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Vipassana, Brahma Vihara & Concentration Guidance Available....
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Please contact the Hermitage office to find out about available spaces for this retreat...
April 12 - May 10, 2015
The Columbine Inn
in Taos Ski Valley, New Mexico
(April 12-26 or April 26-May 10 Options)
Guiding Teacher: Marcia Rose
A unique opportunity for experienced Dharma practitioners to enter a supportive space of solitude & silence for intensive,independent meditation practice.
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Marcia Rose lives in Taos, NM. She is the founding and guiding teacher of The Mountain Hermitage. She has been studying and practicing Buddhist teachings and meditation with Asian and Western teachers since 1970, primarily in the Theravada-Vipassana tradition. Marcia is dedicated to offering these ancient & timeless teachings in ways that make them accessible and authentic for contemporary culture.
One Month/28 days: $2186 - $2586 - $2986
2 weeks/14 days: $1093 - $1293 - $1493
Partial Scholarships Available - Application Necessary
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FEATURED ARTICLE
Beyond Self - A Pathway to Liberating Spiritual Intimacy -
Reflections from Teacher Brian Lesage
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The Hermitage is pleased to announce that, starting January 1, 2015, we are accepting credit card
payments for retreat fees!
Once your application has been accepted, you will receive a letter detailing the process of paying your balance due by credit card. PayPal allows you to pay by Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover, PayPal, or by using your own bank account. Because there is a 2.9% + .30 PayPal transaction fee, the amount you pay will reflect that slight increase. Contact Kathy at the Hermitage office with questions: (575) 758-0633 or hermitage@
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Finding Freedom through Insight Meditation...
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June 27 - July 3, 2015
With Brian Lesage
Columbine Inn, Taos Ski Valley, New MexicoInsight meditation is a simple and direct practice based on moment-to-moment awareness, a technique that opens the heart and clears the mind. This will be an opportunity to practice continuous mindfulness in silence throughout the day - in sitting and walking meditation. In the silence we are freed from much of the daily barrage of stimulus that draws our attention outward, letting us delve deeply inward. Learning to be aware of our experience from a place of stillness and equanimity allows us to see more clearly, and as insight deepens, compassion and wisdom can arise.
The retreat is designed for beginners and
experienced practitioners alike.
Brian Lesage has practiced Buddhist meditation since 1988 and has taught meditation since 2000. He has studied in the Zen, Theravada and Tibetan schools of Buddhism. He was ordained in the Rinzai Zen tradition in 1996. His training in Vipassana Meditation includes doing extended meditation retreats in Myanmar (Burma), Nepal, and India as well as numerous retreats in the U.S. He leads retreats and teaches meditation courses nationwide. Brian also has a private practice in Somatic Experiencing, a naturalistic approach to healing trauma. Sliding Scale Fees:
$444 (low) $644 (actual cost) $844 (benefactor)
Partial Scholarships Available - Application Necessary
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Beyond Self - A Pathway to Liberating Spiritual Intimacy
A Reflection from Teacher Brian Lesage
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"I am' is a conceiving; 'I am this' is a conceiving; 'I shall be' is a
conceiving; 'I shall not be'  is a conceiving; 'I shall be possessed of form' is a conceiving; 'I shall be formless; is a conceiving; "I shall be percipient' is a conceiving; 'I shall be non-percipient' is a conceiving; .... By overcoming all conceiving one is called a sage at peace."
The Buddha in The Middle Length Discourses 140:31
Have you ever felt confined by another person's way of conceiving of you? Have you had someone always see you as a negative person or a sensitive person or an angry person and each time they interact with you they keep you in that box? Have you noticed how we can do this to ourselves by confining ourselves to some small concept of who we are? Concepts and identity can be useful but when they become fixed and static, discontentment arises.
Beginning to see and become free of this dynamic offers one gateway into the Buddha's teaching on Not-Self. In the Anatta-Lakkhana Sutta, said to be the second discourse spoken by the Buddha, he gives us a way of stepping out of the confines of this type of narrow conceiving. He states:
"Any kind of [experience] ...whatsoever, whether past, future, or present, internal or external, gross or subtle, inferior or superior, far or near, ...should be seen as it really is with correct wisdom thus: 'This is not mine, this I am not, this is not my self.'" -The Connected Discourses of the Buddha SN22:59 Here the Buddha is pointing out that freedom unfolds when we deeply see that the aspects of experience we tend to identify with are, in fact, not us, not ours, and not our selves. Towards what kind of freedom does this relinquishing of identification lead? The Pali discourses describe this new-found freedom as a heart free of greed, hatred and delusion. 
In his book "Liberating Intimacy," Zen scholar Peter Herschock frames the liberative aspect of the Buddhist path in terms of intimacy. He says "...Buddhist salvation is not a liberation of any individual 'you' or 'me' but rather of intimacy itself." I find this a compelling and inspiring way to look at the process of becoming free of greed, hatred and delusion. It helps us to understand that the practice of this path is not essentially about liberating me, an individual self, but rather allowing intimacy to flow freely. When I no longer conceive myself, or others, or the world within a narrow, fixed conceptual framework, an intimacy with all things shines forth. The 8th century Chinese poet, Li Bai, beautifully describes this unfolding process in this poem: "The birds have vanished in the sky, and now the last cloud drains away. We sit together, the mountain and I until only the mountain remains."
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More 2015 retreats... (just click on retreat to go to website page)
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August 16 - 25, 2015 MANIFESTING SPIRITUAL ASPIRATION BY DEEPENING PRACTICE: People Of Color Retreat For Experienced Students with Gina Sharpe & Larry Yang This retreat for Communities of Color will be the first such retreat of 10 days'  duration for experienced students. We will deepen practice to live with integrity, kindness, attention and true service in our vulnerable world.  Does Buddhism provide any special insight into the ecological crisis? Do its teachings imply a different way of understanding the biosphere, and our relationship to it, which can really help us at this critical time in history, when we are doing so much to destroy it? This retreat will combine the practice and study of metta, or loving frien  dliness meditation. The  Buddha taught metta meditation to quell fear and anger, to promote harmonious relationships, and to purify the mind in concentration. The benefits of this practice touch every aspect of our lives.
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We alwa ys need donations to help with operating expenses & to support those who would not be able to attend our retreats without financial help.
 THANK YOU!
"If beings knew, as I know, the benefits of generosity, they would not let an
opportunity go by without giving and sharing." - The Buddha
 We invite you to visit us on Facebook.
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For more information on all these retreats, you can contact us....
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Limited scholarship support available for all of our retreats. Application Necessary.
May our practice serve towards the welfare, the happiness & the awakening of all beings.
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 "When we truly sense [the] interconnectedness and the emptiness out of which all beings arise, we find liberation and a spacious joy. Discovering emptiness brings a lightness of heart, a flexibility, and an ease that rests in all things. The more solidly we grasp our identity, the more solid our problems become. One I asked a delightful old Sri Lankan meditation master to teach me the essence of Buddhism. He just laughed and said three times, 'No self, no problem.'"
Jack Kornfield in his book "A Path with Heart"
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