Meditation Retreat Schedule

March 3 – 8     Crestone, CO

Awakening Wisdom & Love Through Insight Meditation

Teachers: Susie Harrington, Brian Lesage
Registration: opens in September


This retreat offers the unique opportunity to practice Insight Meditation at Blazing Mountain Retreat Center. Blazing Mountain is situated on the sacred land of Crestone, Colorado. The surrounding environment and beautifully designed meditation hall provide a spacious setting for practice. The comfortable accommodations and healthy vegetarian meals will nurture your well-being. Sponsored by, and more information available from the Salida Sangha.

New Year's Retreat

Dec. 27, 2017 – Jan 1, 2018 Salt Spring Island, BC
Teacher: Susie Harrington
Cost: varies based on choice of lodging from $630 - $347, plus dana (donation) for the teacher
Location: Stowell Lake Farm, Salt Spring Island, British Columbia
Info & Registration

We will retreat into the deepness of winter to appreciate and release the Old Year and welcome and anticipate the vision and renewal of the New Year. We will sink into the deep quiet of these darkest days of the year and celebrate turning once more towards the increasing light and warmth. On New Year’s Eve, you are invited to stay up until Midnight with a slow, gentle evening of sharing blessings, chants, words and quiet, treats, and candles. It is a lovely way to celebrate together.

Lost Coast Women's Retreat

May 31 – June 8,      Northern California
Teachers: Susie Harrington and Erin Selover
Info and Registration

The Lost Coast is the longest, wildest stretch of the northern California Coast. Carrying daypacks and lunch, we hike nine miles along the rocky shore, dropping into silence along the way, and arrive at a place that feels sacred and magical. Nestled between the ocean and the mountains, we will practice with the surf, the birds and the sea breezes as our supports. Camping and indoor sleeping arrangements are available.

Touching the Earth

July 26 – 30     Paradise, Utah
Teacher: Susie Harrington
Cost: 3-day option (7/26-7/28) $100-$140
          5-day option (7/26-7/30) $140-$260
Info & Registration: Cache Valley Sangha

This residential retreat will be an opportunity to sit and walk in silent meditation practice in a lush pastoral setting. Looking deeply into the heart of our experience, we will examine the habits of mind that cause us to suffer. When we bring our compassionate attention to moment to moment experience, our hearts and minds relax and we can access freedom, contentment and well -being.

This retreat will take place primarily outside, with camping or bunk house accommodations available. In addition to sitting and walking meditation, there will be dharma talks, meetings with the teachers, chanting and mindful movement. Those new to meditation and those with experience are welcome.

Awakening in Love and Insight

A residential retreat
August 18 – 25      
Location: Pecos Monastery, Our Lady of Guadalupe Abbey, Pecos, New Mexico
Teacher: Susie Harrington
Cost: $750 – $550

Info & Registration at the Albuquerque Sangha website.

Insight Meditation is a simple and direct practice based on moment-to-moment awareness, a technique that opens the heart and clears the mind. In practicing mindfulness in silence throughout the day—in sitting and walking meditation–we learn to be aware of our experience from a place of stillness and equanimity. As we come to see more clearly, insight deepens, and compassion and wisdom can arise.

This retreat, designed for beginners and experienced practitioners alike, will include meditation instruction, dharma talks, individual practice discussions with the teacher and group discussion time. There is a beautiful meditation space at the Center, and we will also sit outside as conditions allow.

Gratitude & Generosity: Realizing the Abundant Heart

A weekend non-residential retreat

December 7 – 8     Spirit Rock, Woodacre, CA
Teacher: Susie Harrington
Info (and registration when open)

In this weekend retreat, we will practice and inquire, exploring the natural flow of giving and receiving that is the source of all connection, all life, and an expression of the fundamental truth of interconnection.

Journey to Bhutan
A Cultural & Walking Retreat

Nov. 23 – Dec. 6      Bhutan
Teacher: Susie Harrington
Info & Registration

This trip is a rare opportunity to travel behind the scenes in the Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan, a country steeped in centuries of Buddhist life and practice. Monastic life is active and strong in Bhutan, and we will practice in many monasteries, listen to the chanting monks and nuns, and meet with local Rinpoches who guide monastic life. On most days we will walk – visiting remote temples, exploring villages, or hiking from town to town. We will support our journey and enrich our experience through meditation practice and personal reflection.

