Self-Directed and Long-Term Retreats
Open Dates
Heartwood Refuge and Retreat Center
Make time for yourself and your practice in a supportive and peaceful contemplative environment. Entering into a self-directed or long-term retreat allows you to design a program that best meets your needs and schedule. This could be an intensive silent meditation retreat, or it could be a more gentle meditation […]
The Sadhana of Mahamudra
with Sister Barani
February 24, 2020
Heartwood Refuge
This is the Tibetan New Year (Year of the Iron Mouse). Barani will lead the sadhana which quells the mighty warring of the three lords of materialism. “This is the darkest hour of the ages….. On the whole, no one acts according to the highest code of discipline, meditation and wisdom. The jewel-like teaching of insight is fading day by day. The Buddah’s teaching is used merely for political purposes and to draw people together socially. As a result the blessings of spiritual energy are being lost. Even those with great devotion are beginning to lose heart. If the Buddahs of…
Master Cleanse Detox Retreat
with Heartwood Health Team
March 3 - 10, 2020
Heartwood Refuge and Retreat Center
The Master Cleanse, also called the Lemonade Diet was first introduced by Stanley Burroughs in the 1950s. He was an early advocate of natural health, and believed in the body’s natural ability to heal itself, as presented in his book The Master Cleanser. People have reported chronic health problems they have suffered with for years vanish after using the Master Cleanse. Why Might You Want To Go On the Master Cleanse? It is well known that people today lead toxic lifestyles. Our foods are loaded with chemicals, the air is polluted, and daily lives are so busy and loaded with…
Fast Mimicking Detox Retreat
with Heartwood Health Team
March 3 - 10, 2020
Heartwood Refuge and Retreat Center
Fasting Mimicking Detox Heartwood Healing Continuum has adopted the product called Prolon as our fast mimicking detox program as there is al ot of research connected with this product and it is very convenient to use. Prolon is a program that includes soups, snack bars, crackers and drinks that can be consumed over 5 days in order to follow the Fast Mimicking Detox (FMD) as designed by the researchers. This program consists of fairly conventional food, supplements and teas. Benefits of the Fasting Mimicking Detox Enhance the body’s ability to: Enter into a protective and stress resistant mode Trigger autophagy…
Water Fasting Retreat
with Heartwood Health Team
March 3 - 10, 2020
Heartwood Refuge and Retreat Center
"Everyone has a physician inside him or her; we just have to help it in its work. The natural healing force within each one of us is the greatest force in getting well. Our food should be our medicine. Our medicine should be our food. But to eat when you are sick is to feed your sickness." - Hippocrates "Instead of using medicine, rather, fast a day." - Plutarch Fasting for spiritual and health purposes is widely practiced all over the world, and is still a part of every major religion in the world. Jesus, Buddha, Muhammed and Baha’u’llah all…
Juice Detox 5 Day Retreat
with Dr. Maureen Hall
March 3 - 10, 2020
Heartwood Refuge and Retreat Center
The Juice Fasting Retreat is an oasis where you will be able to draw physical, mental and spiritual refreshment in a peaceful environment away from the demands of your regular daily life and sheltered from the challenges and struggles of the materialistic world. Come experience the power of this holistic rejuvenation program. This retreat is […]
Kindness-Love-Presence
with Ofosu Jones-Quartey
March 6 - 8, 2020
Heartwood Refuge and Retreat Center
In this retreat Ofosu will guide us through Dharma concepts and practices that will shows us very clearly that we have the tools to take control of our happiness and help create happiness for others.
Milarepa Day – The Rain of Wisdom
with Sister Barani
March 9, 2020
Heartwood Refuge and Retreat Center
This is Milarepa Day on which Tibetan Buddhist read the book The Rain of Wisdom, which is a collection of poetry and stories of the early teachers. It is read aloud from 7:30am - 7:30pm (or until the book is finished) with lunch and tea breaks. Participants can do the entire day, or just enter and leave as they wish.
