Register Here

With Howard Cohn, Victoria Cary, Erin Treat, Teresa Todoroff

The Buddha’s teachings and meditation practices remind us of the ever-present possibility of waking up to a sense of well-being, presence, and true nature that does not depend on circumstances. This silent Insight Meditation (vipassanā) retreat is designed for both new and experienced meditators, and will include systematic instructions in vipassanā meditation following the Four Foundations of Mindfulness. The retreat will also include lovingkindness meditation, meetings with teachers, and evening talks highlighting the central teachings of the Buddha and their practical application to our lives.

This retreat is silent except for teacher-led Q&A, small groups, or other practice meetings.

Assistant Teacher: Ramona Ortiz-Smith

Register Here

With Leslie Booker, Victoria Cary, Eugene Cash, Kimber Simpkins-Nuccio

The Ten Perfections of the Heart, or pāramīs, offer a powerful framework for living with compassion, resilience, and purpose. These teachings—on generosity, ethical conduct, renunciation, wisdom, energy, patience, truthfulness, resolve, lovingkindness, and equanimity—are not just meditation guidelines, they are practical tools for navigating life. According to tradition, these were the very qualities the Buddha cultivated over many lifetimes as he gradually prepared to awaken fully and guide others toward freedom. In this residential retreat, we will explore and practice the pāramīs both on and off the cushion. Our focus will be on how we embody these teachings in everyday life within a community rooted in belonging, shared intention, and a commitment to collective liberation.

This retreat is silent except for teacher-led Q&A, small groups, or other practice meetings.

Assistant Teacher: nico hase

Register Here

With Victoria Cary, Erin Treat, Howie Cohn, and assisted by Kate Siber

The Buddha observed how easy it is to forget the capacity of the heart for wisdom and love. A meditation retreat can help us remember how essential these qualities are for our very existence.

At first, we may be hesitant to look inside, out of concern for what we may find. But the more deeply we investigate, with a relaxed yet focused attention, the easier it is to know, moment by moment, the reasons we have to love. In letting go of fear and other unsatisfactory, habitual patterns, we discover a heart full of confidence and a mind full of peace.

Throughout this retreat, we will practice meditation together within the refuge of a 2,600-year-old Buddhist legacy of wisdom and kindness. Within the silent container of the course, we can come to know the preciousness of our life and the poignancy of the human condition. From this space of openness, so much goodness unfolds.

The retreat format will include alternate periods of sitting and walking meditation, talks about the teachings, meetings with the teachers, and opportunities for questions. All are welcome!

Register Here

With Victoria Cary, Roxanne Dault, Tara Mulay, Devin Berry

This insight meditation retreat offers a unique opportunity to deeply explore the benefits of mindfulness and momentary concentration developed over the course of two weeks. The meditation instructions will touch on all four foundations of mindfulness, with emphasis on the noting technique and continuity of mindfulness in sitting, walking, and daily activities taught by the Venerable Mahasi Sayadaw.

This length of retreat can open a space for profound transformations of the heart and mind, more closely revealing the truth that all conditioned experience is marked by the three universal characteristics of impermanence, unsatisfactoriness, and not-self.

Held in noble silence, this course will also include dharma talks, guided brahmavihara meditations, Q&A, and group and individual practice discussions. We will invite integration of wholesome qualities of mind, including patience, curiosity, mindfulness, wise effort, lovingkindness, joy, compassion, and equanimity.

Optional mindful movement sessions will be offered by Monica Williams to support vitality, whole body awareness, concentration, and relaxation.

Registration Open in 2026

with Victoria Cary & René Rivera

Join us for a six-night silent retreat in beloved community on the beautiful land of Vallecitos. For this 5th annual LGBTQIA+ Community you are invited into deep refuge in relationship to the land, dhamma, community and our capacity to awaken together. Guided by the wisdom of the land, we will cultivate our capacity to meet the conditions of this life by exploring some of the essential truths of existence the Buddha illuminated: the underlying unsatisfactoriness of life, things being inconstant flux, and the illusion of a permanent fixed self. We will explore these characteristics of our experience through a queer lens, and held in the bountiful care and compassion of the land.

We will offer Dhamma talks, still and walking meditation, guided exploration on the land, individual and small group discussion, and chanting. These practices will be offered mostly outdoors, in a container of silence and nurturing spaciousness, making the way for us to connect with ourselves, wild nature, and deepen our connection to community.

This retreat is appropriate to all practitioners new and experienced. We encourage BIPOC, Trans, Non-binary, and Gender Non-conforming participants. This is a retreat for the LGBTQIA+ community.  If you do not identify as such, we are happy to help you find another Vallecitos retreat.

Registration Open in 2026

With Victoria Cary and Pawan Bareja

In the midst of life’s constant demands, it’s easy to lose touch with what truly supports us and what frees our heart from being caught in suffering. This weeklong Insight retreat is an invitation to gently turn inward, guided by kind awareness and curiosity.

Together, we’ll explore the Buddha’s teachings that reconnect us with our innate resilience, strength, clarity, and peace. Rather than turning away from our experience, we’ll practice meeting it fully, uncovering the simple truth of living in harmony with the way things are.

Held in the nurturing land of Vallecitos, this silent retreat offers us a space to step out of the habit of constant doing and rediscover the quiet power of simply being—present, open, and grounded.

