Spring Insight Retreat (224R25) - On Land
Matthew Brensilver, PhD, Brian Lesage and Tuere Sala
May 9 - 16, 2025
Registration opens at 9:00am (Pacific Time) on November 13, 2024, and closes at 11:59pm (Pacific Time) on May 8, 2025. A waiting list will be created if the retreat fills early. Looking for a scholarship? Scholarship Interest Form – Click Here
Interested in Commuting to the retreat? – learn more below.
Spring Insight Retreat: Understand the Mechanisms of the Salutary Effects of Mindfulness
Description
All the time before you were born plus all the time after you die is almost exactly all the time there is. Yet we find ourselves here, alive, in time, with a question: How should I live? We begin by listening deeply. The Buddha suggested we have underestimated the capacity of our hearts. Retreat helps us to remember. Together, we’ll sit in the refuge provided by a 2,600-year legacy of wisdom and kindness. In this silence, we come to know the preciousness of life and the poignancy of the human condition. We discover a way of opening to the intensity of the human condition such that our heart is softened rather than hardened. During this retreat, we will offer systematic instructions in mindfulness meditation, as well as in lovingkindness practice. Throughout the retreat there will also be Dharma talks and meetings with teachers to support you in your practice.
This retreat is silent except for teacher-led Q&A, small groups, or other practice meetings.
Financial Details
Sliding Scale fees are for 7 nights including food and lodging. Please consider paying at the highest rate that you can afford: your generosity supports Spirit Rock’s efforts in offering lower sliding scale rates and supporting the large number of scholarship requests.*
Supporter Rate w/guaranteed single room – $4200
Benefactor Rate – $3360
Sustainer Rate – $2520
Basic Rate – $1680
Scholarship Rate (BIPOC, Mudita/Karuna, or Young Adult [ages 18-26 yrs]) – $665
*Registration fees DO NOT include teacher dana. At the end of the retreat, there will be an invitation to offer dana to the teachers and to Spirit Rock.
Pay in full or Payment plan: You can either pay in full or pay a deposit when you register. Payment plans are available to everyone! If you choose the deposit option, the remaining balance will be automatically charged to your payment card in equal installments on a monthly basis. Full payment is due 2 weeks prior to the retreat start.
Scholarship offerings: Our scholarship process has changed for 2025. Scholarships are limited to those with significant financial need. If you fall into that category, please complete the Scholarship Interest Form – Click Here. To be scholarship eligible, you cannot already be registered in the same retreat.
EFFECTIVE OCTOBER 1, 2024 – Covid-19 Safety Protocols for residential retreats have been updated..
Cancellation Policy (Residential Retreats):**
Standard Cancellation Fees:
- $50: On or before 12 weeks
- $100: 8-12 weeks before
- $175: 4-8 weeks before
- $300: 2-4 weeks before
- No refunds as of 2 weeks before
Scholarship and Commuter Rate Cancellation Fees:
- Full refund: On or before 12 weeks
- $75: 8-12 weeks before
- $100: 4-8 weeks before
- $200: 2-4 weeks before
- No refunds as of 2 weeks before
**Fees reduced for serious illness or death in family
Retreat Commuter Option
The retreat commuter option will only become available once the retreat is FULL with a waitlist.
Prerequisite to Attend as a Commuter:
You must have attended at least one 7-night or two 5-night silent, Insight (vipassanā) meditation residential retreats PRIOR to attending this retreat.
What is a Retreat Commuter?
A retreat commuter is a practitioner who attends a full residential retreat, including all meals, but they are not provided with overnight accommodations. Instead practitioners stay in their own home or find local accommodations. A communal resting area is provided during the day while on campus for the retreat. The retreat commuter is expected to attend the entire retreat just like residential retreatants. Special reduced rates are listed below for retreat commuters
If you have questions about being a retreat commuter, please email Registration@spiritrock.org
Commuter Sliding Scale:
Sustainer-Commuter – $1260
Basic-Commuter – $840
Continuing Education (CE) credit available:
This program offers 15 CE credits for $150 for psychologists, and California licensed MFTs, LCSWs, LEPs, LPCCs, nurses, and chiropractors. Please review our Continuing Education Credit information page to determine if your association or board will accept credits offered by Spirit Rock.***
Teachings are appropriate for health care professionals as well as the general public. Healthcare providers will learn mindfulness practices that can be useful to enhance their ability to deepen the therapeutic alliance, enhance empathy, and improve patient-provider communication. The mindfulness practices that will be offered during this retreat may enhance self-awareness, reduce stress and burnout, and promote emotional well-being.
Learning Objectives for participating health care professionals-
At the end of the program you will be better able to:
- Define mindfulness, and list some of the hypothesized benefits of mindfulness practice;
- Describe 2 practices that develop mindfulness;
- Describe how focused attention practices can reduce stress, emotional inflexibility, and rumination;
- Describe equanimity, and its role in emotional balance;
- Describe the ways that attention to bodily sensations can positively affect well-being;
- Describe how mindfulness relates to prosocial emotions such as kindness and compassion;
- Identify at least four hypothesized benefits of the effect of mindfulness meditation for care providers and improved patient care;
- Describe how mindful practices of silence and attentive listening contribute to a deeper understanding of the self and foster emotional resilience and empathy.
- Describe the mechanisms by which these practices cultivate compassion, reduce emotional hardness, and enhance interpersonal relationships;
- Describe how the core values of wisdom and kindness can be applied to therapeutic settings, improving patient care and promoting holistic well-being.
Continuing Education content level: Introductory
Schedule: (Full attendance is required. Times are listed in Pacific time.)
- May 9
- No CECs
- May 10 – May 15
- 8:30am – 9:30am: Guided Practice with Instructions, Q&A
- 4:30pm – 5:15pm: Lovingkindness Practice
- 7:30pm – 8:15pm: Evening Dharma talk
- May 16
- No CECs
***Please note:
- For full Provider information, and additional CEC information, including attendance requirements, cancellation, and grievance policies, please visit our Continuing Education Credit information page.
- For those with a different license than listed above, or with a license from a different board or association than listed on our CEC info page, please contact your licensing board or association directly to request pre-approval/acceptance of CE credits offered at Spirit Rock. Spirit Rock does not confirm applicability of credit for those with licenses different than those listed.
- Spirit Rock is a provider approved by the California Board of Registered Nursing, Provider Number CEP16905 for 15 contact hours.
- Credit is awarded for instructional time only and does not include extended silent meditation, if offered.
About the Teachers
Matthew Brensilver, PhD
Matthew Brensilver teaches at the Insight Retreat Center, Spirit Rock and Insight Meditation Society. 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. He subsequently […]
Learn more about Matthew Brensilver, PhDBrian Lesage
Brian Lesage has practiced Buddhist meditation since 1988 and has taught meditation since 2000. He has studied in the Zen, Theravada and Tibetan schools of Buddhism. He was ordained in the Rinzai Zen tradition in 1996. His training in Vipassana Meditation includes doing extended meditation retreats in Myanmar (Burma), Nepal and India as well as numerous […]
Learn more about Brian LesageTuere Sala
Tuere Sala is a Guiding Teacher at Spirit Rock Retreat Center and Seattle Insight. She is a retired prosecuting attorney who has practiced Vipassana meditation for over 30 years. Tuere is committed to lay practice and inspired by bringing the Dharma to nontraditional places. She is a strong advocate for practitioners living with high stress, […]
Learn more about Tuere SalaCategories : CE Credits, Multi-day, On-land, Residential, Retreat