The theme for Black History Month this year is "A Century of Black History Commemorations." This month, we recognize the profound contributions and impact that the people of the African diaspora have had both in this country and throughout the world. What began in 1926 as National Negro Month has grown into a national holiday and a time for global acknowledgment. This observance reminds us that Black history is not static; it did not begin with trans-Atlantic slavery but thousands of years ago in ancient kingdoms. It is a vital part of American and world history, woven into the fabric of science, the arts, education, literature, architecture, politics, philosophy, and spirituality.
While we often focus on famous figures associated with specific milestones in the struggle, it is equally important to recognize the unsung men, women, and children who were on the front lines of the centuries-long struggle. These individuals created and sustained houses of worship; educational, medical, and financial institutions; and cultural and civic organizations. They upheld the dignity of Black communities in the face of discrimination and violence. They were the ones who parented children after families were commodified and torn apart. They marched for freedom, sat at lunch counters, ran breakfast programs, and created sanctuaries wherever they could. Whether serving in wars abroad or in their own communities, they were engaged in daily actions for the benefit of all with lovingkindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity.
On this 100-year anniversary, the Spirit Rock community is invited to engage in a deeper reflection on past accomplishments and the work that lies ahead. In an era where political agendas aim to strip “Blackness” from history and from institutional leadership, we resolve to honor and support our Black Buddhist teachers. It is Right Action. We do this through our practice and a commitment to honoring our Black Buddhist teachers. We invite you to explore their teachings: read their books, attend their saṅghas, and meet them where they are at this moment. Let’s celebrate them as they share teachings grounded in a rich array of ancestral traditions that guide the liberation of all beings.
Upcoming Programs with Black Teachers
Short Program | Online
Sunday, February 15 | 11:00 AM - 2:00 PM
Holding What Hurts: Caring for Strong Emotions in a Time of Social Harm
In this half-day of mindfulness, we’ll explore body-based practices that help us stay grounded with strong emotions. By listening to the body’s wisdom through mindful breathing and walking, we return to steadiness and care. These skills also prepare us to take part in the great turning toward more life-giving ways of being together. Drawing on Buddhist psychology, together we’ll learn to recognize, accept, and gently hold difficult emotions, allowing insight and healing to emerge.
Kaira Jewel Lingo
Training | Online
February - December, 2026 | 11 Fridays | 9:30 AM - 11:30 AM
Belonging, Courage and Love: Living the Pāramīs
A ten-month immersion in the pāramīs—the ten heart qualities the Buddha cultivated over countless lifetimes to prepare for awakening. These qualities, like generosity, patience, truthfulness, and lovingkindness weren’t abstract ideals but relational practices—ways of living and loving in a complex world. Through embodied practice, storytelling, reflection, and community dialogue, you’ll learn to bring the pāramīs alive in daily life: at work, in your relationships, and in moments of challenge or joy.
Leslie Booker
Short Program | Online
Sunday, February 22 | 10:00 AM - 3:30 PM
The Inheritance of Wholeness: A Return to Bone and Breath
There is a knowing that lives beneath thought, an ancient intelligence within the body. The Buddha taught that liberation arises from remembering what is already here, but which is often obscured by conditioning. Through meditation, breath awareness, and gentle interpersonal connections, we will honor the body as a living archive of resilience and wisdom. Together, we will rediscover belonging, spacious presence, and the dignity of simply being. Open to both new and experienced practitioners.
Amana Brembry Johnson
Drop-in | Online
Sunday, February 22 | 9:00 AM - 10:30 AM
BIPOC Voices: Weekly Sunday Saṅgha
For those who identify as BIPOC.
The Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) Sangha is a weekly gathering for BIPOC practitioners that provides a safe place to meditate and explore the Dharma. Beginners and experienced meditators are welcome.
Victoria Cary
Short Program | Online
Saturday, March 7 | 10:00 AM - 1:00 PM
Rooted and Rising: Honoring the Lineage of Women in Buddhism
Across centuries, women have carried the Buddha Dharma—fiercely, creatively, and often invisibly. From the first Buddhist nuns who defied convention to modern-day teachers, mothers, activists, and visionaries transforming spiritual life today, women have always been essential to this lineage. This benefit event invites all genders to reclaim and honor that legacy, revealing the courage and truth that shaped the Dharma.
