Registration for this program is now closed. For last minute in-person registration, please text Carol at ‭+1 (503) 679-5173‬. For last minute online registration, please text John for Zoom link at ‭+1 (503) 975-7799‬. 

Elemental Wisdom: A Journey through the Five Buddha Families

A Five-Day Meditation Retreat led in-person (& on Zoom) by visiting teachers, Holly Gayley & Rick Merrill 

Our true nature is a gem buried in the messiness of our emotional entanglements and habitual patterns. It’s the lotus that grows out of the mud, the buddha within. How do we discover this in the process of healing and transformation? Through meditation and movement, we can attune to the basic energies within the natural elements and our own psychology, which can be liberated into wisdom and creativity.  

Join us for a transformative journey, exploring the elemental wisdom of the five buddha families. In this five-day workshop, there will be time for silence and guided meditations to make a relationship with our inner landscape and the elements of earth, fire, wind, water, and space. There will also be talks, dialogues, and exercises to explore the personal and social dimensions of how we get confused, stuck, or numb and how we can release the underlying energy and transform it into wisdom.

Retreat Schedule
Tuesday, December 26th - Saturday, December 30th, from 9 am - 12 pm, and 2 pm - 5 pm. We will break each day for lunch from 12 - 2 pm. Please plan to attend in-person, or online (or a mix of both) all five days. 

Doors open at 8:30 AM for arrival, coffee and tea. On Tuesday, the first day of the program, we will order take out as a group. Wednesday - Saturday, bring a brown bag lunch. On Saturday, December 30th following the program, there will be a Concluding Celebration. 

Location: The Portland Dhamma Center: 1404 SE 25th Ave, Portland, OR 97214 (Google Maps)

Pricing: $250 Supporting; $350 Patron. For those with limited income, we have a generosity policy available. No one turned away for lack of funds! For details, email [email protected].

Refuge & Bodhisattva Vows
On Friday evening, Dec 29th, at 7:00 PM, Holly will be offering Refuge & Bodhisattva Vows to all who wish to receive them. Whether you're taking vows for the first time, renewing vows, or just coming to witness, all are welcome to take part in this special event. More info & registration here.

About the Teachers

Holly Gayley is a scholar and translator of Buddhist literature in contemporary Tibet at the University of Colorado Boulder. Her research areas include gender and sexuality in Buddhist tantra, ethical reform in contemporary Tibet, and theorizing translation, both literary and cultural, in the transmission of Buddhist teachings to North America. She is author of Love Letters from Golok: A Tantric Couple in Modern Tibet, translator of Inseparable Across Lifetimes: The Lives and Love Letters of Namtrul Rinpoche and Khandro Tāre Lhamo, and editor of Voices from Larung Gar: Shaping Tibetan Buddhism for the Twenty-First Century. For two decades, she has regularly led meditation workshops and retreats.

Rick Merrill has been a dancer, choreographer and teacher, a meditation instructor and tai chi practitioner for more than four decades. He leads meditation and movement workshops with people of all ages and backgrounds to encourage us all to rediscover and nurture our vital qualities of embodied wisdom, compassion and creativity. He is currently completing a two-year Buddhist Chaplaincy Training with Upaya Zen Center. Rick aspires to offer his work to other chaplains, social workers and first responders, people working and living in challenging and stressful circumstances, as supportive resources for healing, rejuvenation and building resilience.