Programs
New Year's Retreat: Weaving Ancient and New Ways of Being
With Ayya Santacitta and Celeste Young
This retreat welcomes both beginners and experienced meditators. Registration for this retreat closes on December 21st, 2025 at 11:59pm Pacific Time. If looking to join after this date, please inquire at guestservices@bigbearretreatcenter.org. During this retreat we will come together in community to support each other in consciously letting go of the past and opening to […]
The Sacred Path of Connection, Belonging & Love: A Women's Springtime Nature Retreat
With Heidi Bourne and Laurie Cousins
This retreat is open to both beginning and seasoned practitioners, to all female-identified persons over the age of 18, including LGBTQIA+. Registration closes on February 21, 2026. If joining after this date, please contact us. Together we can bring change to the world, gradually replacing fear and hatred with compassion and love. Love for all […]
The Embodied Mind: Experiencing the Somatic and Subtle Body
With Jill Satterfield
Open to experienced and new practitioners Registration closes on March 3, 2026. If joining after this date, please contact us. In the beautiful landscape of San Bernadino mountains, our 5-day retreat will blend inner and outer nature with the big California open sky. Letting go of needing to do and opening to just be, we’ll […]
Grounding in the Dharma
With Mary Stancavage, Ian Challis, Valerie Cusson and Jokai Blackwell
Open to experienced and new practitioners Registration closes on March 11, 2026. If joining after this date, please contact us. Buddhist practice offers a path to connect with ourselves and a way to live in harmony with others. This retreat will remind us of the simplicity of the teachings that offer freedom from greed, aversion […]
The Convergence of Wisdom and Love
With Matthew Brensilver
Open to experienced and new practitioners Registration closes on March 17, 2026. If joining after this date, please contact us. For generations, practitioners have stepped away from the intensity of daily life to sit in the quiet of their own hearts. A silent retreat offers us a chance to slow down, listen deeply, and remember […]
The Convergence of Wisdom and Love [ONLINE]
With Matthew Brensilver
Open to experienced and new practitioners Registration closes on March 30, 2026. If joining after this date, please contact us. For generations, practitioners have stepped away from the intensity of daily life to sit in the quiet of their own hearts. A silent retreat offers us a chance to slow down, listen deeply, and remember […]
Coming Home to Our Senses
With Gullu Singh, Trudy Goodman, Lienchi (LC) Tran and Gabrielle Hammond (Qi Gong)
Open to experienced and new practitioners Registration closes on April 8, 2026. If joining after this date, please contact us. Along the path of Dharma practice, we cultivate the habit to connect with the truth of each moment — as it’s felt in the body, seen through the eyes, and heard through the ears of […]
The Dharma of Recovery
With Vimalasara and Kevin Griffin
A retreat for anyone walking the path of recovery—whether from addiction, codependency, trauma, or the many ways suffering takes root in our lives. Registration closes on May 7, 206. If joining after this date, please contact us. Are you walking the path of recovery, seeking a deeper sense of peace, freedom and wholeness? This retreat […]
Love and Awareness: The Heart That Knows
With Celeste Young and Vance Pryor
Open to experienced and new practitioners Registration closes on May 25, 2026. If joining after this date, please contact us. Join us in the natural beauty of the San Bernardino mountains for this silent insight meditation retreat. Awareness and love are not two separate paths but one living expression of wisdom. When the heart is […]
When Awareness Becomes Natural
With Lienchi (LC) Tran and Neesha Patel
Open to experienced and new practitioners. This retreat is offered in partnership with Insight Retreat Center. Registration closes on June 1, 2026. If joining after this date, please contact us. In this 7-day retreat, we will explore Vipassana meditation in the practice style of Sayadaw U Tejaniya. Sayadaw’s approach is free from rigid forms, influenced […]
The Original Body Scan: Discovering Freedom within the Body
With Christiane Wolf, Bob Stahl, Mary Grace Orr and Marcy Reynolds
Open to experienced and new practitioners Registration closes on June 8, 2026. If joining after this date, please contact us. In this retreat, we will work primarily with the first of the Four Foundations of Mindfulness – mindfulness of the body. The “32 Parts of the Body” meditation, which is part of the first foundation […]
The Original Body Scan: Discovering Freedom within the Body [ONLINE]
With Christiane Wolf, Bob Stahl, Mary Grace Orr and Marcy Reynolds
Open to experienced and new practitioners Registration closes on June 21, 2026. If joining after this date, please contact us. In this retreat, we will work primarily with the first of the Four Foundations of Mindfulness – mindfulness of the body. The “32 Parts of the Body” meditation, which is part of the first foundation […]
Tending the Self, Tending the World
With Gullu Singh and Gabrielle Hammond (Qi Gong)
Open to experienced and new practitioners Registration closes on June 25, 2026. If joining after this date, please contact us. If one knew oneself to be precious, One would guard oneself with care. The sage will watch over herself in any part of the night. — Dhammapada 157 Tending the Self invites you […]
Tending the Self, Tending the World [ONLINE]
With Gullu Singh and Gabrielle Hammond (Qi Gong)
Open to experienced and new practitioners Registration closes on July 8, 2026. If joining after this date, please contact us. If one knew oneself to be precious, One would guard oneself with care. The sage will watch over herself in any part of the night. — Dhammapada 157 Tending the Self invites you […]
Listen, Heart, Peace
With Kim Allen and Diana Clark
