If we’re able to recognize that everything is always changing, recognize that there’s no solidity to anything, including most importantly ourselves, then we can be free from ideas we hold very tightly about ourselves as permanent. Small children build a sandcastle, and if the wave comes and wipes it out, some kids can get really upset. It’s devastating! But now as adults, we know that’s actually one of the cool things about sand castles: their ephemeral nature. The fact that they’re going to fall apart makes them all the more beautiful and amazing. Aligning ourselves with this can give us a greater appreciation, reverence, and presence in our lives.
Anushka Fernandopulle
Residential Retreat Teacher
Anushka Fernandopulle is a Spirit Rock Core Teacher who has trained for over 35 years in the Theravada Buddhist tradition. Anushka studied Buddhism at Harvard College and then spent four years in full-time Dharma and meditation training in monasteries and retreat centers in the US, India and Sri Lanka. Anushka was invited to teach Dharma in 1998 and later graduated from a four year retreat teacher training program with Jack Kornfield, Joseph Goldstein, Sharon Salzberg, Carol Wilson and other leading Western Buddhist meditation teachers from IMS and Spirit Rock.
Anushka teaches retreats and workshops around the world, including in South America, Scandinavia and the United Kingdom. Her teaching is informed by nature, creative arts, political engagement and modern urban life. Anushka has taught Spirit Rock's monthlong retreat, Metta retreat and in multiyear study programs like Dedicated Practitioner's Program and Advanced Practitioner's Program.
Anushka lives in San Francisco and also works as a leadership coach and management consultant, influenced by a BA from Harvard, an MBA from Yale and certification in professional Coaching. She has served on many nonprofit boards as well as serving as a mayoral appointee on a San Francisco City Commission. She has been engaged with movements for social justice and civil rights throughout her life. Her writing has been featured in publications like Tricycle, Lion’s Roar, Turning Wheel, Inquiring Mind, and the Huffington Post.
Anushka Fernandopulle's Upcoming Programs
Retreat | On-Land
March 2 - March 28, 2026 | Monday - Saturday | 26 nights
2026 March Insight Meditation 1-Month Retreat - Application
Application Open. Spaces Still Available! An extended period of retreat offers the rare opportunity for sustained, dedicated practice. This retreat emphasizes quieting the mind, opening the heart, and developing profound clarity and depth of Insight practice. Instruction will follow the traditional four foundations of mindfulness combined with training in lovingkindness and compassion, and practice will be structured around a daily schedule of silent sitting, walking, Dharma talks, and practice meetings with teachers.
Tara Mulay
Tempel Smith
Tuere Sala
Anushka Fernandopulle
Kristina Baré
Greg Scharf
Rasika Link
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 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
November 1 - November 6, 2026 | Sunday - Friday | 5 nights
Finding True Refuge: A Retreat for the LGBTQIA+ and GNC Community
For those who identify as LGBTQIA+. Spaces Still Available! Explore Buddhist practices and teachings of liberation in our LGBTQIA+ and GNC (Gender Non-Conforming) community. Together, we will practice mindfulness and heart-fulness, embracing all of our experience with loving awareness and deep acceptance. There will be an emphasis on cultivating a continuity of awareness in all activities (sitting, stillness, standing, walking, movement, eating) with a relaxed and gentle presence. Through these practices, we will explore what true refuge means for us individually and for our community.
Dharma Library
Can't join us live online or on the land? Study and practice at your convenience with Anushka Fernandopulle through our new library of recordings, articles, and self-paced online courses.