Self-Directed 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 […]

Five Mindfulness Trainings Recitation ~ Zoom Online

Open Dates
ZOOM (account needed)
Join, Sister Clear Grace and Sister Clear Suchness, as they perform a Recitation Ceremony once a month to be in accord with the practice of the Five Mindfulness trainings.   Topic: Five Mindfulness Trainings Recitation Time: Every First Sunday 10:00  AM Eastern Time (US and Canada) The Five Mindfulness Trainings are one of the most concrete ways to practice mindfulness. They are nonsectarian, and their nature is universal. They are true practices of compassion and understanding. All spiritual traditions have their equivalent to the Five Mindfulness Trainings. The first training is to protect life, to decrease violence in oneself, in the family and…

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

Self-Mettā: A Foundational Practice for the Brahmavihārās (Zoom Retreat EST)

with Mary Aubry

December 12 - 13, 2020
Zoom
The practice of lovingkindness, or mettā in Pali, is a learned practice.  For some meditators, it can take years to develop without specific instruction.  During our time together, we will give focused attention to the practice of sending mettā to ourselves in an embodied way as a foundational practice. A regular practice of embodied self-mettā can enhance one’s overall sense of well-being with residual benefits that last longer than the sitting period.  Additionally, embodied self-mettā is a useful practice during difficult times when it transforms into self-compassion.  During the second day of the retreat, we will use embodied self-mettā as…

The Ethics of Emptiness ~ Zoom Offering

with Martine Batchelor

December 19, 2020
Heartwood Refuge and Retreat Center
The Ethics of Emptiness: Exploring emptiness as selflessness, recognizing our interdependence and how ethics based on emptiness would be imbued with creative wise compassion and friendliness.

Renewal, Healing and Transformation ~ Retreat Scholarship Eligible ~ Zoom Option

with Ofosu Jones-Quartey

January 14 - 17, 2021
Heartwood Refuge and Retreat Center
For now please know: This retreat will be over Dr Martin Luther King's birthday. Ofosu works with sound healing and Dharma music as well as mediation training to further us along our path of transformation. More details later.

Practicing the Dharma in the World Today ~ Scholarship Eligible

with Robert Brumet

April 7 - 12, 2021
Heartwood Refuge and Retreat Center
My first dharma teacher said to me, “If you want a small enlightenment, then stay here in the temple. If you want a big enlightenment, then go back to the city.” Cultivating wisdom and compassion is challenging under any circumstances, but this is especially true in our world today. And yet, the dharma is needed in this world more now than any other time in human history. The world is burning and humans are deeply divided; we are being called to live consciously and compassionately in a world that is largely unconscious and uncaring. The consequences could hardly be greater--yet…

Ecology of the Heart: ~ Retreat Scholarship Eligible ~ Zoom option available

with Nick Kranz

April 15 - 18, 2021
Heartwood Refuge and Retreat Center
Along with many other wisdom traditions, Buddhist teachings have pointed for millennia to our deep connection and interdependence with everything in the biosphere. Having arrived at this critical moment together, how can we rise to the challenges before us without burning out or falling into eco-anxiety and depression? There will be an opportunity to learn and practice sitting and social meditation, to ask questions, discuss together and engage in experiential exercises that will help you connect the appreciation of outer ecology with the innate tenderness of the heart. Everyone is welcome to attend this online gathering; no previous experience is…

Awakening the Wild Heart – Insight Meditation Retreat~ Scholarship Eligible

with Andrew Chapman, LMSW and Mikey Noechel, MS

May 24 - 31, 2021
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 Heart’s True Refuge: Finding Freedom in Compassionate Presence ~ Scholarship Eligible ~ Online Option

with Lisa Ernst

August 5 - 8, 2021
Heartwood Refuge and Retreat Center
True refuge is turning toward our experience and finding freedom in the way things are. This silent retreat will provide time to give our hearts and minds a respite during these challenging and often chaotic times. We will cultivate a quality compassionate presence that embraces our joys and sorrows with equanimity and insight. Through these practices, we begin to dissolve the illusion of separateness and taste the joy of interconnectedness to all things. This retreat, held mostly in silence, will include periods of sitting and walking meditation, daily instructions and dharma talks, q&r and optional meetings with the teacher. All…

The Liberating Teachings of the Buddha ~ Retreat Scholarship Eligible

with Annie Nugent

August 12 - 15, 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.

Awakening the Wild Heart – Insight Meditation Retreat~ Scholarship Eligible

with Andrew Chapman, LMSW and Mikey Noechel, MS

September 3 - 6, 2021
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. […]

Come Back to Your Senses

with Nick Kranz

October 8 - 10, 2021
Heartwood Refuge and Retreat Center
In this retreat, we will learn techniques for bringing our meditation practice to our sense perceptions, allowing ourselves to be more present, more of the time, and thus to enjoy and appreciate our lives more fully. In difficult times it's easy for us to be overwhelmed by our thinking processes.  In this retreat we will learn how to stop trying to escape or change the thoughts and feelings that arise in our experience, and instead to see them from a different perspective, one that brings equity to our other senses, and helps us return to feeling like we are part…