Finding the Refuge Within: A Silent Meditation Retreat (Online)

When the world trembles, where do we find sanctuary? This silent meditation retreat, led by Lama Willa Blythe Baker, turns toward a quiet answer: the moment we are living in may already hold the refuge we have been looking for. Rather than seeking peace in escape or in some distant future, the practice invites you to slow down, come present, and listen deeply.

Held online via Zoom, the retreat is hosted by Lama Willa from a residential gathering in Hawai'i and livestreamed to participants wherever they are. You create a retreat space of your own, and together you form a shared field of practice that carries across landscapes and time zones. For anyone who has felt the pull toward silence but not the means to travel, this online silent retreat offers a real container for it.

Grounded in Dzogchen, the Tibetan tradition of Great Wholeness, the retreat explores an innate awareness that is naturally open, peaceful, and whole. It is recommended for those who already have some experience with meditation and wish to deepen, refresh, or expand their practice.

What to Expect

The retreat moves through gradual phases of glimpse, cultivation, and stabilization. Over the course of the week, you will practice with:

- Dzogchen meditation: practices that emphasize slowing down, coming present, and waking up to your true nature.
- Noble Silence: a pathway to healing and inner cultivation.
- Contemplation of the natural world: practices that take trees, wind, water, sky, earth, and sacred fire as teacher, with ways to continue them wherever you are.
- Meeting challenge with presence: meditation that helps you remain open and grounded amid uncertainty and change.

The days alternate between teaching and practice sessions, with a break in between. The schedule runs on Eastern time, with an opening session on the first evening, afternoon and evening sessions through the week, and a closing session on the final afternoon. An expanded schedule is emailed in the week before the retreat.

You may leave with a steadier sense of presence and the understanding that the refuge you seek is not elsewhere, but here, within and between us.

About Willa Blythe Baker

Lama Willa Blythe Baker is a meditation teacher at Natural Dharma Fellowship, a community in Springfield, New Hampshire, whose retreat center is Wonderwell Mountain Refuge. The fellowship describes its approach as natural meditation, inspired by the natural world. Lama Willa originally crafted the teachings of the fellowship's Margha Program, a two-year path that alternates between Natural Meditation and Bodhicitta, drawing on meditations adapted from traditional Himalayan Buddhist training and open to both newcomers and seasoned practitioners.

Venue & Logistics

This retreat takes place online via Zoom, so you can join from your own practice space. Lama Willa invites you to set up a retreat space of your own for the week. Those who want the support of an in-person community can attend from Wonderwell Mountain Refuge as part of the month-long 2027 Winter Intensive, where the teachings will be streamed into the meditation hall, or attend in person with Lama Willa in Hawai'i. The Hawai'i residential component is organized by local coordinators rather than Natural Dharma Fellowship. Details and registration for the Wonderwell option will be shared as they become available.