Offsite Retreats

5 day Dharma of Nature with Dawn Neal and Marjolein Janssen. An Off-Grid Retreats and IRC collaboration.
May 23 to 27, 2024  -  Hours: Thursday check-in is from 3:00 pm to 5:00 pm  End time: Monday 1:00 pm

We will be practicing outside, exploring the interconnection between the Dharma and the natural world, cultivating wisdom and inviting greater freedom. Experience deepening meditation sessions supported by sensory immersion in nature. And engage in optional movement and / or walking meditation. This retreat is offered freely, as gifts to those who attend—there is no cost. Donations by those who attend make it possible to pass this gift forward to others who want to attend these freely offered retreats.

More info and registration.

3 day Weekend Non-Residential Retreat for Beginners to Retreat Practice with Diana Clark and Tanya Wiser.
May 31 to June 2, 2024  -  Hours: Friday check-in is from 3:00 pm to 5:00 pm  End time: Sunday 1:00 pm

This non-residential retreat will introduce participants to the routines, practices, and schedules found on residential retreats. It will include guided meditations, silent meditations, walking meditations, practice discussions, and information about practice at a residential retreat. With this experience, we hope to support, inspire, and deepen your confidence for going on retreat and engaging in deeper practice. This retreat is offered freely, as a gift to those who attend -- there is no cost.

More info and registration.

5 day Healing the Self, Loving the Self, Forgetting the Self with Matthew Brensilver. An Insight Retreat Center & Big Bear Retreat Center Collaboration
July 9 to 13, 2024  -  Hours: Tuesday check-in is from 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm  End time: Saturday 12:00 pm

In this silent retreat, we will explore how mindfulness supports the healing of the self.

Many of the Buddhist teachings help us to tend to painful memory, old pains and the habits that compound suffering. As we become more gentle and loving towards experience, the self becomes less and less of a preoccupation. The more completely we accept ourselves, the easier it becomes to forget the self and rest in an awareness unencumbered by self-consciousness.

IRC is co-sponsoring this dana retreat at Big Bear Retreat Center in the San Bernardino Mountains in Southern California. We are excited to collaborate with Big Bear so our IRC teachers can offer more retreats within the culture of generosity we have at IRC. Registration and more information at Big Bear Registration

5 day Coming Home: A Meditation Backpacking Pilgrimage with Kirsten Rudestam (meditation teacher) and Kuan Luo (wilderness guide). A Sky Mind and IRC collaboration.
July 23 to 27, 2024  -  Hours: Tuesday check-in is from 9:00 am to 11:00 am  End time: Saturday 2:00 pm

Those in spiritual and contemplative traditions have long participated in rituals of pilgrimage to demonstrate reverence for life and to remember the larger ground of belonging. In this retreat we join in this tradition, becoming intimate with the nature of our own minds alongside the wider natural world of which we are part. A significant part of the retreat will be held in silence, interspersed with periods of shared exploration through dialogue, community inquiry, and nature based ceremony. We will also have the opportunity to spend a day and night of solitary time on the land. We will offer meditation instructions, group guidance, and wilderness/backpacking skills. All are welcome. Backpacking experience is not required.

This retreat takes place in the Gifford Pinchot Wilderness, lands long stewarded by the Cayuse, Yakama, Umatilla, Walla Walla peoples and many others. The trailhead is approximately 1.5 hours from Portland Oregon.

This retreat is offered in the spirit of generosity. It is free of cost and participants will have an opportunity to support the teachers and IRC at the end of the retreat. Retreatants will need to bring their own food and camping supplies. More information will be provided upon registration

• Questions: Contact the Registrar: Kirsten,   kirstenrudestam@gmail.com

5 day BIPOC Nature Dharma and Insight Retreat with bruni dávila, Ram Appalaraju and Kuan Luo. This is an Insight Retreat Center offering at Big Springs Retreat Center in Sierra City, CA
August 6 to 10, 2024  -  Hours: Tuesday check-in is from 3:00 pm to 5:00 pm  End time: Saturday 1:00 pm

This nature retreat for Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) offers a variety of contemplative practices in the northern Sierra Mountains in a rural retreat center. Each day will include meditation, earth-based practices, deep discussions on our relationship to the natural world, and guided exploration of forested lands of the 170-acre retreat center. 

In the beauty and harmony of nature, and having no access to internet and cell phones, we will have the opportunity to slow down, unplug and settle into the refuge that Mother Earth offers to us. Activities will occur outdoors or in the large meditation hall, depending on the weather.

Big Springs retreat center is located in the Sierra Mountains; about 1 hr 45 mins from Reno NV Airport, 2 Hrs 30 mins from Sacramento Airport, or 4.5 hours from San Francisco Airport and San Jose -- Big Springs Map

Accommodations will be either in single rooms in resident halls or, for those who bring their own tent and sleeping gear, on tent platforms among the trees near a bath house with toilets, shower, and sauna.

