Suggested Retreat Locations


Buddhism

Rinzai (Zen)

  • Bodhi Manda Zen Center in New Mexico
    Bodhi Manda Zen Center is a Rinzai Zen practice center located in a high desert river canyon in the Jemez Mountains, 60 miles northwest of Albuquerque, New Mexico. The center was founded in 1973 by Kyozan Joshu Roshi, a Japanese Zen Master in the Rinzai lineage, with the fundamental purpose of providing teaching in Zen Buddhism to all who wish to learn and practice.

  • First Zen Institute of America in New York, NY
    The First Zen Institute of America (FZIA) is a non-profit religious organization founded and incorporated in 1930 by Sokei-an Sasaki, the first Zen master to settle permanently in America. The Institute is independent, self sustaining, and governed by its voting members. The FZIA is not a monastic training center and has no Zen master in residence. It introduces Rinzai Zen to lay students, offers facilities for practice and provides information on Zen Buddhism to the public.

  • Zendo Shobo-Ji in New York, NY
    On September 15, 1968, New York Zendo Shobo-Ji (Temple of True Dharma) was opened. A pioneer Zen center in the upper East side of Manhattan, New York Zendo provides authentic Rinzai Zen practice to people living in the city. Shobo-Ji is a converted 3-story carriage house, the ground floor is the main Zendo (meditation hall) and there is a smaller Zendo adjacent to it. Tatami, shoji screens and a beautiful traditional Japanese stone garden give Shobo-Ji a quiet and elegant atmosphere.

  • Dai-Bosatsu Zen Center in Catskill Mountains Forest Preserve, NY
    On America's Bicentennial, July 4, 1976, a Rinzai Zen Buddhist monastery opened deep in the Catskill Mountains of New York State. Situated on 1,400 acres in the Catskill Mountain Forest Preserve, International Dai Bosatsu Zendo Kongo-ji continues to offer an ideal setting for authentic Zen practice to persons of all religious and cultural backgrounds, as well as to lay and ordained Zen students.

  • Albuquerque Zen Center  in New Mexico
    The Albuquerque Zen Center offers daily practice and study opportunities to anyone interested in the many ways of knowing Zen Buddhism.

Soto (Zen)

  • Green Dragon Temple in San Francisco, CA
    Green Gulch Farm Zen Center, also known as Green Dragon Temple (Soryu-ji), is a Buddhist practice center in the Japanese Soto Zen tradition offering training in Zen meditation and ordinary work. It is one of three centers that make up San Francisco Zen Center, which was founded by Shunryu Suzuki-roshi.

Korean Son (Zen)

  • Providence Zen Center in Cumberland, RI
    The Providence Zen Center is the international head temple of the Kwan Um School of Zen.
  • Cambridge Zen Center in Cambridge, MA
    The Cambridge Zen Center is a residential meditation practice community conveniently located in Central Square between MIT and Harvard University. The CZC is part of the Kwan Um School of Zen, founded by the Korean Zen Master Dae Soen Sa Nim.

Other (Zen)

  • Zen Mountain Monastery in Catskills, NY
    Nestled in 250 acres of forest preserve in New York’s beautiful Catskill Mountains, Zen Mountain Monastery (ZMM)--the Mountains and Rivers Order (MRO) mainhouse--is one of the West’s most respected Zen Buddhist monasteries and training centers. Since its inception in 1980, ZMM has offered spiritual practitioners innovative ways to engage the Buddhist teachings through a vast array of retreats that take place within the context of authentic, full-time Zen monastic training. Throughout the year, our teachers, staff and special guests lead retreats that highlight each of the areas that form ZMM’s unique training matrix: the Eight Gates of Zen, a Western rendition of the Buddha’s Eightfold Path.

Vipassana (Insight)

  • Insight Meditation Society in Massachusetts
    The Insight Meditation Society was founded in 1975 as a nonprofit organization to uphold the possibility of liberation for all beings. Its Buddhist meditation retreats provide spiritual refuge, allowing the in-depth exploration of freedom from the sufferings of mind and heart. IMS operates two retreat facilities – the Retreat Center and the Forest Refuge - which are set on some 200 secluded wooded acres in the quiet country of central Massachusetts.

  • Cambridge Insight Meditation Center in Cambridge, MA
    The Cambridge Insight Meditation Center is a non-residential urban center for the practice of Vipassana or insight meditation, located in the heart of Cambridge, MA USA.

  • Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Marin, CA
    Spirit Rock Meditation Center is dedicated to the teachings of the Buddha as presented in the vipassana tradition. The practice of mindful awareness, called Insight or Vipassana Meditation, is at the heart of all the activities at Spirit Rock. The Center hosts a full program of ongoing classes, daylong programs, and residential retreats.

  • Vipassana Meditation Center in Shelbourne, MA
    Vipassana Meditation as taught by S.N. Goenka in the tradition of Sayagyi U Ba Khin.

