Erin’s love for wild nature, her passionate commitment to serving collective liberation, and decades of working as a bodyworker are all palpable in her Dharma. Erin is Guiding Teacher at both Vallecitos and the Durango Dharma Center, and is a Core Teacher at Spirit Rock. She served as core faculty of the sixth Community Dharma Leaders (CDL) Program, and is a graduate of Thanissara and Kitissaro’s Dhammapala Training, designed to bring forth an embodied bodhisattva ideal within the lineage of Theravada Buddhism.
Erin was born and raised in the prairie of Fargo, North Dakota to a family of Irish and British heritage. When she first came to the San Juan Mountains, she felt an unexpected sense of homecoming – an immediate connection to the cultures of the southwest as well as the magic of the red rocks, high desert, and alpine landscape of the Four Corners area. She’s lived in Durango for 26 years.
Erin is committed to fostering communities of belonging. In both her teaching and Dharma leadership, she works to decenter whiteness and heteronormative culture. In her hometown of Durango, she teaches classes that help practitioners understand and deconstruct whiteness in their own minds and acts as a resource for other dharma teachers engaging these issues. In 2018, she was part of a team that developed the groundbreaking “Race and Dharma” course for the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies. Erin is also committed to practicing and sharing the depth of the dharma, including teachings on emptiness and not-self, and loves mentoring students over time as their practices deepen and mature.
Erin is happiest dancing, hiking, cooking, and being in the mountains and rivers she calls home.
Events with Erin Treat
June 27 - July 2, 2024
Mindfulness meditation offers powerful antidotes to school-related stressors and is a support for compassionate engagement inside and outside the classroom. Retreat practice can cultivate practices of presence in body, heart, and mind in a way of responding to oneself and also to the larger suffering of our communities and our world. Please join us for this very special silent mindfulness meditation retreat for educators. Each day will include instructions for sitting and walking meditation as well as talks by the teachers. There will be time for discussion, questions and answers, and meetings with the teachers. In a spectacular wild environment,…
July 10 - 17, 2024
Join us in an exploration of Dharma through connection with the land of Vallecitos. This retreat is designed to offer support for experienced practitioners in insight meditation (Vipassana). When we have an established foundation in Dharma practice, we can open to discovering new ways of perceiving. As the understanding of classical Dharma deepens even further, the land itself can meet us right in each moment as teacher and guide. An immeasurable wisdom and compassion may be discovered in our personal relationship with land. This exploration will be supported through cultivating an embodied presence and mindful awareness that embraces our experience with acceptance…
July 25 - 30, 2024
This retreat emerged from the relationship between its teachers as a result of many years of being together in dharma practice, teaching, and spiritual friendship. And this retreat invites the participants into relationship — with themselves, each other, the land, and all beings everywhere without exception. Awakening from the delusion of separation through practice and inquiry, we will explore belonging, connection and nature to reveal what supports us in coming home to our hearts, coming home to interdependence. Grounded in foundational Dharma teachings, we will offer traditional sitting and walking instruction as well as daily opportunities to practice in wild…
August 16 - 23, 2024
Join us in an exploration of Dharma through connection with the land of Vallecitos. This retreat is designed to offer support for experienced practitioners in insight meditation (Vipassana). When we have an established foundation in Dharma practice, we can open to discovering new ways of perceiving. As the understanding of classical Dharma deepens even further, the land itself can meet us right in each moment as teacher and guide. An immeasurable wisdom and compassion may be discovered in our personal relationship with land. This exploration will be supported through cultivating an embodied presence and mindful awareness that embraces our experience with acceptance…
October 2 - 6, 2024
The retreat will combine two ancient spiritual practices — meditation and music — as a path to opening one’s heart and uncovering one’s true nature. There will be guided instruction in the fundamentals of mindfulness meditation and dharma practice, including periods of sitting and walking meditation in silence. Woven throughout the meditation practice, participants will engage in a wide range of musical experiences, from traditional and contemporary traditions, including sessions of chant, song, and deep listening. The meditation practice and musical experience are all designed to create equanimity, joy, and healing, and both will be offered in a safe, lighthearted,…