Retreats

Discover a Deeper Way of Living Vallecitos Mountain Retreat Center offers a retreat for almost everyone. Our schedule carries a...
  • Casita Supporting Rate – $1,040.00
  • Casita Actual Rate – $935.00
  • Casita Base Rate – $835.00
  • Yurt Supporting Rate – $1,040.00
  • Yurt Actual Rate – $935.00
  • Yurt Base Rate – $835.00
  • Tent Cabin Supporting Rate – $900.00
  • Tent Cabin Actual Rate – $795.00
  • Tent Cabin Base Rate – $690.00

Date & Time Details: Check-in is from 3:00-5:00 on the first day of the retreat. The retreat will close mid-morning on the last day of the retreat.

PRICE: We offer a sliding scale and the price for this retreat ranges from $690--$1,040. The price includes lodging, meals and a teacher fee. This is not a dana based retreat. (Learn more)

SHUTTLE SERVICE: Shuttle Service is not available for this retreat.

NOBLE SILENCE: This retreat will be held in noble silence. (Learn more)

SCHOLARSHIP / FELLOWSHIP AVAILABILITY: ALL SCHOLARSHIPS AND FELLOWSHIPS HAVE BEEN AWARDED FOR THIS RETREAT.

Email us about program

The Wisdom of No Technology

With Dyanna Taylor and Don Usner

October 2 - 9, 2019

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—a chance to disconnect from our devices and pressures, to remember our unique gifts, recharge our capacity to create, and return to the roots of perception and inspiration.

During early morning sits, extended day saunters and quiet explorations, we will find the path back to what truly guides our lives.  With a packed lunch, we will head out from the lodge to spend full days, unhurried, in spacious meadows that edge the crystal clear Vallecitos River, in forests, among elk, wild horses and giant pines.  Together we’ll sharpen our senses, expand our awareness, and engage with this remote landscape by reveling in its mysteries and learning about its natural history.  We will also take time to sit in wild nature, write (with paper and pencil!), and relish languorous alone time.  In the evenings we’ll enjoy delicious meals and relaxed fireside conversation as we hear from each other and explore what manifests when we take time away from the over-stimulation and demands of contemporary life.

This is not a fully silent retreat.  Periods of silence will balance with engaging conversation as we consider the re-energizing and creative possibilities that arise when we leave technology and the clamor of our busy lives behind.

Rediscover the gifts of your extraordinary senses, the depths of the night sky and the peace of a pristine mountain valley.  Let the early fall 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 8th annual Wisdom of No Technology retreat.

 

Teachers

Dyanna Taylor
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…
Learn more about Dyanna Taylor
Don Usner
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…
Learn more about Don Usner