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BUDDHIST MEDITATION RETREAT CENTERS
After you learn meditation and have your own practice, you may want to progress to a short (e.g., weekend) or longer (e.g., ten days or more) meditation retreat. Here are our recommended retreat centers offering guided meditation retreats.
Goenka Vipassana Retreat Center
Location: Worldwide
Retreats are residential (stay-in) and ten-day in length. Participants follow a prescribed Code of Discipline and learn the basics of the method. There is an extensive listing of Goenka Vipassana meditation retreat centers around the world. While having Buddhist roots, Goenka retreats are secular.
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Angela Shares …
Goenka Vipassana Retreat Centres
🪷 You should be accustomed to sitting in silence for at least 10 minutes daily for a few months. It’d be better if you have had 20-30 minute long (or even longer) regular sits.
🪷 Goenka retreats are intensive. They are run in total noble silence – no talking and no eye contact with others. A 10-day retreat would be really beneficial to deepen your practice.
🪷 Unlike meditation retreats run by monasteries like Dharma Drum, and Jhana Grove, which already has a system in place with pre-requisites, anyone is free to apply to a Goenka 10-day retreat.
🪷 Therefore, we do not recommend the 10-day retreat as your first contact point of meditation. We also recommend that you resolve any deep mental issues (if any), before going for the retreat.
Spirit Rock
Location: California, United States, and Online
Large retreat center offering online, hybrid and onsite Buddhist Vipassana retreats, generally in the Theravada tradition, taught by teachers who have passed an extensive training program.
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Spirit Rock
🪷 Spirit Rock features very highly trained teachers.
🪷 The setting is stunning, set in rolling hills about 30 mins north of San Francisco
🪷 Retreats are offered in a huge variety of types, from two months to a few days.
🪷 Most retreats are insight related retreats from the Theravada tradition, but frequently concepts from other lineages are included.
🪷 Many options for affinity group practice are available.
🪷 Housing are single and double rooms. Vegetarian food is offered.
Dharma Drum Retreat Center
Location: Worldwide, and Online
Regular retreats are offered by monastic sangha and lay faculty from Dharma Drum Mountain lineage (法鼓山). Retreats start with basic methods, and progress into specialized Chan methods like huatou (話頭) and silent illumination (默照).
There are Dharma Drum centers globally. Chinese-speaking friends can explore the Chinese website. Dharma Drum centers also organize online programs and retreats.
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Dharma Drum Retreat Centres
🪷 The Dharma Drum lineage method of practicing meditation is highly comprehensive. It includes movement meditation & stretching in addition to the regular sitting and walking meditation. It is also a highly structured program/curriculum which allows you to progress into more advanced styles of meditation (in the Chinese tradition) like huatou and silent illumination from the foundational methods.
🪷 There are pre-requisites (foundational meditation experience) and conditions before one is allowed to go for an intensive meditation retreat. This is wise because it ensures one is ready for a longer retreat.
🪷 Practicing meditation in the Dharma Drum lineage would allow you to progress well in a reputable and well-supported global fourfold sangha community, of monks, nuns, layman and laywoman. We highly recommend it.
Jhana Grove Retreat Center
Location: Perth, Australia
Residential (stay-in) retreats are regularly led by the monastic Sangha of the nearby Bodhinyana and Dhammasara Monasteries. All retreats focus on meditation and retreatants follow the eight-precepts of Buddhism.
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Jhana Grove Retreat Centre
🪷 The retreats are guided by monastic Sangha (Buddhist monk). You would be required to take refuge in the triple gems, and keep the 8 precepts during the course of the retreat.
🪷 There are pre-requisites on meditation experience, and conditions on mental health before one is allowed to go a longer meditation retreat. This condition is wise as it ensures one is ready for a longer retreat.
🪷 If you are an experienced meditator, you could consider booking into Jhana Grove for your own self-guided practice.
Cloud Mountain
Location: Washington, United States
Cloud Mountain Retreat Center is a non-sectarian Buddhist center hosting residential retreats year round. Retreats are of various lengths and from various Buddhist traditions in a beautiful rustic location.
