|
| Mark Your Calendars!
As our 2025 retreats continue to fill we’re excited to announce some of our 2026 retreat dates! |
| Charis Circles Facilitation Training Opening Retreat | March 11 – 16 Charis 5-day Retreat | March 21 – 26 10-day Centering Prayer Retreat | May 12 – 22 Charis 10-day Retreat | July 1 – 11 Charis Snowmass Dialogue | July 24 – 30 Charis Circles Annual Retreat | August 6 – 11 Charis Circles Facilitation Training Opening Retreat | August 14 – 19 10-day Centering Prayer Retreat | October 13 – 22 |
| | | Charis Snowmass Dialogue IX:“Awakened Heart, Awakened Mind” |
| | From May 25-30 we held our 9th Charis Snowmass Dialogue Retreat at All Souls Interfaith Gathering at High Acres Farm, with a select group of spiritual leaders and practitioners from around the country. We spent these days in the wonderful area of Shelburne, Vermont, overlooking a beautiful lake and enjoying gorgeous sunsets that surrounded and supported us. We shared in deep conversations and held 2 public events where we discussed interspirituality and the spiritual journey, including Q & A from the audience. It was a meaningful and heart-felt time of inter-connection. |
| | | Join us on Retreat!
Sign Up for an upcoming retreat at Charis Mandala Sanctuary!These retreats will be taught by Charis teachers Rory McEntee, Alejandra Warden, and Netanel Miles-Yépez
Space is limited! Learn more: charisinterspirituality.org/retreats |
| | July 3 – 12 10-day Charis Retreat Stages of the Path All Practitioners Welcome Join us for an enriching 10-day Charis Retreat. This retreat is built around a rhythm of silent contemplation, along with dharma talks that will explore Stages of the Spiritual Path through diverse religious traditions, including Christianity, Buddhism, Sufism, and the Sacred Feminine. Led by Rory McEntee, Netanel Miles-Yépez, and Alejandra Warden, this interspiritual retreat invites you to deepen your practice and understanding of spiritual growth. Set amidst the serene Charis Mandala Sanctuary, the retreat will include days of silence as well as optional teachings on the two-step Charis Meditation process for those who would like further instruction. Charis Meditation combines an interspiritual Centering Prayer practice with spiritual reading. Whether you’re new to Charis Meditation or looking to deepen your practice, all are welcome to this unique opportunity for shared learning and deepening our practice on the path. The cost of the retreat is $1200, and includes lodging, three meals per day, and teachings. Payment plans are available as needed. REGISTER HERE |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| | Oct 24 – Nov 2 10-day Charis Retreat Nature of the Path Experienced Practitioners Welcome Join us for an advanced 10-day Charis Retreat, which will take place mainly in silence, with our experienced Charis teachers, Rory McEntee, Alejandra Warden, and Netanel Miles-Yépez. In addition to a silent contemplative rhythm, we will also explore how various religious traditions approach the spiritual path, looking at what sets them apart and where they intersect. This retreat is designed for practitioners with at least a few years of daily meditation experience. The cost of the retreat is $1200, and includes lodging, three meals per day, and teachings. Payment plans are available as needed. REGISTER HERE |
| | | Learn more about Charis Foundation in this 5 minute video |
| | | | | 10-day Centering Prayer Retreat
Last month we were honored to host Contemplative Outreach of Colorado as they held a 10-day Centering Prayer retreat at the Charis Mandala Sanctuary in New Mexico. The fifteen participants held silence for these 10 days as they spent their time in prayer, meditation, and contemplation. Being able to host them felt like a blessing from Fr. Thomas Keating himself, deepening his teachings and Centering Prayer in a space that carries on his legacy. |
| | | Charis CirclesCharis Circles are small, interspiritual practice communities which may be established anywhere in the world by trained facilitators. Featuring a communal practice of Charis Meditation and a shared practice of spiritual reading, Charis Circles provide a broadly accessible way to experience interspiritual community. Charis Circles are held either in-person or online, and serve to feed a deep hunger for spiritual community and practice. |
| | Learn all about Charis Circles in this 5 minute video |
| | | | | | |
Sensei Joshin Byrnes is a Zen priest and teacher in the White Plum lineage of Soto Zen; earlier in life he was in the Dominican Order of the Catholic Church. In 2017 he founded Bread Loaf Mountain Zen Community in Vermont and virtually to be a hub for community-engaged Zen practice. Alongside his religious vocation, Joshin spent much of his career working for social change nonprofits in the areas of HIV/AIDS and prevention, child welfare, homelessness, and community based philanthropy.
In this episode, Deepa and Daniel center their dialogue with Joshin on the concept of literal and metaphorical cooking in Zen and Sufism, the home traditions of Joshin and Deepa respectively. Together they explore: grandmother-cooked family meals, Zen master Dogen’s Instructions to the Cook, various metaphors of ‘cooking your life, ‘kissing’ the parts of ourselves we may consider ‘garbage,’ the way our attitude and energy affect food, Dogen’s ‘three minds,’ prasad (food offerings), being more connected to taste apart from eating, the multi-sensory nature of food, Joshin’s experience of taking communion on a ‘street retreat,’ the ‘community living room’ at BLMZC, potlucks, fasting and the increased appreciation it brings, skillful hunger as opposed to destructive hunger, insatiable appetites for spiritual experience, finding a balance of ‘spices,’ ritualistically feeding hungry ghosts, Mevlana Rumi’s poetic imagery of cooking, Deepa’s experience of learning to ‘whirl’ with the Mevlevi Order of Sufism, learning to want the unwanted, Dogen getting schooled by an old Zen cook, ‘slender sadness,’ and the Zen concept of ‘one taste.’
If you’re interested in residential practice at Bread Loaf Mountain Zen Community send a note to info@BLMZC for more information.
The New Monastics Podcast can be found on Spotify, Apple, YouTube, iHeart radio, and more. |
| | Nature’s Corner from Charis Mandala Sanctuary |
| | Seen as messengers from the spiritual world, owls are often connected with wisdom, intuition, and guidance. They can be a reminder to pay attention to your inner wisdom and look beyond the surface of things. Owls may also represent transition and change, symbolizing the end of one phase of life and the beginning of another.
This owl friend here was sighted during the Centering Prayer retreat in May. (photo credit to Jan Schubert) |
| |
Vow TenTo be a voice for justice, compassion and transformation in the world, Acting not only from my own limited understanding, but listening attentively To the one voice that speaks through and for all being.
|
| | | | | Do you know someone who would be interested in news and updates from Charis?Please forward this newsletter to your friends, and spread the word that anyone can sign up to receive our newsletters! |
| | | | | |
|
|
|
| |
|
