RESIDENTIAL APPLICATION: The Abolitionist’s Dream: A Journey through Love, Healing, and Liberation

To support an inclusive and representative retreat container, residential registration will begin with an application period from May 10 – 31. Please review the full application instructions and details below before applying.

Registration for the ONLINE component of the retreat is now open. Please click here to register.

We are living through an apocalypse, struggling to learn lessons through a pervasive pandemic, economic instability, political unrest, climate change, and various forms of systematic violence. However, this moment is also inviting us back to an authentic indigeneity. We are being asked to remember how to be in relationship to the land, to our broken heartedness, and in gentle healing relationships with others. In the face of so much change we may find it difficult to maintain our physical and emotional balance.

We invite you to join Lama Rod Owens and Sister Siofra at Wonderwell Mountain Refuge or online via Natural Dharma Fellowship’s interactive hybrid system as they bring forward a deeply embodied, justice-rooted approach to liberation that draws from Buddhist practice, earth-based traditions, and lineages of collective healing.

In this retreat, we will explore both personal and collective liberation through somatic based mindfulness practice, grief work, chanting, and prayer. We will explore themes of spiritual abolition, liberatory care, grieving as care work, as well as what it means to be a love centered agent of liberation in this moment. We will rely on the wisdom of Tantric Buddhism, African spirituality, the Black Prophetic tradition, American Indigenous traditions, and sacred herbalism to understand and experience that any state of freedom must center tending to our broken hearts while calling real joy to hold the labor.

Please join us to:

• Explore grief and broken-heartedness as pathways of healing and transformation
• Engage chanting, prayer, and ritual as supports for personal and collective liberation
• Return to an authentic relationship with your body through somatic mindfulness, movement, and breath as a foundation for liberatory care
• Deepen your connection with the land and the more-than-human world

This retreat offers a precious opportunity to engage these teachings in a supported, practice-centered environment—one that honors both the depth of what we are facing and the possibility of real transformation. Whether you are seeking renewal, community, or a deeper way of meeting this moment, this retreat offers a grounded and compassionate container for practice. We invite you to join us. All are welcome.

Application & Registration Process

To support an inclusive and representative retreat container, residential registration will begin with an application period from May 10 – 31. During this period, priority for available residential spaces will be given on a rolling basis to retreatants who identify as BIPOC and/or LGBTQIA+. After the application window closes, remaining spaces will be offered to other applicants, and open registration will begin in June if space allows. All applicants will be notified of their status no later than June 7.

Beginning May 10, you may submit the application form. Submitting this form indicates your interest in attending but does not guarantee a space. If you are offered a place in the retreat, you will receive a follow-up email with instructions to complete your registration and submit payment. A deposit will be due within one week of acceptance.

The application includes a few optional questions to help us support an inclusive and respectful environment. These include the opportunity to self-identify as BIPOC and/or LGBTQIA+, as well as housing-related questions such as rooming preferences and gender identification for shared accommodations. This information is used solely to guide placement and uphold our commitments to care, safety, and accessibility within the retreat.

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