Resources

I am often asked for resources. What follows is not a comprehensive list, nor an attempt to represent the rich body of work that so many teachers, practitioners, healers, and thinkers have contributed. Instead, think of these as a few doorways—places to begin, wander, and discover what resonates with you.

Nature Meditation Programs and Retreats

Nature Meditation Programs and Retreats:

Nature Retreat Centers:

  • Rocky Mountain Ecodharma Retreat Center –  Jamestown (an hour outside of Boulder), Colorado – 180 acres of private river, meadow and woodland adjacent to National Forest and the Indian Peaks Wilderness; a home for low-cost meditation retreats and workshops in nature. 
  • Vallecitos Mountain Ranch – 50 miles west of Taos, New Mexico – Nestled in the Tusas Mountains, where wildlife abounds among alpine meadows, mountain ponds, ponderosa pines and aspen groves. The 135-acre private mountain retreat center is surrounded by 300,000 acres of National Forest.

US Meditation Retreat Centers/Meditation Centers

California
  • East Bay Meditation Center – Located in downtown Oakland, it offers meditation training and spiritual teachings from Buddhist and other wisdom traditions, with attention to social action, multiculturalism, and the diverse populations of the East Bay and beyond.
  • Insight Meditation Center – Redwood City, CA. Founded by Gil Fronsdal, IMC is a community-based meditation center that offers the practices and teachings of mindfulness and Insight (vipassana) Meditation.
  • Insight Meditation South Bay – Offer programs in the Silicon Valley area, including Mountain View, San Jose, Saratoga, Palo Alto, Menlo Park, and Los Altos.
  • Spirit Rock Meditation Center – Woodacre, CA – Set among 411 acres of serene oak woodlands in the secluded hills of West Marin County, California. Along with IMS, it also offers training for new meditation teachers.
Massachusetts
New York – Hudson Valley
New York City
  • Brooklyn Zen Center -Founded in 2005 as the first Zen Center in Shunryu Suzuki’s lineage in New York, BZC embraces both Soto Zen tradition as well as the complex realities of practice in a diverse urban environment.
  • New York Insight Meditation Center – An urban Insight (Vipassana) meditation center. Offers talks, weekly sittings and courses as well as daylong and weekend retreats and workshops.
  • The Shinnyo Center for Meditation and Well-Being – Provides workshops,  one-on-one guided meditations by appointment, and special-themed meditation programs.  
  • Tibet House US – Founded by Robert Thurman at the request of the Dalai Lama to present Tibetan culture to the West.  Offers weekly meditation programs.
New Jersey
  • Newark Center for Meditative Culture – A diverse urban meditation community founded in 2012; programs comprise of meditation classes, daylong retreats, sitting groups, and workshops.
Washington, DC
Washington
  • Seattle Insight Meditation – an all-volunteer Dharma community dedicated to offering the Buddha’s teachings. Through meditation and daily practice, Seattle Insight encourages an ongoing investigation of our lives for the liberation of all beings and the stewardship of the planet.

Meditation Resources

Meditation Teachers

Meditation and Transformation

Tibetan Dzogchen and Mahamudra

Online Resources
  • Dan Harris – A podcast on how to do life better. Drawing on a mix of ancient Buddhism and modern science, it covers such topics as: meditation, stress, anxiety, depression, sleep, self-compassion, etc.
  • Dharma Seed – free podcasts and dharma talks from Western Vipassana teachings since the 1980s
  • Insight Timer – An app that can keep track of your meditation practice and personalize settings for a sit into a presets.  After a sit, you can log into a journal and write down your reflections.
  • Worldwide Insight – Every Sunday, 11am PST, 2pm Eastern US time, 7pm UK time, 8pm European time, 4am Monday Australia time
Books and Media

Asian Diaspora Resources

Roots and Refuge – Chenxing Han – an annual summer retreat for Asian-heritage writers of all genres who engage Buddhism in their creative and spiritual lives. 

Climate Resilience and Activism

Communities:

Teachers / Thinkers / Healers

For Family/Children

Family Programs

Books for Young Children

Outdoor Tips