Talks and events — 2026

Guest Stay Retreat at Monte Sahaja

with Mooji

A guest stay at Monte Sahaja, the home and Centre for Self-Realisation of Mooji (Anthony Paul Moo-Young), the Jamaican-born Advaita teacher who has offered satsang for nearly three decades. "Sahaja" means the natural state of being, and everything at the centre is oriented toward the realization of the Self through meditation and self-inquiry, in the presence of a living teacher. Monte Sahaja sits in the hills of the Alentejo, about two hours south of Lisbon in one of the least populated parts of Portugal — a quiet landscape of contemplative spaces, many created by Mooji himself. This is not a drop-in center: guest stays happen only in selected periods, participation is by application, and there is typically a requirement of prior close engagement with Mooji's guidance (often having attended a retreat or intensive in person). Life at the centre follows the Sahaja Precepts, guidance drawn from living and working alongside Mooji. Accommodation is simple and modest, and satsang is held in English. For this stay, the expression-of-interest period has closed.

Hridaya Immersion Course (Fall Cycle)

An extended contemplative immersion in self-inquiry at Hridaya Yoga France — a deep, months-long dive into the practice of direct self-recognition rooted in the non-dual Tantric teachings of Hridaya's founder, Sahajananda. The immersion integrates Hridaya meditation, guided self-inquiry, and community life, cultivating the "Witnessing Attitude" and letting the wonderment-question "Who am I?" inform each moment. Sahajananda, the main founder of Hridaya Yoga, is a meditation and Hatha Yoga teacher with over forty years of experience whose message conveys the non-dual Tantric understanding. An electronics engineer by training, he began practicing yoga and meditation in 1981 — the year yoga was banned in Communist Romania — and later, after a profound shift in consciousness during a solitary cave retreat, began sharing the Hridaya teachings, eventually founding centers in Mexico and France. The setting is a lovingly restored château on seven hectares in the Longeval Forest of the Beaujolais countryside, with sunlit meditation halls, forest hiking trails, and views over the Azergues Valley. The center keeps a strictly vegetarian, alcohol- and drug-free, ashram-like environment. Because Hridaya France is a non-profit association, membership is required of visitors.

The Art of Calligraphy as Living Meditation

with Plum Village Sisters, Sister Hội Nghiêm

A retreat exploring meditative calligraphy — brush, ink, and breath as a single gesture of presence — led by Sister Hội Nghiêm and Plum Village sisters at the EIAB. In the Plum Village tradition, calligraphy becomes a living meditation: the circle drawn in one breath, the word that carries the whole of one's mindfulness. Suitable for practitioners of all levels, held in English and German. The European Institute of Applied Buddhism (EIAB) was founded by Zen Master Thích Nhất Hạnh in 2008 in Waldbröl, about an hour east of Cologne, amid rolling fields and pine forest. Unusually for a Buddhist institute, it is home to a large resident monastic community of over 40 monks and nuns, whose collective presence supports a program of more than 100 courses a year. Buddhism here is offered not as religion but as practical, applied training — concrete methods for easing suffering and cultivating peace. Guests live alongside the monastic community; meals are vegetarian, and mornings often begin with tai chi or qi gong before meditation.

Fall Practice Period (Online 2026) - Upaya Zen Center

with Chris Senko Perez, Sensei Jose Shinzan Palma, Sensei Monshin Nannette Overley, Sensei Sokaku Kathie Fischer

A structured online Zen practice period with guidance, talks, and community rhythm. Practice periods are designed to make the path ordinary: the kitchen, the calendar, and the breath as the same field.

Retreat with Wayne Liquorman in Crete

with Wayne Liquorman

A week-long retreat with Wayne Liquorman on Crete — a longer, residential immersion in the pure Advaita he teaches in the lineage of Ramesh Balsekar. Where his talks respond to questions over an evening, a retreat offers sustained time in the teaching: the recognition of consciousness as the one reality, and of the personal sense of doership as the root of suffering. Liquorman's style is unadorned and often wry, free of dogma, meeting each participant's inquiry as it arises. (See the Barcelona listing for a fuller account of Liquorman and his background as Balsekar's "spiritual son.") Held in English.

