Calendar
July
Retreat | On-Land
Sunday, July 28 | 10:00 AM - 4:00 PM
Mindfulness, Awareness, and Non-Duality
Awareness is a natural quality of the mind that allows you to be present with clarity, insight and freedom. In this silent meditation retreat we explore this quality of awareness: what it is, and how to recognize, cultivate, and abide in it. We inquire into what interferes with stabilizing in awareness both in meditation and in daily activity. As mindfulness grows, we find an effortless, clear, and radiant awareness in every moment, leading to insight, wellbeing, and peace.
Mark Coleman
Retreat | On-Land
July 29 - August 4, 2024 | Monday - Sunday | 6 nights
The Spirit of Insight, Dharma & Awakening
The essence of Buddhist practice is embodying the Dharma experientially. In this retreat we will use mindfulness meditation to study our experiential reality within all our activities, including meditation, movement, eating, resting, and listening. When we are present and investigate our experiential reality moment by moment, insight arises, and the Dharma reveals itself within our body, heart, and mind. As the living, embodied truth unfolds, we awaken to the Buddha within and discover the depth and breadth of our own human potential.
August
Retreat | On-Land | Hybrid
Saturday, August 3 | 10:00 AM - 4:00 PM
How to be a Bodhisattva: Zen Insights on the Way of Compassion
In this daylong retreat, we’ll explore teachings about the Bodhisattva path—the way of friendliness and compassion—and we’ll study a short text of Dogen, the 13th Century founder of Soto Zen, called “The Bodhisattva’s Four Methods of Guidance.” This poetic text offers four practices designed to awaken the bodhisattva spirit: generosity, kind speech, beneficial action, and identity action. Together, we’ll spend time experiencing Dogen’s words through meditation and writing.
Norman Fischer
Retreat | On-Land | Hybrid
Sunday, August 4 | 10:00 AM - 4:00 PM
Faith in Yourself: Compassion Practices for Cultivating Freedom from Self-Doubt
5 CE Credits. Many of us find it hard to believe that we have what it takes to do this practice. Seeing into this doubt with compassion and wisdom can not only help us be free from the pain it causes, but it can open us to the possibility of trusting ourselves and all aspects of our experience. This day of practice is an invitation to understand and find freedom from self-doubt and tap into the fullness of our potential in this life.
Retreat | On-Land
August 5 - August 10, 2024 | Monday - Saturday | 5 nights
Young Adult Insight Meditation Retreat
Open to ages 18-32. Come practice silent mindfulness and Insight Meditation in community with your peers. Give yourself a break from constant overstimulation and external demands as we create a supportive space for cultivating greater calm, spaciousness, and presence. Together we will explore the ancient practices of guided and silent sitting, walking, and heart meditations, along with movement, teacher meetings, and Dharma talks. Over the course of the week, we will extend these practices until the entire day is one of steady, continuous awareness.
Retreat | On-Land
Saturday, August 10 | 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Sacred Sounds Sessions: Jai Uttal
Spirit Rock invites you to experience the transformative power of our inaugural Sacred Sounds Sessions, starting this summer! Each date will feature a different musical artist who has devoted their professional life to preserving, creating, and sharing sacred music. Join us for a nourishing combination of healing sound, meditation, an optional bring-your-own picnic outside in nature, and an opportunity to (re)connect with sangha on our stunning Spirit Rock land. Gates will open two hours earlier to allow enough time to picnic prior to the program.
Jai Uttal
Retreat | On-Land
August 11 - August 18, 2024 | Sunday - Sunday | 7 nights
The Elements: Cultivating an Embodied Experience of Emptiness and Fullness
A fundamental aspect of establishing embodied mindfulness involves contemplations of the elements—earth, water, fire, air, and space. These five elements are universal, and when we contemplate them in relation to the body, they may bring a cooling of the grasping mind and profound realizations of emptiness and fullness. In contemplating the elements and their interrelationship, we will allow them to support the non-conceptual knowing from which insights naturally arise. This retreat includes guided and silent meditations, movement, and teacher meetings.
Retreat | On-Land
August 18 - August 27, 2024 | Sunday - Tuesday | 9 nights
Summer Lovingkindness Retreat
The Buddha’s teachings on the four divine sanctuaries include meditations on universal friendliness, compassion, altruistic joy, and equanimity. Focusing on purification and concentration, these divine sanctuaries aid our ability to find inner peace and powerfully engage with the world. This retreat deepens our understanding of selfless love and how it ends suffering. Experienced retreatants are encouraged to combine this retreat with the previous Elements retreat to further develop concentration, purify the heart, and learn to integrate these two forms of meditation.
