Spaciousness, stillness, insight
and support for your inner journey
Set among 411 acres of serene oak woodlands in the secluded hills of West Marin County, California, Spirit Rock Meditation Center is a refuge from everyday life where it’s truly possible to quiet the mind, soften the heart and see life in a new way.
People come to Spirit Rock for many reasons, but they all amount to essentially the same thing — wanting a more easeful relationship with life. The spaciousness and stillness of Spirit Rock and the caring teachers, staff and volunteers, create a supportive environment for turning inward and letting go of the struggles that get in the way of experiencing the freedom and joy that are inherent in every moment of life.
The teachings of the Buddha (Dharma) and the practices of Insight Meditation (Vipassana) and loving-kindness meditation (metta) are at the heart of all the programs we offer at Spirit Rock. Practicing Insight Meditation develops mindfulness, the capacity to pay attention to each moment of life and to see clearly the truth of our experience. Studying the Dharma provides insights into the conditions that define and limit our experience of life. And cultivating an attitude of loving kindness allows us to stay present to what’s true and what’s difficult in our lives with compassion for ourselves and others. Ultimately, our relationship to life is transformed as we learn to live more wisely and kindly.
Spirit Rock offers a breadth of programs in a variety of formats to fit anyone’s schedule, needs and meditation experience — from two-hour, drop-in classes and daylong events to silent residential retreats lasting from three-days to two months and advanced practitioner programs spanning a year or more. We also offer classes online. With some exceptions, all programs are suitable for beginners and experienced students alike. To find out more about the different programs we offer, visit the Programs section of this website, or go directly to the Calendar section to search for programs by date.
Whatever your starting point is, we hope to see you soon at Spirit Rock. In the words of the Buddha, we invite you to “Come and see for yourself” how these practices and teachings can lead to greater contentment and peace of mind.
Spirit Rock Meditation Center is a spiritual education and training institution whose purpose is to:
- Bring people to a depth of realization of the Buddha’s path of liberation through direct experience.
- Provide the community of practitioners with inspiration and teachings to integrate and manifest wisdom and compassion in all aspects of their lives, for the benefit of all beings.
We achieve this purpose primarily by providing silent meditation retreats, and also through classes, trainings, and Dharma study opportunities for new and experienced students from diverse backgrounds. Our programs are grounded in the essence of the Buddha’s teachings in the Pali discourses.
Spirit Rock As a Living Mandala
Spirit Rock Center is being created as a living mandala, a western dharma and retreat center dedicated to discovering and establishing the Dharma in our lives. As a community, we dedicate ourselves to realization. Together we give birth to a new center in which the heart of wisdom can unfold through traditional Buddhist practice and its actualization in the world. We see this mandala as an interdependent form in which each facet is both a reflection of the truth and leads back to the truth. With the Dharma as the core of the mandala the outer expressions include these dharma paths: retreats, right relationship, study, hermitage, integration and service. View the mandala here.
The Dharma of Liberation
Spirit Rock Meditation Center is founded to create an enduring dharma retreat, practice, community and study center rooted in the Buddhist tradition. The teachings at Spirit Rock are based upon the Dharma, the teachings of the Buddha, as expressed in the suttas of the Pali Canon. These suttas offer clear, ethical, social and ecological teachings supportive of a wise and compassionate life in the world, as well as instruction in a range of meditative practices. The primary meditative practice taught at Spirit Rock is Vipassana or Insight Meditation, as described in the Satipatthana Sutta (the Four Foundations of Mindfulness) and other supportive practices including mindfulness of breathing (Anapanasati Sutta) and loving-kindness meditation (Metta Sutta). The purpose of the teachings and practices is the realization of wisdom in the words of the Buddha, “the sure heart’s release.”
Spirit Rock Meditation Center is a place where these traditional teachings can flower in an American form. For centuries in Asia, most of Buddhist practice has been preserved in monasteries. In the west, the focus is shifting to a growing community of lay meditators, whose vision of spiritual practice includes preserving the depth of traditional wisdom and teachings while also developing an integrated and openhearted life of engagement in the world. Following the Buddha’s teachings of interconnectedness and non-duality, our commitment is to realize liberation by making the practice of mindful awareness the basis of our lives.
Retreats
A primary purpose of Spirit Rock Meditation Center is to offer opportunities for training and practice of Insight Meditation, the practice of mindful awareness, through silent meditation retreats. It is our intention to offer intensive group retreats of varying lengths, including one day, weekend, ten-day and three-month retreats, as well as opportunities for longer periods of practice. Special retreat formats may also be developed and offered including individual retreats, family retreats, retreats for women, retreats for men, retreats for hospice workers, retreats for social activists, and metta (loving-kindness) retreats.
Spirit Rock is being established with its roots in a plurality of styles of vipassana practice as expressed by the different teachers of our lineage. We value and respect this richness of varied approaches to meditation. We understand and affirm that the work of Spirit Rock Meditation Center and its teachers is both to preserve the heart of the Buddhist teachings and to adapt them in wise and instructive ways to contemporary life. The teachers at this center may emphasize one or both aspects in their teachings.
