Application for Being Blessed by the Land of Vallecitos: Gently Held Self-Retreat
With Anne Cushman and Carole Melkonian
October 6 - 13, 2024
We invite you to be our guest at Vallecitos this fall for self-retreat time on the land gently held by our beloved visiting teachers, Anne Cushman and Carole Melkonian. Please join us to connect with your practice alongside the depth and magic of the land.
We are offering you the simple experience of being on the land, using our facilities, receiving three nutritious meals a day along with daily guided sits in the mornings and evenings. Aside from optional morning and evening sits and meals, your time is your own to structure. Enjoy ample time to rest, explore, hike and continue your practice.
This offering will be held in noble silence.
Prerequisite: This retreat is suitable for those who have attended at least one residential meditation retreat in the past.
APPLICATION PROCESS: (Please read until the end.)
Registration for this retreat is by application. Within the application review process we are curating experience level and a few other factors to create an optimal retreat container.
Registering for a lottery or completing an application does not ensure a space in the retreat. Applications received after February 5th are automatically placed on the waitlist and will be notified of availability on a rolling basis. Notifications often move quickly so we recommend checking your email regularly. Please note that you will be asked to complete your registration details and pay your retreat fees within 48 hours of your offer to attend. If you are in need of financial assistance to attend, you will be invited to complete a scholarship application once you have been accepted and completed your registration.
We recognize that this is an imperfect system and we have carefully considered valuable feedback from many of you in designing our registration system for this year. If you have questions about this new registration process, please contact Jan at refuge@vallecitos.org or by calling 505-469-9017.
COVID Safety Measures: Please review our current COVID Safety Measures, which are subject to change.
Teachers
As a teacher and writer, Anne Cushman explores the intersection between spiritual practice, creative expression, and the down-to-earth details of embodied human life. A practitioner of both dharma and yoga since 1982, she is a retreat teacher at Spirit Rock Meditation Center, core faculty for Spirit Rock’s Dharma Yoga Mindfulness Training, and the director of mentoring for the Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Program. She is the author of the memoir The Mama Sutra: A Story of Love, Loss, and the Path of Motherhood; the novel Enlightenment for Idiots; the spiritual India travel guide From Here to Nirvana; and Moving Into…
Learn more about Anne Cushman
Carole Melkonian has been practicing meditation for decades; spending four years in residence at Zen Mountain Monastery and 12 years studying closely with Thich Nhat Hanh, helping start his publishing company, Parallax Press. She has attended many three-month Winter Retreats at monasteries in the Ajahn Chah lineage in the UK and dedicated all of 2015 to practicing meditation at monasteries. She is a graduate of the Spirit Rock/IMS Community Dharma Leader Program. She draws inspiration most deeply from the nuns and monks in the Forest Tradition of Ajahn Chah, is especially drawn to the teachings of Ajahn Sucitto and former…
Learn more about Carole Melkonian