Silent Meditation and Yin Yoga Retreat
with Josh Summers, assisted by Terry Cockburn
August 27 – September 2, 2018
Venue: Spirit Fire, Leyden, MA
Experience the supreme beauty and quietude of the Berkshires at Spirit Fire Rmietreat Center in Leyden, Massachusetts. Located on 95 acres of forest, meadow, and ridge-surrounded valley, this pristine facility has many special details, making it an ideal setting for a peaceful and nourishing week. Vegetarian meals are locally sourced and organic. Dietary preferences can be made upon request.
This is a seven-day, six-night silent meditation retreat. Unplugged and removed from the pressures of daily life, a retreat experience provides a safe and secure environment to explore one’s inner and outer landscape, cultivating tools of wisdom and compassion.
The Retreat immersion allows students to clarify and know directly in their own experience the transformative potential of these teachings and practices.
- On Silence – Although The Retreat is a silent retreat, there will be time throughout the schedule for instruction and discussion around one’s practice. Think of the silence as a generalized commitment to quietude which promotes an ongoing investigation of one’s internal and external landscape. Scheduled discussions during the day will help promote that exploration.
- On Simplicity – The schedule of The Retreat will move between periods of sitting meditation and Yin Yoga practice. Short breaks are also included. But students on retreat are encouraged to step outside of their normal habits of distraction (online, phone, computers, etc.) and cultivate a presence to be with themselves and their experience.
- On Style – The style of meditation emphasized on The Retreat is a Yin approach to Insight Meditation. This approach emphasizes receptivity and interest towards the totality of your experience while meditating. This is a meditative process that cultivates a creative approach to your own path in life.
- On Journaling – Another feature of this approach to Insight Meditation is that after each meditation there is a period of time to reflectively journal about your experience as a way to further develop understanding and insight into your practice.
- As with all Modules, the Retreat can be taken by anyone with a strong interest to explore their practice of Yin Yoga and meditation within this environment.
- Recommended, but not required: Mindfulness Teacher Training Module. To be taken prior to attending The Retreat (for those enrolled in the Summers School of Yin Yoga).
The Retreat Theme:
Often in our yoga and meditation practice there is an implicit bias against thinking. We compare our thinking mind to a wild monkey on amphetamines, swinging anxiously from thought to thought. We try to NOT be lost in thought. We try to focus on our body and breath.
But in practice, we don’t need to be at war with our minds. In fact, we can engage with our thoughts in more skillful ways that serve our development of peace and wisdom.
In this retreat, we will use the quiet practices of meditation and Yin Yoga, followed by reflective writing, to shed light on experience, to learn from that experience, and to promote an onward cultivation of wisdom and compassion.
Appropriate for beginners as well as experienced meditators.
Schedule:
The daily schedule will include sessions of seated meditation, walking meditation, reflective writing, discussion and a daily session of Yin Yoga. Please note: this is a gentle, but intensive, retreat. It is not a ‘yoga holiday’ retreat with large periods of unscheduled time. We will wake at 6 am and endeavor to cultivate mindfulness through each and every activity of the daily schedule until retiring at 9:00 pm.
Sample Schedule:
6:00am Wake Up 🙂
6:30am – 7:15am Meditation/Journal
7:30am – 8:30am Breakfast
9:00am – 10:30am Dharma Talk/Meditation/Journal
10:45am – 12:00pm Q and A/Discussion /Meditation/Journal
12pm – 1pm Lunch
1:30pm – 2:30pm Interview Group
2:45pm – 3:30pm Meditation/Journal
4:00pm – 5:45pm Yin Yoga
6:00pm – 7:00pm Dinner
7:30pm – 8:00pm Dharma Talk / Discussion
8:15pm – 9:00pm Meditation/Journal
Accommodations:
There are no single rooms at this retreat center. All rooms are double or triple occupancy, and are on a first come/first serve basis.
Payment and Refund Policy:
The Retreat fee includes shared accommodation, three vegetarian meals per day, meditation, and yoga instruction.
Receive the Early Bird Rate of $1,495 by securing a non-refundable 25% deposit by March 31, 2018.
Thereafter, the price increases to $1,650, and space is secured with a non-refundable 25% deposit.
***PLEASE NOTE: This retreat is fully booked; we are accepting names for waitlist, only. Please consider joining us in Granada this October!***
Balance is due June 30, 2018.
Cancellations after June 30: We will refund 75% of your fee, only if we (you or I) are able to find a replacement for your spot.
Upon registering, you will receive a letter detailing arrival/departure information, and frequently asked questions. Please let us know at this time if you are traveling with a partner/friend and would like to be placed in a room together. We will do our best to honor such requests.
Please note: Students enrolled in the Summers School of Yin Yoga will receive 70 hrs of Retreat credit for attending.
To register, please email Josh using the form below.
About your teachers:
Josh Summers is a Yin Yoga teacher, a licensed acupuncturist, and a meditation instructor. He is the founder of the Summers School of Yin Yoga and host of the Everyday Sublime podcast.
Terry Cockburn teaches Yin and Vinyasa yoga and is the owner of two yoga studios in the State of Maine. She is a marathon runner and lead trainer in the Summers School of Yin Yoga.
Together, Josh and Terry have nearly 40 years of teaching experience and are committed to their ongoing learning and development.