Intimacy with Life: The Feminine Path of Embodied Awakening

Intimacy with Life: The Feminine Path of Embodied Awakening

One of the most ancient Zen teachings is the koan, “not-knowing is most intimate.” During this all women’s retreat, we are given the invitation to live into this teaching.

The feminine path of embodied awakening is in and through the body; through fully embracing our humanness and the whole spectrum of our sensations and emotions, from grief, rage, and pain, to joy, peace, and pleasure. This path is one of welcoming rather than fixing, celebrating rather than transcending. It is the path in which we remember that we are sacred just as we are!

In this retreat, participants will be invited to become more comfortable with not-knowing. We will discover how this opens the door to a deeper curiosity, aliveness, and intimacy with this present moment.

This meditation retreat will include the four stages of embodied feminine meditation: softening, feeling, embracing, and being. Through landing in our bodies and opening our five senses, we will open to an organic experience of Eros, whether it’s in the wind, a bird song, or a tree. This is the Dao or “way” of delight, a simple and intuitive path to being right here and now.

Throughout the retreat, we will be devotees of the Dao of Delight through meditation, writing, nature, and simple yogic and embodiment practices. We will courageously become intimate with the mystery and find grace and ground in not-knowing.

On our final evening we will dance around the fire to our heart’s content, unleashing the joy and freedom we’ve cultivated throughout the retreat, enjoy some wine, and a fabulous feast.

Lead by facilitator Olivia Cooper and co-facilitator Rosie Gill, this retreat will be deeply informed by both Tibetan and Zen Buddhist lineages with a present-day approach. It will also include one full day of noble silence. No experience of Buddhist study and practice is necessary to participate in this retreat.

This is an all women’s retreat.

There are (2) work exchange spaces for this retreat. If you would like to help and attend for free, please contact the organizers.

You can stay in a bed on campus, set up your own campsite on campus or find your own lodging nearby. Ticket prices reflect these options. All on site lodging includes towels and linens. Feel free to bring your own bathrobe and metal cup for the sauna and hot tub areas.

All food and drink is provided.

Below: The interior of one of our yurts. We also offer cabins, bell tents and plenty of grassy areas to pitch your own tent.

Sample of our daily itinerary:

7:00 - Tea and coffee at the lodge.

7:40 - 8:00 - Light yoga

8:00-8:30 - Meditation

8:20 - 9:00 - Solo time

9 - 9:45 - Breakfast

10:00 - 1:00 Sitting and walking meditation

1:00 - 3:00 - Lunch at the lodge

3:00 - 3:30 - Dyad/inquiry practices

3:35 - 4:30 - Nature practices

4:30-5:30 - Embodiment practices

6:00 - 6:30 - Guided feminine meditation: softening, feeling, embracing, not-knowing

7:00 - 8:00 for Dinner at the lodge

8:30 - 9:10 - Yin yoga or Silent Disco or Sauna/hot tub (optional)

WHAT CAN YOU BRING?

Generous, kind and helpful intentions. We are here to care for ourselves, each other and our hosts. And we're here to play!

Campus will be staffed at all time with helpers to serve meals, tidy up and generally care for our guests. At times, offers to clear away and wash dishes will be welcome. Please keep all areas of campus tidy.

Bring your own water bottle and metal cup and reuse these all weekend.

Bring layers of clothes, sunscreen, mosquito repellent, camping gear (if you are camping).

If you're camping, be prepared for cool overnight temps at our 3,500 feet of elevation, so a warm sleeping bag, hat, etc..

Please carpool in as few vehicles as possible. Parking is limited.

Please be super fire safe. No unattended flames anywhere ever.

Above: Chef Tessa Velazquez sometimes visits from NYC and feeds our retreat guests.

OUR CHEF:

To be announced soon.

All our chefs work with healthy, local, seasonal and organic ingredients whenever possible. Expect big flavors and diverse offerings. Many past visitors comment that our meals were the best part of their stay.

SAMPLE MENU:

To be announced soon.

Please email us at least 72 hours in advance if you have any dietary restrictions and we'll do our best to accommodate them.

Our Facilitator:

Olivia Cooper leads a non-hierarchical weekly Buddhist sangha, facilitates meditation retreats, and offers 1:1 guidance work and meditation instruction.

Olivia studied contemplative psychology and yogic philosophy at Naropa University, the yoga sutras at Alandi Ayurveda Gurukula, is a trained death doula and published poet, and is certified in contemplative arts through The Mukpo Institute.

Her study and practice of Buddhism has spanned fifteen years. In 2017, she formally took vows and was initiated into a Tibetan ningma-kagyu lineage. In recent years she has practiced Zen Buddhism under the tutelage of Roshi Mary Gates and Roshi Douglas Phillips. In 2023, Vajra Master Lama Tashi Topgyal, vajracharya of the KPL center, emphasized the importance to Olivia that she teach western women.

Olivia lived and practiced in Buddhist communities for a cumulative four years. She is committed to living and sharing the path of wakefulness. Olivia is also a goofball, dancer, and wild woman mystic at heart with a special appreciation for the sacred absurdity of life.

Our Co-Facilitator:

Rosie supports people on a path of radical reclamation. She creates safe spaces for people to reclaim their power, voices and authentic expression.

Her purpose is in supporting both women and men on the feminine path of embodied awakening, guiding people back into sacred relationship with themselves, each other and the Earth. She is devoted to midwifing the many expressions of fear and separation back into the arms of love, wholeness and wisdom.

She finds joy in bringing shadow into light, contraction into openness and finding the grace that lives at the heart of our human suffering.

Rosie weaves principles and practices from many wisdom traditions into her offerings. She is a mentor & meditation coach, trained with the Mindfulness Training Institute (MTI) and offers 1:1 sessions and group courses. She is an acupuncturist and bodyworker, with a First Class BSc (Hons) degree in Chinese Medicine and Acupuncture.

Rosie is a Bhakti at heart with a deep love for Hindu and Vedic teachings; which she poetically weaves, alongside meditation and shadow work, into women’s circles and cacao ceremonies.

Below: A nearby swimming hole we love.

Above: Our cedar hot tub next to the bathhouse. We also have a Finnish style cedar sauna.

ABOUT CAMP EARNEST:

Our venue for this retreat is Camp Earnest, a 21 acre mountain paradise about 140 miles due east of San Francisco. At about 3,400 feet of elevation, Camp Earnest is blessed with mild summers and winters and a lush incense cedar, ponderosa and sugar pine forest. The campus includes a lodge for serving delicious farm to table meals, a bathhouse with sauna and hot tub, outdoor amphitheater, year round creek and meditation and movement hall, where most sessions will be held.

Above: When you depart after our retreat, we highly recommend heading to Yosemite Valley to take in the pure awe of features like El Capitan.