Name: Insight Meditation Society – Forest Refuge
Item: Insight Meditation Society – Forest Refuge
Author: Send an Enquiry

Insight Meditation Society – Forest Refuge has continuously hosted experienced meditators since 2003. Its program is specifically designed to encourage sustained, longer-term retreat practice – a key component in the transmission of Buddhism from Asia to the West.

Within a harmonious and secluded environment, meditators can nurture the highest aspiration for liberation. In consultation with visiting insight meditation teachers, a program of training in one or more Theravada Buddhist practices is created for each participant, allowing the continuing unfolding of deeper levels of wisdom and compassion. A personal retreat here strengthens practice faith, confidence and self-reliance.

Participants are welcome to apply for retreat periods ranging from seven nights to stays of a year or more. We require a minimum stay of seven nights. Retreatant feedback suggests, however, that a stay of 10-14 nights or longer is beneficial to deepening practice and supports a more fruitful retreat.

Listen (Download, Stream) to former Teacher-in-Residence Sky Dawson talk about life on retreat at the Forest Refuge.
The facility

Careful consideration was given to the design and construction of the center. A beautiful meditation hall is nestled in the woods with several walking meditation rooms close by. There is single-room accommodation for up to thirty retreatants in a dormitory adjacent to the meditation hall.

Each bedroom allows for both sitting and walking meditation for those who wish to practice in a more secluded way. The meditation hall, walking rooms, dining hall and dormitory are all linked by interior walkways.

External walkways lead to the Administration building and Counsel House. Interviews with teachers take place in the Counsel House – the building also contains a small library of Buddhist books and recordings of dharma talks, as well as a room for yoga or other forms of gentle mindful movement.

A Forest Refuge Work Retreat provides an opportunity to use work as practice, to develop and apply mindfulness to daily life activities in addition to formal meditation sessions.

Work retreats are scheduled in calendar-month blocks.

Work retreatants follow the same retreat guidelines as other Forest Refuge participants, but with longer periods of activity where mindfulness can be integrated into action. A work retreatant can still engage in formal practice and benefit from dharma talks and interviews with the teachers.

Silence is maintained except for any necessary communications with work supervisors and teachers. Otherwise, there is no interaction with staff members or others on retreat. Participation is limited to experienced meditators and requires a high degree of self-reliance.

Your service as a work retreatant is an essential aspect of the smooth functioning of the Forest Refuge. Flexibility in accepting work assignments, usually in the Kitchen or Housekeeping department, is important.

Work can be physically demanding at times and requires the ability and energy to engage in solitary manual activities for five hours each day.

Work retreatants maintain a full daily retreat schedule that combines periods of work with sitting and walking practice. Work times can often be adjusted to suit both individual and departmental needs.

A typical daily schedule might look like this:

5:00 am – Wake up
5:30–6:30 am – Personal Practice

..... 6:30 am – Breakfast .....

7:30–9:00 am – Personal Practice
9:00 am–12:00 noon – Work Practice

..... 12:00 noon – Lunch .....

2:00–3:30 pm – Personal Practice
3:30–5:30 pm – Work Practice

..... 5:30 pm – Light Dinner .....

6:00–7:00 pm – Personal Practice
7:00–8:00 pm – Dharma talk
8:00–10:00 pm – Personal Practice

Days off for more intensive formal practice, as well as for personal chores and laundry are given during a work retreat. These are scheduled with the work supervisor.

Insight Meditation Society – Forest Refuge

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