Tibetan

  • Sky Lake in Rosendale, NY
    The Shambhala and Buddhist teachings can be studied and explored in the worldwide association of meditation centers founded by Vidyadhara the Venerable Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche and now directed by his son and spiritual heir, Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche.

  • Karmê Chöling in Vermont
    We offer beginning instruction for those new to meditation, teachings in Tibetan Buddhism, programs in the contemplative arts, and visits from renowned teachers. We recommend our Simplicity: Meditation for Real Life programs as an ideal introduction to Karmê Chöling's contemplative community.

  • Shambhala Mountain Center in Colorado
    Shambhala Mountain Center is a mountain valley retreat located on 600 acres in northern Colorado. Since 1971 the Center has offered hundreds of programs on Buddhist meditation, yoga and other contemplative disciplines. Tamed by thirty years of use as a contemplative retreat, Shambhala Mountain Center is a place where one of the basic truths of Buddhism—that people can be profoundly open to the wisdom of the present moment—is always readily available.
  • Shambhala Mountain Center in Providence, RI
    The Shambhala Meditation Center of Providence, Rhode Island is part of an international community of urban meditation and rural retreat centers founded by Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche and further developed by his son and lineage holder Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche.

Integrated Buddhism

  • Barre Center for Buddhist Studies in Massachusetts
    The Barre Center for Buddhist Studies is a non-profit educational organization dedicated to bringing together teachers, students, scholars and practitioners who are committed to exploring Buddhist thought and practice as a living tradition, faithful to its origins and lineage, yet adaptable and alive in the current world. The center's purpose is to encourage the integration of study and practice, and to investigate the relationship between scholarly understanding and meditative insight. It encourages engagement with the tradition in a spirit of genuine inquiry.

  • Aryaloka in Newmarket, NH
    Aryaloka is a place dedicated to the study and practice of Buddhism. We are part of the Friends of the Western Buddhist Order (FWBO) -- a worldwide network of meditation centers, communities, and ethical businesses.

Christianity

Catholic

  • Glastonbury Abbey in Hingham, MA
    Glastonbury is a small community of Benedictine monks striving to embrace the challenges of contemporary living within the time-tested values of a vital monastic spirit.
  • Abbey of Gethsemani in Trappist, KY

  • Centering Prayer in Boston, MA
    Centering Prayer is drawn from ancient prayer practices of the Christian contemplative heritage, notably the Fathers and Mothers of the Desert, Lectio Divina, (praying the scriptures), The Cloud of Unknowing, St. John of the Cross and St. Teresa of Avila.. It was distilled into a simple method of prayer in the 1970's by three Trappist monks, Fr. William Meninger, Fr. Basil Pennington and Abbot Thomas Keating at the Trappist Abbey, St. Joseph's Abbey in Spencer, Massachusetts.
  • Franciscan Renewal Center in Scottsdale, AZ
    A community of faith through liturgy, retreats, education, counseling, social justice, spiritual direction, meetings & conferences, in the tradition & hospitality of St. Francis of Assisi.

Eastern Orthodox

  • Christ the Savior Monastery (Christminster) For Men in Providence, RI
    Christminster is a western-rite monastery established in Rhode Island in 1993 with the blessing of Bishop Hilarion. One goal of its mission - still awaiting fulfillment - is the acquisition of a suitable, secluded property ensuring tranquillity and silence, and providing hermitages for monks and guests, with common room, refectory, library, office and work space, and a monastic church in which the Liturgy of the Mass and the Hours are celebrated in full. There are two monastics in residence, inquiries are welcome.
  • Holy Trinity Monastery in Jordanville, NY
    Holy Trinity Monastery is a male monastic community under the auspices of the Synod of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad. We are dedicated to a life of prayer and obedience according to the pre-revoluntionary monastic tradition.

Other (Christian)

  • Pendle Hill in Wallingford, PA
    Resident students live on Pendle Hill's beautiful, 23-acre campus in Wallingford, Pennsylvania. Students are full-time participants who join the staff and resident families in forming the core Pendle Hill community. About half the community is Quaker. Others represent a wide variety of faiths and philosophies.

Judaism

  • Elat Chayyim in Catskills, NY
    Elat Chayyim is a unique Jewish center for people of all ages, backgrounds and levels of observance. All are welcomed to enter a diverse community, to renew and revitalize relationships with tradition, and deepen our connections with the divine. The center's scenic facility, at the foot of the Catskill and Shawangunk mountain ranges of New York, provides a nourishing and relaxing setting for year-round programs.

  • Metivta: A Center for Contemplative Judaism in Los Angeles, CA
    Metivta is a Los Angeles based adult, egalitarian, nondenominational Jewish community founded by Rabbi Jonathan Omer-Man twenty years ago. Metivta is a unique place for anyone interested in learning Jewish meditation, studying Jewish texts and practicing the teachings that are at the heart of these disciplines. Our focus is on contemplative study and practice within the Jewish tradition.

