Johann Robbins
Johann started backpacking and meditating as a teenager, and deepened his spiritual journey on frequent solo wilderness trips. His passion is facilitating spiritual practice in nature: he has guided and taught wilderness retreats and workshops in various traditions for over 25 years, including as a Vision Quest guide in the late 1990s. Johann founded Impermanent Sangha in 2002 and has led dozens of Ecodharma and nature meditation retreats, including backpacking, camping, canoeing and rafting. Johann founded Rocky Mountain Ecodharma Retreat Center in 2016 and is its Executive Director.
Johann teaches Mindfulness Meditation, also known as Insight or Vipassana, with a modern secular approach. He has been meditating since 1974 and was asked to teach in 2008. He completed the two-year CDL teacher training program at Spirit Rock in 2012. His primary teachers include Shinzen Young and Eric Kolvig (who also helped found Impermanent Sangha and taught wilderness retreats for many years before his retirement).
Events with Johann Robbins
Immerse in Nature and Expand into EcodharmaJuly 19 - 28, 2024
Immerse in Nature and Expand into Ecodharma This retreat is a deep dive into being, in nature, abiding silently, joining inner nature with outer nature, and dissolving separation. Each day includes plentiful time for sitting, hiking/walking meditation, as well as nature meditation instruction, dharma talks, and individual and group practice discussions. There will be a relaxing two night solo opportunity during the retreat, which is an incredible highlight. The overall intention is for deep silence, practice, and the joy and healing that comes with a profound connection with nature, and then integrating that into one’s life. Spiritual practice will be supported by instruction in a variety of nature meditation practices. There will be nightly campfire dharma talks, exploring how being-in-nature can be an important part of our spiritual path by helping to ground us in personal experience of non-separation from the natural world. The emphasis is not on meditative technique so much as developing direct awareness that can lead to a new integration of the internal (spiritual) and external (activity). Supported by the connection and joy that comes from being in nature, we will also begin to investigate and work with the emotions, anxieties or traumas we are all experiencing…
NEW! Transformation in Nature: Solo and Sangha Retreat for Experienced PractitionersJuly 30 - August 3, 2024
Transformation in Nature: Solo and Sangha If you have been wanting to do a longer solo retreat in nature, but were daunted by the logistics, or uncertain about the purpose of a solo or what to bring, this retreat makes all of that simple. Solo nature practice is an incredibly powerful way to realize who we truly are, to touch into being, and the reality of non-separation that brings. When we hang out in a beautiful spot for days, being aware, peaceful, and still, this calms and reassures the wildlife that usually try and avoid humans, and they come and visit, sometimes for hours. This opens our hearts to love and appreciation, to the beauty and power of nature, and we begin to feel completely and utterly at home; effortlessly peaceful, present, and awake. This is deeply healing and transformative, a missing piece in lives of doing and busyness in a hi-tech dehumanized society. This retreat is a unique opportunity to abide in nature for five days, quiet and mostly on your own solo spot, surrounded by beauty. Each day you will return to meet at the lodge for a couple of hours of meditation, sharing, discussion, and support, followed…
Nonduality in Nature: The Direct Path of Beauty and LoveAugust 4 - 10, 2024
Non-Duality in Nature: The Direct Path of Beauty and Love Our true nature is awareness and love. This peace and happiness, which we all long for, underlies the striving of the limited sense of self, or ego. When we relax into being, all within us is well. Being in the natural world invites us into this relaxation, directly experiencing the beauty around us, and the appreciation, gratitude, and love that arises in response. Being in the mountains in the soft gentle time of high summer–with green meadows, alive forests, abundant wildflowers, high peaks adorned with snowy caps, the running creek, and all the birds, moose, deer, elk, rabbits, squirrels, chipmunks, and others–is an ideal place and time to remember the heart of who we are. Here we are invited to return to our true nature, in nature. What a gift! As we meditate, walk, converse, and share retreat space together, a natural sense of ease and belonging can come to the forefront of our experience. The wanting and aversion, seeking and resisting, of the conditioned mind begins to quiet. Without effort or struggle, separation dissolves and we are free to drop into love and connection. This is the Direct Path–not…
