Dharma Treasure Retreat Center

Dharma Treasure Retreat Center sits high in Cochise Stronghold Canyon, in the Dragoon Mountains of southeast Arizona. The land is described as long held sacred, first by the Chiricahua Apaches and later by the meditators who came to practice in the quiet canyon. The center occupies five secluded acres at 5,000 feet, bordered by Coronado National Forest, with hiking trails reached from the property.

The community, known as Stronghold Retreat, was founded in 2019 on the family homestead of the late teacher Upasaka Culadasa. The site's own audio archive reaches back further. It holds talks from a silent, ten-day residential retreat at Cochise Stronghold in June 2010, which the pages describe as the first retreat to use neurofeedback as an adjunct to meditation practice. The center calls itself the birthplace of The Mind Illuminated, the method that grew from Culadasa's teaching, and the place where the book was written. Its resident yogi, Henrik Norberg, is a certified instructor in that method who trained with Culadasa here.

Buddhist meditation is the backbone of the practice, though meditators of every tradition, or none, are welcome. Solo retreatants set their own schedules around a minimum of six hours of daily sitting and walking practice and are encouraged to keep noble silence. Group retreats range from a week on the Brahmaviharas to a two-week training in mindfulness. Dark retreats, offered from 2026, are limited to experienced practitioners and begin with a conversation with a resident teacher. Work retreatants stay two to six weeks, join open sits from 6 to 8 each morning and evening, and take part in monthly all-night full-moon hikes kept for Uposatha.

Lodging is deliberately simple and priced for access. Options include suites in a strawbale eco-house, a meditation hut called the Kuti, a shared yurt the community calls the Dharmatory, bell tents and camping. Meals are self-catered, and teachers' time is supported through dana, with about an hour of daily work service requested of every retreatant.