Jhanas, Metta, and Emptiness

This ten-night silent meditation retreat at Southern Dharma Retreat Center in Hot Springs, North Carolina, is devoted to the jhanas, the deep concentration states of Buddhist practice, and to using them to support insight. Led by Mary Aubry in the Theravada tradition, it follows the approach taught by Leigh Brasington and his teacher, the Venerable Ayya Khema. It is open only to experienced meditators with a regular sitting practice.

What to Expect

The retreat builds jhana practice into a regular daily sitting schedule, with the aim of strengthening insight rather than treating concentration as an end in itself. Insight teachings take up the Four Noble Truths, impermanence, dependent origination, and emptiness. Metta, or loving-kindness, practice is guided each day, giving the concentration work a warm and steady counterpart.

The page does not give a session-by-session timetable, so expect the rhythm of a traditional residential retreat: long days given over to sitting, teaching, and practice, held in an environment that supports sustained attention.

About Mary Aubry

Mary Aubry (she/her) leads meditation retreats on insight and the jhanas. Here she teaches in the line of Leigh Brasington and Ayya Khema, whose method of developing the jhanas in support of insight shapes the whole program.

The Setting

Southern Dharma Retreat Center is in Hot Springs, in the mountains of western North Carolina. Housing and all meals are included in the program fee, and there are five lodging options:

- A bed in a shared double room on the second floor of the lodge
- A bed in a third-floor lodge dorm with privacy partitions
- An unheated kuti, a single cabin with no electricity
- A furnished single canvas tent
- A basic tent platform for camping with your own gear

The center can no longer offer heated kutis, so every kuti is unheated. Lodge scholarship options make assignment to shared housing more likely. If you need a single room, a snore-friendly arrangement, a CPAP setup, or housing with others of the same gender, there are fields at registration to say so.

Check-in begins at 3pm on the first day. First-time retreatants at Southern Dharma must arrive by 5pm Eastern, and returning yogis can check in between 3 and 6pm. Departure is by 2pm on the last day.

Before You Go

This retreat is suitable only for experienced meditators who have a regular sitting practice and have attended at least two previous seven-day silent meditation retreats. Please be sure you can attend the full program before registering.

Pricing is based on lodging, on a sliding scale, and housing and all meals are included. Lodge-based scholarships of 25 or 50 percent are available according to need, and further financial aid is offered for BIPOC participants, young adults, and those with more serious financial need. Past users of Hemera Foundation Fellowships are welcome to use any of the in-house scholarship options. A volunteer place is open to people who have previously sat a retreat at Southern Dharma.

Fees do not include dana for the teacher. In the Buddhist tradition the teachings are offered freely and teachers are not paid for them, so they rely on the generosity of students. At the close of the retreat you will be invited to offer dana to the teacher and a donation to the center. Payment is due in full 30 days before the start, and registration is subject to the center's 2026 cancellation policy, which all retreatants must review and accept.