Photos: Big Springs Area -- Big Springs Woods -- Big Springs Meditation Hall

APPLY ONLINE - Registration opened March 25, 2024 - Login or Register for Carpooling

• Requirements: Having an established meditation practice and participated in one silent meditation retreat.
• Your application and $100 deposit must be received by 5/15/24 to be entered in the lottery. Applicants will be notified about 2 weeks later if they have been Accepted or are on the Waiting List. Subsequent applications will be added to the Waiting List. Your deposit will only be charged if you are accepted to the retreat and cancel after 7/21/24.
• Questions: Contact the Registrar: Prerana,   prerana@insightretreatcenter.org

6 day Insight Retreat with Dawn Neal and Kim Allen.
August 11 to 16, 2024  -  Hours: Sunday check-in is from 3:00 pm to 5:00 pm  End time: Friday 11:30 am

A silent mindfulness retreat with alternating sitting and walking meditation, instruction, dharma talks, work meditation, and practice discussion with the teachers. This rustic retreat center is surrounded by the deep forest of the Santa Cruz Mountains, and includes a beautiful walk uphill to the meditation hall. Suitable for both beginners and experienced practitioners. This retreat is offered freely, as gifts to those who attend—there is no cost. Donations by those who attend make it possible to pass this gift forward to others who want to attend these freely offered retreats.

The Quaker Center is located approximately 45 minutes north of Santa Cruz, California, and approximately an hour southwest of San Jose International Airport.

Accommodations will either be in double rooms or in your own tent at a campsite (approximately five campsites are available). All guests at Quaker Center are required to bring their own sheets, pillowcases, towels, and toiletries (blankets and some pillows are provided). Campers should plan to bring their own tent and sleeping gear.

APPLY ONLINE. Registration closes May 21.

Requirements: Having an established meditation practice, including mindfulness meditation.

Your application and credit card deposit must be received by May 21, 2024 to be entered in the lottery. Applicants will be notified by 5/23/2024 if they have been accepted or are on the waiting list. Subsequent applications will be added to the waiting list. Your credit card will only be charged the $200 deposit if you are accepted into the retreat and cancel after 7/25/2024.

Questions: Contact the Registrar, Denise: registrar@insightsantacruz.org

6 day Touching the Earth: A Nature Dharma Retreat with Kirsten Rudestam and Rupert Marquis. A Sky Mind and IRC collaboration.
August 22 to 27, 2024  -  Hours: Thursday check-in is from 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm  End time: Tuesday 11:00 am

To live attentively is to embrace the truth of our fundamental connection with all beings, including our collective joys and losses. In this retreat we explore how opening to each other and to nature can be a pathway to maturation and a deepening intimacy with this precious life. Through periods of silent meditation, council practice, and dialogue with our human and nonhuman sangha we are invited to know our interdependence as a way of uncovering a greater resilience, appreciation and tenderness in being a conscious part of this animate Earth.

A nature-based primarily silent mindfulness retreat with alternating sitting and walking meditation, instruction, dharma talks, council practice, work meditation, and practice discussion with the teachers. This is a nature-based retreat center. Facilities include two showers, two toilets, meditation and camping platforms, outdoor kitchen and seating area, yurt for gathering and indoor space. It is surrounded by 100s of acres of wilderness, walks to nearby river and creek. Suitable for both beginners and experienced practitioners.

This retreat is offered in the spirit of generosity. It is free of cost and participants will have an opportunity to support the teachers and IRC at the end of the retreat. It takes place at Forest Camp of Atlan; White Salmon WA Link to Forest Camp of Atlan

• Questions: Contact the Registrar: Kirsten,   kirstenrudestam@gmail.com

5 day Dharma Dharma: The Unfolding of Nature with LC Tran. An Insight Retreat Center & Big Bear Retreat Center Collaboration
September 4 to 8, 2024  -  Hours: Wednesday check-in is from 12:00 pm to 3:00 pm  End time: Sunday 12:00 pm

Dharma means nature. The Dharma-Dharma retreat is a unique format, which invites yogis to experience and learn about our own nature (body and mind) while immersed in the nature all around us.

In this retreat, we will utilize the ancient technique of living simply with noble silence and staying within body and mind, while learning through observing the unfolding of nature. By being in a community where everyone is oriented toward mindfulness and wisdom, the mind will learn to relate to other beings and to itself in a more sacred and loved way. Walking under the sky, sitting under the trees, sleeping in tents, and gathering in a circle for Dharma discussion…our modern, conditioned systems will be reset and refreshed for a better way of living.

Registration and more information at Big Bear Registration

5 day Natural Awareness Retreat with Marjolein Janssen and Ari Crellin-Quick at Hidden Villa, Los Altos, CA (Map) .
January 7 to 11, 2025  -  Hours: Tuesday check-in is from 3:00 pm to 5:00 pm  End time: Saturday 1:00 pm

Please join us for a 5-day silent retreat focusing on the cultivation of natural awareness, relaxation and skillful understanding of our moment-to-moment experience. This retreat will be offered in the teaching style of meditation master Sayadaw U Tejaniya, who emphasizes approaching meditation with relaxed interest and allowing experience to be known in a simple way as it unfolds naturally. There will be alternating periods of sitting and walking meditation. There will be daily instructions, reflections and group practice discussions, offered by the teachers.

Simple vegetarian meals will be provided. The accommodations include rustic yet cozy dormitory-style cabins, with the option to set up your own tent on a platform for those who prefer to camp. Full shared bathrooms are in a separate building. The property is set in a wooded area adjacent to a community garden and petting zoo, with nearby hiking trails. There is also the option to commute to this retreat; if you’d like to make use of this option, please indicate this on the registration form.

This retreat is offered freely, as a gift to those who attend—there is no cost. Donations by those who attend make it possible to pass this gift forward to others who attend IRC off-site retreats.

For more information, or to sign up to receive an email when registration opens, please email retreats@brightdharma.nl