NDF Retreats
Wilderness Retreats
Getting in touch with the inner wild
There are paths that can be followed, and there is a path that cannot--it is not a path, it is the wilderness.
There is a 'going' but not goer, no destination, only a whole field.
~ Gary Snyder
Looking for a meditation retreat off the beaten path? Join us for a different kind of retreat experience: meditating in the temple of the natural world.
On Wilderness Retreats, we hike, meditate, skygaze, tent, and camp as ways to reconnect with our deeper nature, our inner-wild, the natural state. Guided by experienced meditation teachers, retreatants explore how to rely on nature as a benefactor, a teacher and an inspiration for practice.
In the wilderness, we more deeply connect to the essence of the practices of Natural Meditation of the Mahamudra and Dzogchen traditions, practices developed and nurtured on the vast, open, plains, in the caves in the river valleys of Tibet and Himalayan region. The lineage masters who practiced and taught these meditations over the centuries were deeply connected to the earth, to animals and to their natural environment. The instructions of these meditative practices thus often use natural imagery and metaphors to express ways to rest the mind in meditation, and how to work with the body, energies, thoughts and emotions in meditation. We also can derive deep inspiration and balance from being in direct communion with the wild.
Wilderness retreats include some periods of silence, time for personal practice, hiking meditation, and occasional visits by guest speakers who supplement the more meditative parts of the retreat with education about the particular area we are visiting.
SCHEDULED WILDERNESS RETREATS
Spring Equinox Wilderness Retreat: Communing with the Ancient Ones
Mohawk Trail State Forest
Sunday, March 21, 2010 (10am-4pm)
Summer Solstice Wilderness Retreat: View Like the Sky, Meditation Like a Mountain
Negus Mountain
Sunday, June 20, 2010 (10am-4pm)
with optional overnight camping Saturday in nearby Mohawk Trail State Forest