Dates: Monday, September 14, 3:00pm – Sunday, September 20, 11:30am; 6 nights.
Sliding Scale: $1700-$750, PLUS a donation to the teacher(s) and retreat staff. Code 383R20.
15 CE credits available for $150, for psychologists and California licensed MFTs, LCSWs, LEPs, LPCCs, nurses, and chiropractors.
Please Note:  We are monitoring the COVID-19 situation and may move this retreat online. We have suspended taking registrations for now. Timing is TBD.

Retreat Description:
As social beings, our lives are inextricably interwoven. The Buddha emphasized the immense power of social harmony and spiritual friendship as factors conducive to awakening. In this retreat, we will explore relational Dharma teachings that foster peace, both internally and externally. The integral part of this six-day retreat will be the practice of Wise Speech, a skillful vehicle for expressing the Dharma fully into our whole lives. We will study, contemplate and practice the Buddha’s teachings using Insight Dialogue and the contemporary discipline of Nonviolent Communication. These interpersonal Dharma practices bring the insight and tranquility of traditional Buddhist meditation into our interactions with others. Through an attentive weaving of meditative dialogue practice, silent mindfulness and kindness meditation, mindful movement, and time in nature, we will deepen the essential meditative qualities that support the possibility of awakening together.

Location: Upper Walking Hall. This retreat is designed as a smaller and more intimate retreat and, as such, will be held in the upper Walking Hall located in the upper retreat building. The upper Walking Hall is accessible by the stairs to the left as you enter the Retreat Hall foyer, or by a path at the back of the building, on the left.

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).

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 four ethical guidelines and three foundations of Mindful Communication;
• Explain three ways of bringing presence to conversations;
• List the four components of training attention in Nonviolent Communication;
• Explain the differences between “needs” and “strategies,” and how awareness of human needs supports compassion;
• Accurately assess true emotions from words implying being judgmental or projecting blame;
• Demonstrate the ability to offer a verbal empathic reflection by linking feelings with underlying needs;
• Explain the difference between observations and evaluations or interpretations;
• Rewrite a judgmental statement as an observation, feeling and need;
• Explain at least two ways of modulating one’s nervous system activation during conflict.

Continuing Education content level: Introductory