1 week Insight Meditation Retreat
May 13 - May 20, 2026
7-night Insight meditation retreat organized by Insight Retreat Center (IRC) and hosted at Big Springs Garden Retreat Center.
Registration opens January 13, 2026. APPLY ONLINE through IRC.
Questions? Contact the Registrar, Niharika, at niharika@insightretreatcenter.org.
Diana Clark, Kim Allen, David Lorey & Ying Chen
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A silent Insight meditation retreat with a daily schedule of alternating periods of sitting and walking meditation, instruction, dharma talks, work meditation, and practice discussions with teachers. Suitable for both beginners and experienced practitioners.
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Diana Clark, PhD, is a dedicated meditation teacher based in the San Francisco Bay Area, teaching primarily at the Insight Meditation Center and Insight Retreat Center. Her extensive meditation experience includes years of silent retreats at Spirit Rock, IMS, and the Insight Retreat Center, where she received training from esteemed teachers Gil Fronsdal and Andrea Fella. Inspired by the Buddha's teachings on peace and freedom, Diana's teaching approach aims to combine the profound and the practical, with a sincere commitment to cultivating an environment that nurtures both wisdom and compassion. Diana holds a PhD in biochemistry, and much like her scientific training facilitated her comprehension of the human body, her Buddhist practice deepens her insights into the workings of our precious minds and hearts. For more info you can visit dianaclarkdharma.org
Kim Allen began meditating in 2003, seeking both a path out of suffering and the deeper truths of life. She trains mainly under the guidance of Gil Fronsdal at the Insight Meditation Center, and has also practiced in Sri Lanka and, more recently, with a few Mahāyāna teachers. Kim was drawn early on to long retreat practice and has sat cumulative three years of retreat. Engagement with the Pāli Canon, and also texts from other Buddhist traditions, informs her practice and life. A teacher and author, Kim aims to bring classical Dharma to a modern context and to encourage lay practitioners in fully living a life of Dharma. Kim also serves on the board of the Sati Center. Her education includes a PhD in physics and a master’s degree in environmental sustainability, and her website is http://www.uncontrived.org.
David Lorey began meditating as a teenager in the 1970s, in college began an intensive training in transcendental meditation, and then came to practice in the Buddhadharma in the early 2000s. Integrating tranquility and insight practice forms the core of his current path; in addition, he explores the early teachings embedded in the textual tradition of the Pali canon for insights into practicing and living in accord with the Dharma. In sharing the Dharma, David is committed to helping others discover their own unique ways of using meditation and Dharma study to find relief from stress and release from suffering. Gil Fronsdal is David’s guiding teacher; IMC is his home sangha. David holds a PhD in history.
Ying Chen is a first generation Chinese immigrant. She took refuge to become a buddhist with Venerable Ji Ru in 1995 and was exposed to Chinese Mahayana Buddhism first. She has been practicing in Insight Meditation Center since 2005, and Dharma Ground since 2020. She currently facilitates the Insight Meditation Center support group for people living with health challenges and co-leads Asian Dharma Circle. As a wife, mother, and a lay practitioner, Ying is inspired by the possibilities of freedom and wellbeing in everyday life. She teaches in IMC/IRC and Dharma Ground.
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You will find general information from Big Springs under the heading Our Retreats. Please reach out to the retreat organizer for information specific to your retreat. Thank you!
6 day Insight Meditation Retreat
May 23 - May 28, 2026
5-night Insight meditation retreat organized by Insight Retreat Center (IRC) and hosted at Big Springs Garden Retreat Center.
Registration opens January 23, 2026. APPLY ONLINE through IRC.
Questions? Contact the Registrar, Barbara, at barbara@insightretreatcenter.org.
Matthew Brensilver & Dana DePalma
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Dharma practice is about working with the fundamental forces that shape our experience and lives. Among these forces, the impulses to judge, compare, and fix run deep.
We all know the abiding urge to judge the moment, compare it against some idealized alternative, and devise plans to fix the conditions of this moment. We know the impulse to judge ourselves, compare ourselves to others and determine our relative value. Although these habits of mind are meant to address our pain, they compound it and compromise our freedom.
During our retreat, we’ll explore the costs of measurement and the alternatives to it. In awareness, we become completely at ease with imperfection and relax the habits of measurement we ordinarily use to substantiate ourselves and our story. Stillness invites us to drop all the familiar reference points of liking and disliking, better than and worse than. As silence deepens, the ‘measureless’ heart qualities – lovingkindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity – infuse the places of measurement with relaxation, allowing deep care to manifest.
The retreat will be composed of guided and silent meditation practice, and dharma reflections and meetings with the teachers. All are welcome.
