Talks and events — 2026

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.)

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.)