Celtic ConFusion Concert in celebration of St Patrick’s Day
with Aoife Clancy and Bill Elliott
March 15, 2020
Heartwood Refuge and Retreat Center - Dharma Hall
Celtic ConFusion is… A harmonious blend of voices and instruments. Audience involved, music centered performance. An eclectic blend of Celtic, select Contemporary, Old Standards, Folk, Originals and Spoken Word. An Experience.“Bill and Aoife continually amaze our audience with the range of their song selection – from quiet Irish traditional ballads, to the works of John Prine and the jazz standards of the thirties and forties.More than that, they reveal themselves as real people with whom our audiences easily relate.They’re wonderful, and we love them ! “ Bill Garnett – Nottingham Community Church Concert Series – March 2018
Dismantling Race Through Mindfulness
with Sister Clear Grace
March 19 - 22, 2020
Heartwood Refuge and Retreat Center
Power and privilege have been unfairly awarded throughout history to certain groups of people based on race while disempowering others. If one is born in America race is something we have been born into. We unconsciously internalize messages about each other, ourselves, and about race. Simply growing up in a racist world causes subtle and not so subtle habits of mind and heart to take on racist patterns. Mindfulness meditation can help one to observe preconceptions as they arise in the mind, providing space for cultivating kindness and care. Mindfulness can illuminate implicit bias, and the usually unconscious prejudices…
A Day of Mindfulness: How to care about things without identifying or clinging
with Acharya Dr. Maureen Hall
March 28, 2020
Heartwood Refuge and Retreat Center
Mindfulness practice, along with kindness, compassion, apathetic joy and equanimity, over time take the suffering (which is always optional) out of the pain, that comes standard with life, so we are then able to experience the richness of life with all its pleasant and unpleasant, and not turn away or wish it other than it is in this moment. Recognizing the intensity of the drama in life and taking it lightly allows us to experience life as a game of chess rather than a football game. Life is not an emergency, it only seems that way. This retreat will show…
Spiritual Practice for a Chaotic World
with Ronya Banks
April 2 - 5, 2020
Heartwood Refuge and Retreat Center
“Everybody wants a happy life. This goal is entirely dependent on our inner peace… We are trying to seek a joyful, happy life from the outside — that is a mistake.” - His Holiness the Dalai Lama As spiritual practitioners, we understand that although it is impossible to fully control our outer world, we can cultivate a deep spiritual practice that invites “peace and grace” independent of external conditions. During this retreat, you will be engaging in the ancient Buddhist Vipassana/Insight meditation practices that have brought profound “peace and grace” to multitudes of people. Profound respite and can also be…
A Journey to Peace through Meditation and Mandala
with Cynthia Calhoun
April 10 - 12, 2020
Heartwood Refuge and Retreat Center
You live in a world with lots of distractions, stress and anxiety. There is a way to find the calm in the chaos. Knowing how to “fill your cup” through the creative process and meditation can really help you cultivate a sense of peace. During this retreat, while practicing noble silence, you’ll learn about meditation through creating mandalas, guided meditation, silent meditation, and more. You’ll spend time crafting different types of mandalas: with objects, markers, pencils, and in other ways. Learn some lessons that the creative process and mandalas teach and walk away with the tools to find your peace…
The Dharma of Everyday Living: Exploring the Relational and Emotional aspects of Mindfulness
with Deborah Eden Tull and Dave Smith
April 15 - 19, 2020
Heartwood Refuge and Retreat Center
The Dharma allows us to open to the truth of our shared and embodied humanity. It provides guidance towards a happiness of being that doesn’t depend on external conditions. Many practitioners find it challenging to bring their Mindfulness practice off the cushion and into the beautiful and messy world of human relationships. Our connection with others can lead to our greatest joy and sense of meaning and purpose. It can also be the source of our greatest suffering and can have tremendous consequences on our emotional life. Our emotions can become destructive if we are lost in the grips of…
From the Heart, In the Body
with David McKay and Christa Rypins
April 21 - 26, 2020
Heartwood Refuge and Retreat Center
Join us for five days of spiritual practice in the Zen Buddhist tradition, supported by meditation and mindful embodiment practices. We will follow a daily schedule together that will include: Three or four half-hour meditation periods a day Two group discussions per day. Two movement sessions One on one guidance Three vegetarian meals Time to walk, rest, and just be The entire experience will be held in silence, apart from the discussions and guidance. There will be small opportunities for working meditation, and lots of space for reflection and being in nature.
Buddhist heART: Meditation in Motion (Mural Project & Sumi-e Painting)
May 1 - 7, 2020
Heartwood Refuge and Retreat Center
Discovering the Artistic Spiritual Experience This retreat will include chanting, meditation, survey of Buddhist iconography and technique, and hands on participation and production of a mural including design, surface prep, paint selection and bas relief. We will also spend time learning and practicing the 2000 year old technique Sumi-e. Sumi-e, aka suiboku-ga, Japanese monochrome ink painting, representing the timeless beauty and complexity of the natural world. It attempts to capture the life spirt of the subject. Balance, rhythm and harmony fuse with patience, self-discipline and concentration. It is meditation in motion.
