The Wisdom of No Technology
With Dyanna Taylor and Don Usner
May 26 - June 2, 2018
This retreat offers us a chance to disconnect from our devices and pressures, recharge our capacity to create, remember our unique gifts and return to the roots of perception and inspiration.
While trying to give the best to our work and personal lives, we find ourselves facing a tangle of unrelenting demands compounded by the pace of technology. This retreat offers a pause—breathing space.
During early morning sits, extended day saunters and quiet walks, we will find the path back to what truly guides our lives. We’ll spend unhurried time in spacious meadows that edge the crystal clear Vallecitos River, in forests, among elk, wild horses and giant pines. There will be occasion to sit in silence, write (with paper and pencil!), and be alone in wild nature. In the evenings we’ll enjoy delicious meals and relaxed fireside talk as we hear from each other and explore what manifests when we take time away from the over-stimulation and demands of contemporary life.
Rediscover the gifts of your extraordinary senses, the depths of the night sky, the peace of a pristine mountain valley, periods of true silence and the creative possibilities that open when you leave technology behind. Let the early summer alchemy of New Mexico’s wild Tusas Mountains guide, revitalize and restore your inspired self. This rare time out is open to all professionals, creatives, students, artists and educators. Join us for the seventh annual Wisdom of No Technology retreat.
Teachers
Dyanna Taylor has co-led media/film and unplugged retreats for twelve years and for the last eight co-led the Wisdom of No Technology retreats at Vallecitos. A film director and veteran cinematographer for 39 years, she brings a uniquely personal angle for guiding this retreat. The combination of her career in the film business with its personal and creative demands, her twenty nine year Buddhist practice, a year alone in an off-the-grid cabin on California’s coast and varied powerful wilderness experiences becomes the inspiration for this retreat. Dyanna’s accomplishments on hundreds of films for clients in features, documentaries, and television garnered…
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Don J. Usner, a thirteenth-generation New Mexican, grew up in one of North America’s most striking natural and cultural landscapes, where he developed a passion for the natural world and for diverse cultures. He studied Biology and Environmental Studies at the University of California at Santa Cruz. Usner’s affinity for photography was greatly nurtured there and during his subsequent tenure on an ecological reserve in Big Sur, where he lived and co-authored his first book, The Natural History of Big Sur. Don returned to New Mexico to earn an M.A. in Cultural Geography and to write Sabino’s Map: Life in…
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