a retreat teacher. This retreat is designed for beginners and experienced practitioners alike.

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: Monday to Friday, February 1 – 12, 2021 (12 days). A daily schedule will be posted closer to the retreat.
Sliding Scale: $480-$3,600, PLUS a donation to the teacher(s). Code 238R21.

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: Before registering you must have already completed a minimum of 21 days of retreat practice, with those retreats being six days or longer to qualify. These retreats should have been silent meditation retreats led by Spirit Rock, IMS, or IRC teachers, or other recognized Insight Meditation teachers. The retreats should have had a similar format to this retreat, with instructions, practices and talks focused on Insight Meditation.

Retreat Description:
Instead of the annual month-long, the February teaching team will lead a 12-day online retreat for experienced students. This extended retreat offers a rare opportunity for sustained and dedicated practice. Emphasis will be on quieting the mind, opening the heart and developing profound clarity and depth of insight practice. Instructions will follow the traditional four foundations of mindfulness, combined with training in lovingkindness and compassion, through a daily schedule of silent stillness and movement meditation, Dharma talks, and practice meetings with teachers.

We will encourage attendees to commit to the spirit of intensive practice with minimal input from the external world, and maintaining silence as much as possible. We look forward to supporting experienced students looking for a more traditional intensive retreat while practicing at home online.

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 4 – 15, 2021 (12 days). A daily schedule will be posted closer to the retreat.
Sliding Scale: $480-$3,600, PLUS a donation to the teacher(s). Code 240R21.

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: Before registering you must have already completed one 5-day silent residential retreat to qualify for this retreat.

These retreats should have been silent meditation retreats led by Spirit Rock, IMS, or IRC teachers, or other recognized Insight Meditation teachers. The retreats should have had a similar format to this retreat, with instructions, practices and talks focused on Insight Meditation.

Retreat Description:
Instead of the annual month-long, the March teaching team will lead a 12-day online retreat. We will devote ourselves to the practice of Vipassana utilizing stillness and movement meditation, including 24/7 practice.

This extended retreat offers a rare opportunity for sustained and dedicated practice. Emphasis will be on quieting the mind, opening the heart and developing profound clarity and depth of insight practice. Instructions will follow the traditional four foundations of mindfulness, combined with training in lovingkindness and compassion, through a daily schedule of silent stillness and movement meditation, Dharma talks, and practice meetings with teachers.

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: Thursday to Sunday, April 8 – 11, 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 246R21.

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:
At its core, the Dharma is practical, and the teachings on emptiness (Suññatā) are no exception. This important teaching, however, can often feel conceptual and illusory. This online retreat is an invitation to open to the accessible and practical teachings on emptiness, to be witnessed internally and externally, both during formal practice and in our daily lives. Seeing experience through this lens offers freedom from the prison of our limited conceptual framework, the contraction of which can lead to greed and grasping or hatred and aversion, and the whole entangled web of suffering. Far from being bleak and nihilistic, emptiness practice liberates experience to be appreciated in richer fullness, and serves as the womb of love and compassion.

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 Friday, April 13 – 16, 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 248R21.

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:
Core Dharma teachings are methods to work directly with the suffering that arises in the bodies, and minds, of all beings. During this retreat we will offer fruitful, realistic approaches and skills that can bring ease, even liberation. Those currently suffering from chronic illnesses, those currently in caregiving roles, and anyone who is interested in coming to grips with suffering are welcome. All of us have been or will be sick and/or a caregiver, for others our ourselves.

Mindfulness and compassion practices, guided meditations and group discussions will invite us to develop more gentleness, and letting go. Lying-down meditation will be encouraged at any time.

A gentle, optional movement practice will also be offered, with special attention to language that does not exclude any body.

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.