Offsite Retreat Schedule
- Indoor Retreats & Nature Retreats: Some of the retreats listed below will be held indoors; others may be nature retreats and be held outdoors. Please read retreat descriptions carefully.Â
- Cost: Retreats are offered freely at no cost to anyone who participates. Most of the financial support for IRC comes from donations participants offer at the end of retreats. Their generosity is what allows others to participate in future retreats.
- Deposit: A refundable deposit via credit card is required to reserve a space in the retreat. Your card will only be charged if: (1) you are accepted into the retreat and cancel after the cancellation deadline, (three weeks before the start of the retreat), or (2) you are accepted into the retreat and do not attend.
- For more information, contact the person whose email is provided in the individual retreat listing.
5 day Ethics and Love in Interpersonal Life with Matthew Brensilver. An Insight Retreat Center & Big Bear Retreat Center Collaboration
April 16 to 20, 2025 - Hours: Wednesday check-in is from 2:00 pm (PT) to 4:00 pm (PT) End time: Sunday 12:00 pm (PT)
A dharma program with Matthew Brensilver, open to both beginners and experienced practitioners. *5-day Retreat (in-person & online) + 6 week course*
We live in a web of mutuality; the interpersonal realm is where the rubber meets the road in our spiritual practice. Our relationships – personal and professional – act like a magnet, pulling both our goodness and our pain to the surface. How can we draw on dharma principles and practices to enrich our interpersonal lives? How can others serve as mirror for our inquiry into ourselves?
The Buddhist tradition provides ethical guidance: lives founded on goodness, sensitivity and respect give us the best chance for deep happiness. Love fuels our ethics and guides us to more rich, harmonious relationships. Self-understanding dramatically deepens our empathic capacities and through our practice, the circle of care widens. As Sri Nisargadatta says, ‘In love, there are no strangers.’
This dharma program will begin with a five-day retreat, offered both in-person at the Big Bear Retreat Center or available to participants online. Although oriented around interpersonal themes, the retreat will be held in silence rather than interactive in nature. Ordinarily, retreats end and we return to our lives to integrate the experiences of the silence on our own. Here, the teacher will be providing support beyond the retreat to further cultivate and digest the fruits of retreat practice. The retreat will be followed by six, hourlong, weekly online meetings that will integrate and explore the teachings offered in the retreat.
OnLand -- Registration and more information at Big Bear OnLand Registration
OnLine -- Registration and more information at Big Bear OnLine Registration
6 day Insight Meditation Retreat: Beyond Judging, Comparing and Fixing
with Matthew Brensilver and Dana DePalma at Big Springs Retreat Center outside of Sierra City, CA
May 31 to June 5, 2025 - Hours: Saturday check-in is from 1:00 pm (PT) to 3:00 pm (PT) End time: Thursday 1:00 pm (PT)
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. Discernment and love blossom from the inside.
The retreat will be composed of guided and silent meditation practice, and dharma reflections and meetings with the teachers. All are welcome.
Photos: https://www.bigspringsretreat.org/gallery
RETREAT FULL - APPLY ONLINE to be put on the WAITING LIST. - Login or Register for Carpooling
- Your application and $200 deposit must be received to be added to the Waiting List. Your deposit will only be charged if you are accepted to the retreat and cancel after 5/3/25.
- Questions: Contact the Registrar: Lily, lily@insightretreatcenter.org
6 day Opening the Heart, Deepening Wisdom with Kim Allen and Diana Clark. An Insight Retreat Center & Big Bear Retreat Center Collaboration
June 21 to 26, 2025 - Hours: Saturday check-in is from 2:00 pm (PT) to 4:00 pm (PT) End time: Thursday 12:00 pm (PT)
Dharma practice can unfold as a journey of both opening the heart and deepening wisdom – these two movements are intertwined, each reinforcing the other.
Understanding this, we can sense that at every step of the path there is both heartfulness and freedom. In this retreat, we will explore classical insight practices, highlighting that these are also forms of opening the heart that evoke greater and greater freedom. This silent Insight retreat will include meditation instructions, sitting and walking meditation, Dharma talks and practice discussions with the teachers.Registration and more information at Big Bear Registration
1 week Dharma in Nature, Nature in the Dharma with Gil Fronsdal at Big Springs Retreat Center outside of Sierra City, CA
August 16 to 23, 2025 - Hours: Saturday check-in is from 1:00 pm (PT) to 3:00 pm (PT) End time: Saturday 1:00 pm (PT)
Photos: https://www.bigspringsretreat.org/gallery
APPLY ONLINE - Registration opens April 1, 2025 - please check back then
- Your application and $200 deposit must be received by 4/22/25 to be entered in the lottery. Applicants will be notified about 3 weeks later if they have been Accepted or are on the Waiting List. Subsequent applications will be added to the Waiting List. Your deposit will only be charged if you are accepted to the retreat and cancel after 7/26/25.
- Questions: Contact the Registrar: Barbara, barbara@insightretreatcenter.org
5 day Dharma Dharma: The Unfolding of Nature: A retreat offered in the Thai forest tradition with LC Tran.
An Insight Retreat Center & Big Bear Retreat Center Collaboration
August 19 to 23, 2025 - Hours: Tuesday check-in is from 12:00 pm (PT) to 3:00 pm (PT) End time: Saturday 12:00 pm (PT)
This unique retreat will be offered by Leinchi (LC) Tran as a more informal week of practice in community and nature following the more traditional practices of the Thai forest tradition. Retreatants will be camping (1-2 bedroom spots available), following their own practice routine, and have daily interviews with the teacher. Access to one indoor cabin common space (kitchen and restrooms) is available. Only lunch will be served (self-service breakfast will be available) and no dinner will be served.
Registration and more information can be found here: Registration
6 day BIPOC Nature Dharma and Insight Retreat
with Victoria Cary and Ram Appalaraju at Big Springs Retreat Center outside of Sierra City, CA
September 27 to October 2, 2025 - Hours: Saturday check-in is from 1:00 pm (PT) to 3:00 pm (PT) End time: Thursday 1:00 pm (PT)
The teachings of the Buddha guides us toward a deeper, more intimate understanding of our hearts and minds. In this retreat, we will practice cultivating compassionate responses, soften into the rhythms of life, and nourish the wisdom and joy that arise from both practicing the Dhamma and being in relationship with nature.
This Insight Meditation Retreat, for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC), offers a unique opportunity to deepen your practice through foundational Insight Meditation techniques. Set in the serene, forested landscape of the Northern Sierra Mountains, within a peaceful 170-acre retreat center, this retreat provides a beautiful environment to support your practice.
The retreat will be held in noble silence and will include periods of sitting and walking meditation, daily Dharma talks, and individual meetings with teachers to guide your practice and deepen your insight.
Photos: https://www.bigspringsretreat.org/gallery
APPLY ONLINE - Registration opens May 1, 2025 - please check back then
- Your application and $200 deposit must be received by 5/22/25 to be entered in the lottery. Applicants will be notified about 3 weeks later if they have been Accepted or are on the Waiting List. Subsequent applications will be added to the Waiting List. Your deposit will only be charged if you are accepted to the retreat and cancel after 9/6/25.
- Questions: Contact the Registrar: Yanli, yanli@insightretreatcenter.org