Forest Refuge Schedule 2027
To explore virtual program options, please visit the IMS Online page.
IMS’s Forest Refuge program supports experienced meditators in sustained, longer-term retreat practice. A personal retreat, under the guidance of the following teachers, helps strengthen practice, faith, confidence and self-reliance.
Please Note
- A self-sustaining practice is necessary to undertake a Forest Refuge retreat.
- Before you apply, please make sure you meet the Forest Refuge application requirements. We expect that candidates have participated in at least one six-week structured and teacher-led insight meditation retreat, or six similar one-week retreats.
- The teaching schedule may change without notice. It is our intention that retreatants will have the opportunity to practice with a variety of experienced and well-qualified insight meditation teachers.
- When retreat space is limited, priority will be given to those applying for longer stays.
The Forest Refuge: Sustained Practice in Deep Silence
In “The Forest Refuge: Sustained Practice in Deep Silence,” teachers Joseph Goldstein, Winnie Nazarko, Caroline Jones, Ajahn Sucitto, Tara Mulay, and Devin Berry discuss the origins of the Forest Refuge and share their experiences practicing and teaching in this special environment.
Supporting our teachers
Here at IMS, our teachers are continuing the ancient Buddhist monastic tradition of freely offering the teachings while living in the midst of contemporary society. What this means is that they rely on the generosity of retreat participants for a sustainable income.
There is an opportunity at the end of your personal retreat to make an offering to teachers – this is known as teacher dana. At the Forest Refuge, where retreatants often stay for long periods, IMS supplements teacher dana as needed to provide an adequate offering.
Your contributions help teachers to lead a life devoted to teaching both at IMS and in other parts of the world, including communities without the means to donate. Your gifts also allow teachers to take time for their own practice, ensuring that their teachings are continuously enriched.
For availability of specific dates, call 978-355-2063 or email fr@dharma.org.
Open – January 1 – January 31, 2027
Winnie Nazarko & Shelly Graf
For this month, applications are accepted for retreat stays of a minimum of 7 nights (or longer). Acceptance is granted upon review of the applicant’s practice experience and current availability.
Teachers:
Winnie Nazarko & Shelly Graf
Open – February 1 – February 28, 2027
Jill Shepherd & Nakawe Cuebas Berrios
For this month, applications are accepted for retreat stays of a minimum of 7 nights (or longer). Acceptance is granted upon review of the applicant’s practice experience and current availability.
Open – March 1 – March 31, 2027
Rebecca Bradshaw & Devin Berry
Join Rebecca Bradshaw and Devin Berry during this month as the season turns toward early spring, with bright sunshine and warming temperatures. Devin and Rebecca will happily guide participants in insight and/or lovingkindness practice, including metta concentration practice (jhānas) for those interested.
For this month, applications are accepted for retreat stays of a minimum of 7 nights (or longer). Acceptance is granted upon review of the applicant’s practice experience and current availability.
Open – April 1 – April 30, 2027
Narayan H Liebenson & Matthew Hepburn
During this month-long retreat, we will devote each week to exploring one of these qualities: lovingkindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity. Instructions will cultivate specific Brahma Vihara practices and infuse insight meditation with their qualities. The teachers will offer regular meditation instructions, talks about the teachings, and individual meetings to help each participant recognize and strengthen each Brahma Vihara in the most naturally skillful approach for their own practice.
Teachers:
Narayan H Leibenson & Matthew Hepburn
Open – May 1 – May 31, 2027
Sayadaw U Jagara & Venerable Canda
Rooted in a time-honored map of practice preserved in the early Buddhist texts and carried through our lineage, this retreat explores the 37 Factors of Awakening (Bodhipakkhiya) as a living, experiential path. Through meditation, reflection, and shared inquiry, we’ll discover how these qualities naturally unfold in practice, supporting clarity, steadiness, and a deepening sense of freedom.
Particular emphasis will be placed on the relational aspects of the path, exploring how the Factors of Awakening function less as discrete elements and more as a living ecology of Dhamma. In practicing this way, we both draw from and contribute to a living tradition, allowing wisdom and compassion to take shape in ways that meet the conditions of our lives today.
Teachers:
Sayadaw U Jagara & Venerable Canda
Lottery – June 1 – June 30, 2027
Carol Wilson & Andrea Fella
The teachings for this month will explore the four foundations of mindfulness with open awareness and receptive attention, with an emphasis on recognizing the attitude of mind and cultivating the perspective of wise view. The teachings will be influenced by both teachers’ practice with Sayadaw U Tejaniya. We request that you agree to work with the instructions offered during the retreat.
Practice discussion meetings will primarily be in small groups, meeting twice a week. The teachers will offer some sign-up interviews, so there will be a chance for a private meeting if there is something you don’t feel comfortable bringing up in the group.
Applications are due by November 1, 2026. Notifications about the results of the lottery status will be communicated by November 15, 2026.
Open – July 1 – July 31, 2027
Devin Berry & Tara Mulay
Heartstream Dharma points to the living current of the Buddha’s teachings. We can come to see this embodied truth for ourselves through steady, caring attention to the living current of our own experience. Surrounded by a supportive and honest community, the journey toward clarity is naturally revealed. It emerges through mindfulness of breath, body, and mind, as we soften our hearts, cultivate insight, and find peace in letting go.
Priority will be given to those applying for the full month or longer. This retreat is scheduled for a July 1 arrival and July 31 departure.
Partial month applications will be sent to the teaching team for review and placed on a waitlist, through January 1, 2027. Acceptances for partial month will be made by January 15, 2027.
Teachers:
Devin Berry & Tara Mulay
Open – August 1 – August 31, 2027
Annie Nugent & Greg Scharf
Lottery – September 1 – September 30, 2027
Guy Armstrong & Sally Armstrong
This retreat will strengthen our understanding and experience of the nature of awareness in meditation practice. We will explore this in three stages. During the initial part of the month, we will build meditative stability through a focus on anapanasati (mindfulness of breathing). In the next phase, we will introduce a regular practice of metta (lovingkindness), allowing the beautiful and responsive qualities of heart to unfold. Then, with concentration and lovingkindness as our foundation, the last stage of the retreat will focus on specific meditative techniques that allow us to rest in the pure nature of awareness.
The teachers will offer regular meditation instructions, talks about the teachings and individual meetings. Participants are expected to follow the sequence of instructions as they are given.
Open – October 1 – October 31, 2027
Deborah Helzer & Mark Nunberg
*Partial month applications will be sent to the teaching team for review and placed on a waitlist. Partial month attendance must begin at the first of the month, (October 1 – October 15), or the second half of the month, (October 15 – October 31), for a minimum of two weeks, with preference given for a longer stays.
*Acceptances for partial month, (either October 1 – October 15 or October 15 – October 31), will be made by April 1, 2027.
Teachers:
Deborah Helzer & Mark Nunberg
Open – November 1 – November 30, 2027
Winnie Nazarko & Kristina Baré
Open – December 1 – December 31, 2027
Chas DiCapua & Bonnie Duran
How to Pick a Forest Refuge Retreat
In this video, Teacher-in-Residence Caroline Jones offers some advice on how to choose a retreat at the Forest Refuge that’s right for you.
