5-Night Residential Retreat with John Travis at Lake Tahoe

“Dancing towards open awareness” This retreat is based on the fundamental principles of practice. First – is the discipline to stop and collect ourselves – the principles of concentration. Second – the ability and repetition of seeing into the simple functions of the heart and mind. Seeing how we live…

Continue reading

Daylong Meditation Retreat with Shaila Catherine: “What is Effort? Control, Letting Go, and Trust in Mindfulness Meditation”

What can you control? When must you surrender? How do you perk up your enthusiasm when it slackens? What is the purpose of deep relaxation? As we become increasingly aware of our perceptions, we refine our engagement with our experiences and learn to meet our life more and more clearly…

Continue reading

Daylong Meditation Retreat with Shaila Catherine: “Relax, Let Go, Keep Trying!”

Balanced and skillful effort is a vital meditative skill. This daylong program will cultivate relaxation, letting go, and persistence as we learn how gentle diligent effort supports the deepening of concentration and insight. This day long is suitable for both new and experienced practitioners. Participants may attend one or both…

Continue reading

Integrating Insights into Our Daily Lives: A Daylong Meditation Retreat with Heather Sundberg

“OK so I had an Insight, maybe it was small, maybe it changed everything for me. Now what?” (By the way, everyone has insights!) We spend much of our spiritual lives chasing after meditative ‘experiences’, perhaps hoping for the intensity, the ‘big moments’.  We often miss the simple insights, which…

Continue reading

Five Things Which Wake Us Up!: A Daylong Meditation Retreat with Heather Sundberg

Wise Friends – Celebrating Integrity – Hearing the Dharma (truth) – Wise Effort – Harmony with Impermanence   At this daylong we will deeply explore these Five Marvelous Qualities that both ‘wake us up’ and also serve as markers of our continuing awakening on the spiritual path.  Through stories, guided…

Continue reading

From Effort To Ease: A Daylong Meditation Retreat with John Travis

The Buddha emphasized over and over that it takes effort to follow the path of the Dharma. Yet, the ultimate result is about the nature of ease. We use effort to see into the nature of a fearful and restless Mind/Heart. Then, using the fundamentals of insight – relaxing into…

Continue reading

3-Night Residential Retreat with Amita Schmidt & Kathy Schwerin at Lake Tahoe: “The Connected Heart”

Though our world is more connected than ever in some ways, we still experience a connection deficit with ourselves and others. We can retreat into a sense of helplessness, anger, or despair in the face of the suffering we witness, feeling overwhelmed. Yet a connected heart is not anxious in…

Continue reading