Retreat | On-Land
April 9 - April 16, 2026 | Thursday - Thursday | 7 nights
Insight Meditation Retreat: A Path to Clarity and the Cultivation of the Heart of Wisdom
Spaces Still Available! Grounded in mindfulness, investigation, and compassion, this retreat offers a supportive and contemplative space to gently turn inward, observe the nature of the mind and body, and deepen your understanding of impermanence, interconnection, and the possibility of inner freedom. Open to all levels, the retreat fosters clear seeing and the development of heart qualities—equanimity, lovingkindness, compassion, and joy—within the quiet refuge of noble silence.
Tuere Sala
Noliwe Alexander
Rev. Shinmu Tamori Gibson
Walt Opie
Gil Fronsdal
Monica Magtoto
Short Program | On-Land
Sunday, April 26 | 10:00 AM - 3:00 PM
Cultivating a Wise and Kind Heart
We invite you to spend a day on the land, resting in the Buddha’s teachings on wisdom and kindness. Together, we will practice cultivating kind awareness that supports us in growing our capacity to meet the joys and challenges of being human. As we learn to steadily meet things as they are, the wisdom of the Dhamma unfolds, and through this cultivation we touch into the possibility of freedom.
Victoria Cary
Retreat | On-Land
April 30 - May 9, 2026 | Thursday - Saturday | 9 nights
Spring Insight Retreat
Spaces Still Available! All the time before you were born plus all the time after you die is almost exactly all the time there is. Yet we find ourselves alive, with a question: how should I live? We begin by listening deeply. Throughout this retreat, we will sit together in the refuge provided by a 2,600-year legacy of wisdom and kindness. In the silence, we come to know the preciousness of life and the poignancy of the human condition.
Retreat | On-Land
May 24 - May 29, 2026 | Sunday - Friday | 5 nights
Finding Refuge, Finding Home: A Retreat in Nature
Full - short waitlist. Commuter spaces available! In the storms of our lives, we need refuge—a place of nourishment and support where we can replenish our tired bodies and troubled hearts. When the Buddha taught meditation, his first instruction was to go sit under a tree. Together, we’ll tap into the natural stillness and dynamism that surrounds us. Supported by our connection with the natural world, we can move toward being active participants in the world while maintaining balance and ease in our hearts and minds.
Retreat | On-Land
May 30 - June 6, 2026 | Saturday - Saturday | 7 nights
Compassion and Equanimity: Heart-full Wisdom for Our Times
Spaces Still Available! Through compassion and equanimity, our hearts discover a capacity for steadiness and love, allowing us to remain open to the challenges of our times. Through guided meditations, Dharma talks, practice meetings, contemplative verbal inquiry, and periods of sitting and walking meditation, we’ll arouse the power of compassion and equanimity to release a wise and heart-full response to the pain of our world. Although there will be periods of verbal inquiry, the majority of the retreat will be in noble silence.
Retreat | On-Land
July 1 - July 7, 2026 | Wednesday - Tuesday | 6 nights
Beneath the Noise: A Journey into the Mind’s Quiet Power - Annual BIPOC Retreat
For those who identify as BIPOC. Spaces Still Available! Designed to support the BIPOC community only. Dharma practice is a journey of unveiled mysteries that can bring profound transformation. During this retreat we are invited to quiet the noise of striving, meet ourselves fully, discover the peace that arises when the mind is steady and enter a space where truth is felt rather than defined. With deepened internal inquiry, we will explore how thoughts shape our reality and learn to work skillfully with the mind rather than against it.
Amana Brembry Johnson
Bhante Buddharakkhita
Gullu Singh
Margarita Loinaz
Jonathan Relucio
Retreat | On-Land
July 8 - July 17, 2026 | Wednesday - Friday | 9 nights
Summer Lovingkindness Retreat
Spaces Still Available! The Buddha’s teachings on the four divine sanctuaries (brahmavihāras) include meditations on universal friendliness (mettā), compassion (karuṇā), altruistic joy (muditā), and equanimity (upekkhā). Aimed at purifying our hearts and developing concentration, these divine sanctuaries help us find inner peace and powerfully engage with the world. This retreat will deepen our understanding of selfless love and its role in ending suffering. Practitioners are encouraged to combine this retreat with the Insight Meditation retreat to further develop concentration and purify the heart.
Tempel Smith
John Martin
Anushka Fernandopulle
Devin Berry
bruni dávila
Kristina Baré
Rasika Link
Retreat | On-Land
July 17 - July 26, 2026 | Friday - Sunday | 9 nights
Summer Insight Retreat
Spaces Still Available! The Buddha's unique Insight Meditation techniques open a direct experience with our human mind and body, allowing us to deeply see into the nature of impermanence, unsatisfactoriness, and non-self. Having these direct insights uproots the ignorance that keeps us trapped in cycles of suffering. Practitioners are encouraged to combine the Summer Insight Retreat with the Summer Lovingkindness (mettā) Retreat, although this is not required. For those attending both retreats, teachers will guide and integrate the retreats as one offering.
