Programs
New Year's Retreat: Non-Duality of Sacred Darkness and Sacred Light
John Orr and Eve Decker
Note: This year's retreat will be your last chance to welcome in the new year at Southern Dharma led by John Orr as your teacher. We thank him for his many, many years of service in this role. Meanwhile, we are delighted to be welcoming Eve Decker as John's co-teacher. Eve also co-leads our LGBTQIA+ […]
Winter Monthlong Retreat
Rupert Marques and Kerstin Deibert
The birds have vanished into the sky. And now the last cloud drains away. We sit together the mountain and I, Until only the mountain remains.- Li Po A monthlong period of practice is a unique opportunity to settle back into a continuity of awareness and to see what is revealed through such a sustained […]
Gratitude Awakening
Rev. WonGong So
Come and experience the joyful essence of our true nature in the spring mountain forest with Rev. WonGong at Southern Dharma. To go into our inner calm, we will observe Noble Silence, practicing many forms of meditation—sitting, movement, nature contemplation, journaling, meditative breathing, lying-down relaxation, and more. We will explore the fundamental philosophy of gratitude […]
Shine A Light In The Corners: Parts Work and Buddhist Practice
Jogen Salzberg
In this retreat, we will weave silent and guided meditation with teachings and group parts work that entails playful, embodied and vocal exploration, grounded in Jogen's training with the Voice Dialogue parts work modality. Parts Work is a broad term that includes various modalities for directly exploring, through embodiment and voice, aspects of personality or […]
Deepening Your Practice: An Insight Meditation Retreat for Experienced Meditators
David Chernikoff
This retreat is for experienced meditators who want to deepen their practice and to listen to what the Thai meditation master Ajahn Chah called “the one who knows.” Ultimately, spiritual maturation involves learning to trust our own inner guidance and resting in the felt realization that we already have what we seek and we already […]
Awareness, Wisdom, and the Heart’s Sure Release
Mark Nunberg
During this retreat we will learn to recognize present moment awareness, strengthen and stabilize it, allowing it to support the deepening of tranquility and insight. This is the Buddha’s path for the heart’s sure release. Buddhist awareness practices develop the heart’s natural capacity to be open and clearly aware of the underlying nature of things. […]
Welcoming and Working with the Hindrances
Mary Aubry
During this six-day retreat for beginners and experienced meditators alike, Mary will offer guidance on meditatively working with the five hindrances of sensual desire, aversion (including anger, disappointment, sadness, etc.), sloth-and-torpor, restlessness and worry, and doubt. Instead of habitually seeking short-lived relief from the hindrances in ways that don’t serve us, Mary will invite participants […]
Mindfulness and the Four Noble Truths
Dave Smith
Within the entire cosmos of Buddhist doctrine, across the many lineages and traditions, no single teaching carries as much weight as that of the Four Noble Truths. It is the most fundamental aspect of Dharma. As Buddhist practices continue to take root in American society and culture, much of the attention has been focused on […]
Gathering the Gaze of Awareness: A Meditation, Yoga and Sensory Awareness Retreat
Jeff Collins and Gisela Konrad
What is Buddha’s Way? Great intimacy. What is Yoga’s Way? Great intimacy. Yoga and Buddhism both teach that in each moment this whole universe – including our living humanness - appears out of nowhere, and all that appears, including us, is the pure presence of the place. The great work of our lives is to […]
Compassionate Vipassana
Ronya Banks
The more your inner and outer worlds provide you with ongoing challenges, the more self-compassion is the best additive to your formal and informal Vipassana meditation practices. Whether your day is going great or tumultuous, self-compassion helps you get through difficulties with more ease, it provides a softening, accepting stance that allows you to relax […]