Seven-Day Retreat at San Damiano – Rupert Spira

Seven-Day Retreat at San Damiano is a non-duality meditation retreat led by Rupert Spira in San Luis Obispo, California. It is for people drawn to Advaita Vedanta and the direct path of self-inquiry, and for anyone who wants to spend a full week turning attention toward the nature of reality and the source of happiness. Spira, a meditation teacher known for his clear, unhurried way of speaking about awareness, leads the week at San Damiano.

His teaching is gathered under the phrase "The Essence of Non-Duality." Its central invitation is that the happiness we look for in objects, people and circumstances is not found out there. It is the nature of our own being, and it can be recognized here and now.

What to Expect

Spira's gatherings are built from conversations and guided meditations. He offers meditations that settle attention into the simple knowing of being, and he takes questions from participants in open dialogue. The dialogues are where the teaching becomes personal: people bring what they are actually facing, and he responds directly to it.

The themes he returns to in his published talks give a sense of the territory. They include the present moment as refuge, radical openness and acceptance, surrender, the nature of the ego, the question of whether the past is real or only a concept, trauma and healing in relation to our true nature, and the way old beliefs lose their power when they are seen clearly. Love and devotion run through the work as much as inquiry does.

Over seven days at a retreat like this, that means time to let one line of understanding unfold across many sessions, rather than meeting it once in a talk or a recording.

About Rupert Spira

Rupert Spira is a meditation teacher whose work centers on Advaita Vedanta, the nondual philosophy rooted in Indian classical thought, together with the devotional practice of Sufism. Born in London, he encountered the poetry of Rumi at the age of fifteen, an encounter that opened the way into the mystical and contemplative traditions he has explored for five decades.

Soon afterward he learned the Mevlevi Turning at Colet House in London, a Sufi practice that combines movement, prayer and meditation, and which belongs to the order founded by followers of Rumi. He then met Dr. Francis Roles, a student of Shantananda Saraswati, the Shankaracharya of the North of India.

His approach brings these two streams together: the direct-path inquiry of Advaita and the embodied, heart-centered quality of Sufi practice. He has published books including The Shining of Being, The Heart of Prayer, I Am Always I and You Are the Happiness You Seek, offers a free meditation app called Luminous, and writes weekly essays and reflections on Substack.

The Setting

The retreat takes place at San Damiano in San Luis Obispo, on California's Central Coast. It is one of several seven-day retreats Spira holds at residential centers in the United States, the United Kingdom and Italy, each giving a full week set apart from ordinary routine.

For those who want to become familiar with his way of teaching beforehand, he has a large library of recorded meditations and dialogues, including complimentary recordings, which is a good way to find out whether his voice and approach suit you.