Tempel Smith
Bonnie Duran
Anushka Fernandopulle
bruni dávila
Devin Berry
Kristina Baré
Marcy Reynolds
Retreat | On-Land
August 4 - August 8, 2026 | Tuesday - Saturday | 4 nights
Young Adult Retreat
For those Young adults ages 18-32 years. Spaces Still Available! Join a kind community to practice mindfulness and compassion. Offer yourself freedom from overstimulation and come home to the experience of being alive. In mindfulness meditation, we rest and look deeply, knowing moment-by-moment what it is like to be human. Some of us are hesitant to look because there is concern about what we’ll find. Our practice shows us that the more deeply we look, the more reason we have to love.
Retreat | On-Land
August 9 - August 14, 2026 | Sunday - Friday | 5 nights
Grounded and Spacious: Mindful Yoga and Embodied Dharma
Spaces Still Available! How do we stay rooted like a mighty oak when the winds of life blow strong? This retreat draws on Dharma and Yoga traditions to help settle the nervous system, ground energy, and cultivate ease amid personal and global challenges. Each day includes gentle Yoga; seated, walking, standing, and lying down meditation; Dharma reflections; and small group meetings with a teacher. With steadiness and heart, we’ll explore how to hold life’s changes with grace and resilience.
Retreat | On-Land
August 14 - August 20, 2026 | Friday - Thursday | 6 nights
The Path of Liberation: Insight Meditation and the Buddha’s Early Teachings
Spaces Still Available! Rooted in the Buddha’s early teachings, Insight Meditation offers a time-tested path to clarity, compassion, and inner freedom. In this silent retreat, we’ll deepen mindfulness and lovingkindness, investigating the causes of suffering and the possibility of release. Through guided and independent meditation, Dharma stories, and embodied awareness, we’ll reconnect with the wisdom of the tradition and our own hearts. This retreat welcomes both beginners and experienced practitioners seeking to refresh and deepen their foundations.
Retreat | On-Land
August 21 - August 28, 2026 | Friday - Friday | 7 nights
Liberating the Heart: Navigating Seven Gates to Inner Freedom
Designed for self-identified womxn of Black African Ancestry only. Spaces Still Available! In stillness, the heart softens and the mind finds rest—making space for clarity, healing, and inner freedom to arise. This retreat invites us to release confusion and attune to the Seven Gates of Awakening through mindfulness, joyful investigation, and compassionate rest. We’ll begin in intentional community, then settle into silent sitting and walking, embodied movement, Dharma talks, and teacher meetings. With deep listening and steady hearts, we open to awakening—even in a world that trembles.
Retreat | On-Land
September 8 - September 14, 2026 | Tuesday - Monday | 6 nights
Steadying the Heart: Refuge through the Four Sublime States
Spaces Still Available! The Buddhist path cultivates four transformative qualities that can be developed into steadfast dwelling places for the heart: kindness, compassion, joy, and balance. Known as the brahmavihāras, these states can be powerful supports for deepening concentration and insight on the contemplative path and responding to suffering. Throughout this retreat, we will explore techniques to develop each of these states, and release the obstacles that hinder us from living a full life and responding meaningfully to the needs of our world.
Retreat | On-Land
September 14 - September 19, 2026 | Monday - Saturday | 5 nights
Inclining Towards the Beautiful Factors of Mind
Spaces Still Available! The Buddha taught that whatever the mind frequently inclines toward becomes the tendency of the heart. This retreat invites us to cultivate five beautiful qualities—faith, energy, mindfulness, tranquility, and equanimity—that steady the heart, support well-being, and create the conditions for liberating insight. Held in noble silence, the retreat offers a supportive space for deep investigation, sustained stillness, and the gradual transformation of habit and heart. Together, we’ll incline the mind toward qualities that foster clarity, wisdom, and inner freedom.
Retreat | On-Land
September 20 - September 26, 2026 | Sunday - Saturday | 6 nights
Our Sacred Roots: A Meditation Retreat for Women
For those who identify as women. Spaces Still Available! For thousands of years, women have contributed to and deepened Buddhist practices of liberation across cultures and continents. Women’s voices, experience, and stories, however, have been largely neglected in Buddhist history. By retrieving the sacred roots of our feminine lineage, we imbue spiritual life with wisdom, tenderness, courage, and resilience. During this retreat we will reconnect to and embody women’s unique expression of spiritual life from the time of the Buddha through the present-day across the cultural spectrum.
