Forest Refuge Schedule 2025

Practice support is offered for both Vipassana meditation and metta jhanas.

The Four Brahma Viharas

The Brahma Viharas are the divine abodes of the awakened heart. As expressions of the flowering of our dharma practice, they become our true home.

During this month-long retreat, we will devote each week to exploring one of these qualities: lovingkindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity. Instructions will cultivate specific Brahma Vihara practices and infuse insight meditation with their qualities. The teachers will offer regular meditation instructions, talks about the teachings, and individual meetings as we deepen into the nature of the Brahma Viharas.

A minimum stay for the full month of April is required.

Awareness and Wisdom Retreat

The teachings for this month will explore the four foundations of mindfulness with open awareness and receptive attention, with an emphasis on recognizing the attitude of mind and cultivating the perspective of wise view. The teachings will be influenced by both teachers’ practice with Sayadaw U Tejaniya. We request that you agree to work with the instructions offered during the retreat.

Practice discussion meetings will primarily be in small groups, meeting twice a week. The teachers will offer some sign-up interviews, so there will be a chance for a private meeting if there is something you don’t feel comfortable bringing up in the group.

A minimum stay for the full month of May is required.

A lottery has been conducted on October 1, 2024 for this course. All approved applications received after this date will be added to the waitlist. 

Participants are expected to follow Ajahn’s schedule and instructions, which include observance of the eight precepts. 

A minimum stay for the full month of June is required.

A lottery has been conducted on November 1, 2024 for this course. All approved applications received after this date will be added to the waitlist. 

Wise Perspectives, Loving Attitude

To understand and live life fully, wise perspectives are key. Equally important are our attitudes, which can be shaped to allow for more integration and creativity in practice. Skillful attitudes, intentions, and ways of relating to life include care, respect, and patience: qualities that define a benevolent mind capable of bringing profound benefit to all.

This powerful combination of wise perspective and loving attitude is the foundation of the noble eightfold path, which is framed as samma ditthi (“right understanding”) and samma sankappa (“right intention”). Through strengthening these factors, we empower our meditation, and the bodhipakkhiya dhamma (“wings of awakening”) naturally come to fulfillment.

Emphasizing wisdom and loving kindness, this retreat intends to touch on all aspects of the path and help bring about a paradigm shift in the way we position ourselves in life.

Priority will be given to those applying for the full month or longer.

Participants are expected to observe the eight precepts, if they are able to do so.

The Still Heart of Awareness

 This retreat will strengthen our understanding and experience of the nature of awareness in meditation practice. We will explore this in three stages. During the initial part of the month, we will build meditative stability through a focus on anapanasati (mindfulness of breathing). In the next phase, we will introduce a regular practice of metta (lovingkindness), allowing the beautiful and responsive qualities of heart to unfold.  Then, with concentration and lovingkindness as our foundation, the last stage of the retreat will focus on specific meditative techniques that allow us to rest in the pure nature of awareness.

 The teachers will offer regular meditation instructions, talks about the teachings and individual meetings. Participants are expected to follow the sequence of instructions as they are given.

Participants must have previously attended one or more of Guy & Sally’s Awareness or Emptiness Retreats, and fulfill the Forest Refuge retreat prerequisites.  Please document this when you apply.



A minimum stay for the full month of September is required. 

Applications are due by January 15, 2025. Notifications about status will be communicated by January 31th.