This retreat will take place towards the end of my 3-month stay at Dharma Treasure, where my partner and I will have the honor of co-managing the meditation center.

What makes this retreat special? While TMI’s core framework will be our guide, we are incorporating alternative objects of meditation—so there will be much more than just focusing on the breath, even for earlier-stage practitioners! We’re also adding practices beyond traditional sitting meditation, including a variety of off-the-cushion exercises to support mindfulness in daily life. Set against the tranquil backdrop of Cochise Stronghold, this retreat offers an ideal setting for immersing in mindfulness, where the natural beauty and stillness of the environment enhance the transformative daily life practices and off-the-cushion meditative work. These additions are something I’m particularly excited about, as they truly enrich the meditative experience, and my experience, speed up progress along the stages.

We’ve just opened bookings for the retreat on Eventbrite, so if you’re interested in deepening your practice in a supportive, immersive environment, please check out the details here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/augmenting-the-mind-illuminated-tickets-1044265334727. I’m immensely grateful to have the opportunity to lead this retreat, and I hope to see some of you there!

This meditation retreat was truly a delightful, inspiring and insightful experience. Accompanied by my significant other, Pénélope, we had the immense opportunity to meet other practitioners, including Henrik Norberg, another fellow meditation teacher who trained under the late Culadasa. Henrik currently manages the Dharma Treasure meditation retreat center, and has been for a few years.

Our stay blew our mind for several reasons that go beyond the meditation practice. The beauty of the desert environment, the diversity and warmth of the community – including a monk, Ajahn Buddhisaro, who lives there -, the innumerable natural caves we could explore and sleep in, an unforgettable full moon hike and a welcoming communal cooking and working experience. We only stayed for two weeks, but left with a thirst for more, wishing we could dive in more meaningfully into the richness of this stunning place.

This brings me to my main point. We are coming back to Dharma Treasure, this time for a much longer stay, this Fall! From October 20th 2024 to January 20th 2025, we will not only be living at Dharma Treasure, but managing the center, and helping out with all things necessary to run the place and hold a space for all visitors to practice fruitfully. I can hardly express the gratefulness I feel to be offered this opportunity. Creating and managing such an environment has been a dream of mine for a long time, and having the unexpected opportunity to bring this dream to life this Fall is truly a blessing. I had to rearrange some priorities and make a few sacrifices, including taking a sabbatical, but it was an easy decision given the nature of the opportunity.

Our goal with the stay is manifold. First, we want to make sure that all retreatants get the most out of their stay, whether they be beginner or advanced meditators, nature enthusiasts, or simply people looking for some time off from conventional daily life. Notably:

• We will improve the current greeting process for newcomers, so that people can join the communal life and participate in the activities and tasks that surround it as soon as they arrive. This includes improved and clearer briefing processes with regards to the rules, expectations and the schedule of the center, as well as a better mapping of the outdoor activities, hikes and caves.
• We will create an inventory of all things owned by Dharma Treasure. This will facilitate keeping track of objects owned, and streamline the process of lending, borrowing and acquiring possessions. Examples that come to mind are outdoor gear like tents, sleeping bags and rock climbing equipment ; or gardening and constructions tools and supplies.
• We will incorporate mindfulness into every feasible aspect of the food process. We believe that sourcing food ethically, eliminating food wastage and creating a warm atmosphere in which food is cooked, shared and enjoyed communally. This is challenging in the context of living together, especially when people of varied backgrounds and with diverse dietary preferences and restrictions come and go, but we will face that challenge head on, and will keep iterating improvements until we are satisfied with the approach.
• Help foster an atmosphere of transparent, lucid and non-violent communication, and encourage all participants to follow “Right speech” ethos. An idea that came about when staying at Dharma Treasure last winter was to have periods when speech is restricted through certain rules. One such rule could be “only discuss what’s occurring in the present, rather than the past or future”. We actually tried for 24 hours and failed quite miserably, but we would love to try again!
• On the meditation front, I will be leading daily guided meditations, which I will record and publish on Insight Timer. Together with Henrik, I will also a lead a TMI-inspired meditation retreat in January. Our ambition is to have practitioners follow the Elephant path with alternative meditation techniques (not the breath!). I will also be serving as the fallback resident yogi during that period, meaning that I’ll be holding the meditation space whenever no invited teacher is present. .

How to attend

The retreat center is located in Arizona, 90 minutes from the Tucson Airport, 45 minutes from Benson and Willcox, and 20 minutes from the small village of Sunsites. While remote, the retreat center is part of a close-knit rural community.

Compared to a lot of other retreat centers, Dharma Treasure is definitely on the affordable side, and it is also possible for attendees to significantly reduce costs by volunteering. I For more details on booking, lodging, and retreat guidelines, you can visit their official site at https://dharmatreasure.org/ or contact them directly via email at retreats@dharmatreasure.org.