February Monthlong

February 1 – 29     Spirit Rock, Woodacre, CA
Co-Teachers: James Baraz, Kamala Masters, Tempel Smith, John Martin, Beth Sternlieb
Info (and lottery when open) at spiritrock.org.
Applications for the lottery will be accepted Tuesday, July 16, 2019, to midnight Saturday, August 31, 2019. You do not need to apply on the first day it opens.

An extended period of retreat offers the rare opportunity for sustained and 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 loving-kindness and compassion, through a daily schedule of silent sitting, walking, dharma talks and practice meetings with teachers.

Escalante Wilderness Backpacking Retreat

Full with a waitlist

Dates: April 12 – 18
Teacher: Susie Harrington
Info & Registration

This retreat is an opportunity to "return home" to our true, wild nature to deepen our practice. Immersed the extraordinary wilderness of Escalante in Utah and in the quiet of our meditation practice, we will open ourselves to the interconnectedness, preciousness, and beauty of our true nature. Sitting in the beauty of canyon country gives us ready access to rapture, that quality of delighted interest and awe, and one of the seven factors of enlightenment.

In response to the the COVID-19 pandemic some retreats have moved online. Attending a retreat online is new for most of us! In practicing together online, in response to the inability to do retreats in person, we are discovering that there are also many benefits to this form: the opportunity to integrate practice directly into our home environment, the chance to create community together in this time of separation, no travel, less expense, and best of all - we can make our home our temple! Others who have given it a try, have found it surprisingly wonderful. I hope you will join us.

From Compassion to Action

An online daylong retreat of meditation and wise response

June 28, 9:00 - 4:00 MDT
8 - 3:00 PDT, 10 - 5:00 CDT, 11 - 6:00 EDT. Zoom familiarization for those who desire half hour before start.
Teachers: Susie Harrington and Kirsten Rudestam
Cost: $40 - $100 ($10 fee for admin costs, the remainder is offered in support to the teachers. For this retreat, 50% of teacher fees will be donated to organizations in support of Black Lives Matter) No one will be turned away for lack of funds.

Compassion is the wholesome expression of the open heart when it meets the suffering of our world. To know compassion is to care – to feel our connection with other people and with the more-than-human world. In these times we are asked to come to terms with the devastating effects of our racial history, our environmentally disastrous greed, and the immediate difficulties of Covid-19. It is in facing these challenges that our hearts can know both our tenderness and our strength. There is the natural desire to feel both compassion and to relieve the suffering.

In this daylong retreat, we will explore through meditation, dharma talks, connection with others and engaged practice, how to know and allow the natural movement of our hearts. There will be periods of silent practice as well as invitations to take action, such as making a phone call, writing a letter, donating to a cause, and finding your own inspiration to act. Through mindfulness, we will explore the emotions, resistances, hindrances, and wholesome qualities that arise in considering and enacting compassionate response. What arises when we are moved to do something, to move off the cushion, out of silent meditation and take our practice into action?

Below are some race resources you can begin to look at. Prior to the retreat, we will send additional resources on other topics, and the zoom link. We ask that you spend 30 minutes prior to the retreat exploring responses in a topic that moves you.

75 Things White People Can Do for Racial Justice
Resources for Accountability and Actions for Black Lives
Anti-Racism Resources

Meditation in the Forest

Aug. 24 – 31     SIerra Nevada Foothills, CA
Teachers: Susie Harrington and Dawn Scott

This retreat will be held at the Wisdom Retreat Center, on the west side of the Sierras. It is a privately owned 200 acre parcel that adjoins National Forest land. We will be camping and practicing in open shaded forest adjacent to meadows that afford views and generous sky. You will be able to drive close to your campsite to drop off your gear for the week, and then we will park the cars away from our home in the forest.

While it is isolated and simple, solar showers and a complete kitchen with fresh food contribute to making it an inviting and nurturing place to be. Living and practicing outdoors, in conjunction with other protocols, will allow for both in-person sangha and COVID safety.

Green River Canoe Retreat
September 7 – 14     SE Utah

Teacher: Susie Harrington
Registration: coming soon

A silent trip though the spectacular redrock of Canyonlands National Park on the calm waters of the Green River. Easy partial days on the river with layover days of mediation practice and exploring. All canoe equipment provided. No experience necessary.