Retreats

Santikaro
  • $403.00 – Includes room, meals, and registration.
    Does not include additional dana (offered at the end of the retreat) to the teacher and to Heartwood. You can read more about the practice of dana here.
  • $323.00 – Includes registration and meals, but not lodging.
    Does not include additional dana (offered at the end of the retreat) to the teacher and to Heartwood.
    Commuters attend the full retreat, including lunch and dinner, but are not provided with overnight accommodations. It is important to note that by registering as a commuter, you agree to attend the entire retreat and to arrive and depart at the scheduled time each day. Your presence is important, as having retreatants come and go or miss sessions can disrupt the container created by group practice.

Date & Time Details: Opening Day: check in is between 2-5pm, with orientation at 5:30pm and supper at 6pm. Closing Day: ends at 11am.

Location: Heartwood Refuge and Retreat Center

Address: 159 Osceola Rd. Hendersonville, NC 28739

Contact: Retreat Manager
[email protected]
828-356-5568

Cancellation Policy: Full refund issued for cancellations received at least 4 weeks prior to the event

An $99 cancellation fee retained for cancellations received between 2 and 4 weeks prior to the event

No refund will be issued for cancellations received less than 2 weeks prior to the event

Room Assignments: Rooms are double-occupancy. Depending on the number of retreatants, if single rooms are available, we assign them in order of registration to those who registered earliest.

Email us about program

Emptiness, Dependent Co-arising, and The Middle Way

with Santikaro

June 26 - 30, 2019

The Middle Way is the Buddhist approach to spiritual practice. It also describes core Buddhist teachings about dependent co-arising and emptiness. All phenomena occur in dependence on causes and conditions. This is especially true of everything we feel, assume, and believe is “me.” Yet none of these natural phenomena and their experiences can be found to harbor a lasting, independent essence or self. The turn out to be free and empty of anything worth cling to. The Middle Way embodies this understanding in life and in Dhamma practice of all kinds. And these understandings guide our living the Middle Way.

Guided by the original teachings and the insights of Buddhadāsa Bhikkhu, Santikaro’s teacher, this retreat will explore how the Middle Way teachings guide the Middle Way of practice. We will do so through readings from the early discourses, guided practices, Dhamma talks, discussions, and silent meditation practice.

Ajahn Buddhadāsa’s teaching on emptiness is found in Heartwood of the Bodhi Tree, while Under the Bodhi Tree presents his dependent co-arising teaching. Both are available from Wisdom Publications.

This retreat is suitable for meditators who already have a basic mindfulness practice and are familiar with teachings of the four noble truths (ennobling realities). Knowledge of the Pāli suttas is not required. Reading Heartwood of the Bodhi Tree or Under the Bodhi Tree is recommended.

The retreat begins Wednesday evening. Please arrive early. We will end at 11 am on Sunday. You may join Embracing Simplicity’s Sunday program.

Leader

Santikaro
Santikaro and his partner Jo Marie are caretakers at Liberation Park in southwest Wisconsin, where he is also the guiding teacher. There, he guides students of Buddha-Dhamma and meditators in their cultivation of the noble eightfold path. He teaches actively around the Midwest and further a field, leads retreats, and encourages study groups. His Dhamma roots are at Suan Mokkh, the Southern Thai monastery of Buddhadasa Bhikkhu, where he lived for 14 years, and his Dhamma understanding is grounded in the teachings of Early Buddhism. When he has the time and energy, he also contributes to work for social justice…
Learn more about Santikaro