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Cloud Mountain
🪷 Cloud mountain has an amazing rustic center in the beautiful lush green forest.
🪷 They offer a variety of buddhist teachers from several lineages.
🪷 The meditation retreat max size is 45 people, making for a lovely, cozy and intimate experience.
🪷 Housing options range from small single rooms to dorm style housing and camping is possible
🪷 Vegetarian meals are offered and tend towards the simple and wholesome
Insight Meditation Society
Location: Massachusetts, United States, and Online
IMS is one of the Western world’s oldest and most-respected meditation retreat centers. Experienced teachers offer guidance in Buddhist meditations known as vipassana (insight) and metta (lovingkindness). While the context is the Buddha’s teachings, these practices are universal.
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Insight Meditation Society
🪷 IMS features very highly trained teachers and deep experience.
🪷 IMS is located smack dab in the middle of Massachusetts, about 1.5 hours from Boston.
🪷 Retreats are offered in a huge variety of types, from two months to a few days.
🪷 Most retreats are insight related retreats from the Theravada tradition, but frequently concepts from other lineages are included.
🪷 Many options for affinity group practice are available
Insight Retreat Center
Location: California, United States, and Online
Retreat center offering online, hybrid and onsite Buddhist Vipassana retreats, generally in the Theravada tradition.
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Bill Shares …
Insight Retreat Center
🪷 I haven’t sat a retreat at that center so decided to not give a direct report, but know the teachers well and have heard good reports.
🪷 Meng says he heartly agrees.
Drala Mountain Center
Location: Colorado, United States, and Online
Online, hybrid and in-person retreats taught in the Shambhala tradition of Vajrayana Buddhism. over 100 year-round offerings featuring indigenous wisdom traditions, body awareness practices, contemplative arts, mindful living or other paths of personal transformation. Varied offering for accommodation from tents to lodge rooms.
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Drala Mountain Center
🪷 Most retreats are Shambhala tradition, though other lineages hold events there (including mindful birding!)
🪷 Red Feather Lakes is 2 hours from Denver, set in the high mountains.
🪷 Food is generally omnivore.
“The essence of a sangha (community) is awareness, understanding, acceptance, harmony and love.”
Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh
Buddhist monk & founder of Plum Village
BUDDHIST MONASTERIES
Apart from meditation retreats which are more contained and structured in terms of schedule, visits to Buddhist monasteries are extremely useful for one on the Buddhist path. We meet Buddhist monastics and seek their guidance, meditate or chant together with them, learn the Buddha’s teachings, be immersed in a monastic lifestyle, and offer our services to the monasteries.
There are plenty of monasteries around the world, too many for us to list. We have selected a few prominent ones to feature, which are globally accessible, with meditation & mindfulness as their focus, have English-speaking programs, and are highly reputed with good teachers, Apart from our recommendations here, you may also go to your local monastery and explore the programs they offer.
Forest Monasteries in the Tradition of Ajahn Chah
Location: Worldwide, and Online
Monasteries are residences of monastics, but they sometimes host meditation retreats (1-day or longer). Some monasteries may allow short stays for lay guests. There are several international forest monasteries in the Tradition of Ajahn Chah globally, including the United States, Europe, Australia.
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Forest Monasteries in the Ajahn Chah Tradition
🪷 The network of forest sangha monasteries are highly conducive for one to experience meditation in a forest monastery setting. Apart from going to learn meditation, you can also visit the monasteries for a day visit.
🪷 As this is a monastery, lay guests staying over will need to observe the Buddhist 8 precepts.
🪷 Some of the monasteries, like Amaravati in United Kingdom has an active Youtube channel where the monastics give Dhamma talks and teaches meditation very regularly.
🪷 Monastics travel to major cities around the world to give teachings and lead retreats. Please refer to their individual monastery website for details. For people in Asia (Singapore), Buddha Dhamma Foundation hosts meditation retreats and teachings by the monastics regularly. Some of these programs are conducted online so anyone around the world can join in easily.
