RETREATS
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Item description
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8:30-10am PT
With Victoria Cary
The Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) Sangha is a weekly gathering designed to support BIPOC practitioners that provides a safe place to meditate and explore the Dharma. As a beloved community, this sangha supports exploration of the Dharma in light of our experiences. Together, we will cultivate an environment that welcomes all voices and builds community.
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4-5pm ET
With Victoria Cary
The Buddha spoke about the powerful potential we have to shape the people we become: “Whatever you frequently think and ponder upon, that will become the inclination of your mind.” Metta or lovingkindness meditation is a beautiful training that gives us an ability to naturally incline our minds, speech, and action towards kindness and goodwill.
Join us as we gather in community and practice lovingkindness together as a way to explore compassion, the power of love, joy in the happiness of others, and balance of mind experienced as equanimity. This practice is not a replacement for other actions we undertake as we try to make this a better world; it's an affirmation of the forces that strengthen and empower us to keep doing whatever we can in the face of challenge and adversity.
During each session, the teachers will offer a reflection, metta meditation, and space for questions and responses.
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With Victoria Cary
We invite you to spend a day on the land, resting in the Buddha’s teachings on wisdom and kindness. Together, we will practice cultivating kind awareness that supports us in growing our capacity to meet the joys and challenges of being human. As we learn to steadily meet things as they are, the wisdom of the Dhamma unfolds, and through this cultivation we touch into the possibility of freedom.
The day will include guided sitting and Dhamma reflections and opportunity for walking meditations. The day will be held mostly in silence, with a few intentional moments for community connection and shared reflection.
This retreat is suitable for those new to meditation practice as well as more experienced practitioners. All are welcome.
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5-7pm PT
With Victoria Cary
The Rainbow (LGBTQIA+) Sangha is a weekly gathering designed to support self-identified practitioners within marginalized gender and sexuality groups such as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual, two-spirit, and gender non-conforming. Together, we’ll explore the Dharma in ways that welcome our lived experiences and build community that honors our broad and multi-faceted voices.
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4-5pm ET
With Victoria Cary
The Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) Sangha is a bi-weekly gathering of self-identified BIPOC practitioners who meditate together and explore the teachings of the Buddha in the light of personal experience.
Each bi-weekly session offers a short talk, guided meditation, and/or a silent sit for 30 - 40 minutes. Some gatherings add a 10 - 15 minute question and response period to help support the practice.
While we understand that many non-BIPOC people may be interested in participating, we ask that they refrain from joining this program which is specifically offered to provide shelter and respite to our BIPOC community.
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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.
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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.
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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!
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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
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Designed for self-identified womxn of Black African Ancestry only
With Amana Brembry Johnson, Noliwe Alexander, Alisa Dennis, Victoria Cary
In the stillness of the heart, the mind finds rest and a deep and luminous wisdom begins to stir and open to a clarity that can guide us toward healing and inner freedom. In quietude it is possible to recognize and discard the trappings that lead towards confusion and turmoil. During this retreat, we will attune to the Seven Gates of Awakening. In mindful presence, we will practice investigation with curiosity, and balance wise energy with compassionate rest. As we learn to invite and infuse the heart with joy, the qualities of tranquility, concentration, and mental/emotional calm begin to follow.
Our time together will begin with intentional community building and unfold into periods of silent sitting and walking, meditation instruction, daily embodied movement, Dharma talks, and meetings with teachers. Together, we will listen deeply, steady the heart, and open to the possibility of awakening—even in a world that trembles.
This retreat is silent except for teacher-led Q&A, small groups, or other practice meetings.
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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.
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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
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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
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Registration Opens Soon
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.