Returning to Our Senses: An In-Person Maitri Space Awareness Retreat

Facilitated by Melissa Moore

September 11-17, 2022 at Pema Drawa

The Retreat Center of Ari Bhöd, Tehachapi, California

“When you experience precision and gentleness, the phenomenal world is no longer seen as an obstacle - or as being particularly helpful, for that matter. It is seen and appreciated as it is. At this point, you can transmute the various defilements of passion, aggression, and ignorance into a state of wisdom.” Chögyam Trungpa

Karuna Training invites you to an in-person outdoor retreat designed to befriend, soften and liberate one’s mental conditioning. We invite a non-linear, nondual communication with the world by moving closer to nature and through elemental play. As a result, we take our lessons from nature toward a deeper understanding of the invisible forces at play within us in the form of emotions. 

Emotional energy has the potential to open our hearts and free creativity beyond all limitations. However, our emotions can also burden and imprison us, blocking our natural access to inherent wakefulness. The program is designed to ignite our innate capacity to commune with the sacred through the nuance of emotional intelligence.

In this retreat, we practice recognizing the sacredness within us, in others, and in the world surrounding us. We will explore the Five Buddha Families through daily rituals and creative play. 

The retreat is open to anyone interested in a contemplative approach to working with the unseen forces of the world and taking emotions as a path to liberating our innate connection to the sacred earth. This 6-day retreat is dedicated to practicing Maitri Space Awareness and the Mandala of the Five Buddha Families as introduced by Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche.

Spend a week exploring the sacred Mandala of the Five Buddha Families at Ari Bhöd’s Retreat Center in Tehachapi, California.  The retreat is an exploration that combines mindfulness-awareness meditation with elemental postures taken outdoors when possible,, body awareness, and roaming in the wilderness. Daily we explore one Buddha Family, elementally and emotionally, and in the evenings we socialize.

The program is sponsored by Karuna Training, who offer certificates in Contemplative Psychology for basic and graduate program cycles. Contemplative Psychology is a training in integrating meditation into a path of taking emotions as a path to discovering wisdom. The baseline understanding is that people possess basic sanity or intrinsic health, and learning to turn our allegiance toward this health is at the heart of the compassionate practice. 

Ari Bhöd’s land is beautiful and rugged, and if you are up to it, we encourage you to sleep in tents. Indoor dorm space, some double rooms, and a few single cabins are available (on a first come, first serve basis). housing is all-inclusive with 3 meals a day. 

Program,  Food, and Accommodations Costs Combined:

Top Tier: Single rooms and individual or shared indoor bathrooms:  $950

Middle Tier: Indoor dorm rooms, shared cabins, and tented cabins with access to shared bath house:  $750

Lower Tier: Stand up tent provided, with access to shared bath house: $600

Lowest Tier: Camping with either your own tent, or provided tent, with access to shared bath house: $500

Note: We encourage those who can to tent - and live close to the elements. Ari Bhöd is 6000+  elevation. There will be time to roam and dance in the wilderness.

Cancellation Policy: 20% administrative fee taken from the refund for cancellations made more than a month in advance. No refunds one month out from the retreat.

If you have questions about this event, please email our operations manager Mairead at Karuna.assist@gmail.com

Facilitator Bios:

Melissa Moore Ph.D. has been the steward of Karuna Training North American since 2014 and a co-founder of Karuna Europe in 1996. Melissa has her MA in Contemplative Psychotherapy from Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado, and her Ph.D. in Psychological Anthropology from the California Institute of Integral Studies. Melissa has been a student of Vajrayana Buddhism and Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche since 1979. Melissa has taught Karuna Training in nine countries and five states in the U.S. She is the author of the newly published book, The Diamonds Within Us: Uncovering Brilliant Sanity Through Contemplative Psychology: https://thediamondswithinus.org.

Carolyn Sykes has been practicing and studying meditation since 1999. She is a meditation instructor and teaches contemplative Buddhist classes and Dharma Art. Carolyn has a love for teaching and undertook studies in Karuna Training to deepen and strengthen her skills. She studied Karuna Training from 2016 – 2019, graduating from both the basic training and the graduate advanced programs. She is currently on the US faculty for Karuna Training.