Home Practice Program (HPP) Meditation Retreat, Led by Coaches/Trainers

The Home Practice Program (HPP) is a meditation retreat held online by conference call, so you can take part in a retreat weekend from your own home. It is a Unified Mindfulness program, offered through the community around Shinzen Young, and it is led by coaches and trainers from that community. It suits people who want the focus of a retreat without travelling, whether they are building a regular sitting practice or looking for a structured weekend to deepen one.

What to Expect

The program is a weekend retreat, running Friday through Sunday, with offerings delivered by conference call. You listen and practice from wherever you are, in your own space, rather than traveling to a retreat center. The organizer describes it simply as meditation retreat offerings from the comfort of your home.

The weekends are led by Unified Mindfulness coaches and trainers. The program recurs through the year, and some weekends have been led by Shinzen himself. Its companion offering, the Life Practice Program, is a weekly session with Shinzen and a guest, aimed at taking practice beyond the cushion. The Home Practice Program is the longer, retreat-style format in the same family of offerings.

About Shinzen Young

Shinzen Young is an American mindfulness teacher and neuroscience research consultant. He is known for Unified Mindfulness, his systematic approach to categorizing, adapting and teaching meditation. His work has led to collaborations with Harvard Medical School, Carnegie-Mellon University and the University of Vermont in contemplative neuroscience, and he is co-director of the Science Enhanced Mindful Awareness (SEMA) Lab at the University of Arizona.

His interest in Asia began at 14, when he chose to attend a Japanese ethnic school in his native Los Angeles. He majored in Asian languages at UCLA and then entered a PhD program in Buddhist Studies at the University of Wisconsin. For his thesis research he lived for three years as a Shingon (Japanese Vajrayana) monk at Mount Koya, Japan, where he received the name Shinzen.

Before You Go

Because the retreat runs by conference call, all you need is a phone or device that can join the call and a place where you can sit undisturbed for the sessions. Nothing in the program is tied to a venue, so people can join from anywhere they can connect. Check the schedule for the format of the particular weekend you have in mind, since the leading coaches and trainers change from one weekend to the next.