European Headless Way Gathering

A gathering of practitioners of the Headless Way — the direct, experimental approach to seeing one's true nature developed by the British philosopher Douglas Harding. Harding's path grew from a moment in the Himalayas in the 1940s when, looking for his head, he found instead "a boundless space open to the world" — awareness itself, empty of a separate self, containing all it perceives. Rather than years of study, the Headless Way offers "experiments": simple awareness exercises (like two-way looking, pointing back at where one's head seems to be) that guide attention to what is actually looking out. Though akin in essence to Zen, Sufism, and Advaita — and openly indebted to Ramana Maharshi's self-inquiry — the approach is unusually down-to-earth and Western. These European gatherings, guided in the lineage carried forward by Richard Lang (Harding's longtime friend and student of over fifty years), bring "Seers" together to practice the experiments in person and share the Seeing. Held in Denekamp in the eastern Netherlands, in English.

EIAB Retreat near Gothenburg

with Plum Village monastics

A retreat led by EIAB and Plum Village monastics at a location near Gothenburg, Sweden — the EIAB regularly sends monastics to lead retreats beyond Waldbröl, including Scandinavia. Held in English and Swedish, in the Plum Village tradition of mindfulness practice. The European Institute of Applied Buddhism, founded by Zen Master Thích Nhất Hạnh in 2008 in Waldbröl, Germany, offers Buddhism as practical, applied training — concrete methods for easing suffering and cultivating peace — supported by a resident community of over 40 monks and nuns.

Seven-Day Retreat at Garrison Institute

with Rupert Spira

Seven days with Rupert Spira at the Garrison Institute on the Hudson River — a deep immersion in the direct path to the recognition of our essential, aware nature. A renowned British teacher, Spira spent forty years studying the non-dual traditions — the teachings of Ouspensky, Krishnamurti, Rumi, Shankara, Ramana Maharshi, Nisargadatta, Robert Adams, and Atmananda Krishna Menon — before meeting his principal teacher, Francis Lucille. He is the author of The Transparency of Things, Presence, The Ashes of Love, and The Light of Pure Knowing. Each day is built around two movements: guided meditation, in which we rest in being, as being; and dialogue, in which the non-dual understanding is explored together through questions and conversation. Spira describes retreats as time to steep together in the peace of our true nature, in self-abidance, friendship, and creativity. The setting is exceptional: the Garrison Institute occupies a former Capuchin monastery on the 95-acre Glenclyffe property overlooking the Hudson, with gardens, a boxwood labyrinth, a river-bluff gazebo, and walking paths connecting to the Hudson River trails and the Appalachian Trail. Accommodation is simple and quiet; meals are lacto-vegetarian. The retreat is offered both in person and as a full livestream.

Seven-Day Livestreamed Retreat from Garrison

with Rupert Spira

Seven days with Rupert Spira at the Garrison Institute on the Hudson River — a deep immersion in the direct path to the recognition of our essential, aware nature. A renowned British teacher, Spira spent forty years studying the non-dual traditions — the teachings of Ouspensky, Krishnamurti, Rumi, Shankara, Ramana Maharshi, Nisargadatta, Robert Adams, and Atmananda Krishna Menon — before meeting his principal teacher, Francis Lucille. He is the author of The Transparency of Things, Presence, The Ashes of Love, and The Light of Pure Knowing. Each day is built around two movements: guided meditation, in which we rest in being, as being; and dialogue, in which the non-dual understanding is explored together through questions and conversation. Spira describes retreats as time to steep together in the peace of our true nature, in self-abidance, friendship, and creativity. The setting is exceptional: the Garrison Institute occupies a former Capuchin monastery on the 95-acre Glenclyffe property overlooking the Hudson, with gardens, a boxwood labyrinth, a river-bluff gazebo, and walking paths connecting to the Hudson River trails and the Appalachian Trail. Accommodation is simple and quiet; meals are lacto-vegetarian. The retreat is offered both in person and as a full livestream.

Simply Always Awake Silent Retreat

with Angelo DiLullo

A semi-silent retreat with Angelo DiLullo in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, for those committed to a sustained investigation of their deepest nature. DiLullo's approach is direct and present-moment — inquiry into thought, perception, belief, and emotion, paired with meditation and what he calls shadow work — held across guided talks, group meditation, and dialogue in a supportive container of silence. The setting is the Art of Living Retreat Center near Boone. (See the UK Silent Retreat listing for a fuller account of DiLullo.)

