For on line classes offered by Santikaro in 2023, please visit here.
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2023 Retreats: some on-line, some in-person
- New Year Retreat at Cloud Mountain, WA — Dec 30 – Jan 6 2023 (residential)
An annual retreat hosted by our dear friends in Southwest Washington state.
— This retreat is already wait listed.
- (On-Line) Infusing the New Year with Brahma-Viharas — January 25-29
The “divine abodes” of kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity, plus gratitude, begin as practices that foster & explore these beautiful, beneficial qualities of heart. These deepen into dwellings that fundamentally re-orient our ways of being in the world and with others. Ultimately they become boundless, far bigger than the self-centered concerns of ordinary ego. See Retreat Description before registering.
- (On-Line) Anapanasati Foundations Retreat: Contemplating Body through Breathing – March 19-25
This retreat will emphasize the “first tetrad” of mindfulness with breathing, which contemplates the nature of kaya (body) as it breathes and is shaped by breathing. We will also review the basics of posture, attitude, and other preparations. The emphasis throughout will be contemplation of body’s nature. See Retreat Description before registering.
- Kindness & Composure Amidst Uncertainty, Climate Anxiety & Existential Despair – April 14 – 20 (residential) at Cloud Mountain, WA
An online version of this retreat will be offered later in 2023.
- (On-Line) Insight Chicago Spring Retreat – May 4 – 7
Details are being worked out. Will be posted on the ICMC website with registration through their EventBrite.
- (On-Line) Anapanasati Retreat: Contemplating Feeling Tones with Breathing – July 16-22
This retreat will emphasize the “second tetrad” of mindfulness with breathing, which contemplates the nature of feeling tones (vedana), the range of pleasures, pains, discomforts, and joys that occur in life and during meditation. Healthy breathing fosters feeling tones that are interesting and useful in meditation practice and can be important sources of insight. We will also review the basics of posture and mindful breathing as a foundation for contemplating the nature of vedanas. See Retreat Description before registering.
- Anapanasati & the Power of Healing Retreat – 2 weeks at Cloud Mountain, WA – Sept 29 – Oct 12 (residential)
This retreat will integrate healing meditation practices with Buddhist teachings and ānāpānasati. Most of the healing meditations will be connected with breathing, thus reinforcing, expanding, and deepening the experience of breathing mindfully and compassionately. Two weeks allows ample time to more fully explore the range of this magnificent practice of ānāpānasati and other ways of healing. The peaceful setting of Cloud Mountain provides ample space and support.
— Retreat details here.
- Thailand retreats in mid-November and early December (Thai speakers only)
2022 Retreats
- (On-Line) Anapanasati Retreat: Contemplating Citta-Mind-Heart – January 22-29
This retreat will emphasize the “third tetrad” of mindfulness with breathing, which contemplates the nature of citta (mind, heart, psyche) as it experiences the breathing and everything connected with breathing. We will also review the basics of breathing, posture, attitude, and context. The emphasis throughout will be contemplation of mind’s nature. Retreat details here.
- (On-Line) Contemplative Retreat: Birth, Aging, Illness, Death, Karma, & Fear in Covid Times – March 23-27
This retreat takes up classic Buddhist themes for contemplation with the aim of disentangling from the pervasive fear that is tearing our society apart in the midst of anxious times. We will begin each day with a grounding and settling practice (guided meditation). These contemplation also foster compassion, equanimity, and gratitude.
- Dharma Zephyr Retreat at Galilee on Lake Tahoe, Nevada – April 3-6 (residential): Seeing with the Eye of Dhamma
- Navigating Saṃsāra: Finding Stillness Amidst the Swirls – April 15-21 (residential) at Cloud Mountain, WA
- (On-Line) Anapanasati Retreat: Contemplating dhammas, contemplating Dhamma – July 30 – August 6
This retreat focuses on the ultimate section of Anapanasati — Dhamma — concluding the series begun with foundations in February 2021, then feeling tones last August, and mind-heart this past January. Now, we will explore how the previous explorations of breathing, body, vedanas, and citta culminate in sustained contemplation of the ephemeral nature of all experience, how habits of clinging fade and dissolve, the quenching that no longer supports egoistic reactivity, and the celebration of release. We will circle back to the earlier stages and domains, now directly contemplating them as Dhamma.
— Retreat details here — Register here.
- Anapanasati Retreat 2 weeks at Cloud Mountain, WA – Sept 23 – Oct 6 (residential)
This retreat will explore the full range of Anapanasati practice, with special emphasis on contemplation of Citta and Dhamma. Two weeks allows ample time to more fully explore the range of this magnificent practice. The peaceful setting of Cloud Mountain provides ample space and support.
— Retreat details here.
- (On-Line) Simplicity, Solitude and the Art of Meditation — October 27-30
Hosted by Insight Chicago Meditation Community.
— Retreat details available August 1st.