Wilderness Retreat in the Great Smoky Mountains

The mountain landscape that holds our Sangha is a billion years old – mountains formed by a mighty collision of what later became North America and Africa. When young, these mountains rivaled the Himalayas. After formation, these mountains were covered by a forest that has never experienced a major ecological disaster – no volcanism, no ocean submersion, no scouring by the ice age glaciers. The result is an ancient temperate rainforest of unparalleled biodiversity.

Wide-eyed zazen on a massive boulder in the middle of a pristine creek running through the Great Smokey Mountains - the feeling of profound gratitude for your good karma will extend out and merge seamlessly with the rest of your small self into one of the most wonderfully complex, inspiring, and uplifting natural landscapes on earth. As you move through your time in this place you are repeatedly struck with reverence and awe and compelled to strive to be awake, aware, and fully in every moment alongside your dharma brothers and sisters – preparing and eating incredibly tasty vegan meals seasoned with wild herbs and mushrooms, drinking fresh huckleberry and stinging nettle tea, meandering along a myriad of wilderness trails, contemplating old oaks, maples, tulip poplars, hickories, marveling at the vistas, sleeping with the night hawks, bats, squirrels, otters, raccoons, coyotes, and bears

The experience is beyond judgment though we do have good reason to believe you are a fool to not make the effort to break out of your habitual life and join your Sangha on this retreat.