Retreats & Events
COVID-19 Protocols
We are following COVID-19 protocols in the spirit of valuing all life as sacred. We hope these guidelines can keep us all safe and well as we come together to practice on retreat.
Upcoming Retreats
Oct 21 - Oct 27, 2024 | Self-retreat: Oct 27 - Nov 2, 2024 | Hybrid residential & online retreat
Dhamma Dena's Queer Retreat
In this 8th iteration of the annual Dhamma Dena Queer Retreat, we will come together as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Gender Expansive, and 2 Spirit Folk and other family on the gender and sexual continuum to practice the Buddha's liberating path. Through noble silence, daily instruction, personal practice, on land affinity groups, daily movement offerings, and group interviews - we will practice ways for us to do the work of living in a world so in need of love and wise responsiveness.
This year, continuing teachers Leslie Booker and Ian Challis are happy to welcome the support of Calvin Burnap.
November 21 -24, 2024 | residential retreat
SACRED ACTIVISM for Palestine: A Retreat for Healing Within and Re-Energizing
This is a Dharma-centered retreat for activists and their allies working for an end to the genocide and for justice in Palestine and neighboring regions. It is a dedicated time to go within, call upon and regenerate the beautiful heart qualities—such as radical compassion, inner peace, and unlimited kindness—to strengthen our capacity to hold our immense grief and sorrow, release obstructions of the heart such as fear, hatred or shame, and alchemize our anger—to allow continued and sustainable activism (or “sumud” as Palestinians say) as a form of sacred action for justice, dignity and freedom.
Dec 11 - 15, 2025 | residential retreat
Dhamma Dena's Winter QTBIPOC Retreat
Join us this winter season as we co-create a sanctuary of rest and refuge within QTBIPOC community. Together, we will cultivate practices of mindfulness, lovingkindness, and compassion that have long belonged to the QTBIPOC community. As the winter season can be a challenging time for our hearts, minds, and spirits, we can cultivate practices that help bring us a greater sense of ease and well-being as we move through this season. We will honor our individual and collective need for rest, reflection, and connection, and slow down (moving at the “pace of mindfulness”) to honor all the ways we can care for our whole beings. This retreat offers teachings from Buddhist wisdom traditions, guided meditation, movement practices, silence, singing/chanting, and nourishing food prepared with love.
Dec 28, 2024 - Jan 2nd, 2025 | residential retreat
Dhamma Dena's New Year's Retreat
Please join us at Dhamma Dena for the annual New Year’s Retreat. This year the retreat will be co-taught by Dalila Bothwell and René Rivera. We will gather together at this significant time to reflect on the past year and create space for the new one. We will call in our intentions, release what is past and be together in community to cultivate hope and change. We will honor the year ending and what it has brought us, including everything, rage, disappointment, resentment, fear, and worry, as well as our satisfaction, joy and contentment.
Feb 14 - 17 2025 | residential retreat
Life is About Connection: Using Somatics and Metta
This course is designed to help us heal from blockages to our development on all layers - psychologically, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Using somatic and meditative techniques, we can begin to heal the wounds from ancient and more recent traumatic events. We can rediscover safety and resilience instead of reenacting automatic patterns of flight, fight, and freeze. Our two days plus two half days together will be filled with meditation, mindful movement, applied somatics (body informed), group interaction, dyads, and creative expression. Through simple embodied practices, we can reawaken safety and joy in each moment and thereby reconnect to our innate wisdom and authentic self.
Information on Retreats
We are committed to offering retreats for people of color and the queer, trans, gender non-conforming, bi, gay and lesbian communities.
All retreatants, whether on formal retreats, individual retreats, or work retreats, are asked to uphold the guidelines of the five precepts: refraining from killing, stealing, harmful speech, sexual misconduct, and using intoxicants. Please review our Important Policies.