Future plans

Our stay at Dharma Treasure supports our long-term vision of creating a unique environment where people can come and stay. While we don’t aim to establish a full-scale meditation center, we aspire to build a self-sufficient space that places nature at the heart of our lives. This space will welcome people from all walks of life, offering them the freedom to pursue meaningful interests, projects, and ambitions—whether spiritual, artistic, or intellectual—while simultaneously upholding the values that are dear to our hearts. I believe our experience at Dharma Treasure will inspire us to create such a place and clarify the specifics of our ambition.

I truly hope to see you there!

Available in 15, 30 and 60 minutes versions below.

15 minutes – Guided Walking Meditation for Beginners

30 minutes- Guided Walking Meditation for Beginners

60 minutes – Guided Walking Meditation for Beginners

The audio versions of all guided meditations is available to download as an MP3 for Patreon supporters. If you’d like to support, check out https://www.patreon.com/updevelopment

Become a patron

Walking meditation is important, because the purpose of meditation is to train the mind to be attentive and mindful in all circumstances. Therefore, we should train ourselves not only on the cushion, but while walking. You will soon see that walking meditation comes with its own set of advantages and challenges. Practicing it will increase your mind’s resilience and greatly deepen your overall meditation practice.

Walking meditation helps us bridge the gap between formal sitting practice and daily life. Eventually, this will lead to the cultivation of a meditative state of mind throughout the day, whether we are on the cushion or not. By maintaining the continuity of our meditation practice, we will progress faster and reap more profound and enduring benefits.

There are many ways to practice walking meditation, and we will explore more advanced walking meditation techniques in later stages. For now, we will learn a simple and useful walking meditation technique that can be practiced in public without attracting attention. While it is easier to practice in calm and predictable environments, you can practice walking meditation anytime you walk. In fact, you can practice this technique without walking, while waiting for the bus or sitting on the subway.

Here is how we will practice walking meditation:

1. Present moment. Become aware of the present moment. Open yourself to your surroundings. What sounds can you hear? What colors do you see? What smells can you discern? How do you feel? Let yourself appreciate this moment.
2. Sensations. While you stay aware of your surroundings, bring your attention to the sensations in your feet. Center your attention on the rapidly changing sensations in your feet. Can you feel the weight of your body shifting from one foot to the other?
3. Introspective awareness. Inevitably, the mind will wander away, either distracted by a sound, a sight or a thought. Like with sitting meditation, when you notice that the mind has wandered away, take a moment to appreciate this newfound awareness. Then, bring attention back to the sensations in your feet.

Practicing walking meditation in this way is excellent mind training. With eyes open and a changing environment, the mind’s natural tendency is to jump from one thing to the next. By bringing our attention back to the sensations in our feet, we will strengthen our “mind muscles”, and this will help us both in daily life and during sitting meditation. As walking requires that we remain conscious of our surroundings, we will further develop our peripheral awareness and clearly discern attention and peripheral awareness. These benefits will stay with us on the cushion: our introspective awareness will be clearer and more stable.

I recommend you practice walking meditation a few times per week, as your schedule and activities allow. Personally, I use walking meditation whenever I walk or wait. In the latter case, while I don’t actually walk, the same technique applies : I mindfully observe the sensations in my feet while I stay aware of the environment. Practicing like this, I can make the best out of waiting periods. Instead of seeing waiting as boring and annoying, I see it as an enjoyable opportunity.

Where and when to meditate

The easy answer to where and when to meditate is “wherever, and whenever you can”. And while this is true – in fact, it will become increasingly relevant as you progress – there are ways to make your meditation session more enjoyable and productive.

In terms of where to meditate, you should find as quiet and peaceful place as you can. You can sit cross-legged on a cushion if you want to, as that posture tends to be especially conducive to meditation. If you’re not comfortable sitting cross-legged, simply use a chair on which you can sit upright.

If possible, you should meditate in the same location each day. That will reinforce the habit of meditating. Eventually, simply moving to that location will put you in a meditative state.

This brings me to the second point of when to meditate. I recommend meditating daily. Like with any skill, daily practice, even if only for a few minutes, will yield more benefits than meditating for longer but infrequently. Once again to reinforce the habit of meditating, I recommend that you meditate at the same time each day. Personally, I find the early morning especially conducive to meditation. Setting aside some fixed amount of time each day to meditation will eventually feel easy natural. You will even look forward to it!

Useful tools and equipment

While not mandatory, here’s a list of all the “stuff” I use when meditating.

• A timer. I use the free app Insight Timer, which has a simple meditation timer that automatically keeps track of your daily sits.
• A cushion. I sit on a simple meditation cushion filled with buckwheat hulls, similar to this one. When it gets too soft due to prolonged use, I add a few scoops of hulls.
• A blanket. I use a blanket that looks like that one when meditating. The weight of the blanket is comforting, and provides warmth when meditating in the cold Canadian early mornings.

That’s all. Meditation is a frugal activity.