About the Retreat
The Pema Chödrön Foundation, in partnership with Drala Mountain Center, is happy to offer a Retreat for Young Adults.
The Pema Chödrön Foundation covers the cost of lodging for this retreat. You pay only for tuition.
This retreat for young adults is designed to give participants an experience of contemplative life. Our true nature is sacred and shared with everyone and everything in our environment. Connecting with this is how we come home. In this retreat, we’ll do so through meditation practice, in-person group connection, and lots of time in nature. Our practice will be based on total friendliness and acceptance of ourselves and each other, feeling what we feel, and being who we are. We will deepen our connection with the natural world of earth, water, fire, wind, and space: we’re made of these. They give us life and reveal our wisdom.
The more we come home in this way together, the more grounded, connected, and free we are, and the more our natural wisdom and compassion can shine forth and guide our lives. It can also help us rejuvenate and heal whatever turmoil we go through. This may include the painful feelings of anxiety, despair, and exhaustion many any of us can experience amidst the challenges of a rapidly changing world, strained relationships, and a climate in crisis. These challenges call us to find the balance and wisdom needed to move ahead with a sense of clarity and purpose.
For millennia in Buddhism, precepts — guidelines for our actions that we agree to keep — have been used as a support for retreat practice and in various forms for monastics and householders who wish to have such a foundation in their lives. Precepts can help us relax and focus within a container of safety, simplicity, and harmony. During this retreat, we’ll keep the five Buddhist precepts, which include protecting and not taking life, remaining sober, being truthful, not engaging in sexual relations with others during the length of time of the retreat, and not stealing (not that that’s usually an issue!). As a symbol of this, we’ll wear an upper meditation shawl called a “dzen”.
We warmly welcome anyone interested who either has some background in meditation practice or a deep interest in learning.
