It’s remembering that we are engaged in during our practice. Remembering to come back to the breath, remembering that we’re not our thoughts and experiences, remembering to attend to the body with kind awareness. That the present is the only place where the body resides. Remembering that we are impermanent beings who are only visiting this realm of materiality for a moment in time, and that there will be others to come after us. Remembering that our lives and the earthly experiences of everyone and everything, around and above us, below us and within us, are sacred. That we are all part of a jeweled web of interconnection and interdependence.
Amana Brembry Johnson
Residential Retreat Teacher
Amana Brembry Johnson is a dedicated meditation teacher and community leader with over four decades of contemplative practice across multiple spiritual traditions. She serves as a Core Teacher at the East Bay Meditation Center (EBMC) in Oakland, California, and is a coordinating teacher for residential retreats at Spirit Rock Meditation Center. Amana is one of the founding teachers of EBMC's Spiritual Teacher and Leadership (STL) Training and a former mentor for emerging mindfulness teachers through the Mindfulness Meditation Training Certification Program (MMTCP). Her work integrates spirituality, social justice, body awareness, and intuitive creativity, offering a holistic approach to individual and community transformation.
Amana Brembry Johnson's Upcoming Programs
Short Program | On-Land
Saturday, May 31 | 10:00 AM - 4:00 PM
Pride 2025: Touching the Heart of Joy as Spiritual Medicine
Open to all self-identified LGBTQIA+. In this critical moment in history, it is urgent and essential to recognize what it truly means to be alive. As we acknowledge the heartbreak and the multi-layered challenges faced by today’s LGBTQIA+ communities, it is crucial that we also cultivate an intimate connection with the qualities of beauty and joy. Our time together will include Dharma talks, meditations, guided and accessible movement, chants, and interactive sessions. All experience levels are warmly welcome.
Short Program | Online
Saturday, May 31 | 10:00 AM - 4:00 PM
Pride 2025: Touching the Heart of Joy as Spiritual Medicine
Open to all self-identified LGBTQIA+. In this critical moment in history, it is urgent and essential to recognize what it truly means to be alive. As we acknowledge the heartbreak and the multi-layered challenges faced by today’s LGBTQIA+ communities, it is crucial that we also cultivate an intimate connection with the qualities of beauty and joy. Our time together will include Dharma talks, meditations, guided and accessible movement, chants, and interactive sessions. All experience levels are warmly welcome.
Retreat | On-Land
June 27 - July 3, 2025 | Friday - Thursday | 6 nights
This is How Civilizations Heal: The Alchemy of the Three Poisons - A BIPOC Retreat
Open to all self-identified BIPOC. Registration Open. The three poisons—greed, aversion, and delusion—are mind states that cloud the heart and mind. However, by clearly recognizing the three poisons, we can meet them with their antidotes of generosity, mettā, and wisdom. Generosity expands our ability to feel connected and reminds us that we belong to each other. Mettā opens the heart, protecting us from both inner and outer harm, while wisdom allows us to see things right sized as we move through the world.
Retreat | On-Land
August 17 - August 21, 2025 | Sunday - Thursday | 4 nights
Five Spiritual Powers: Cultivating Resilience, Balance, and Love
Registration Open. The Buddha’s teaching on the five spiritual powers (confidence, effort, mindfulness, concentration, and wisdom) offers a path to cultivate these capacities of the heart and transform habits that no longer serve us. Grounded in these teachings, together we will learn powerful and sustainable ways to restore our humanity and bring freedom to all beings. This retreat offers silent meditation, opportunities for movement meditation, Dharma talks, and time to be in nature and honor the natural rhythms of your own practice.
Retreat | On-Land
October 1 - October 5, 2025 | Wednesday - Sunday | 4 nights
Wild Wise Words: A Mindfulness Meditation and Writing Retreat
Registration Open. This retreat will weave together periods of silence and writing as a path to deepening our spiritual and creative lives. Our time together will include Dharma talks, guided meditation, embodied movement, and periods of writing to nurture our inner depths and outer expression. Within a wild, wise field of silence we’ll settle deeply into what is, peel back layers of the judging and restrictive mind, and discover words that express the mystery and majesty alive in each of us.
Retreat | On-Land
November 8 - November 14, 2025 | Saturday - Friday | 6 nights
Grief as a Change Agent of Transformation and Resiliency
Registration Open. Grief is not sequestered to the life 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 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.
Upcoming Drop-Ins
Drop-in | Online
Monday, June 9 | 6:30 PM - 8:30 PM
Monday Night Meditation & Talk
New TimeFor over 35 years, the Monday Night sitting group at Spirit Rock has been a welcoming refuge to gather, hear the teachings of the Buddha, and practice Insight Meditation together as a community. The program includes a 30-40 min guided meditation, a short break, and a Dharma talk.
Amana Brembry Johnson
Dharma Library
Can't join us live online or on the land? Study and practice at your convenience with Amana Brembry Johnson through our new library of recordings, articles, and self-paced online courses.