Summer Invitational: Peace in Action
With Amrita Ahuja and Groundwork
July 7 - 9, 2025
Transform Overwhelm into Focus, Clarity, and High Performance Voluntary contribution-based pricing, pay at any amount We ask that everyone attend the entire retreat. Please register by June 30th. A two-night invitational retreat featuring guided workshops, quiet reflection, interactive sessions and restoration in nature. This July, Big Bear Retreat Center has partnered with Groundwork to host a transformative 2-night workshop-style retreat. Our hustle-and-grind culture pushes professionals with demanding schedules and goals to get things done but leaves them feeling stressed, overwhelmed, and burnt out. Groundwork shows you another way. Join us to learn proven systems and practical behaviors to reduce…
Shelter from the Storm: Cultivating a Steady Heart
With Gullu Singh and Gabrielle Hammond (Qi Gong)
July 10 - 13, 2025
Open to both beginners and experienced practitioners. Registration for this retreat closes on June 26, 2025 at 11:59pm Pacific Time. If looking to join after this date, please inquire at guestservices@bigbearretreatcenter.org The storms affect us deeply on multiple levels of our being. In this meditation retreat we’ll practice with an attitude, approach and meditative techniques which encourage the mind, the body, the heart and the nervous system to calm down. As we calm down we can rest more deeply, resource ourselves more fully and begin to access an intrinsic well-being that is available even when conditions are difficult. This ability…
Creating Refuge in Community (Approved Registrations)
With Fresh "Lev" White, JD Doyle and René Rivera
July 16 - 20, 2025
A Retreat for Trans, Gender Nonconforming, Genderqueer, Non-binary and all Gender Expansive communities. The retreat will have an application process to prioritize registration from BIPOC folks through June 15, with the aim to create an intentionally multiracial community with a goal of 50% BIPOC. This 4-night retreat will be a space grounded in self-care and compassion, and held in community, to support our healing and resilience at this time in this world. We will offer meditation, mindful movement, and heart-centered practices based on Buddhist principles. Silence will be gently balanced with small and large group discussions. We will cultivate and…
Creating Refuge in Community
With Fresh "Lev" White, JD Doyle and René Rivera
July 16 - 20, 2025
A Retreat for Trans, Gender Nonconforming, Genderqueer, Non-binary and all Gender Expansive communities. The retreat will have an application process to prioritize registration from BIPOC folks through June 15, with the aim to create an intentionally multiracial community with a goal of 50% BIPOC. This 4-night retreat will be a space grounded in self-care and compassion, and held in community, to support our healing and resilience at this time in this world. We will offer meditation, mindful movement, and heart-centered practices based on Buddhist principles. Silence will be gently balanced with small and large group discussions. We will cultivate and…
Mindful Self Compassion (MSC) Intensive for Caregivers
With Lisa Baylis and Megan Prager
July 20 - 25, 2025
MSC Intensive for Caregivers: Loving Others without Losing Ourselves This page is for those signed up through CSMSC for the July Intensive. This page will help you in completing your registration for room and board at Big Bear Retreat Center. A MINDFUL SELF COMPASSION (MSC) INTENSIVE BY THE CENTER FOR MINDFUL SELF COMPASSION Join us for this in person offering in beautiful Big Bear, California. This 5-day training is an intensive version of the 8-week*, empirically-supported MSC program, with a special focus and emphasis on self-compassion for caregivers. The nature of caregiving is often a focus on "the other".…
Compassion for Couples
With Megan Prager and Michelle Becker
July 25 - 27, 2025
Please register individually, but attend as a couple. This in-person retreat is open to both beginners and experienced couples. Registration for this retreat closes on July 19, 2025 at 11:59pm Pacific Time. If looking to join after this date, please inquire at guestservices@bigbearretreatcenter.org. Compassion for Couples is a wonderful opportunity for you and your partner to build a strong and healthy foundation for your relationship and develop the skills to help navigate the difficulties that arise within us and between us. There’s a Buddhist belief that a genuinely loving relationship is the practice for which all other practices are preparation.…
Belonging & Self Compassion Daylong Retreat [ONLINE]
With Fresh "Lev" White and Eve Decker
August 3, 2025
Book now and get $50.00 off listed prices. Offer valid until Jul 15, 2025.
