Sky Mind Retreats

Sky Mind Retreats (SMR) is a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting retreats and programs in the Buddhist Insight Meditation tradition. A primary intention of SMR is to provide support for wilderness meditation retreats. Sky Mind Retreats is a sister organization to Desert Dharma and a primary sponsor of retreats and programs.

SMR Board Members

• Carla Brennan, Bloom of the Present guiding teacher
• Tory Capron, Golden Bowl Sangha guiding teacher & psychotherapist
• David Dellinger, retired Chief Scientist at Chamness Biodegradables
• Sarah Heffron, MSW, founder Youth Garden Project
• Quilley Powers, former retreat manager and retreat registrar, Spirit Rock Meditation Center and Sky Mind Retreats

Sustainability
Buddhist ethics starts with the first precept, that of abstaining from harming living beings. One of the core missions of SMR is to reduce and mitigate the inevitable impacts of running retreats. The SMR office is located in a net-zero energy building, and Susie uses a Prius for most of her on-road transportation in the vast open spaces of the rural west. SMR retreats, in addition to being vegetarian as most Buddhist retreats are, uses as much local and organic food as possible. SMR also calculates unavoidable climate impacts from all retreat participant travel and purchases double carbon credits. More information about SMR's carbon credit program here.