Founding Principles
In establishing Spirit Rock Meditation Center, we are guided by such basic principles of Buddhadharma as mindfulness, patience, kindness, ethical conduct, non-harming, non-grasping, trust and wise attention. The principles serve as the foundation for a community which holds no bias towards anyone who comes seeking dharma instruction and the company of the sangha (community). In all matters of instruction, administration and social conduct we hold respect for each member of the community as a person sharing the path of practice.
While drawing on the wisdom and experience of the “elders,” we are committed to the ongoing process of developing democratic and cooperative forms for decision making with which to guide and conduct the organizational affairs of our community. Personal responsibility and participation as well as systems of peer review and support will contribute to a nurturing community environment.
Developing a conscious and mindful approach to our community and organization relationships is fundamental to our practice and provides a clear framework for dharma life.
Spirit Rock Statement of Values:
Spiritual Sanctuary and Refuge
As long as a society holds regular and frequent assemblies,
meeting in harmony and mutual respect,
can they be expected to prosper and not decline.
As long as a society follows the long held traditions of wisdom,
and honors its elders,
can they be expected to prosper and not decline.
As long as a society protects the vulnerable among them,
can they be expected to prosper and not decline.
As long as a society cares for the shrines and sacred places
of the natural world,
can they be expected to prosper and not decline.”
—Mahaparinirvana Sutta
(a text of Buddha’s last teachings)
Amidst the political and social challenges of our times and in light of our commitment to liberation, Spirit Rock declares itself to be a spiritual sanctuary and a refuge for all. We will honor and protect those who come here seeking the teachings of liberation.
We are stewards of the Dharma; we build bridges, not walls. A climate of divisiveness and fear cannot alter our innate human goodness, and it will never change our values as an organization.
Spirit Rock proclaims our continued commitment to the Buddha’s teachings of wisdom, compassion in action, interdependence and loving-kindness, excluding none.
We reaffirm these teachings: “Hatred never ceases by hatred but by love alone is healed. This is the ancient and eternal law.”
We reaffirm these 2,600 year-old Buddhist values in the face of cultures of violence and harm that threaten life on this planet and that differentially impact oppressed, exploited and marginalized people, people of color, immigrants and refugees, poor people, women, disabled and differently abled people, Indigenous and LGBTQI peoples.
We denounce racism, misogyny, xenophobia, trans- and homophobia and all forms of oppression and the valuation of certain lives over others. We value and celebrate diversity, inclusivity and respect for all beings and the inherent dignity of all peoples.
The Buddhist Path teaches that meditation and inner freedom must develop together with a foundation of generosity, ethical behavior and loving-kindness.
We affirm that human happiness requires intentions that are free from greed, hatred and cruelty; speech that is true and helpful, not harsh, not vain, slanderous nor abusive; and actions that are free from causing harm, killing, stealing and sexual exploitation.
We affirm the interdependent nature of reality. When one being suffers, we all suffer. Thus, our own well-being and liberation is bound in the well-being and liberation of others. The only basis for Dharma life is virtue, respect and mutual care.
Knowing this truth, we will resist the destructive forces of hatred, discrimination and recklessness and offer the powerful alternatives of fierce love and compassion.
With the Earth as a witness, the Buddha proclaimed his right to liberation and taught that all beings have the right to liberation, to be free from the oppressive forces of greed, hate and ignorance.
With the Earth as our witness, we offer a sanctuary for all to awaken together.
Spirit Rock will continue to be a light in our society, to respond to constantly changing conditions, and to offer practices, teachings, and refuge that nurture the internal life in support of external service. We practice not for ourselves but for the welfare, happiness and safety of all life everywhere.
May all beings be free,
and may our actions contribute wholeheartedly
to that freedom.
Special Featured Program
Dear Friends,
I invite you to join this remarkable in-depth program based on the work of my friend and teacher, Stephen Levine. This online program is sponsored by the Spirit Rock Meditation Center. It offers us an opportunity to examine our personal relationship to death and dying. I encourage you to join us.
January – December, 2024 (Online)
A Year to Live
Vinny Ferraro, Frank Ostaseski, and Pam Dunn
This year-long program, based on the book A Year to Live by Stephen Levine, is designed for people of all ages, regardless of life stage. In community, we will focus on waking up and living life more fully through the exploration of death as spiritual practice.
Register
Metta Institute
Jan. 6: Cultivating Three Kinds of Concentration
Jan. 7: The Dharma of Money: Training your Mind for Ease & Prosperity
Jan.-May: Buddhist Psychology Training 2024
Feb.-June: Mindful Leadership Training 2024
Jan. 26-Feb. 2: Insight Meditation Retreat: The Direct Path
Feb. 3-March 2: February Insight One-Month Retreat
Spirit Rock offers on-land retreats. To learn more subscribe to the Spirit Rock newsletter or visit their Residential Retreat Calendar. Questions? Email [email protected].
spriritrock.org
West Marin County, California
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