This online daylong retreat is open to both beginning and experienced practitioners. Those who self-identify as LGBTQIA+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer, intersex, asexual, and beyond) and BIPOC (black, indigenous, people of color) are prioritized. Allies are welcome. Registration for this event closes on August 2, 2025 at 11:59 pm. To inquire about joining after registration closes, please contact guestservices@bigbearretreatcenter.org. Please join us for a day of refuge, with a focus on self-compassion and mindfulness. We’ll experience periods of silence, teaching, practice and community discussion. Compassion and self-compassion involve responding to difficult moments with kindness, empathy and understanding so that…
When Awareness Becomes Natural: a Sayadaw U Tejaniya Practice Style Retreat
With Lienchi (LC) Tran
August 9 - 17, 2025
This retreat welcomes both beginners and experienced meditators. Registration for this retreat closes on July 26th, 2025 at 11:59pm Pacific Time. If looking to join after this date, please inquire at guestservices@bigbearretreatcenter.org. In this 9-day retreat, we will explore Vipassana meditation in the practice style of Sayadaw U Tejaniya. Sayadaw’s approach is free from rigid forms, influenced by his previous life as a layperson and his interest in adaptable practices. Nonetheless, his teachings are rigorous, emphasizing Right View, Awareness, and a relaxed, gentle, continuous practice attitude throughout the day. You will explore how to create the conditions for awareness to…
Dharma Dharma: The Unfolding of Nature (approved registrations only)
With Lienchi (LC) Tran
August 19 - 23, 2025
Camping - A Monastic Practice in Nature A retreat offered in the Thai forest tradition. Participants must submit an application, interview with the teacher, and be approved to attend. Registration closes August 1st at 11:59pm Pacific Time. “Dharma” means nature, and this retreat will encourage yogis to explore their own nature (body and mind) while immersed in the natural world. By living simply, observing noble silence, and practicing in a mindful community, participants will learn to relate to themselves and others in a more loving and sacred way. By walking under a clear blue sky, sitting in the shade of…
Dharma Dharma: The Unfolding of Nature
With Lienchi (LC) Tran
August 19 - 23, 2025
Camping - A Monastic Practice in Nature A retreat offered in the Thai forest tradition. Participants must submit an application, interview with the teacher, and be approved to attend. Registration closes August 1st at 11:59pm Pacific Time. “Dharma” means nature, and this retreat will encourage yogis to explore their own nature (body and mind) while immersed in the natural world. By living simply, observing noble silence, and practicing in a mindful community, participants will learn to relate to themselves and others in a more loving and sacred way. By walking under a clear blue sky, sitting in the shade of…
Condo Kids Reunion Aug 2025
August 25 - 26, 2025
Big Bear Retreat Center
Condo Kids Reunion at Big Bear Retreat Center Monday, August 25th - Tuesday, August 26th, 2025 Accommodations: The Center consists of several single-story buildings and cabins for dining, meditation and sleeping. Our residence cabins are large furnished and comfortable with 3-4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms, living rooms, a full kitchen and decks outside in nature for shared use. Meals: The Center provides fresh, healthy meals made with seasonal and organic ingredients. Meals begin with dinner on arrival evening through to breakfast on departure morning. We can accommodate most major dietary restrictions. Snacks will be available in the dining hall 24/7,…
BIPOC Community Retreat
With JoAnna Hardy, Devin Berry, Alli Simon and Hakim Tafari
August 27 - 31, 2025
This is a retreat for people who identify as Black, Indigenous, or as a Person-of-Color. Both beginning and experienced practitioners are welcome. Registration for this retreat closes on August 13th, 2025 at 11:59pm Pacific Time. If looking to join after this date, please inquire at guestservices@bigbearretreatcenter.org. Coming together as a BIPOC community, we create a space of ease and support to meditate and cultivate inner freedom. Held in an environment of silence, this retreat provides an in-depth experience of the Buddha’s teachings on mindful awareness, as well as the cultivation of lovingkindness meditation, illuminating a path toward healing and greater…