4-Day Silent Retreat with Gangaji

with Gangaji

A second four-day silent retreat of 2026 with Gangaji, offering a later-in-the-year opportunity for deep quiet and sustained practice. The retreat format centers on silence, allowing subtle insight to settle without constant conceptual processing.

HoenJi Fall Anniversary Sesshin

The fall anniversary sesshin at the Zen Center of Syracuse (Hoen-ji) — an intensive period of Zen meditation marking the center's founding. Sesshin gathers practitioners for days of silent zazen in a strong communal container, with the traditional forms of Zen retreat: seated and walking meditation, work practice, and teacher interviews. Offered hybrid, in person and online.

Joanika Retreat Weekend (October)

A Dutch-language non-dual retreat weekend at Kalmthout, near the Belgian–Dutch border — an intimate, residential setting for silence, meditation, and satsang-style dialogue. One of a series of retreat weekends Joanika holds through the year, recurring roughly monthly.

Sesshin During Fall Practice Period (In Person 2026) - Upaya

with Upaya Zen Center Teachers

An in-person sesshin nested inside Upaya’s Fall Practice Period. It’s an immersion in formal Zen training: long sits, silence, and the kind of simplicity that turns non-duality from concept into felt reality.

Meditation Retreat with Thay Doji

with Thay Doji

A meditation retreat with Thay Doji at the Domaine du Taille in the Ardèche, southern France — "ouvert à tous," open to all. A French-language retreat of seated meditation and contemplative practice in a rural setting.

Self-Inquiry and Meditation Immersion in Colorado

An eleven-day self-inquiry and meditation immersion with Camino at the Vajra Vidya Retreat Center in Crestone, Colorado — a high-desert town long known as a gathering place for contemplative communities. As with Camino's other retreats, the work centers on self-inquiry grounded in emotional intelligence: meeting thought and emotion directly, learning to witness rather than suppress, and inquiring into experience without relying on prior belief. (See the Guatemala listing for a fuller account of Camino's approach.)

Family Retreat (Session 3) - Deer Park Monastery (Plum Village)

with Plum Village monastics

A late-year family retreat session focused on mindful living, connection, and strengthening family practice routines. The Plum Village approach highlights interbeing: the lived sense that self and world arise together rather than as separate islands.

Silent Power: Weekend Intensive

with Eckhart Tolle

A weekend intensive with Eckhart Tolle, among the most widely read spiritual teachers of our era — author of The Power of Now and A New Earth. In "Silent Power," Tolle invites participants to discover the invisible, transcendent consciousness that pervades all of creation, pointing — as he has for decades — to stillness and presence as the doorway into the Now and out of identification with the thinking mind. Tolle (born in Germany in 1948, educated at London and Cambridge) teaches a non-conceptual awakening: not a new belief system but a shift in the locus of identity from the stream of thought to the aware presence beneath it. The intensive gathers a large audience for two days of talks, guided stillness, and the quiet transmission his events are known for. Held at the San Diego Convention Center on the edge of San Diego Bay.

Joanika Retreat Weekend (November)

A Dutch-language non-dual retreat weekend at Kalmthout, near the Belgian–Dutch border — an intimate, residential setting for silence, meditation, and satsang-style dialogue. One of a series of retreat weekends Joanika holds through the year, recurring roughly monthly.

Seven-Day Retreat at The Vedanta

with Rupert Spira

A late-autumn week-long retreat at The Vedanta, structured around guided meditation and dialogue to support stabilization of nondual understanding. Intended as an immersive close-of-year retreat for practitioners who want uninterrupted time for inquiry and integration.

