The Dharma of Desire: From Longing to Loving Presence
With Trudy Goodman and Lisa Ernst
November 13 - 17, 2024
Big Bear Retreat Center
A Silent Insight Meditation Retreat Wednesday, November 13th - Sunday, November 17th Registration closes November 5th at 11:59pm Pacific Time On the path of awakening, sometimes we may believe desire is a problem to be eradicated. Yet when we get curious about desire and look at our relationship to it, we can enter more deeply into the fertile ground of our own being and move closer to the heart. In this retreat we will have the opportunity to explore desire in a supportive, non-judgmental space that allows us to open our hearts and meet desire with compassion and insight. When…
Fall Invitational: Creativity and Resilience
November 21 - 23, 2024
Big Bear Retreat Center
Restoration, Rejuvenation & Peer Connection: Exploring Resilience through Creativity and Play (voluntary contribution-based pricing, pay at any amount) Thursday November 21 - Saturday November 23 (lunch to lunch) *we ask that everyone plan to attend the entire retreat Please register by November 13 11:59PM Pacific A retreat designed for connection, relaxation, and interactive discussions. Join us this November for our Fall 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…
Ancestors Welcome Here
With Ream, Kimber Simpkins and Em Morrison
December 3 - 8, 2024
Big Bear Retreat Center
Ancestral Healing Retreat For White Practitioners Committed to Racial Justice Tuesday, December 3rd - Sunday, December 8th Registration closes November 25th at 11:59pm Pacific Time 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, so we can become good ancestors to the world to come? Working at the level of the body, we will welcome our wise and loving ancestors of blood and bone to extend…
Saturday Sangha at Big Bear Retreat Center (December 2024)
December 12 - 15, 2024
Big Bear Retreat Center
Please plan to attend the entire time. Join us for a invite-only gathering of the Saturday Sangha (and friends) meditation group. A chance to gather in community in the beautiful SoCal mountains of Big Bear. We'll come together for a light retreat schedule, with partial moments of silence throughout the day (typically mornings), and a chance to practice deeper together in nature. This is accessible to all levels of practice, and a great fit if it's your first retreat. Your Stay with us Includes: A private bedroom in a shared retreat cabin (up to 3-4 rooms), with wifi, a kitchen,…
Awake in the New Year
With Enrique Collazo and Deborah Eden Tull
December 30, 2024 - January 4, 2025
Big Bear Retreat Center
A Dharma & Dance Retreat Monday, December 30th - Saturday, January 4th Registration closes December 23rd at 11:59pm Pacific Time The New Year is a powerful threshold. Buddhist traditions have long emphasized the importance of setting clear and conscious intentions in our spiritual life and engagement in the world. In this New Year’s retreat you will be invited to listen deeply, reflect, restore, and create new possibilities. You will be guided through a unique journey of embodiment – bridging dharma and dance, stillness and motion, personal and collective awakening. Grounded in Buddhism and acknowledging the gravity of the times we face, we…
The Sacred Path of Connection & Belonging: A Women’s Springtime Nature Retreat
With Heidi Bourne and Laurie Cousins
March 5 - 9, 2025
Book early and get $100.00 off listed prices. Offer valid until Nov 1, 2024.
The in-person Women's Springtime Nature Retreat is open to both beginning and seasoned practitioners, to all female-identified persons over the age of 18, including LGBTQIA+. Gather with a group of women for a restorative, spacious and nourishing retreat as winter turns to spring. Over five days and four nights we'll connect with ourselves, each other, and the natural world as we renew and reclaim our innate strength to inhabit our lives with creativity, trust, compassion and wisdom. Drawing on the perspectives of Buddhist practice, everyday mindfulness, and the wisdom of the natural world, our silent retreat includes meditation throughout the day, mindful movement, small group practice discussions, and…
Being Dharma: SMS and BBRC Month-long Residential Retreat 2025
March 13 - April 12, 2025
This in-person retreat is open to experienced practitioners by application only. This page is for all those that have been accepted into the program to register and submit a deposit. Being Dharma, the monthlong residential retreat, is presented by Sacred Mountain Sangha and Big Bear Retreat Center. If you have any questions regarding the application process, please email info@sacredmountainsangha.org. For more about the retreat, visit the full description here. ACCESSIBILITY We are committed to accessibility. Big Bear Retreat Center has faith in the power of belonging and generosity. Please review our FAQs for more detailed information on accessibility to our campus…
Ethics and Love in Interpersonal Life [Online]
With Matthew Brensilver
April 16 - 20, 2025
A dharma program with Matthew Brensilver, open to both beginners and experienced practitioners. *5-day Retreat (in-person & online) + 6 week course* We live in a web of mutuality; the interpersonal realm is where the rubber meets the road in our spiritual practice. Our relationships – personal and professional – act like a magnet, pulling both our goodness and our pain to the surface. How can we draw on dharma principles and practices to enrich our interpersonal lives? How can others serve as mirror for our inquiry into ourselves? The Buddhist tradition provides ethical guidance: lives founded on goodness, sensitivity…
