Five Days to Live and Die

Five Days to Live and Die is a spiritual workshop on death and life, held at PachaMama Eco Village & Retreat Center in Nicoya, Guanacaste, Costa Rica. It is for anyone curious about how their relationship to mortality shapes the way they live, and it is led by Ramya.

The premise is simple and direct. Participants imagine a close, fictitious deadline, only five days left to live, and use that urgency to look at what matters, what to change, and who they would be if the answer were clear.

What to Expect

The central question is a plain one: who would you be, how would you feel, and what would you change if you had five more days to live? The workshop uses the "dead-line" as a lens on the preciousness of each moment, on what is essential to each person, and on the simplicity of true expression.

The work runs across five mornings and two evenings, which gives the days room to breathe. Each meeting's theme travels with you into the hours that follow, so there is space to play, try things, explore, and bring the practice into daily life rather than leaving it in the room.

The schedule runs like this:

- Day 1: morning session, 9:30am to 12:45pm
- Day 2: morning session, 9:30am to 12:45pm, and an evening session, 8pm to 9:30pm
- Day 3: morning session, 9:30am to 12:45pm
- Day 4: morning session, 9am to 1pm, and an evening session, 4:20pm to 9:30pm
- Day 5: closing circle, 10:30am to 12pm

The final morning closes with a circle that gathers the week's inquiry.

Past participants describe the workshop as empowering and energizing, and one says it helped them see how their fears hold them back from living fully. Another points to Ramya's intuitiveness and warmth, and to her ability to build trust within a group.

About Ramya

In a previous lifetime, Ramya was an engineer. In 1996 a Zen retreat shattered her belief system, and she left her old skin behind to begin an ongoing journey of contemplative practice. Her path, from engineering toward Zen-influenced inquiry, shapes the workshop's grounded and exploratory approach to death and life.

The Setting

The workshop takes place at the PachaMama eco village in Nicoya, in the Guanacaste region of Costa Rica. Accommodations are available through the venue.

Before You Go

No prior experience is stated as a requirement. The material is contemplative and involves group discussion and reflection on mortality, so it suits people who are ready to sit with honest questions in the company of others. A 13% Costa Rican VAT is added to the total price.