Wake Up to Your Life: A Householder Retreat [Online]

This online program is open to both beginning and experienced practitioners. Registration for this program closes on September 27, 2025 at 11:59pm Pacific Time. To inquire about joining after registration closes, please contact guestservices@bigbearretreatcenter.org. 

In the Buddha’s time, the path of awakening was not reserved for monastics alone. The Householder’s Way invites us to wake up in the midst of our lives—not in spite of them. Work, relationships, family, and the responsibilities of daily living are not obstacles to the path—they are the path.

This retreat will explore how mindfulness, wise effort, wise speech, and heartful presence can be cultivated right where we are—within the sacred rhythms of ordinary life. Through guided meditation, dharma reflections, relational practices, and embodied ritual, we’ll reconnect with the possibility of awakening in every moment.

Schedule

The program will begin with 1 half-daylong retreat followed by 3 days of one-hour morning and evening sessions, and finish with 1 hour-long closing session.

Below is a sample schedule to support in planning ahead. All times PST and subject to change. A final schedule will shared a month before the retreat begins.

Sunday, September 28

11 am – 2 pm        Retreat Opening, Guided Meditations & Dharma Reflections

Monday September 29 – Wednesday October 1

7 am – 8 am          Guided practice and reflection

5:30 – 6:30 pm     Community connection, Question & Response

Thursday, October 2

7 am – 8 am          Retreat Closing

An Online Retreat

This retreat will be an interactive online retreat. Online retreats offer the unique opportunity to deepen your practice in a “real world” setting, where meditation practice and regular life intersect more than in a typical residential retreat. This can be supportive for integrating the practice into daily life.

Please plan to be present for the entire retreat and all the sessions. Presence is important for your personal practice and continuity, as well as the community container of retreat. The online retreat will be offered over Zoom. Please plan to have your video on during the sessions.

At registration you will receive a link with a landing page for the online community that includes the Zoom and schedule information for the online component of this program, along with any other helpful tips before, during, and after your retreat. This link will be emailed to you again 24 hours before your retreat. The retreat recording will be available within 48 hours of the retreat.

See more of our online offerings on our SoundCloud, Dharmaseed & YouTube channel.

GENEROSITY

Retreat Cost & Fees:

Our sliding scale option for this online retreat includes financial support for teachers. Please consider paying at the highest rate that you can afford: your generosity supports the teachers as well as Big Bear Retreat Center and your fellow practitioners who need to pay less. We price fees to make programs as financially accessible as possible.

Is cost a barrier? Nobody is turned away at Big Bear Retreat Center due to finances. We ask that financial assistance be prioritized for those who self-identify as BIPOC, hold marginalized identities, or are in financial need. For more information, please contact us at guestservices@bigbearretreatcenter.org.

FEEL WELCOME AND INCLUDED: A PLACE TO BELONG

Our intention is to be as accessible as we can, even in ways that we may not be aware of yet. We hope this is a space of inclusivity where people feel welcome and held. For us, it is a practice of consistent attunement, presence and care to our community. However you identify – race, gender, sexuality, disability, mental health, and so on – it is our wish to meet your needs for belonging.

What retreat participants have to say about our online programs

“Big Bear created an online retreat experience that was inclusive, supportive, and responsive. I felt held and cared about throughout the retreat.” – Bernadine

“This was a spectacular experience and one that could be appreciated by novice and experienced mediators and everyone in between. Doing it at home has helped me envision how to live more mindfully throughout my day.” – Deb

I felt very connected to the teachers, the teachings and the other participants, even while being on Zoom.  As a more experienced practitioner, this felt like such a good fit for where I am at and it met a need to bring mindfulness into my day-to-day home life. I felt Big Bear did an amazing job with the technical aspects of making sure we felt our questions were being heard and answered, and it just ran very smoothly.  I’m so impressed.  I feel so fortunate for the experience of getting such a well-curated online/home retreat.  – S.B.