Tempel Smith
Tuere Sala
Anushka Fernandopulle
Bonnie Duran
John Martin
Kristina Baré
Rasika Link
Retreat | On-Land | Hybrid
Sunday, August 25 | 9:00 AM - 4:30 PM
Perspectives on Buddhist Practice from Ajahn Chah: Virtue, Relinquishment, Awareness, and Liberation
Ajahn Pasanno spent many years training with Ajahn Chah, inheriting a unique perspective including some essential parts of the Buddha's teachings that haven’t fully made their way into Western Buddhist culture. These include Ajahn Chah's emphasis on virtue, relinquishment, the quality of awareness, and full liberation as the potential result of committed Dhamma practice. Throughout this daylong, Ajahn Pasanno will reflect on how these teachings have guided his practice through stories, reflections, periods of meditation, and the opportunity for questions.
Ajahn Pasanno
Retreat | On-Land
August 28 - September 2, 2024 | Wednesday - Monday | 5 nights
Labor Day Insight Meditation Retreat
This retreat emphasizes quieting the mind, opening the heart, and developing clarity and depth of practice. Traditional instructions will be combined with a spirit of lovingkindness, and our time together will include a schedule of silent sitting and walking periods, guided Yoga/movement sessions, as well as practice meetings with teachers and daily Dharma talks. This retreat is for experienced as well as new students.
September
Retreat | On-Land
September 2 - September 5, 2024 | Monday - Thursday | 3 nights
Coming Home to Ourselves
Come home to yourself with the simple and direct practice of being present for your experience. Insight Meditation allows the restless heart to settle through the gentle practice of repeatedly connecting with and returning to the here and now. It is here in the present moment where we discover the peace and well-being we yearn for. This retreat is suitable for beginners as well as experienced practitioners and is silent except for practice instructions, teacher-led Q&A, and practice discussions.
Retreat | On-Land
September 5 - September 8, 2024 | Thursday - Sunday | 3 nights
The Doorway to Freedom and Peace: The Three Characteristics
The radical premise of the Buddha’s teaching is that realizing the truth—what Zen teacher Shunryu Suzuki called "things-as-it-is"—is the doorway to freedom and peace. During this retreat, we will engage mindfulness and compassion to turn toward the living truth that arises each moment, with an emphasis on the Three Characteristics of Reality: all things are impermanent (aniccā), ultimately unreliable (dukkha), and ownerless (anattā). Our time will include silent meditation and movement along with instructions, Dharma talks, and meetings with teachers.
Retreat | On-Land | Hybrid
Saturday, September 7 | 10:00 AM - 1:00 PM
Inner Peace and Outer Action for Challenging Times: Practices to Cultivate Resilience
3 CE Credits. We live in a time of great promise and great peril. How can we respond to threats and injustices with effective action, while also preserving our own compassion, inner balance, and well-being? Together, we'll explore answers to this question, informed by practical brain science. This workshop will emphasize experiential practice, meeting ourselves where we are, and learning together how to walk more evenly on uneven ground. Our time together will include guided meditation, discussion, and Q&A.
Rick Hanson
Retreat | On-Land
September 9 - September 13, 2024 | Monday - Friday | 4 nights
Founders Retreat: Insight Meditation with the Spirit Rock Founding Teachers
Spirit Rock invites you to a special Insight Meditation Retreat with senior Spirit Rock teachers who have been here since the beginning. This retreat emphasizes quieting the mind, opening the heart, and developing clarity and depth of practice. Traditional instructions based on the Foundations of Mindfulness will be combined with daily mettā (lovingkindness) practice, silent sitting and walking periods, guided movement sessions, practice meetings with teachers, and daily Dharma talks.
Retreat | On-Land
September 14 - September 18, 2024 | Saturday - Wednesday | 4 nights
Aging, Dying, & Awakening
Open to all ages. In this retreat, we’ll explore aging and dying from the Buddhist perspective of meditative practice and awakening. Together, we'll examine aging and death in our conventional lives and see what happens as we normalize these processes as part of the great letting go. How might this “letting go” reveal the awakened heart? This retreat will include meditation instructions, Dharma talks, meetings with teachers, and a daily period of contemplative inquiry during which we will investigate our own relationship to death. Otherwise, this retreat is silent outside of the mentioned above periods.