Open to experienced and new practitioners. This retreat is offered in partnership with Insight Retreat Center. Registration closes on June 28, 2026. If joining after this date, please contact us. Careful attention to our inner life awakens the heart and mind to the possibility of peace in the present moment. Supported by the quiet beauty […]
The Middle Way: An Embodiment Journey Exploring Stillness and Movement, Silence and Sound, Dark and Light
With Deborah Eden Tull, Enrique Collazo and Charlie Korda
Open to experienced and new practitioners Registration closes on July 17, 2026. If joining after this date, please contact us. Beyond the dualities that falsely divide life into two, what awakens within and through us in the fertile space between? How are both meditation and movement/dance devotional practices that liberate us from the realm of […]
Creating Refuge in Community
With JD Doyle, Lev Michael Moses and René Rivera
A Retreat for Trans, Gender Nonconforming, Genderqueer, Non-binary and All Gender Expansive Communities Registration closes on July 22, 2026. If joining after this date, please contact us. This 4-night retreat will be a space grounded in self-care and compassion, and held in community, to support our healing and resilience at this time in this world. […]
BIPOC Community Retreat
With Devin Berry, Alli Simon and Hakim Tafari
A silent meditation retreat for people who identify as Black, Indigenous, or as a Person-of-Color. Both beginning and experienced practitioners are welcome. Registration closes on August 19, 2026. If joining after this date, please contact us. Coming together as a BIPOC community, we create a space of ease and support to meditate and cultivate inner […]
Retiro de Meditación
With Tere Abdala and Rosamaría Segura
Registration closes on August 26, 2026. If joining after this date, please contact us. Apto para principiantes y todos los niveles Te invitamos a un retiro de cuatro días dedicado a cultivar la atención plena, la serenidad interior y el descanso profundo en un hermoso entorno natural. Rodeado de montañas, bosques de pinos y senderos […]
The Refuge of the Heart
With Matthew Brensilver and Beth Sternlieb
Open to experienced and new practitioners Registration closes on September 1, 2026. If joining after this date, please contact us. The Buddha counsels: “Hatred does not cease by hatred but by non-hatred. This law is eternal.” The alternatives to love – namely, hate or apathy – are not viable for ourselves, for our communities or […]
The Refuge of the Heart [ONLINE]
With Matthew Brensilver and Beth Sternlieb
Open to experienced and new practitioners Registration closes on September 14, 2026. If joining after this date, please contact us. The Buddha counsels: “Hatred does not cease by hatred but by non-hatred. This law is eternal.” The alternatives to love – namely, hate or apathy – are not viable for ourselves, for our communities or […]
The Heart of Awakening: Exploring the Seven Factors
With Celeste Young and Devon Hase
Open to experienced and new practitioners Registration closes on September 8, 2026. If joining after this date, please contact us. During this weeklong meditation retreat, we will explore the seven awakening factors (bojjhanga) — the Buddha’s teachings on the qualities of mind and heart that lead to freedom and well-being. Together, we’ll learn to recognize, […]
Slow Down, Open, Belong: Insight & Lovingkindness Meditation Retreat
With Devin Berry, Tara Mulay and Hakim Tafari
Open to experienced and new practitioners Registration closes on September 13, 2026. If joining after this date, please contact us. In a culture of pressure and hurry, stillness is radical. On this four-night silent Insight and Lovingkindness retreat, we step out of habit and into presence—learning to stabilize attention and soften the heart. Through mindfulness […]
Liberation Spirituality: A Dharma Gathering for Our Times
With Thanissara, Andrés González, Yong Oh, Djuna Devereaux, Kareem Ghandour and emiko yoshikami
Open to experienced and new practitioners Registration closes on September 27, 2026. If joining after this date, please contact us. This retreat and collective inquiry––a living Dharma laboratory in motion––is the culmination of a year-long Rhizome Fellowship Culture Hack training (toward post-capitalist futures), which is an evolving experiment in weaving Dharma, inquiry, and systemic visioning […]
Resilience and Refuge: Mindful Yoga and Embodied Dharma
With Djuna Devereaux and Anne Cushman
Open to experienced and new practitioners Registration closes on October 19, 2026. If joining after this date, please contact us. How do we cultivate resilience and connect with inner and outer refuge, especially in times of personal and global challenges? In this silent retreat, we’ll offer Buddhist Dharma and Yoga teachings and practices for settling […]
Cultivating Home in Our Hearts
With Vimalasara, Lev Michael Moses and MaryAnn Gallo
Open to experienced and new practitioners Registration closes on October 29, 2026. If joining after this date, please contact us. A Retreat and Gathering for those who have lived life on a different road. Whether adoptee, fostered or from the group home. You who were separated from lineage and land. You who were raised disconnected […]
The Seven Factors of Awakening
With Lisa Ernst and Trudy Goodman
Open to experienced and new practitioners Registration closes on November 3, 2026. If joining after this date, please contact us. In Buddhist practice we often investigate the nature of suffering and how to diminish it. Yet the Buddha also emphasized developing the wholesome, life-affirming qualities that bring ease, joy, and clarity to the heart and […]
The Seven Factors of Awakening [ONLINE]
With Lisa Ernst and Trudy Goodman
Open to experienced and new practitioners Registration closes on November 16, 2026. If joining after this date, please contact us. In Buddhist practice we often investigate the nature of suffering and how to diminish it. Yet the Buddha also emphasized developing the wholesome, life-affirming qualities that bring ease, joy, and clarity to the heart and […]