Event Type: Residential Retreat

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.

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.

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 Wednesday, March 28 – 31, 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 244R21.

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:
In response to the ongoing challenging conditions of the pandemic, on this Vipassana/Insight meditation retreat we will cultivate the beautiful quality of mindfulness. This mindful awareness nurtures a clarity, wisdom and well-being, qualities so essential at this time. Through “at-home” mindfulness practices, we’ll explore understanding the root causes of stress and suffering and develop the causes for a genuine happiness. These foundational Buddhist practices help you live with a profound ease and freedom wherever you are—the innate peace we all seek.

As well as sitting and walking Insight meditation practice, lovingkindness and compassion teachings will be integrated into the day so that we learn to live with a loving awareness. There will be periods of meditation, talks, questions and discussion. It’s a wonderful retreat to truly integrate these teachings more fully into our lives and practice. We will do so with the supportive community of like-minded 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: 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.

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: Monday to Friday, April 19 – 23, 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 250R21.

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 great Webu Sayadaw challenged his students, “Some of you may have been practicing for twenty or thirty years and some even longer. But just examine yourselves. Have you really, having established yourselves in complete effort, fulfilled one single day in practice? Have you?”

Retreat is a precious opportunity to cultivate mindfulness in an uninterrupted manner, taking every moment of the day and every arising experience as the very path of practice. In this online, home retreat we will cultivate mindfulness of body, feeling tone, mind, and mind-objects while walking, standing, sitting, lying down, while talking with others, remaining silent, and attending to our home duties. Let’s see what happens when we give ourselves over wholeheartedly to the simple practice that the Buddha called, “The direct path for the purification of beings… for attainment of the true way, for the realization of Nibanna.”

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.

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.

Dates: Monday to Friday, May 3 – 7, 2021 (5 days). A daily schedule will be posted closer to the retreat.
Sliding Scale: $25-$500, PLUS a donation to the teacher(s). Code 256R21.

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 retreat brings together practices that brighten the mind and open it to our highest aspiration, while grounding us in our immediate experience of change.

The four meditations are:

• recollection of the Buddha
• metta meditation
• contemplation of the body
• reflection on death

By nourishing and strengthening the heart and mind, and giving us courage to explore the true nature of embodied life, these meditations protect us from getting lost in hopes and fears, guiding us toward awakening.

Dates: Monday to Thursday, May 10 – 13, 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 258R21.

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 four-day retreat, the emphasis will be on cultivating a relaxed awareness, opening the heart, and bringing a peaceful acceptance to our experience. The retreat will include instructions, guided meditations, and Dharma talks to support the development of mindfulness, lovingkindness and compassion. The retreat will offer practical tools to support bringing the practice home and to the whole of our lives. This is a great retreat for beginners, for those newer to practice, and for those looking to strengthen the foundation for their 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: 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 15 – 19, 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 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.