Retreat Formats
Formal Retreat (Teacher-Led)
Formal retreats offer the friendship of community, a suggested schedule and seclusion from the business of our lives. We learn to turn towards ourselves and to discern where we are sustaining suffering and separation and where we have the possibility of growing the beautiful qualities of mind such as faith, right effort, mindfulness, patience, renunciation and right concentration. As we deepen into our practice the energies of separation and distraction dissolve and insights arise that liberate the heart and mind.
Each of the retreats differs in format and schedule according to the teacher leading the retreat. All retreats are led in the tradition of insight meditation (vipassana) and the four foundations of mindfulness. All are held in silence with the exception of interviews, group sharing, or other activities offered according to the teacher.
If you are interested in participating in a formal retreat, please see our "Upcoming Retreats", listed above on this page.
Self Retreat
Self-retreats are for individuals who have an established daily meditation practice and are looking for deeper practice in a retreat center setting. The residential community meditates together every morning and evening. Beyond these group meditations, self-retreaters plan their own practice schedule each day and are responsible for buying/preparing their own food. Self retreatants will have their own room and access to either their own, or a shared bathroom and kitchen. Self-retreaters may enter/use any of the common areas (main house, including kitchen and zendo/meditation hall).
Since there is not a resident teacher currently living at the center, we ask that longer term self-retreatants arrange to work with a teacher over Zoom/phone during their stay. If you are practicing with a small group, you can also contact us about arranging to come for a group retreat.
Once a week we gather to inquire and study a text. Occasionally, the residential community may host dinners and dharma activities; you are always welcome to join in if you’d like. We also ask self-retreaters to offer one hour a day of work to support the ongoing maintenance of the center. Typical work includes cleaning common spaces, laundry, administrative tasks, etc.
Dhamma Dena relies on dana/donations to cover our costs and continue to freely offer this center to all those interested. In the tradition of dana, you are invited to offer support for the center.
If you are interested in doing a self retreat, contact us at retreats@dhammadena.org.
Volunteer Retreat
If you would like to provide service to Dhamma Dena, please apply to be a volunteer-retreater. Room and basic food staples for cooking (grains, beans, vegetables) are provided for your stay, in exchange for a maximum of 4.5 - 5 work hours per day, for five days in the week. If this is your first time at Dhamma Dena, we will meet together after one or two weeks to check in with each other and see if it is a good fit for you. Return retreaters usually stay from one week to three months. We meet every morning Monday-Friday at 9am to share tasks for the day and share the merit of our efforts.
Typical work includes:
cleaning
cooking
fixing or improving facilities
administrative tasks
etc.
The community meets every morning at 7:30am and in the evening at 7:30pm to meditate together. Once a week, we gather to inquire and study a text. Weekly the residential community comes together for community dinners, and occasionally for hikes. Attendance at these activities is always voluntary and we welcome any community activity that you would like to offer/host/plan. Since there is not a resident teacher currently living at the center, we strongly encourage longer term retreatants to work with a teacher over Zoom/phone during their stay.
In the tradition of dana, you are invited to offer support for the center and teacher at the end of your stay.
If you are interested in doing a volunteer retreat, contact us at retreats@dhammadena.org.
Please note:
Housing is provided on first come-first serve basis. We will only take housing considerations if you have a disability.
Scholarships
The Open Dharma Foundation offers scholarships for helping to cover the cost of retreats. They have quarterly deadlines:
January 15
April 15
August 15
October 15
Important Retreat Policies
Welcome Packet
An overview of our retreat center and the agreements we follow in order to provide a supportive environment for all to practice.
Be Fragrance Free
In an effort to be inclusive and practice compassion, we request that all participants who attend daylongs, events and residential-retreats to please refrain from wearing scented products.
Agreements for Multicultural Interactions
We invite everyone who comes to stay at DhammaDena to uptake the practice of these agreements in order to build a safe and respectful environment across all our differences.
Your Dog & the Dangers of Open Desert
We strongly discourage people bringing their dogs. Dhamma Dena is in the open desert with quite a bit of wildlife including rabbits, coyotes, wild dogs and rattle snakes and the possibility of them being harmed in unfamiliar surroundings is high.