  • Chochmat HaLev in Berkeley, CA
    Chochmat HaLev is a progressive, welcoming community seeking an inclusive, embodied and joyful Kewish ethical and spiritual path. As part of the Jewish Renewal movement, we look within the tradition to renew Judaism for the 21st century, by exploring meditation, contemplation, and mysticism. We are known for our high-energy services that integrate music, prayer and silence. 

Yoga/Vedanta

  • Transcendental Meditation Regional Center in Antrim, NH
    For information about occasional retreats in Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Hampshire and Massachusetts, contact the Director of the Maharishi Vedic School of Rhode Island, Marcia Kaspark: [email protected].

  • Ananda Ashram in Monroe, NY
    Ananda Ashram in Monroe, New York, is a spiritual retreat and educational center founded on the universal principles of Yoga and Vedanta and dedicated to East-West cultural exchange. It was established in 1964 as the country center of the Yoga Society of New York, Inc., by Shri Brahmananda Sarasvati, then known as Ramamurti S. Mishra, M.D.
  • Himalayan Institute in Pocanos, PA
    A leader in the field of yoga, meditation, spirituality, and holistic health, the Himalayan Institute was founded by Swami Rama of the Himalayas. The mission of the Himalayan Institute is Swami Rama’s mission—to discover and embrace the sacred link—the spirit of human heritage that unites East and West, spirituality and science, and ancient wisdom and modern technology.

Sufism

  • Sufi Order International Greater Boston: A Constellation of Lights in MA
    The Sufi Order International Greater Boston Constellation of Light is devoted to meditation instruction, spiritual growth, and the teachings of Hazrat Inayat Khan, Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan, and Pir Zia Inayat Khan. It sponsors classes and events occurring in Boston, Massachusetts and throughout southeastern New England. It is a branch of the Sufi Order International, an interfaith international organization.

Daoism

  • Taoist Studies Institute (TSI) in Seattle, WA
    The Taoist Studies Institute (Meiguo daojiao xueyuan) is a not-for-profit educational institution dedicated to spiritual cultivation and personal transformation through Daoist training and studies. It is also the teaching arm of the Temple of the Mysterious Pivot (Xuanji guan), a Daoist altar dedicated to the Three Pure Ones. TSI offers classes and workshops on Yang and Chen style Taiji quan, Hunyuan gong, Chansi gong, and Daoist meditation. It also offers courses on Chinese medicine and dietetics.

  • Taoist Arts Center (TAC) in New York City
    This center offers ongoing classes, weekend seminars, summer retreats, and private instruction, including classes on Wu-style Taiji quan, Qigong, and meditation.

  • Qigong Research and Practice Center in Nederland, CO
    Originally called the Taoist Mountain Retreat, the Qigong Research and Practice Center was established in 1981 by Ken Cohen. Located in the Indian Peaks Wilderness region of the Colorado Rockies, the Qigong Research and Practice Center offers lectures and workshops both in Colorado and throughout the world. Emphasis is placed on the theory and practice of Daoist healing, contemplative and martial arts.


  • The Daoist Foundation in San Diego, CA and Olympia, WA
    The Daoist Foundation is a non-profit religious and educational organization dedicated to preserving and transmitting traditional Daoist (Taoist) culture. It includes a variety of local Daoist associations, including in Olympia, Washington and San Diego, California. This organization offers holistic and integrated tradition-based Daoist training, with an emphasis on the Three Orientations (sanfang) and Nine Foundations (jiugen). In terms of contemplative practice, the Daoist Foundation teaches Daoist quiet sitting (jingzuo), Daoist standing meditation, and movement awareness practices.

Other

  • Omega Institute for Holistic Studies in Rhinebeck, NY
    Omega was founded on the holistic worldview that the well-being of each of us is deeply connected to the well-being of all living things. Since 1977, we have offered diverse and innovative educational experiences that inspire an integrated approach to personal and social change. Omega, a nonprofit organization, continues to be at the forefront of human development. We nurture dialogues on the integration of modern medicine and natural healing; design programs that connect science, spirituality, and creativity; and lay the groundwork for new traditions and lifestyles.

  • Sky Meadow Retreat in VT
    Sky Meadow is a small, independent, family-run retreat center and organic homestead offering small group retreats and workshops in an exceptionally quiet setting. We are not affiliated with any organized religion and welcome anyone who yearns for clarity, meaning, and a sense of connection with others. We offer in-house workshops that focus in Insight Meditation and Conscious Communication Skills.

  • Expanding Light in CA
    Expanding Light is a spiritual retreat center for meditation, yoga, and health. It is affiliated with Ananda, a global movement based on the teachings of Paramhansa Yogananda, who showed how everyone can realize God in their daily lives as a tangible, loving reality.

  • Shantigar Foundation in Western MA
    Shantigar Village, a not-for-profit foundation, lies at the intersection of spiritual and artistic practice. Located on a mountainside farm, its focuses include theater, meditation and healing.