Plum Village
Location: Worldwide, and Online
The essence of Plum Village is that mindfulness is woven into all daily activities: while eating, walking, working, or enjoying a cup of tea together. Plum village hosts 1-day Day of Mindfulness retreats, weekend retreats, week-long retreats or longer retreats. Plum Village is headquartered in France and has many centers globally including in the United States and Australia. The Asian headquarters for Plum Village is in Thailand.
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Angela Shares …
Plum Village
🪷 Plum Village hosts 1-day Day of Mindfulness Retreat, in cities, normally led by lay people. Plum village monastics are mainly staying in the monasteries.
🪷 Plum village 1-week retreats are not conducted in noble silence. There is less emphasis on formal sitting meditation; emphasis is on activities done with mindfulness. Plum Village retreats are extremely family friendly – kids, teenagers, adults and elderly will all be deeply nourished from the experience. The practices of Plum Village are nourishing for the heart. It emphasizes community-building and mindful speech; circles hosted by monastics are heart-opening. Highly recommended!
🪷 If you prefer a retreat with strict noble silence with emphasis on sitting meditation, we recommend you look to the options given in our recommended Meditation Retreat Centers section. If you’re looking to learn how to apply mindfulness in daily life, where your family members can join you too, then Plum Village is highly suitable.
Dharma Drum Mountain
Location: Worldwide, and Online
Apart from meditation classes and retreats, Dharma Drum Mountain 法鼓山 also hosts events including Buddhist teachings, chanting and liturgy, children classes and family events. Dharma Drum Mountain is headquartered in Taiwan, with centers all over the world including major cities.
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Angela Shares …
Dharma Drum Mountain
🪷 Practicing with Dharma Drum Mountain is an excellent choice as you will learn all aspects of the Buddhist noble eightfold path. They cater to everyone in the family, from kids to the elderly.
🪷 Although Dharma Drum Mountain is rooted in Chan Meditation Lineage of Linji (Japanese: Rinzai) and Caodong (Japanese: Soto), they also have other forms of Buddhist practices like liturgical chanting, and recitation of the Buddha’s name if you find that meditation is not suitable for you.
🪷 Dharma Drum Mountain is also reputed with a well-established fourfold sangha, and you will be able to receive good life guidance from monastic Venerables. They have global presence and Dharma Drum monastics are present in cities. We highly recommend Dharma Drum mountain as a good place to learn the Buddha’s teachings and practice the noble eightfold path.
Sravasti Abbey
Location: Washington, United States, and Online
Sravasti Abbey is among the first of its kind—an American Buddhist monastic community where nuns and monks and lay students learn, practice, and live the Buddha’s teachings.
While monastic training is the focus, lay guests are also welcome to experience community life, offer service, and experience the kindness of others.
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Sravasti Abbey
🪷 Sravasti Abbey is a conducive place for for people to immerse in the holistic Buddhist path beyond meditation.
🪷 They are a rapidly growing fourfold sangha with both monks and nuns, layman and laywoman. There is great interaction between monastics and the lay community.
🪷 Even though Sravasti Abbey is located in the United States, they have an active Youtube channel where the monastics shares Dhamma regularly.
🪷 The monastics travel widely globally to give teachings.
🪷 They hosts many programs from day visits, to short retreats, teachings and longer retreats. We highly recommend visiting Sravasti Abbey to learn first-hand, how the Dharma is infused into daily life.
Ka-Nying Shedrub Ling Monastery
Location: Kathmandu, Nepal
Monastery in the Dzogchen lineage of Vajriana guided by Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche, a world-renowned Tibetan Buddhist teacher and meditation master in the Kagyu and Nyingma traditions.
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Ka Nying Shedrub Ling Monastery
🪷 Set near the stunning Boudhanath stupa in Kathmandu, this is the home of one of the foremost Dzogchen lineages in the Varjuana tradition.
🪷 As such, practices are frequently devotional in the rich Tibetan tradition, but also offered in ways that are accessible for folks that are not from the origin cultures.
🪷 Programs are offered in many languages and different programs are geared for different audiences (Western, Tibetan, academic)
“Being aware that we are in a sangha (community) where people are happy with being mindful, where people are living deeply the moments of their days, that is enough. I always feel happy in the presence of a happy sangha. If you put yourself in such an environment, then transformation will happen without much effort.”
Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh
Buddhist monk & founder of Plum Village
BUDDHIST TEACHING CENTERS
Teaching centers are lay centers which provide Dhamma teachings in a residential format. There is a schedule to follow, but it is generally less strict than in a meditation retreat.
Monastic Academy
Location: Vermont, United States
Nestled in the pristine nature of the Green Mountains of Vermont, Maple is a monastic academy that welcomes both long term residents (3 months minimum) and also periodically hosts shorter retreats open to non-residents. Headed by Soryu, retreats are influenced by the Rinzai tradition but also draw upon other Buddhist lineages. During retreats, the monastery adheres to a strict daily schedule. The practices involved on retreats include meditation, interviews, chanting and sutra study.
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Monastic Academy
🪷 Situated in remote, quiet nature, about 1 hour drive from airport.
🪷 Large central main building with private rooms for sleep available during retreat stay.
🪷 Retreats follow a strict, to the minute, adherence to schedule.
🪷 Daily retreat interviews.
🪷 While the retreats are influenced by zen practice, they incorporate influences from different lineages and tradition.
🪷 Daily chanting and movement practices incorporated during retreat.
🪷 Vegetarian diet offered.
Tushita Meditation Centre
Location: Dharamsala, India, and Online
Tushita offers a 10-day residential Introduction to Buddhism course for beginners. The course is composed of Buddhist philosophy classes supported by meditation sessions, within a silent retreat environment. The 10-day course ends with two days of intensive meditation.
Tushita also offers other courses and retreats for beginners to advanced practitioners.
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Angela Shares …
Tushita Meditation Centre
🪷 We highly recommend going for this 10-day course at some point, to set a good foundation in the Buddhist teachings. It is also a good mix of teachings and meditation sessions, so it would be suitable for beginners who maybe cannot sit for several meditation sessions a day.
🪷 While this course is held in a center of Tibetan Vajrayan lineage, the content of this course is non-sectarian and on foundational Buddhism. This course is also a pre-requisite for more advanced teaching and retreats hosted by Tushita Meditation Centre.
Samye Institute
Location: Kathmandu, Nepal, and Online
Dharma teachings, resources and education under the guidance of Phakchok Rinpoche in the Dzogchen Vajrayana lineage.
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Samye Institute
🪷 Samye is the teaching center associated with Kyabgön Phakchok Rinpoche, nephew of Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche
🪷 It offers online and in person events and training in the Dzogchen, but presented in a way that’s more attuned with modernity and western cultures and concerns.
Deer Park Institute
Location: Bir, India, and Online
Deer Park Institute is a center for the study of classical Indian wisdom traditions. Apart from hosting teachings by reputed Buddhist Venerables, and meditation retreats, Deer Park Institute also hosts programs and courses on arts and culture.
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Angela Shares …
Deer Park Institute
🪷 Deer Park Institute hosts teachings and meditation retreats led by monastics and lay faculty from all traditions in Buddhism.
🪷 It would be best to schedule your trip to Deer Park Institute to take a few back-to-back teachings.
🪷 There are many highly-reputed Buddhist masters and monasteries within the vicinity of Deer Park Institute.
🪷 Every year, Deer Park Institute hosts month-long meditation retreats which are perhaps more gentle in terms of strict rules compared to the more traditional retreats. This might be a more gentle introduction to a meditation retreat if you need it.
Gomde Centers
Location: Worldwide
Gomde centers, located all over the world, are conducive environments for the study and practice of the Buddha Dharma under the guidance of Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche and other qualified teachers.
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Gomde Centers
🪷 Gomde centers are local teaching centers where Dzogchen Vajrayana lineages are taught and practiced. Gomde centers are the local outposts for the Ka-Nying Shedrub Ling Monastery in Kathmandu. Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche is the guiding teacher.
🪷 As such, practices are frequently devotional in the rich Tibetan tradition, but also offered in ways that are accessible for folks that are not from the origin cultures.
Photo credit: the respective centers
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