Letting go can bring us to a place where we feel the groundlessness of our being, and this can be terrifying. But from this practice, we can move beyond the fear and see that these feelings are really the precursor to freedom. From this practice, we can know what it feels like to let go.
Carol Cano, MA
Residential Retreat Teacher
Carol Cano, M.A., began her practice over 30 years ago at Wat Kow Tahm in Thailand and has actively engaged in building communities and teaching Dharma internationally. She is a graduate of the 2017-2020 Spirit Rock Meditation Center's Teacher Training program and a teacher at Spirit Rock often. She is a core teacher and a former board member of East Bay Meditation Center. Carol co-founded Philippine Insight Meditation Community in the Philippines. Her unique teachings are deeply grounded in Basque, Native American, and Buddhist influences that braid the Dharma along indigenous wisdom and Earth-based practices. Her psychology background gives her a unique view into the human condition, which helps her hold community in a compassionate and confident manner. Carol reminds us to keep grounded in our hearts as we uphold spiritual ideals and encourages us to remain balanced within the demands of modern life.
Carol Cano's Upcoming Programs
Retreat | On-Land
June 22 - June 26, 2026 | Monday - Friday | 4 nights
Fierce Tenderness: Cultivating Strength, Compassion, and Clarity
Spaces Still Available! This retreat invites you not to withdraw from the world, but to meet it with greater clarity, compassion, and resilience. Through mindfulness, nature-based practices, and gentle movement, we’ll slow down, settle, and reconnect with our inner strength and the world around us. Supported by silence, timeless teachings, and the natural world, we’ll explore how to face life’s challenges with steadiness and openness.
Retreat | On-Land
August 29 - September 2, 2026 | Saturday - Wednesday | 4 nights
Refuge & Respite: A Vipassanā Retreat for Beginners
Spaces Still Available! This retreat will teach the essentials of mindfulness and Insight Meditation (vipassanā). We will explore ways to calm our minds and hearts, work with difficult thoughts and emotions, build attention, and cultivate kindness and compassion. This retreat will combine stillness and movement meditations, lectures, and opportunities to meet with a teacher. This is an excellent opportunity for those new to retreat practice, and also appropriate for experienced practitioners who wish to attend a shorter retreat.
Retreat | On-Land
October 21 - October 25, 2026 | Wednesday - Sunday | 4 nights
Taking the Sacred Journey Through Grief to Heal the Heart
Spaces Still Available! Grief is not sequestered to the loss of loved ones—it traverses beyond physical death and seeps into disappointments in relationships, the loss of dreams, ancestral anguish, and unnamed disappearances. Understanding the personal nature of grief and the tenderness of being with a broken heart, we will create a container that honors all individuals who are moving through their sorrow. We will practice silent meditation indoors and in nature and there will be Dharma talks, meetings with teachers, and embodiment practices.
Dharma Library
Can't join us live online or on the land? Study and practice at your convenience with Carol Cano through our new library of recordings, articles, and self-paced online courses.