Retreat | On-Land
September 19 - September 25, 2024 | Thursday - Wednesday | 6 nights
Spiritual Sanctuary: A Women's Liberation Retreat
Open to all self-identified Women. We welcome all who identify as women, as well as non-binary folks who feel nourished in spaces centering women.
We live in times of increasing pressure, which can be experienced as intensity, stress, limitation, or dissatisfaction. The Four Noble Truths remind us that pressure is an unavoidable part of life, and that freedom is possible within it. This retreat offers a space in which practitioners can choose rest, renewal, and liberation. Together we will practice in silence, integrating movement and stillness, outdoor practice, and Dharma talks that lift up women’s journeys of awakening from a diversity of lineages and traditions.
Retreat | On-Land
September 26 - September 30, 2024 | Thursday - Monday | 4 nights
What the Buddha Taught
Held in noble silence and open to all levels of experience, this retreat explores ancient Buddhist practices, stories, and insights while considering the relevance of these 2500-year-old teachings to our contemporary lives. Together we will weave mindfulness into our practices of sitting, walking, eating, and basic daily activities. The renunciation of technology, books, entertainment, and other aspects of regular life will facilitate the development of insight that will benefit our everyday practice as we return to our modern lives.
Retreat | On-Land | Hybrid
Saturday, September 28 | 10:00 AM - 4:30 PM
Love and Relationship: The Great Spiritual Practice
We are always in relationship—with ourselves, partners, family, and the community and world around us. Join us for a day of heartfelt teachings and practices, as Trudy and Jack share what’s helped them over a lifetime of practice. At this time in our lives and in the world, we need the practices of wisdom and love, skill and communion. As we learn the skills of love with those nearby, we can learn to expand this practice to the world beyond.
October
Retreat | On-Land
October 1 - October 10, 2024 | Tuesday - Thursday | 9 nights
Naturally Arising Samādhi [Concentration]
This retreat develops concentration through specific meditative practices that utilize the mind’s natural capacity to become collected and unified. Our focus will be on developing concentration; exploring the experience of a concentrated and contented mind as a natural, mysterious, and beneficial phenomena; and utilizing concentration during Insight practice. The primary teaching method will be two daily guided 45-60 minute meditations, and participants are strongly encouraged to listen to guided meditations ahead of time to experience this style of practice.
Retreat | On-Land
Sunday, October 6 | 10:00 AM - 4:00 PM
Freeing Yourself from the Inner Critic with Mindfulness & Compassion
5 CE Credits. Are you impacted by the tormenting self-critical mind and feeling the negative effects of self-judgment? Join us for a day of exploring how to be more free from the challenge of the inner critic. Our time together will include a combination of talks and interactive exercises, along with explorations of mindfulness and lovingkindness techniques and practices. Emphasizing the importance of not taking ourselves too seriously, this will be a practical and experiential retreat taught with lightness, compassion, and humor.
Mark Coleman
Retreat | On-Land
October 10 - October 19, 2024 | Thursday - Saturday | 9 nights
Fall Insight Meditation Retreat
This is a Vipassanā retreat in the Thai Forest Tradition, which will emphasize quieting the mind, opening the heart, and developing clarity and depth of practice. Traditional meditation instruction will be combined with a spirit of lovingkindness, and the retreat will include silent stillness and moving meditation, Dharma talks, and practice meetings with the teachers.
Retreat | On-Land | Hybrid
Saturday, October 19 | 10:00 AM - 3:30 PM
Expand your Window of Tolerance: A Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness Retreat
4.5 CE Credits. Dive into trauma-sensitive mindfulness with David Treleaven, PhD, at this daylong workshop where you will learn to expand your window of tolerance, enhance emotional regulation, and deepen your practice. Through interactive lectures and guided practices, this transformative experience will help you enrich your understanding of mindfulness in the face of trauma and allow you to connect with a community dedicated to compassionate practice.