The Brilliant Weave of the Brahma Viharas and Emptiness
With Lisa Ernst and David Cabrera
August 31 - September 4, 2025
Open to both beginning and experienced practitioners. Registration for this retreat closes on August 17, 2025 at 11:59pm Pacific Time. If looking to join after this date, please inquire at guestservices@bigbearretreatcenter.org. Experience the power of an open heart in the expanse of awareness. The Buddha taught that we all have the capacity to abide in the four Brahma Viharas (the divine heart states). These are: Lovingkindness, Compassion, Sympathetic Joy, and Equanimity. If we look deeper, we will see the interplay of emptiness with the Brahma Viharas and how they support each other. Emptiness in Buddhism is the direct experience of…
Love and Rest [Online]
With Beth Sternlieb and Matthew Brensilver
September 16 - 21, 2025
This online retreat is open to both beginning and experienced practitioners. Registration for this retreat closes on September 16, 2025 at 2:00pm Pacific Time. We often long for love, both giving and receiving, but the busyness of life and the agitation of our minds do not create the conditions for love to arise. In dharma practice, we find love naturally arises when we rest deeply. When we let go of the dissatisfaction of endless grasping, we experience loving awareness itself. As we do this, we discover what’s been waiting there all along, a softening of the heart, a truly satisfying…
Love and Rest
With Beth Sternlieb and Matthew Brensilver
September 16 - 21, 2025
Open to both beginning and experienced practitioners. Registration for this retreat closes on September 2nd, 2025 at 11:59pm Pacific Time. If looking to join after this date, please inquire at guestservices@bigbearretreatcenter.org We often long for love, both giving and receiving, but the busyness of life and the agitation of our minds do not create the conditions for love to arise. In dharma practice, we find love naturally arises when we rest deeply. When we let go of the dissatisfaction of endless grasping, we experience loving awareness itself. As we do this, we discover what’s been waiting there all along, a…
Fall Invitational: Mindfulness in Our Daily Lives
September 22 - 24, 2025
More information Coming Soon Voluntary contribution-based pricing, pay at any amount We ask that everyone attend the entire retreat. Please register by September 8th. A retreat designed to explore mindfulness and bring it into our daily lives. Description and more details coming soon. WHAT TO EXPECT More details coming soon. HEAR MORE ABOUT THIS PROGRAM AND FACILITATORS A truly inspirational gathering of people! There was so much intentionality and kindness. I feel truly grateful and rejuvenated. Thank you for opening this transformational experience up. - Winter Invitational 2024 Participant Coming to the BBRC retreat was one of…
Cultivating Kindness: A Women’s Retreat of Mindfulness and Self-Compassion through Practice, Writing, and Movement
With Susan Steinberg-Oren, Christine Suarez and Lesley Hyatt
September 25 - 28, 2025
Book early and get $100.00 off listed prices. Offer valid until Jun 30, 2025.
A retreat for women and women-identified folks. Open to both beginning and experienced practitioners. Registration for this retreat closes on September 10, 2025 at 11:59pm Pacific Time. If looking to join after this date, please inquire at guestservices@bigbearretreatcenter.org. Through mindfulness, self-compassion, reflective writing, and movement, we will connect with each other and ourselves, cultivating and deepening our capacity to journey through our lives with greater ease and loving awareness. Come together with other women and woman-identified folks to explore practices that help us find compassion and kindness when we face stressful situations, painful emotions, and challenging relationships. This 4-day and…
Wake Up to Your Life: A Householder Retreat [Online]
With Dawn Mauricio and Gullu Singh
September 28 - October 2, 2025
Book now and get a special $50.00 off listed prices! Offer valid until Jul 31, 2025.
