Offsite Retreat Schedule
- Indoor Retreats & Nature Retreats: Some of the retreats listed below will be held indoors; others may be nature retreats and be held outdoors. Please read retreat descriptions carefully.Â
- Cost: Retreats are offered freely at no cost to anyone who participates. Most of the financial support for IRC comes from donations participants offer at the end of retreats. Their generosity is what allows others to participate in future retreats.
- Deposit: A refundable deposit via credit card is required to reserve a space in the retreat. Your card will only be charged if: (1) you are accepted into the retreat and cancel after the cancellation deadline, (three weeks before the start of the retreat), or (2) you are accepted into the retreat and do not attend.
- For more information, contact the person whose email is provided in the individual retreat listing.
1 day Love and Rest: A Day of Practice with Matthew Brensilver (in Berkeley!)
October 27, 2024 - Hours: Sunday check-in is from 9:15 am to 9:30 am End time: Sunday 4:00 pm
Blaise Pascal wrote, ‘We conceal it from ourselves in vain – we must always love something.’ To be mindful of goodness brings love; to be mindful of pain also brings love. Perhaps this asymmetry is the miracle of mindfulness. And yet, we cannot hope to love all the time. The heart needs to rest, but in resting, it doesn’t close but idles at the level of peace. Love and rest. In this day of practice, we’ll explore these two needs of our heart.
The day will include silent and guided meditation periods, walking meditation, a dharma talk and opportunities for dialogue. All are welcome.
Location: 1606 Bonita Ave, Berkeley, CA - Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, Education Building Upper Floor - Connie Barbour Room
Deposit ($20) will NOT be charged unless you do not attend (while being accepted to the retreat) and do not cancel before the cancellation deadline 10.20.2024.
Lunch: Please bring a lunch; alternatively, there are many restaurants two blocks away.
Sitting Gear: There will be chairs at the venue. If you would like to sit on the floor, or need more sitting gears to sit in a chair, please bring your own sitting gears with you.
Note: There is NO lottery for this daylong retreat. Please ignore any automated emails that mention lotteries.
RETREAT FULL - APPLY ONLINE to be put on the WAITING LIST. - Login or Register for Carpooling
- Questions: Contact the Registrar: Yanli, yanli@insightretreatcenter.org
6 day IRC/Open Door Sangha with Shelley Gault and Ying Chen and Tanya Wiser at Holy Spirit Retreat Center, Encino, CA .
November 10 to 15, 2024 - Hours: Sunday check-in is from 3:00 pm to 5:00 pm End time: Friday 1:00 pm
This retreat focuses on the cultivation of Metta, loving kindness, through different heart oriented practices. Stories about Metta will be shared as a way to support learning and reflection of these practices. The retreat will include guided meditations, silent meditations, dharma reflections, and practice discussions with the teachers.
Registration will close on October 27
APPLY ONLINE - Registration opened July 1, 2024 - Login or Register for Carpooling
- Questions: Contact the Registrar: Alice, alldredge@lifesci.ucsb.edu
4 day Non-Residential Insight Retreat -- Keeping It Simple with Ying Chen, Kim Allen, Diana Clark, and David Lorey at Los Altos Community Center, Sequoia Room.
January 23 to 26, 2025 - Hours: Thursday check-in is from 8:00 am to 8:30 am End time: Sunday 5:00 pm
This retreat offers an intensive retreat experience in a non-residential retreat format. The retreat will include alternate sitting and walking meditation periods, morning instruction, work meditation, and Dharma talks. Teachings will focus on the deep simplicity available in the practice and will emphasize integrating formal and daily-life practice. Each day will be from 8:30AM – 5PM. Full participation (for the full day and for all four days) is required. Retreatants are requested to bring lunch each day (tea and light snacks will be available). Like all IRC retreats, this retreat is offered on a dana-basis (there is no fee or expected donation).
APPLY ONLINE - Registration opened October 6, 2024 - Login or Register for Carpooling
- Questions: Contact the Registrar: Doug, doug@insightretreatcenter.org
1 week Daily Life Practice Retreat with Lienchi Tran & Liz Powell at with Lienchi Tran and Liz Powell at Holy Spirit Retreat Center in Encino, CA.
February 6 to 13, 2025 - Hours: Thursday check-in is from 3:00 pm to 4:00 pm End time: Thursday 12:00 pm
This silent vipassana retreat offers a 3-night residential weekend at the Holy Spirit Retreat Center in Encino, CA, followed by 4 non-residential weekdays of practice at home. The retreat will emphasize continuity of practice from the cushion to daily life.
The 3-night long weekend at the retreat center will allow retreatants to settle into awareness of body, feelings and mind through sitting and walking. Following that will be 4 days of home retreat via Zoom sessions. These sessions will offer encouragement to continue the practice of awareness in daily life at home and work. This will be supported by a group sitting in the early morning, a group check-in and dharma talk in the evening, as well as sittings and walking periods available throughout the day. This structure will allow those who have work and caregiving obligations to attend early morning and evening only, with the option to fit in extra sittings during the day as one’s schedule allows.
For more information read this pdf...
APPLY ONLINE - Registration opened October 6, 2024 - Login or Register for Carpooling
- Questions: Contact the Registrar: Doug, doug@insightretreatcenter.org
5 day Ethics and Love in Interpersonal Life with Matthew Brensilver. An Insight Retreat Center & Big Bear Retreat Center Collaboration
April 16 to 20, 2025 - Hours: Wednesday check-in is from 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm End time: Sunday 12:00 pm
A dharma program with Matthew Brensilver, open to both beginners and experienced practitioners. *5-day Retreat (in-person & online) + 6 week course*
We live in a web of mutuality; the interpersonal realm is where the rubber meets the road in our spiritual practice. Our relationships – personal and professional – act like a magnet, pulling both our goodness and our pain to the surface. How can we draw on dharma principles and practices to enrich our interpersonal lives? How can others serve as mirror for our inquiry into ourselves?
The Buddhist tradition provides ethical guidance: lives founded on goodness, sensitivity and respect give us the best chance for deep happiness. Love fuels our ethics and guides us to more rich, harmonious relationships. Self-understanding dramatically deepens our empathic capacities and through our practice, the circle of care widens. As Sri Nisargadatta says, ‘In love, there are no strangers.’
This dharma program will begin with a five-day retreat, offered both in-person at the Big Bear Retreat Center or available to participants online. Although oriented around interpersonal themes, the retreat will be held in silence rather than interactive in nature. Ordinarily, retreats end and we return to our lives to integrate the experiences of the silence on our own. Here, the teacher will be providing support beyond the retreat to further cultivate and digest the fruits of retreat practice. The retreat will be followed by six, hourlong, weekly online meetings that will integrate and explore the teachings offered in the retreat.
OnLand -- Registration and more information at Big Bear OnLand Registration
OnLine -- Registration and more information at Big Bear OnLine Registration