Programs
Integrated Dharma
David McKay
A thirty-minute meditation period followed by an hour-long discussion guided by local Buddhist teacher David McKay. Integrated Dharma offers teaching and tools from a variety of Buddhist traditions, as well as psychological and embodiment practices, to supporta full span freedom– relief from suffering, personal flourishing, and the means to translate that into a heart-centered response […]
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 […]
Another Meditation, Yoga, and Sensory Awareness Retreat: A Long Weekend of Gathering the Gaze of Awareness
Jeff Collins and Gisela Konrad
“What is Buddha’s Way?” “Great intimacy.” “What is Yoga’s Way?” “Great intimacy.” As our June 3-8 retreat quickly filled and now has a waiting list, Southern Dharma has kindly asked us to offer a similar three-day retreat the week before. The course description for the June retreat begins with the sentence, “Yoga and Buddhism both […]
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 […]
Courageous Heart: Meeting the Spirit of Our Times with Steadiness and Love
Rupert Marques and Dawn Scott
The vulnerability of living invites us to respond to the turbulence of our times with compassion and clarity. In this retreat, we will call on the four establishments of mindfulness as a refuge and guide, helping us to metabolize the collective violence and ecological wounding that moves through our hearts, bodies, and beloved planet. Through […]
Finding Peace where You Are: The Art of Unburdening the Heart
Lisa Ernst
The Buddha’s path to liberation is designed to help us face the full experience of embodied human life. Through deep practices of mindfulness, concentration, and emptiness, we can cultivate clear states of mind that naturally allow inner peace and insight to emerge. We will also learn to bring acceptance, patience and love for ourselves into […]
Opening the heart, freeing the mind: An Insight Dialogue Retreat
Phyllis Hicks and Joyce Curnan
“Come and see for yourself.” The Buddha Join us for this relational meditation retreat. When we open to the immediacy of our experience, we have supportive conditions for seeing clearly, for loosening identification, and for transforming tension and reactivity into understanding. As we cultivate meditative qualities together, the heart releases into connection. We discover suffering and the […]
[AT HOME] Dependent Origination and Emptiness: An Online Retreat for Experienced Students - Applications Open
Leigh Brasington and Heather Sundberg
In this retreat, Leigh will teach theory and guided practice on Dependent Origination, one of his favorite dharma topics, from his book “Dependent Origination and Emptiness: Streams of Dependently Arising Processes Interacting,” which is free to download at the above link. Heather will teach and guide Emptiness-Awareness practices informed by a lineage she teaches from the […]
Volunteer Week 2025
Volunteer weeks at Southern Dharma offer an opportunity to deepen practice, build Dharma community, and support the Center's operations and facilities through hands-on projects. Each day will include periods of group meditation instruction and practice, working meditation shifts, meals, free unstructured time, and optional socializing. We will observe partial silence (after 10pm through breakfast). No […]
Exploring the Self Through Jewish and Buddhist Contemplative Practice
Rabbi Jeff Roth and Rabbi Joanna Katz
The Nature of the Self is naturally a prime phenomenon that is directly encountered through meditation practice. We can learn a lot about the experience of “selfing” by focused attention on each moment of experience. In addition, from certain Buddhist teachings we might learn that there is “no separate self”. A prime teaching from one […]
The Path of Recovery: Healing the Wounds of Addiction
Kevin Griffin and Greg Pergament
Join us for a unique meditation retreat combining traditional Buddhist practices with recovery work. Primarily conducted in silence, the retreat focuses on insight meditation and heart practices, along with interactive exercises, lectures, and meetings. We learn to practice mindfulness in all activities, whether formal meditation, movement, speaking, listening, or eating. Daily Qigong practice offered by […]
The Dharma of Harriet Tubman: Liberation as a Path to Awakening
Spring Washam
In a world that feels increasingly heavy with fear, division, and uncertainty weighing on our hearts—it is more important than ever to remember the deeper truth: liberation is not just resistance, it is a frequency, a state of being, and a path we must walk together. Harriet Tubman was more than a historical figure; she […]