Guidance will be offered in Insight Meditation and the Brahma Viharas, supported through sitting, standing, walking, lying down, practices. The retreat also includes daily Dharma talks and individual or small group practice meetings. To support a quiet and contemplative environment, the retreat will be held in noble silence. This retreat is appropriate for beginners and advanced practitioners alike. Everyone is welcome!  

Register Here

With Anushka Fernandopulle, Victoria Cary, Gullu Singh

The path of Insight Meditation, rooted in the Buddha’s early teachings, offers a time-tested way to cultivate resilience, clarity, and peace. In this retreat, we’ll bring these teachings to life—developing mindfulness, lovingkindness, and a deep investigation into the causes of suffering throughout the day. Held in silence and simplicity, the retreat environment supports the heart’s natural capacity to meet all experience with wisdom and compassion.

We’ll draw from stories and teachings of the early Buddhist tradition, connecting to a lineage of practitioners who have preserved these liberating practices for generations. Through a blend of guided and independent meditation, participants will be supported in developing a step-by-step deepening of awareness. This retreat is suitable for both newcomers and seasoned meditators seeking to refresh their foundation in Insight practice.

Assistant Teacher: Margrit Pittman-Polletta

With Victoria Cary and Pamela Weiss 

The Buddha’s teachings offer more than a path to personal peace, they invite a profound reorientation of how we live, perceive, and relate. In a world where disconnection, and uncertainty can feel pervasive, our practice offers not just refuge, but renewal: a return to clarity, and to a deeper sense of our shared belonging.

During this 7-night silent meditation retreat we will use the teachings of  the Four Foundations of Mindfulness as a framework to explore ways to regain our ground for both inner transformation and outer engagement. Through steady practice and deep internal inquiry, held by the lands of Vallecitos, we will explore how these teachings illuminate a way of being that is rooted, responsive, and awake to the needs of our time.

The retreat will include daily teachings, guided meditations, silent sitting and walking practice, optional small group interviews with teachers, and time in nature. Noble silence will support deep inner listening.

All are welcome.

Registration Opens October 7, 2025

With Victoria Cary, Tara Mulay, Devin Berry

The Buddha taught that whatever the mind frequently inclines toward becomes the tendency of the heart. This teaching highlights the vital role of cultivating mental habits that support our well-being, deepen our practice, and open the way to liberating insight. Among these qualities are saddhā (faith), viriya (energy/courage), sati (mindfulness), passaddhi (tranquility), and upekkhā (equanimity). These beautiful factors not only steady the heart and mind, but also serve as essential conditions for clarity, and wisdom.

Held in noble silence, the retreat provides a steady and supportive space for deep investigation and sustained inner stillness. Daily practice will include Dharma talks, opportunities for questions, and meetings with teachers. This retreat is open to both experienced practitioners and those who are newer to the path.

This retreat is silent except for teacher-led Q&A, small groups, or other practice meetings.

Registration Opens October 7, 2025

With Anushka Fernandopulle, John Martin, Victoria Cary

Explore Buddhist practices and teachings of liberation in our LGBTQIA+ and GNC (Gender Non-Conforming) community. Together, we will practice mindfulness and heart-fulness, embracing all of our experience with loving awareness and deep acceptance. There will be an emphasis on cultivating a continuity of awareness in all activities (sitting, stillness, standing, walking, movement, eating) with a relaxed and gentle presence. Through these practices, we will explore what true refuge means for us individually and for our community.

Suitable for both beginners and experienced practitioners, this retreat is silent except for teacher-led Q&A, small groups, or other practice meetings.

Assistant Teacher:Mario Castillo

Register Here

With Will Kabat-Zinn, MA, Victoria Cary and Lienchi Tran

Join us in following the Buddha’s powerful recipe for liberation left to us in the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta. The Buddha called this method the “direct path,” as it opens us to liberating insight here and now. This powerful practice method has been passed down to us in the Discourse on the Foundations of Mindfulness and in commentaries on and refinements of this text drawn from many years of practice and insights, including from our venerable teachers in the Burmese lineage, Mingun Sayadaw, Mahasi Sayadaw, Taungpulu Sayadaw, Sayadaw U Pandita, Sayadaw U Tejaniya, Dipa Ma, Rina Sircar, and others.

During our time together, we’ll immerse ourselves in these teachings and cultivate mindfulness and clear seeing in every posture—sitting, walking, standing, and lying down—and in all daily activities. This supports a seamless integration of life and practice. The fruits of the path emerge naturally through our wholehearted engagement with this simple yet profound way of being.

This retreat is silent except for teacher-led Q&A, small groups, or other practice meetings.

Assistant Teacher: Brett Wheeler

Registration Opens November 18 2025

With Chas DiCapua and Victoria Cary. Assisted by Gina LaRoche.

Movement by Éowyn Ahlstrom.

The teachings of the Buddha remind us that when we meet our direct experience with kind and friendly awareness, we open the door to rest deeply right where we are. Through practice, we learn to offer loving attention to what is present—just as it is.

As we bring this tender awareness to the body, our attention naturally expands to include the entire somatic field, including both the physical body and the heart-mind (citta). We learn to move through our inner landscape with gentle presence, softening the body and meeting what arises with kindness and curiosity.

This retreat will offer a supportive rhythm of sitting and walking meditation, dharma talks, meetings with teachers, and space for questions and reflection. An optional daily period of mindful movement will be offered by Éowyn Ahlstrom. All are welcome.