Rohatsu Sesshin

with Henry Shukman, Valerie Forstman

The annual Rohatsu sesshin at Mountain Cloud Zen Center, co-led by Sanbo Zen master Henry Shukman and associate master Valerie Forstman. "Rohatsu" means the eighth day of the twelfth month — Bodhi Day — traditionally the day the Buddha looked up at the morning star and awakened. The retreat honors that moment and takes it into practice, gathering as the year darkens toward the solstice, "bolstered by the silence of the coming winter," to deepen realization through zazen. Sesshin is the intensive heart of Zen training: long days of silent seated meditation held in a strong communal container, with dokusan — one-to-one interviews with a teacher — and daily talks. Henry Shukman, originally from the UK, is an award-winning poet and author (One Blade of Grass, Original Love), spiritual director emeritus of Mountain Cloud, and co-founder of the meditation app The Way; his co-teacher Valerie Forstman leads from the center's zendo. Mountain Cloud sits on two dozen acres in the foothills of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains off the Old Santa Fe Trail — a small, handcrafted zendo in high desert country. The sesshin is offered hybrid: on-site residential, commuting, or online participation, with online retreatants supported by their own orientation, handbook, and break-out sessions.

Bilingual Retreat in Paris (Week One)

with Francis Lucille

The first of two consecutive week-long retreats with Francis Lucille in Paris, held in French and English. Lucille — a student of Jean Klein and a central teacher of the Direct Path — conveys the non-dual understanding shared across Advaita Vedanta, Zen, Taoism, and Sufism, not as philosophy but through guided meditation and satsang: dialogue that meets each participant's questions and points back to the nature of present experience. The retreat takes place at Enclos Rey in the 15th arrondissement of Paris. Participants may book one or both weeks. Registration is handled through Francis Lucille's website. (See the Germany listing for a fuller account of Lucille and his teaching.)

Joanika Retreat Weekend (December)

A Dutch-language non-dual retreat weekend at Kalmthout, near the Belgian–Dutch border — an intimate, residential setting for silence, meditation, and satsang-style dialogue. One of a series of retreat weekends Joanika holds through the year, recurring roughly monthly.

Bilingual Retreat in Paris (Week Two)

with Francis Lucille

The second of the two consecutive Paris retreats with Francis Lucille, running across the New Year and held in English and German. As with Week One, the days center on guided meditation and satsang in the Direct Path tradition, at Enclos Rey in Paris. Participants may attend one or both weeks. (See the Germany listing for a fuller account of Lucille and his teaching.)

Dorje Drolö Dzogchen Retreat

with Mingyur Rinpoche

Part of the Dorje Drolö Dzogchen transmission — a restricted set of teachings from Mingyur Rinpoche's personal lineage, offered publicly for the first time in 2026–27. Dzogchen, the "Great Perfection," points directly to the already-present nature of mind; this retreat centers on teachings that unite calm-abiding (shamatha) and insight (vipashyana) within the Dzogchen view, including Trekchö — "cutting through" to the natural state. Prerequisites apply, consistent with the transmission's requirements. Offered hybrid from the Tergar center in Madison. Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche is one of the most widely known meditation masters of his generation — a Tibetan Buddhist teacher in the Kagyu and Nyingma lineages, known for uniting rigorous contemplative training with warmth, humor, and an unusual fluency in modern science. He guides the worldwide Tergar Meditation Community.

Intensive Vedanta Retreat

with André Vas

An intensive traditional Vedanta retreat with André Vas in coastal Karnataka, South India. Vas teaches in the traditional Advaita Vedanta method — a systematic unfolding of the non-dual teaching through the study of scripture and self-inquiry. Held in English and Dutch over ten days in Thonse.

21-Day Silence and Self-Realization Retreat

with Madhukar

Three weeks of silence and satsang with Madhukar at the foot of Arunachala in Tiruvannamalai — an intensive inward journey in the sacred atmosphere of an Indian ashram, in the town where his lineage traces back through Papaji to Ramana Maharshi. The retreat combines deep silence with satsang and includes full-moon pradakshina (the circumambulation of Arunachala); devices are set aside for the duration. Held in multiple languages (English, Dutch, Russian, German). (See the Austria listing for a fuller account of Madhukar and his lineage.)

Spring 2027 Multi-Modality Conference and Retreat

with Angelo DiLullo

A weeklong conference-and-retreat with Angelo DiLullo in the Blue Ridge Mountains, blending his direct, present-moment style of awakening inquiry with a wider "multi-modality" program of breakout sessions. Where his silent retreats emphasize inquiry and stillness, this gathering opens out into a variety of complementary approaches and dialogue, at the Art of Living Retreat Center in Boone, North Carolina. (See the UK Silent Retreat listing for a fuller account of DiLullo.)