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Matthew Brensilver, MSW, PhD teaches retreats at the Insight Retreat Center, Spirit Rock and other Buddhist centers. He was previously program director for Mindful Schools and for more than a decade, was a core teacher at Against the Stream Buddhist Meditation Society. Matthew worked as a clinical social worker, serving severely and persistently mentally ill adults and adolescents. He subsequently earned a PhD from the Dworak-Peck School of Social Work at USC where he was a Provost’s Fellow. His dissertation examined the mechanisms of risk and resilience in maltreated adolescents in a large, longitudinal study in South Los Angeles. Before committing to teach meditation full-time, he spent years doing research on addiction pharmacotherapy at the UCLA Center for Behavioral and Addiction Medicine.
Each summer, he lectures at UCLA’s Mindful Awareness Research Center on the intersections between mindfulness, science and psychotherapy. He serves on the Board of Directors at Spirit Rock. Matthew is the co-author of two books about meditation during adolescence and continues to be interested in the unfolding dialogue between Buddhism and science.
Website: https://www.matthewbrensilver.org/Dana DePalma, MA teaches regularly online through Dharma Ground, where she serves as the Founding Guiding Teacher, and also at Spirit Rock Meditation Center, where she serves as a Stewarding Teacher. Her approach emphasizes samādhi, ease, and the natural arising of understanding. Dana holds a Masters Degree in Counseling Psychology from California Institute of Integral Studies and has a relational teaching style. She is a Bay Area native, married, mom to an awesome teen, and grateful beyond words to be living a life focused on the Dharma.
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You will find general information from Big Springs under the heading Our Retreats. Please reach out to the retreat organizer for information specific to your retreat. Thank you!
6 day BIPOC Nature Dharma and Insight Retreat
June 23 - June 28, 2026
This is a 5-night Insight meditation retreat organized by Insight Retreat Center (IRC) and hosted at Big Springs Garden Retreat Center.
Registration opens March 1, 2026. APPLY ONLINE through IRC.
Questions? Contact the Registrar, Niharika, at niharika@insightretreatcenter.org.
Liên Shutt & Ram Appalaraju
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This nature-based Dharma retreat, for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC), offers an exploration of Buddhist teachings on interdependence and our profound oneness with the natural world. Through daily Dharma talks, we will reflect on Buddhist teachings on Dharma and how mindfulness reveals our inseparability from all life. Silent practice will include periods of sitting and walking meditation, inviting participants to attune to the rhythms, beauty, and stillness of the environment. Supported by the living landscape, a beautiful retreat center in the Sierras, we cultivate presence, compassion, and clarity, deepening our understanding of both inner and outer nature. This retreat offers a spacious container for renewal, insight, and heartfelt connection with all beings.
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Rev. Keiryū Liên Shutt is a lineage holder in the Shunryu Suzuki tradition. Born to a Buddhist family in Vietnam, she received her meditation training in the Insight and Zen traditions in the US, Thailand, Japan and Vietnam. She was a founding member of the Buddhists of Color in 1998 and currently is the Guiding Teacher of Access to Zen, an anti-racist, inclusive sangha and non-profit in the SF Bay Area. She lives in San Francisco with her partner, exploring waterways and forests as often as they can.
Ram Appalaraju (he/him) is a Chaplain and an Eco Chaplain serving marginalized communities in the Bay Area. He is also in the faculty at Sati Center for Buddhist Studies for the Eco Chaplaincy Training. Through Buddhist teachings and Vedanta, he developed a belief in the deeply interconnected and interdependent nature of existence in nature and suffering experienced by a disaggregate view. His work as an Eco and Prison chaplain has deepened the understanding of human suffering, and uses his learnings to serve communities affected by climate change.
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You will find general information from Big Springs under the heading Our Retreats. Please reach out to the retreat organizer for information specific to your retreat. Thank you!
Inhale Mountain, Exhale River
July 8 - July 12, 2026
4-night, 5 Day Women’s Summer Retreat in Nature & Community with Tracy Lease and Miyu Tamamura. Click here to view the flyer!
Pre-registration is open and official registration starts on February, 1st. Contact Tracy Lease to sign up for the retreat or with any questions: tracy@fulllifeyogastudio.com
Tracy Lease & Miyu Tamamura
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To create this women’s circle we will breathe in the mountain air, listen to the flow of water, settle into our inner landscapes.
We will enjoy Qigong with a view of the Buttes, sitting and walking Meditation in the hall and forest, Restorative Yoga and special Sound Healing Meditation with Crystal Singing Bowls in Pristine Nature!
Optional nature and art activities, beautiful walking trails, state of the art architecture, delicious vegetarian meals in a peaceful setting await you.