Dharmacharya III Graduation & IV Retreat
with Venerable Pannavati, Venerable Pannadipa and Associate Teachers
May 12 - 17, 2020
Heartwood Refuge and Retreat Center
Open only to students in ministerial program
Awakening the Wild Heart – Memorial Day Weekend Insight Meditation Retreat
with Andrew Chapman, LMSW and Mikey Noechel, MS
May 22 - 25, 2020
Heartwood Refuge and Retreat Center
The Buddha taught that the seeds of awakening are deeply rooted in the hearts and minds of every human being. However, it is only through the intentional cultivation of these seeds—generosity, ethical living, and mindfulness—and the uprooting of greed, hatred, and delusion that we can begin to harvest the fruits of our awakened heart. […]
The Center for Koru Mindfulness Train the Trainer Program
with Jennie Dickson-Mills
May 31 - June 4, 2020
Heartwood Refuge and Retreat Center
The Koru Mindfulness® program was developed over the course of a decade by psychiatrists Holly Rogers, MD & Margaret Maytan, MD to bring the benefits of mindfulness to the college students they worked with at Duke University’s student counseling center. Koru is a mindfulness curriculum designed specifically to target the developmental needs and interests of young adults. Koru has been empirically tested in a randomized, controlled trial and found to have significant benefits on sleep, perceived stress, mindfulness, and self-compassion. The Center for Koru Mindfulness exists to provide life-changing mindfulness training for young adults, everywhere. Our vision is that young…
The Power of a Tender Heart: Awakening with Presence, Love and Insight
with Lisa Ernst
June 24 - 28, 2020
Heartwood Refuge and Retreat Center
We live in a time when divisiveness and intolerance seem to rule the day. More than ever, we need to find a way to live from our hearts - for ourselves and for the world. Fortunately, even a moment of kindness and compassion can begin to open the door to the healing power of loving presence. [...]
Retreat with Bhikkhu Bodhi
July 16 - 19, 2020
Heartwood Refuge and Retreat Center
Bhikkhu Bodhi will be leading a retreat here at Heartwood. Details TBD
Mindfulness Retreat for Beginners
with Mary Aubry
July 23 - 26, 2020
Heartwood Refuge and Retreat Center
This three-night retreat will be held in Noble Silence. The retreat is designed for those who are new to meditation, but meditators with experience are welcome to attend to rejuvenate their practice. Mary will offer meditation instructions, dharma talks, and interviews. Each day will include periods of sitting meditation, walking meditation, loving-kindness meditation, and Q&A sessions.
Teaching as a Spiritual Path
with Venerable Somasiki and Renee Owen, Ed.D
July 31 - August 3, 2020
Heartwood Refuge and Retreat Center
“One child, one teacher, one book, one pen can change the world.” ~Malala Yousafzai. Teaching as a Spiritual Path is a retreat to affirm your own sacred path of teaching. This three day retreat will offer you an opportunity to reconnect with your “why”, to engage with your authentic self, explore your inner landscape, renew your passion and cultivate practices to sustain yourself and inspire others for your personal and professional life. We will learn secular spiritual pedagogical practices, meditate together, journal, and engage in powerful embodied experiences that will renew our inner resources and return deep meaning and purpose to…
Teacher in Residence – John Orr
August 7 - 23, 2020
We are happy to host John Orr again as an in-residence guest teacher. He is always a great addition to the Heartwood Refuge family. Welcome John!
“Practicing With Karma”
with John Orr
August 12 - 16, 2020
Heartwood Refuge and Retreat Center
There may be many questions regarding the meaning of karma and how to work with it in our practice. What is karma? How does it work? Does karma mean predestination or fate? If there is no self, whose karma is it? How does karma get transferred from one lifetime to the next? Karma is nether punishment or reward, but just the natural results of seeds we have planted, consciously or unconsciously. Some of these seeds or actions through what we say or do are wholesome and others unwholesome. The Buddha said; Abandon the unwholesome. If it were not possible, I…
The Five Bundles of Clinging
with Santikaro
August 19 - 23, 2020
Heartwood Refuge and Retreat Center
The Five Bundles or Khandhas are known as "the most frequent teaching." This simple & powerful analysis of human experience is used in two primary ways. First, they are the stuff out of which we fabricate ourselves, which makes them the core of suffering. Second, in response to the first inquiry, they are scrutinized to see their deeper nature so that they're no longer concocted into "me" and "mine." In this teaching, we find the four ennobling truths, dependent co-arising, emptiness, and the middle way. The core teachings of Buddhism are all found in insightful inquiry of the five bundles…
Unknow Yourself Through Mindfulness
with Vimilasara Mason John
September 4 - 7, 2020
Heartwood Refuge and Retreat Center
We are not fixed! This is the teaching of the Buddha. Everything changes, and that includes all the addictions, compulsive and obsessive behaviours. Together we will explore what the Buddha taught to help free us from our addictive mental states, and how to cultivate freedom from the prison of our minds. This retreat is for anybody who identifies as human. This precious birth has given us the gift of transformation and emancipation of the human condition.
