The Mycelial Path: Rediscovering the Living Field of Awareness (Residential)

This is the RESIDENTIAL component of the retreat. If you’d like to register for the ONLINE component, please click here.

Beneath the forest floor, an ancient conversation is taking place. Delicate threads of mycelium weave through the earth, carrying nourishment, exchanging information, and quietly sustaining the life of the forest. Though largely unseen, this living network reminds us that what appears separate is, in truth, profoundly intertwined.

For centuries, Buddhist teachings have pointed toward this same discovery. We usually experience ourselves as isolated individuals moving through an external world, yet with careful attention another reality begins to reveal itself. Our lives arise within an immeasurable web of relationships. Breath depends on forests. Bodies are shaped by sunlight, rain, soil, stars, and countless generations who came before us. Even our thoughts and emotions arise through conditions beyond our own making.

But Buddhism invites us one step further. It asks us not simply to understand interdependence, but to recognize the boundless field in which interdependence appears. Before there is “self” and “other,” before there is “inside” and “outside,” there is awake presence—vast, luminous, and naturally compassionate. This is not something we create through meditation. It is the ground of our experience, present before every thought, every perception, every story about who we are.

From this perspective, the forest is not merely something we observe. It is an expression of the same living awareness that knows this very moment. The wind moving through the pines. The song of a thrush. The fragrance of cedar after rain. The beating of your own heart. Each arises within one indivisible field of knowing.

Please join us to:

• Explore the mycelial network as a living metaphor for interconnection, reciprocity, and belonging
• Practice meditation as a form of rooting into breath, body, and earth
• Be inspired by the intelligence and resilience of the forest
• Reconnect with your place within the larger web of life

Throughout this long weekend, we will allow the living world and the forest to become our teachers. Through periods of silent sitting, walking meditation, contemplative practices in nature, Dharma teachings, and shared inquiry, we will gradually soften the habit of perceiving ourselves as separate observers. Again and again, we return to immediate experience—not searching for extraordinary states but learning to trust the extraordinary completeness of what is already here. Meditation becomes less an effort of concentration and more an act of remembering. Like roots settling into fertile soil, we allow attention to sink beneath the restless surface of conceptual thought into the quiet immediacy of embodied presence. There we can discover an intelligence that is not manufactured by the thinking mind—an effortless awareness that is intimate with every sound, sensation, emotion, and perception without clinging to any of them.

The mycelial network offers us a profound image for this journey. It does not strive to hold the forest together. It simply participates in the life that is already unfolding. In much the same way, awareness does not need to create connection. It is connection. It is the open, living field within which all relationships continuously arise.

As our practice deepens, we may notice that the boundaries we habitually defend begin to soften. The distinction between “my breath” and the breathing forest becomes less fixed. Listening happens without a listener. Seeing occurs without a separate seer. Compassion arises naturally because there is no longer such a solid division between ourselves and the world around us.

The great Dzogchen masters often speak of awakening as recognition rather than attainment. Nothing new is added. Nothing essential is acquired. Instead, we simply cease overlooking what has always been present. This retreat is an invitation into that recognition. To discover that awareness is not confined within us, but that we live within awareness. To experience the earth not as scenery but as kin. To rediscover ourselves as participants in an immeasurably ancient conversation that began long before we arrived and will continue long after we are gone. Like the hidden mycelium beneath the forest floor, this living field quietly sustains every moment of our lives. To remember it is to rediscover our original belonging.

This residential retreat offers an opportunity to deepen your meditation practice while being nurtured by the natural beauty of Wonderwell’s verdant campus, tucked in New Hampshire’s Upper Valley. Daily teachings, guided and silent meditation, nourishing meals, and supportive group discussions provide the structure of the day, while contemplative walks and time spent resting in the surrounding fields and forests gently deepen your connection with the more-than-human world. All are welcome.

Please arrive prepared for outdoor practice with layered clothing, sun protection, and insect repellent. Late autumn in New England can bring warm sunshine, freezing temperatures, rain, wind, and rapidly changing weather conditions.

Typical Retreat Schedule

(All times are Eastern time zone)

First Day — Hybrid evening session begins around 7:00 pm.

Full-Day Schedule — Morning meditation 7:00 am; Breakfast break 8:00-9:30 am; Lunch break 12:00-2:00 pm; Dinner break 5:30-7:00 pm.

Last Day — The closing session typically ends by 12:00 pm and is followed by a light lunch.

These times are just for reference. An expanded schedule will be provided in pre-retreat information emailed during the week prior to the event.

Important Health Information

COVID-19 testing is no longer required. Masks are optional and encouraged if you are at higher risk. We encourage you to stay at home if you are symptomatic to protect others.

Scholarships

Cancellation Policy

We understand that personal circumstances may require you to cancel your registration. In these cases, please contact us right away at register@naturaldharma.org. Cancellations affect our ability to offer rooms to others and create additional work for our staff, therefore we charge the following fees to help mitigate these costs.

For cancellations (based on program start date):

• > 45 days: 100% refund minus a $75 admin. fee.
• 31-45 days: 50% refund of the required deposit; or 75% refund if registration paid in full.
• 21-30 days: 50% refund of total registration cost
• < 21 days: nonrefundable

If you must cancel due to an emergency or extenuating circumstances, please contact us at register@naturaldharma.org.

Access to Recordings

NDF offers unlimited access to recordings, which are accessed in your user dashboard (more information about user accounts provided in a pre-retreat letter). If you have a user account, please register with the same email you use to log into your dashboard. If not, an account will be created for you using your registration address.

Availability will vary depending on the type of event and the backlog for our precious resource volunteers. Thank you for your patience.

Natural Dharma Fellowship Full Calendar