This online program is open to both beginning and experienced practitioners. Registration for this program closes on September 27, 2025 at 11:59pm Pacific Time. To inquire about joining after registration closes, please contact guestservices@bigbearretreatcenter.org. In the Buddha’s time, the path of awakening was not reserved for monastics alone. The Householder’s Way invites us to wake up in the midst of our lives—not in spite of them. Work, relationships, family, and the responsibilities of daily living are not obstacles to the path—they are the path. This retreat will explore how mindfulness, wise effort, wise speech, and heartful presence can be cultivated…
Awakening Mindfulness and Compassion
With Diana Winston, Leslie Booker and Vadan Ritter (movement teacher)
September 29 - October 4, 2025
Book early and get $100.00 off listed prices. Offer valid until Jun 30, 2025.
This retreat for beginning or experienced students. In collaboration with: Cultivate the wisdom and compassion we need to carry forward into our lives. Join us for a five-night silent retreat in the beautiful natural setting of Big Bear Retreat Center, only two hours from Los Angeles. We will spend our days deepening our meditation practice in the service of cultivating wisdom and compassion that we need in our lives. As we settle our minds, supported by nature, we can see ourselves and the world with deeper clarity and allow our inner wisdom to emerge. The retreat will include sitting and walking…
In Wisdom We Walk, In Liberation We Rise: A Women’s Retreat [Online]
With Spring Washam, Erin Selover and Monica Magtoto (movement)
October 5 - 12, 2025
This retreat welcomes all who identify as women, gender expansive, and nonbinary who are nourished in women centered spaces. Open to both beginners and experienced practitioners. Registration for this retreat closes on October 5, 2025 at 2pm Pacific Time. A Sanctuary for Women’s Wisdom, Intuition, and Collective Liberation. Join us for a transformative journey at the praxis of wisdom and liberation. We intend to offer practices to tap into the energy of the sacred mother, the deep intuitive knowing, the awakening heart, and both personal and collective liberation. Through Insight Meditation, embodied movement, and earth-based practices, we will explore what it…
In Wisdom We Walk, In Liberation We Rise: A Women’s Retreat
With Spring Washam, Erin Selover and Monica Magtoto (movement)
October 5 - 12, 2025
Book early and get $100.00 off listed prices. Offer valid until Jun 30, 2025.
This retreat welcomes all who identify as women, gender expansive, and nonbinary who are nourished in women centered spaces. Open to both beginners and experienced practitioners. A Sanctuary for Women’s Wisdom, Intuition, and Collective Liberation. Join us for a transformative journey at the praxis of wisdom and liberation. We intend to offer practices to tap into the energy of the sacred mother, the deep intuitive knowing, the awakening heart, and both personal and collective liberation. Through Insight Meditation, embodied movement, and earth-based practices, we will explore what it means to walk in wisdom, allowing our intuition to guide us and our…
Sacred Refuge: An Embodied Devotional Retreat in Nature
With Djuna Devereaux and Yong Oh
October 13 - 18, 2025
Book early and get $100.00 off listed prices. Offer valid until Jun 30, 2025.
Open to both beginning and experienced practitioners. Registration for this retreat closes on September 29, 2025 at 11:59pm Pacific Time. If looking to join after this date, please inquire at guestservices@bigbearretreatcenter.org Devotion is the expression of our most intimate longing to awaken. Our retreat will tend to this longing through Insight Meditation, mindful movement, and devotional practice. Our days will include intentional time and practice in nature. Devotion begins as attention and deepens through love. Devotion is expressed in the body, heart, and mind as our most intimate longing to awaken. Within the refuge of an integrated experience of Dharma,…
Loving Nature and Finding Joy
With JD Doyle and Andrés González
October 18 - 22, 2025
Book early and get $100.00 off listed prices. Offer valid until Jun 30, 2025.
Open to both beginning and experienced practitioners. Registration for this retreat closes on October 4, 2025 at 11:59pm Pacific Time. If looking to join after this date, please inquire at guestservices@bigbearretreatcenter.org This four night retreat will deepen our connection to loving awareness for ourselves and for the earth. Each day will include time to meditate in nature, immersing ourselves in the natural beauty of the mountains and cultivating embodied mindfulness which engages all of our senses. Whether during meditations, listening to the wind in the trees, or gazing at the night sky, we will open to all the joy the…
Mindfulness for Everyone
With Dave Smith and Ann Brand
October 23 - 26, 2025
Book early and get $100.00 off listed prices. Offer valid until Jun 30, 2025.
