Dates: Thursday, May 28, 3:00pm – Thursday, June 4, 10:30am; 8 days (includes 2 partial days). See schedule below.
Sliding Scale: $280-$1900; Code 356R20.
This retreat is now full. If you are interested in being on the wait list, please send an email to the Registrar at Retreats@SpiritRock.org.

ONLINE: This at-home retreat is now offered online only, on a sliding scale basis from $280-$1900. We invite you to try this creative form of practice as we take care of one another and respond skillfully to COVID-19.

PLEASE NOTE: This retreat will be modified for an at-home schedule and experience.

Prerequisite: Completion of two (or more) 6-night (or longer) silent, residential insight meditation retreats.

Retreat Description:
As a support for Insight meditation, the Nine Bodies teachings and meditations presented on this retreat offer you a new means for tracking and classifying meditative experiences which can help you stay present with whatever arises. These explorations may also increase the clarity and specificity of your mindfulness and enable the arising of insight. In this time of great uncertainty, strengthening our practice in these ways allows us to deal skillfully with the challenges related to the current health crisis.

The Nine Bodies online retreat starts by focusing on the consciousness that arises in the physical body and then presents a series of meditations for exploring ever more subtle levels of consciousness. These teachings and meditations are intended to help you be more empowered in your Insight meditation practice.

The Nine Bodies retreat systematically explores a set of teachings about the nature of consciousness that were first transmitted to Phillip Moffitt by the Himalayan yoga master Sri Swami Premvarni Balyogi twenty years ago. They are the basis for Phillip’s book: Awakening through the Nine Bodies.

This retreat is specifically designed as an online offering. It combines the dedicated practice time of a residential retreat while supporting yogis with family members and/or other responsibilities. The format is configured to maximize its effectiveness as a virtual retreat during this extraordinary time of shelter-in-place. It provides each of us the opportunity to integrate formal meditation and daily life practice. Each day there will be two guided meditations, a small group practice meeting, time for independent sitting in the communal virtual hall, and a dharma talk with Q & A.

Please note that each teaching session and guided meditation of the retreat is a building block for the next teaching session and guided meditation. Due to this progressive building process, please plan on attending all guided meditations and teaching sessions. We understand that due to the home retreat aspect of this offering, you may need to skip a walking meditation or other non-essential part of the retreat. In reviewing the retreat schedule below, we ask that you consider carefully whether you can commit to attending all of the active teaching sessions (both daily guided meditations and the 5:00 pm teaching session) and one small group practice meeting each day of the retreat.

This retreat is for practitioners that have a committed practice and the ability to sit multiple times a day over a seven-day period. As a prerequisite, we ask that you have attended a minimum of two 6-night retreats (or longer). This retreat is not recommended for students who are experiencing acute depression or grief or other strong mental challenges.

In order to allow for smaller-sized group practice meetings, each practitioner will be seen three times in the course of this retreat. Thank you for your understanding.

Daily Schedule
Please note: all are shown in Pacific Time
Bold sessions mean all are encouraged to attend

Opening Day Schedule, Thursday, May 28
3:00 p.m.  Technology Check for participants unfamiliar with Zoom
4:00 p.m.   Break – Main Hall Closed
4:15 p.m.   Meditation Hall Opens – Arrive and Settle
4:30 p.m.   Formal Opening/Welcoming Talk
6:30 p.m.   Close for Night

Daily Schedule; Friday, May 29 – Wednesday, June 3
7:00 a.m.    Personal Early Practice / Sitting, Walking
8:00 a.m.    First Guided Meditation Period
9:15 a.m.    Individual Sitting and Walking Practice
11:00 a.m. Second Guided Meditation Period
12:00 p.m.  Lunch
1:30 p.m.   Group A and C Practice Meetings
3:00 p.m.   Group B and D Practice Meetings
1:30 – 5:00 p.m. Individual Sitting/Walking Practice – when not in Practice Meeting
5:00 p.m.   Teaching Session
6:30 p.m.    Close for Night

Closing Day Schedule, Thursday, June 4
8:00 a.m.    Closing Session
11:30 a.m.   Close of Retreat