Aloka Vihara
Saranaloka Foundation supports a small community of Theravada Buddhist nuns living at Aloka Vihara in the Sierra Foothills. They are developing a rural monastery where women can live and train as nuns and where the lay community can practice. Events include weekly meal offerings, evening chaniting and silent meditation, daylong and residential retreats.
Big Bear Retreat Center, Big Bear, California
Big Bear Retreat Center is located a 2.5-hour drive from Los Angeles, nestled in the ancient Juniper forests of the San Bernardino Mountains at a 7,000-foot elevation (four mountain seasons) near the town of Big Bear Lake in Southern California. The Center is immersed in nature located amidst about 100 acres of forested land with direct access to several hiking trails connected to our property. With an emphasis on inclusion and accessibility, BBRC provides a refuge for people of all faiths and walks of life.
Cloud Mountain Retreat Center, Washington
Cloud Mountain Retreat Center is a non-sectarian Buddhist center hosting residential retreats year round. Their mission is to provide opportunities for all individuals to hear and practice Buddhist teachings with qualified and realized teachers in an environment that combines exquisite simplicity, comfort and a supportive container for spiritual transformation. It is our intention to provide opportunities for balanced cultivation of the Three Pillars of Buddhism: ethical and moral behavior, generosity and giving, and the cultivation of wisdom
East Bay Meditation Center (Oakland)
The East Bay Meditation Center (EBMC) is an independent center located in downtown Oakland. They offer meditation training and spiritual teachings from Buddhist and other wisdom traditions, with attention to social action, multiculturalism, and the diverse populations of the East Bay and beyond.
Insight Meditation Center (Redwood City)
The Insight Meditation Center (IMC) is a community-based urban meditation center for the practice of Vipassana or Insight meditation guided by Gil Fronsdal and Andrea Fella. IMC offers a broad range of practice and community activities including a weekly schedule of meditation sessions, dharma talks (talks on Buddhist teaching and practice), classes, group discussions, yoga practice and a variety of meditation and study retreats.
Insight Meditation Central Valley
Insight Meditation Central Valley is located in Modesto CA. Lori Wong is the founding teacher and has been practicing Insight Meditation since 2003 under the guidance of Gil Fronsdal. They offer evening meditation and daylong events throughout the year.
Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley
The Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley promotes Buddhist teachings and meditation practices primarily from the Theravadan tradition. They do this in a spirit of community with members helping each other to develop and embody the qualities of clarity and kindness that are central to the teachings.
Insight Meditation Society, Massachusetts
IMS is one of the Western world’s oldest and most-respected meditation retreat centers. They are dedicated to providing a spiritual refuge for all who seek freedom of mind and heart. They have two adjacent retreat facilities – the Retreat Center and the Forest Refuge – are set on some 240 secluded wooded acres in the quiet countryside of central Massachusetts. The Retreat Center has a range of silent meditation courses available, varying in length from a weekend to three months. The Forest Refuge offers experienced meditators the opportunity to explore a more independent and less structured form of retreat life
Insight Meditation South Bay (Menlo Park)
Insight Meditation South Bay offers meditation instruction, guidance, and support for contemplative practices that develop clarity, joy, and inner peace in the midst of everyday living. IMSB’s practices are firmly grounded in the three pillars of Buddhist training—virtue, mental clarity, and wisdom.
Insight Retreat Center, Santa Cruz, California
The Insight Retreat Center (IRC) offers silent meditation retreats both at our center just outside Santa Cruz, CA and Online. Their retreats are focused on insight meditation (Vipassana) and the liberation teachings of the Buddha.
They are entirely supported by a community of teachers, practitioners, volunteers and donors whose generosity is the foundation for the center. Their retreats are offered freely, as gifts to those who attend—there is no cost. Donations by those who attend make it possible to pass this gift forward to others who come to IRC.
Insight Santa Cruz
Insight Santa Cruz offers a variety of classes and practice opportunities that help cultivate wisdom and compassion inspired from the Theravada Buddhist Tradition. The teachers provide guidance, support, and inspiration to help practitioners develop integrity steadiness of mind and insight into the causes of suffering and the path to freedom.
Sacramento Insight Meditation
Sacramento Insight Meditation serves as a learning, training, and community center for the development, integration, and skillful use of meditation practices and awareness in all aspects of individual, family, educational, institutional, work, and community life.
San Francisco Insight
The mission of SF Insight is to encourage the awakening of wisdom and compassion in all aspects of life, through the practice of mindfulness, the study of the Buddha’s teachings, and the cultivation of a supportive community of practitioners where all can take refuge in the three jewels of Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. People of all ethnic backgrounds, sexual orientations, and gender identities are welcome.
San Francisco Zen Center
The purpose of San Francisco Zen Center is to make accessible and embody the wisdom and compassion of the Buddha as expressed in the Soto Zen tradition established by Dogen Zenji in 13th-century Japan and conveyed to us by Suzuki Roshi and other Buddhist teachers. Their practice flows from the insight that all beings are Buddha, and that sitting in meditation is itself the realization of Buddha nature, or enlightenment.
San Jose Insight Meditation
The San Jose Insight Meditation Sangha is a gathering of individuals who meet in order to learn, support and deepen their mindfulness practice. The Sangha welcomes anyone interested in pursuing this path.
Spirit Rock Meditation Center, Northern California
Spirit Rock Meditation Center is dedicated to the teachings of the Buddha as presented in the vipassana tradition. The practice of mindful awareness, called Insight Meditation, is at the heart of all the activities at Spirit Rock. We provide silent meditation retreats, as well as classes, trainings, and Dharma study opportunities for new and experienced students from diverse backgrounds with a willingness to develop their own practice.
Vallecitos Mountain Retreat Center, New Mexico
Vallecitos Mountain Retreat Center is nestled in the Tusas Mountains, where wildlife abounds among alpine meadows, mountain ponds, ponderosa pines and aspen groves. The 135-acre private mountain retreat center, surrounded by 300,000 acres of National Forest, is a dedicated wildlife refuge frequented by elk, deer, bear, beaver, wild horses, eagles, 60 species of birds and many other creatures. They offer retreats for almost everyone. Their schedule carries a generous offering of Insight Meditation Retreats, retreats that invite participants to consciously explore their experience of wild nature, and retreats that are designed for specific populations.