This retreat is specially designed for those on their first retreat, with partial silence. We welcome beginning or experienced students. A meditation retreat fostering a meaningful engagement with ourselves and this world. This retreat will provide practice and theory rooted in both the early Buddhist tradition and secular understanding found within various fields of scientific and therapeutic inquiry. The focus is for each of us to find a middle way by developing tools and techniques that are supportive to our emotional and psychological make-up. The retreat will follow a partial silence that will allow for longer periods of silent practice…
Gathering In: A Fall Retreat for Mindfulness and Connection [Online]
With Devon Sangster Rath and Anthony "T" Maes
October 24 - 26, 2025
Book now and get a special $50.00 off listed prices! Offer valid until Aug 31, 2025.
This online retreat is open to both beginning and experienced practitioners. Registration for this program closes on October 24, 2025 at 5pm Pacific Time. To inquire about joining after registration closes, please contact guestservices@bigbearretreatcenter.org. An Online Weekend of Community, Presence, and Practice As the leaves let go and drift gently earthward, we too are invited to release—into stillness, into presence, into connection. We’ll gather in shared silence and intentional practice. Through solo meditation, guided relational mindfulness, and off-screen time for walking and movement, we’ll root into the wisdom of the season: slowing down, turning inward, and opening to the beauty…
Embodying The Heart of Listening: A Meditation Retreat for Facilitators, Guides, SpaceHolders, and Therapists
With Deborah Eden Tull
October 26 - 31, 2025
Book early and get $100.00 off listed prices. Offer valid until Jun 30, 2025.
Open to both beginning and experienced practitioners. Registration for this retreat closes on October 12, 2025 at 11:59pm Pacific Time. If looking to join after this date, please inquire at guestservices@bigbearretreatcenter.org Listening to Life as it unfolds moment by moment is the essence of meditation. This is a restorative retreat based in deep embodied listening - to ourselves, the earth, one another, and the invisible realm. You will be among not only mindfulness and meditation facilitators, but all who work as changemakers with people in groups or one on one, and are ready for a deeper dive into relational and…
Luminous Darkness: The Power of Embracing the Unknown
With Deborah Eden Tull
October 31 - November 2, 2025
Book early and get $100.00 off listed prices. Offer valid until Jun 30, 2025.
Open to both beginning and experienced practitioners. Registration for this retreat closes on October 17, 2025 at 11:59pm Pacific Time. If looking to join after this date, please inquire at guestservices@bigbearretreatcenter.org We often think of the darkness as an absence of light, but the darkness–we discover through meditation practice–has its own enlightening power. Darkness reveals the unknown and embodies depth, making space for new discoveries, insight and transformation. This autumn, join Deborah Eden Tull as we take a walk on the dark side, exploring the power of our shadow, our challenges and our adversities to awaken us to new levels…
Befriending Mortality: Living An Awakened Life Through Mindfulness of Death (Maranasati)
With Nikki Mirghafori
November 2 - 6, 2025
Book early and get $100.00 off listed prices. Offer valid until Aug 31, 2025.
Open to beginner and experienced practitioners. Previous silent meditation retreat experience strongly recommended. This retreat invites you to stop running from mortality and instead harness its wisdom to align more fully with your deepest values. In Western culture, death is often an avoided topic, despite being an inevitable part of life. Through the ancient Buddhist practice of mindfulness of death (maranasati), we can become more present for the fleeting, miraculous nature of our lives, cultivating compassion, wisdom, and gratitude. Reflecting on our impermanence frees us from clinging and fosters deep peace. By embracing our finitude, we can embody kindness for…
Resting in Metta: Cultivating an Awakened Heart
With Celeste Young and Dawn Scott
November 11 - 18, 2025
Book early and get $100.00 off listed prices. Offer valid until Aug 31, 2025.