Devotion to the Deathless
with Acharya Christie Bates
September 17 - 20, 2020
Heartwood Refuge and Retreat Center
Where we spend time, energy and attention determines our experience of life. Do we spend these valuable currencies investing in suffering or freedom? We typically spend so much of our time lost, fused and mis-identified in what is not self, with what is unreliable and inconsistent. This is what is called conditioned existence. It's painful, discouraging and exhausting. We want to find what is reliable. We long to know and feel rooted in the Unconditioned, where we can experience joy, take courage and be invigorated. The example and teaching of the Buddha tells us that we can have this kind…
Mindful Healing for Healers (CEU pending)
with Dr. Sonja Williams MD and Dr. Maureen Hall
September 24 - 27, 2020
Heartwood Refuge and Retreat Center
This is a retreat designed to further mindful practice of healthcare providers and empower them for improved resilience in a changing healthcare industry. With increasing rates of suicide and burnout amongst our healthcare providers learning new and innovative ways to sustain and enliven our healing practices is so vital. The goal of this retreat is to teach concrete sustainable techniques to improve presence and stability with our clients in the midst of stress and increasing demands of the industry. Regardless of the length of practice each provider has experienced, invigorating our compassionate intention for healing of others further invigorates ourselves.…
Re-wiring for Joy
with Deborah Eden Tull and Amma Ṭhanasanti
October 9 - 13, 2020
Heartwood Refuge and Retreat Center
This is a silent retreat that includes Relational Mindfulness. The Buddha taught that the key to peace, joy, and happiness is release: abandoning the relentless insistence that life, in this moment, be other than it is. But how do we wire our brains to recognize the wholeness in every moment? How do we consistently see joy in everything that is within and outside of our control? And how do we cultivate joy in an age of disruption and global uncertainty? In this 5-day retreat, former Buddhist nuns and world-renowned meditation teachers, Amma Thanasanti and Deborah Eden Tull, combine practices and…
Walking the “Path of Insight”
with Dr. Donald Rothberg and Ronya Banks
October 18 - 25, 2020
Heartwood Refuge and Retreat Center
Walking the “Path of Insight” is a time-tested journey to spiritual awakening traversed by thousands of people over the past few thousand years. With the expert guidance of Vipassana teachers – Donald Rothberg and Ronya Banks, you will delve deeper into the many gifts this Buddhist practice has to offer.
Jhana Retreat
with Mary Aubry
November 5 - 15, 2020
Heartwood Refuge and Retreat Center
This retreat will emphasize the application of the Jhanas (Meditative Absorptions) as part of a regular sitting practice, in the tradition of Leigh Brasington and his teacher Ayya Khema. The Jhanas are a method of one-pointed concentration taught in the Theravadan Buddhist tradition. The retreat will be held in Noble Silence and will focus on teaching the Jhanas for the purpose of enhancing insight practice. Several topics for insight practice will be discussed, including Dependent Origination and Emptiness. Mary will offer instructions, dharma talks, and interviews. Each day will include periods of sitting meditation, walking meditation, lovingkindness meditation, and Q&A. This retreat is for experienced…
Dharmacharya Retreat IV
with Venerable Pannavati and Venerable Pannadipa
December 4 - 10, 2020
Heartwood Refuge and Retreat Center
Open only to students in ministerial program
The Liberating Teachings of the Buddha
with Annie Nugent
May 6 - 9, 2021
Heartwood Refuge and Retreat Center
The purpose of the Buddha’s teachings is to show us how to be truly happy by using the tools of mindfulness and clear understanding to reveal the unskillful tendencies of mind that keep us bound to suffering. Joy arises for us when we realize, through our direct experience, that it is possible for transformation to come about. This silent retreat is an invitation to explore the depth of the teachings in this formal setting as wisdom and compassion is cultivated, allowing these qualities to come to the fore in the midst of the fullness and vibrancy of daily life.