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Why silent retreat? In our culture, we are used to living with a lot of urgency and tension. We may sustain this pace for long stretches, sometimes decades, but we show the strains in the enduring health of our bodies and minds. A silent retreat is an opportunity to deeply re-set, connect inwards, and to stay a while with your own experience. You will find that the days are very full, but in none of the ways you may be used to. We will have a consistent and fairly continuous schedule each day of meditation, self-guided yoga practice, teacher-guided yoga practice, meals, and dharma talks.

Yoga will be both Yin and some Yang to keep the body stimulated and in balance. Our dharma talks will deeply explore the teaching Buddhism, the dharma, the practices of mindfulness, and their application to our daily lives, in a way that is not possible in any other format where the mind is still engaged in social interaction and maximum sensory input. We will peel back the layers of our own habits, mechanisms of mind, holdings and unresolved healings, in order to deeply digest that which still needs processing. The schedule is designed to be quite full, to give a strong backbone to the experience so that you do not have to wonder about where to go or what to do next, but can instead drop that part of your brain that weighs options, decides, and schedules your time.

There will also be an opportunity for a 1:1 check-in. This is not mandatory, but on offer if it will support your experience. As we are able to dive so much deeper to the heart of things on silent retreat than in any other workshop, training or retreat that I have offered before, I welcome the opportunity to answer your questions, help navigate struggles, or otherwise support your experience through the retreat in these 1:1s.

We will arrive on Thursday, Feb 22nd. Check-in is between 4-6pm. We will have dinner and orientation Thursday night. You will have the chance to settle in, meet others, and negotiate shared room/shared bathroom logistics if relevant. We will have an orientation, question and answer period, and meditation practice after dinner. We will drop into silence after the practice. While I will be speaking, of course, to guide our practice, dharma talks, and coordinate, we ask that you hold noble silence in the common spaces, and in your private or shared rooms as well.

This is also an opportunity to take a journey away from one’s daily responsibilities, preoccupations and worldly events. With this in mind, we require everyone to turn off their computers and phones for the duration of the retreat in order to genuinely connect with oneself in a less distracted inner and outer environment. This will undoubtedly deepen everyone’s experience. We feel unplugging from technology in retreat life is essential and will benefit all the attendees. There will be an emergency contact provided for students to give loved ones.