All-inclusive retreat cost:
Single room: $1,820 - $2,050
Shared room: $1,510 - $1,720
Tent Camping: $870 - $1,090
*25 participants max
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Tracy Lease, owner and director of Full Life Yoga Studio, a certified Yoga Therapist, Yoga, Pilates, Qigong and Meditation Teacher has spent 20 years guiding students in movement and mindfulness practices. Tracy loves to share meditative movement and empowers each unique individual to move towards optimal health and happiness. Tracy knows movement can help calm and revitalize body, mind and spirit and assist us in living fully in the present moment. She tunes into her students, wanting each client to feel welcome, safe and supported in classes, retreats and private sessions. Tracy has a passion for guiding groups, and has led retreats in the United States, Mexico, France and Japan.
Miyu Tamamura, born and raised in Kyoto, Japan, is an artist, teacher, guide and healer who bridges the East and West through her 20 years of Shiatsu practice, deep listening, intuitive and heart-centered approach to truth.
Miyu’s commitment to transformation and healing is the very energy that plays her orchestra of Alchemy Crystal Singing Bowls, returning us to the silence within. Miyu has been teaching the monthly program of Sound Healing Meditation at Mountain Stream Meditation Center in Nevada City, California since 2019, as well as collaborating with various yoga, Qigong and meditation teachers, musicians and artists holding retreats, workshops and concerts worldwide.
Miyu graduated from Kyoto University of Art with a bachelor degree in Modern Art before she moved to the U.S. in 2000. As a certified Shiatsu Therapist of 20 years, Miyu’s practice is deep listening, holding a healing space for one to integrate and harmonize all aspects of self. Miyu established YU Healing Arts with her husband in Nevada City, California in 2004. The clinic is dedicated to the healing arts, including Sound Healing and Shiatsu Therapy, Acupuncture and Herbal Medicine.
Miyu’s eclectic background and experiential approach to truth and Japanese heritage are infused in all her practices and artistic expressions.
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You will find general information from Big Springs under the heading Our Retreats. Please reach out to the retreat organizer for information specific to your retreat. Thank you!
1 week Dharma in Nature, Nature in the Dharma
August 1 - 8, 2026
7-night Insight meditation retreat organized by Insight Retreat Center (IRC) and hosted at Big Springs Garden Retreat Center.
Registration opens April 1, 2026. APPLY ONLINE through IRC.
Questions? Contact the Registrar, Soohee, at soohee@insightretreatcenter.org.
Gil Fronsdal
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A silent Insight meditation retreat with a daily schedule of alternating periods of sitting and walking meditation, instruction, dharma talks, work meditation, and practice discussions with Gil. Suitable for both beginners and experienced practitioners.
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Gil Fronsdal is the senior guiding co-teacher at the Insight Meditation Center (IMC) in Redwood City, California and the Insight Retreat Center in Santa Cruz, California. He started Buddhist practice in 1975, and has been teaching for IMC since 1990. Gil is an authorized teacher in two traditions: the Insight Meditation lineage of Theravada Buddhism of Southeast Asia, and Japanese Soto Zen. He holds a Ph.D. in Buddhist Studies from Stanford. He is a husband and the father of two sons.
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You will find general information from Big Springs under the heading Our Retreats. Please reach out to the retreat organizer for information specific to your retreat. Thank you!
Serenity in the Forest Temple
August 19 - 23, 2026
Silent, self retreat organized by Miyu Tamamura and hosted at Big Springs Garden Retreat Center.
For more information and to register, email Miyu at miyu@yuhealingarts.com.
Miyu Tamamura
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Please check back soon for more information about this retreat.
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Miyu Tamamura, born and raised in Kyoto, Japan, is an artist, teacher, guide and healer who bridges the East and West through her 20 years of Shiatsu practice, deep listening, intuitive and heart-centered approach to truth.
Miyu’s commitment to transformation and healing is the very energy that plays her orchestra of Alchemy Crystal Singing Bowls, returning us to the silence within. Miyu has been teaching the monthly program of Sound Healing Meditation at Mountain Stream Meditation Center in Nevada City, California since 2019, as well as collaborating with various yoga, Qigong and meditation teachers, musicians and artists holding retreats, workshops and concerts worldwide.
Miyu graduated from Kyoto University of Art with a bachelor degree in Modern Art before she moved to the U.S. in 2000. As a certified Shiatsu Therapist of 20 years, Miyu’s practice is deep listening, holding a healing space for one to integrate and harmonize all aspects of self. Miyu established YU Healing Arts with her husband in Nevada City, California in 2004. The clinic is dedicated to the healing arts, including Sound Healing and Shiatsu Therapy, Acupuncture and Herbal Medicine.
Miyu’s eclectic background and experiential approach to truth and Japanese heritage are infused in all her practices and artistic expressions.
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You will find general information from Big Springs under the heading Our Retreats. Please reach out to the retreat organizer for information specific to your retreat. Thank you!