Throughout the year we offer Awakening Weeks, which are silent periods of meditation practice. They are led by Head Teacher Soryu Forall or other teachers within the MAPLE system. See the events page for upcoming dates or apply for this opportunity here.
The Monastic Academy offers world-class meditation retreats with caring and fierce guidance from experienced teachers. This training includes rigorous monasticism, uncompromising ethics, and living dharma to bring forth love for all beings in the information age.
During Awakening Weeks, we strive to advance our spiritual practice and breakthrough to enlightenment for the benefit of all beings.
The Awakening Week container is strict and uncompromising. By upholding a standard of excellence and not catering to individual preferences, the container creates the optimal conditions for developing the mental clarity and ethical behavior needed to become a trustworthy guide for our world in crisis.
Our winter-spring Awakening Weeks are led by Head Teacher Soryu Forall, who provides personal instruction, guided meditations, Q&A periods, and dharmic exhortations. We are very fortunate to receive spiritual guidance from someone whose life and actions so clearly demonstrate the great bodhisattva path. You can learn more about Forall here.
Because of the relative strictness and rigor of the schedule, we recommend having prior familiarity with meditation and/or intense retreat settings before attending one of our Awakening Weeks. We are able to accommodate health issues and disabilities to some degree, so feel free to inquire for more information.
Retreat guests must arrive a couple days before we enter silence and stay for the integration day afterward. As such, the total commitment is ten days. Typically, Wednesday is the arrival day and Sunday is the departure day. You are welcome to extend your stay as a guest for a longer period before or after the retreat.
Our Awakening periods are usually a week long, but we also host an annual two-week long period as well as weekends. Details will be on the events page.
The typical daily schedule of an Awakening Week is posted below. The schedule is designed for 24/7 practice, on and off the cushion.