David A Treleaven
Retreat | On-Land
October 20 - October 26, 2024 | Sunday - Saturday | 6 nights
Uncovering the Luminous Gold Within: BIPOC Mettā Retreat
Open to all self-identified BIPOC. There is a rich repository of deep peace and ease that resides within the heart. Mettā, the practice of lovingkindness, brings to awareness the messages of conditioning that cloak the inner sacredness of our being. Mettā transforms the heart into a sanctuary by which we are strengthened to stay lovingly engaged with the tumultuous tides of life. This retreat offers silent and guided meditation, Dharma talks, movement meditation, and restful time to nourish the body and heal the heart.
Retreat | On-Land | Hybrid
Saturday, October 26 | 10:00 AM - 1:00 PM
Discovering What Death Can Teach Us About Living Fully
Death is the secret teacher hiding in plain sight. Death helps us discover what matters most, and we don’t have to wait until the end of our lives to realize the wisdom that death has to offer. Weaving together pragmatic tools, real life stories, and ancient wisdom, Frank and Vinny will help us discover how an awareness of death can be a valuable companion on the road to living well and forging a rich, meaningful life.
Retreat | On-Land
October 27 - November 2, 2024 | Sunday - Saturday | 6 nights
Befriending Mortality: Living An Awakened Life Through Mindfulness of Death
18 CE Credits. We all “know” we will die, yet we tend to ignore it and put our collective heads in the sand. Rather than running away from our inevitable mortality, we can harness its power to stay aligned with our deepest values and to live and love more fully. Fully embracing life’s impermanence can engender a deep freedom and letting go. Through mindfulness of death (maraṇasati), we become more present for this miraculous, passing show called life with gladness and gratitude.
November
Retreat | On-Land
November 3 - November 8, 2024 | Sunday - Friday | 5 nights
Nourishing the Beautiful: A Retreat for the LGBTQIA+ Community
Open to all self-identified LGBTQIA+. Awakening to the beauty that is within and around us is an essential part of the Buddhist path, and it is particularly important to those of us who have been taught to view ourselves and the world in a different light. Practicing together, we will closely consider—and deeply nurture—what beauty means for us, both individually and collectively. This retreat supports all levels of practice and inclusivity for LGBTQIA+, GNC, and non-binary communities, and is open to all levels of experience.
Retreat | On-Land
November 9 - November 14, 2024 | Saturday - Thursday | 5 nights
Finding Your Ground: Mindful Yoga and Embodied Dharma
How do we stay grounded, centered, and rooted in compassion and wisdom—especially through personal and global challenges? In this silent retreat, we’ll offer teachings and tools from the Dharma and Yoga traditions for settling your nervous system, grounding your energy, and connecting in an embodied way with what matters most. Each day includes gentle guided Yoga; seated, walking, standing, and lying down meditation instruction and practice; and Dharma reflections and discussion.
Retreat | On-Land
November 15 - November 22, 2024 | Friday - Friday | 7 nights
Natural Radiance: Exploring the Freedom of Awareness
Awareness is a beautiful, hidden jewel that is innate in everyone. In this meditation retreat, we will explore this quality of awareness—what it is, and how to cultivate and abide in awakened presence. We will investigate how mindfulness supports a depth of awareness through various meditation practices, and we will consider what obscures the clarity of awareness both in meditation and in everyday life. As our mindfulness grows, we discover how this capacity for awareness is available in every moment.
Retreat | On-Land
November 22 - November 30, 2024 | Friday - Saturday | 8 nights
Reclamation of the Sacred: Journey into Refuge, Presence, and Love
In helping us to deepen our refuge and reconnect with what is most precious and sacred in this life, this retreat draws from teachings and practices that open us to the heart of compassion. Informed by a synthesis of Theravāda Buddhism as transmitted through the Thai Forest Tradition and the teachings of Ajahn Chah, and Mahāyāna practices and teachings around Quan Yin’s compassionate Bodhisattva Path, this retreat includes devotional practices, Dharma talks, meditation instructions, Yoga sessions, and meetings with teachers.
Retreat | On-Land | Hybrid
Saturday, November 30 | 10:00 AM - 4:00 PM
Equanimity: Finding Balance in Difficult Times
Equanimity, or upekkha, is a highly valued quality in Buddhist teachings. It is a Divine Abode, a Factor of Enlightenment, and the precursor to the experience of awakening. But what is equanimity? How can we cultivate and access it in our daily life, especially in times of uncertainty, fear, and sadness for the suffering in the world? Explore these contemplations during this daylong retreat, which will include meditation instructions, periods of silent sitting and walking meditation, and Dharma talks.
James Baraz