Open to both beginners and experienced practitioners. Registration for this retreat closes on October 28, 2025 at 11:59pm Pacific Time. If looking to join after this date, please inquire at guestservices@bigbearretreatcenter.org Join us in the beauty of the San Bernardino mountains as we relax into the four qualities of an awakened heart: Lovingkindness (Metta), Compassion (Karuna), Appreciative Joy (Mudita) and Equanimity (Upekkha). Allowing ourselves to be held in this beautiful and secluded retreat setting, we will learn to slow down and attune to the fresh simplicity of our present moment experience. Combining the heart qualities with mindfulness, we will ease…
Ancestors Welcome Here [Online]
With Ream, Kimber Simpkins and Em Morrison
November 14 - 16, 2025
Book now and get a special $50.00 off listed prices! Offer valid until Sep 30, 2025.
*For self-identified white people. If you identify as white and are committed to racial justice, land and liberation, this retreat is for you. Registration for this program closes on November 14, 2025 at 5pm Pacific Time. To inquire about joining after registration closes, please contact guestservices@bigbearretreatcenter.org. An Ancestral Healing Retreat for White Practitioners Committed to Racial Justice White people: We need all the help we can get. Who can we be today to change the conditions of our world for the better, to right the wrongs of the past in the present, and to find the way to the future,…
Taking a Larger Perspective in these Transition Times [Online]
With Ayya Santacitta and Kate Davies
November 21 - 23, 2025
Book now and get a special $50.00 off listed prices! Offer valid until Sep 30, 2025.
This online retreat is open to both new and experienced practitioners. Registration for this program closes on November 21, 2025 at 5pm Pacific Time. To inquire about joining after registration closes, please contact guestservices@bigbearretreatcenter.org. Slowing down - Listening - Re-membering - Engaging In this retreat we will look at what’s happening in our world through the lens of the end of modernity – that time in history characterized by beliefs in limitless growth, colonialism, science & technology, human supremacy and individualism. If we can see what’s happening as necessary and unavoidable, we can begin to let something new be born,…
Belonging and Thriving, Being Your Own Good Friend: LGBTQIA+ Retreat
With Fresh "Lev" White and Eve Decker
December 2 - 7, 2025
Book early and get $100.00 off listed prices. Offer valid until Aug 31, 2025.
This in-person retreat is open to both beginning and experienced practitioners who self-identify as LGBTQIA+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer, intersex, asexual, and beyond). Registration for this retreat closes on October 19, 2025 at 11:59pm Pacific Time. If looking to join after this date, please inquire at guestservices@bigbearretreatcenter.org Please join us for a place of refuge, with a focus on belonging, self-compassion and mindfulness. We will cultivate our capacity to be our own good friends. We’ll experience meditation, music, movement, silence, community discussions and more. We will bring together periods of silence and inner practice with teachings on cultivating mindfulness…
Winter Invitational: Creative Renewal
December 13 - 15, 2025
Rebuilding from Within Voluntary contribution-based pricing, pay at any amount We ask that everyone attend the entire retreat. Please register by November 29th. A retreat designed for connection, relaxation, and creative exploration. Join us this December for our Winter Invitational as we gather at Big Bear Retreat Center to connect with our local SOCAL community, embody rejuvenation through rest and wellbeing activities, and practice resiliency and creativity. This invitational is offered to guests free of charge with the option to offer a contribution to the center at registration. WHAT TO EXPECT Experience the joy and connection that emerges…
New Year’s Retreat: Weaving Ancient and New Ways of Being
With Ayya Santacitta and Celeste Young
December 27, 2025 - January 3, 2026
Book early and get $100.00 off listed prices. Offer valid until Sep 30, 2025.
This retreat welcomes both beginners and experienced meditators. Registration for this retreat closes on December 21st, 2025 at 11:59pm Pacific Time. If looking to join after this date, please inquire at guestservices@bigbearretreatcenter.org. During this retreat we will come together in community to support each other in consciously letting go of the past and opening to the New Year from a place of stability, ease and the inner freedom we find in deepening our practice. In these uncertain times, old cultural narratives are dissolving and we are called to navigate the world differently. The Four Protective Meditations offer us protection from…