Ethics and Love in Interpersonal Life [On Land]
With Matthew Brensilver
April 16 - 20, 2025
A dharma program with Matthew Brensilver, open to both beginners and experienced practitioners. *5-day Retreat (in-person & online) + 6 week course* We live in a web of mutuality; the interpersonal realm is where the rubber meets the road in our spiritual practice. Our relationships – personal and professional – act like a magnet, pulling both our goodness and our pain to the surface. How can we draw on dharma principles and practices to enrich our interpersonal lives? How can others serve as mirror for our inquiry into ourselves? The Buddhist tradition provides ethical guidance: lives founded on goodness, sensitivity…
Six Week Program: Ethics and Love in Interpersonal Life [Online]
With Matthew Brensilver
April 24 - May 29, 2025
Zoom (details shared over email)
A Six Week Integration dharma program with Matthew Brensilver *available for all those that attend the in person and online April retreat* Please ensure you are registered for the April 16-20, 2025 retreat first, this program is only available for those attending the retreat. In-person and Online options available. Dates for the program are as follows: In-person and Online Retreat: (must attend all dates) April 16th – 20th, 2025 Online Integration Sessions via Zoom: (please plan to attend all sessions) April 24th: 7pm – 8pm PT May 1st: 7pm – 8pm PT May 8th: 7pm – 8pm PT May 15th:…
Simplicity and Stillness: Cultivating the 5 Spiritual Strengths [Online]
With Celeste Young and Devon Hase
April 24 - 30, 2025
This online retreat is open to both beginners and experienced practitioners. During this weeklong spring insight meditation retreat, we will learn to slow down and attune to the fresh simplicity of our present moment experience, rest in stillness, and connect with the heart's inner capacity for healing and freedom. We will be exploring the cultivation of the 5 spiritual strengths or the 5 spiritual faculties that the Buddha taught: cultivating mindfulness, confidence and trust, persistence, concentration, and wisdom to support the development of our meditation practice. We’ll tend to the heart and mind with compassionate mindfulness and strengthen our connection…
Simplicity and Stillness: Cultivating the 5 Spiritual Strengths [On Land]
With Celeste Young and Devon Hase
April 24 - 30, 2025
Book early and get $100.00 off listed prices. Offer valid until Nov 1, 2024.
This in-person retreat is open to both beginners and experienced practitioners. During this weeklong spring insight meditation retreat, we will learn to slow down and attune to the fresh simplicity of our present moment experience, rest in stillness, and connect with the heart's inner capacity for healing and freedom. We will be exploring the cultivation of the 5 spiritual strengths or the 5 spiritual faculties that the Buddha taught: cultivating mindfulness, confidence and trust, persistence, concentration, and wisdom to support the development of our meditation practice. We’ll tend to the heart and mind with compassionate mindfulness and strengthen our connection…
Coming Home to Our Senses [Online]
With Trudy Goodman, Gullu Singh and Gabrielle Hammond (Qi Gong)
May 15 - 20, 2025
This online retreat is open to both beginners and experienced practitioners. Along the path of dharma practice we make it a habit to connect to the truth of each moment as experienced in the body and through all the senses. By doing so, we can effectively reduce anxiety and confusion, making room for peace and joy. Meditation can also help balance our nervous system, moving us from fight, flight or freeze to rest and digest. This is profoundly healing. Not only do we learn to notice the habit of getting lost in troubled thinking, we practice creating a whole new…
Coming Home to Our Senses [On Land]
With Trudy Goodman, Gullu Singh and Gabrielle Hammond (Qi Gong)
May 15 - 20, 2025
Book early and get $100.00 off listed prices. Offer valid until Nov 1, 2024.
This in-person retreat is open to both beginners and experienced practitioners. Along the path of dharma practice we make it a habit to connect to the truth of each moment as experienced in the body and through all the senses. By doing so, we can effectively reduce anxiety and confusion, making room for peace and joy. Meditation can also help balance our nervous system, moving us from fight, flight or freeze to rest and digest. This is profoundly healing. Not only do we learn to notice the habit of getting lost in troubled thinking, we practice creating a whole new…
Entering the Silence of Recovery
With Vimalasara Mason-John and Kevin Griffin
May 22 - 25, 2025
This in-person retreat is open to both beginners and experienced practitioners. All recovery paths are welcome, whether Twelve Step, Recovery Dharma, Eight Step Recovery, substance, process, or relationship-oriented. Join us for this unique meditation retreat combining traditional Buddhist practices with recovery and healing. Primarily conducted in silence, the retreat focuses on insight/mindfulness meditation, with additional interactive exercises, lectures, and meetings exploring ways that Buddhism and a recovery program can complement each other. The emphasis will be on bringing mindfulness to all our activities, whether in formal meditation, movement, speaking, listening, or eating. Participants will practice Noble Silence outside of the…