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— Do you feel burnt out and/or overwhelmed and need to recharge in a quiet and emotionally safe space where we gently witness and honor each other’s experience even as we stay verbally silent most of the time?  — Are you feeling ready to deepen your meditation practice in a community that is rooted in the Buddhist lineage of Rinzai Zen, takes a trauma/grief informed approach to healing and incorporates lessons from Kingian/Gandhian Nonviolence?  — Are you curious about how we can build a rigorous spiritual practice that supports our collective movement for justice and peace in the times of climate breakdown and innumerable social injustices?  If yes, come join us at the stunningly pristine and healing Rocky Mountain Ecodharma retreat center (RMERC) for a Zen and Ecodharma retreat. Each day will include indoor zazen (seated meditation), outdoor meditation (by trees, bonfire or flowing water), kinhin (group walking meditation), deep abdominal chanting, opportunities to share our experience with other participants, a talk at the interface of Zen and Ecodharma teachings, rest periods, samu (silent work periods to prepare food) and dokusan (private interview with the teacher). We will have time in the afternoons for personal extended time in nature. Food preparation will be…

Bring your learnings, your longings, your grief, and your stories to a woman’s circle for all ages. We will fan that sacred fire that Mother Earth continues to birth from within us. This retreat is intentionally intergenerational – for all persons who identify as women and are being taught by Mother Nature about your true essence and identity as a relational way of belonging to Earth community. We will consider the developmental soul tasks of both youth, mature adulthood, and aging, listening to the visionary, imaginative young one inside us as she learns from the elder inside who longs to know her Earth place in community and offer her fiery gifts back into the world. Our time will be together in large group, small groups and much solitary wandering on this beautiful land in the heart of the Rocky Mountains. Appropriate Covid safety measures as necessary for that time. Shared indoor housing and a few private rooms available. Healthy vegetarian meals provided. We together will co-create a trustworthy circle in which we can listen beyond human conversation to the dream of Earth, learn from our Ancestors who still speak, and from our own personal and communal deep wisdom.

This retreat is for women looking for an opportunity to deepen their relationships with themselves and to learn tools to stabilize and heal through major changes or shifts happening in their lives.   Transitions and change can ripen our hearts to new yearnings and experiences, awaken the opportunity to heal old pain, and open our doorway for calls to service.  As women in the current world, we have feminine gifts that need to be unleashed, and this retreat can help you find your deepest wisdom and assist you in taking it forward into your life.

We all live on, and as, this wild, ancient earth, spinning continuously within the vast, magical sky. The deep mystery from which this all arises is profound and serene. Yet often in our lives we do not recognize this great beauty, the deep peace and profound freedom of our own Being. The mental and physical boundaries we construct help us feel safe and comfortable - but at what cost? The loss of contact with our own precious radiance, and that of our very universe. In this retreat we will emphasize Being Outside. Who are we before our constructs? The pre-constructed world, ‘Nature’, can remind us. This retreat will be held in silence using the Zen form of Sesshin; six to eight hours of meditation daily including both group and solo-sitting. Further, group and solo hiking, guided body practice, devotional song, dharma talks, Q & A, and one on one meetings with a teacher will all be included in the schedule. Sleeping outside will be available for those who wish. This retreat is designed for people ages 18-35. The food provided will be 100% vegan.