Shifting to an Identity of Freedom: Exploring the Five Remembrances Silent Weekend Retreat

Shifting to an Identity of Freedom is a silent weekend meditation retreat in the Insight Meditation tradition, led by Stan Eisenstein and affiliated with the Insight Meditation Community of Washington (IMCW). It is held at Claymont Retreat Center in Charles Town, West Virginia, and can also be joined online over Zoom. It suits people who want a quiet, guided weekend of practice, whether they come in person or from home.

What to Expect

The weekend combines Dharma talks with guided and unguided meditation, and it turns on the contemplation of the five remembrances, including impermanence and karma. Part of the teaching focuses on concentration: steadying the mind, cultivating a sense of well-being, and then using that settled attention to look more closely at the mind and body and the nature of experience.

Guided sessions are balanced with periods of unguided sitting and walking meditation, so the teachings have room to work. Two group meetings with the teachers give participants a chance to ask questions and be heard. Past participants describe a gentle, trauma-informed pace, practices that include feeling and processing emotion rather than only following the breath, and a retreat that responds to the people in the room. Online participants say the Zoom format felt connected, with breakout rooms and the chance to hear in-person participants share during the closing integration.

About Stan Eisenstein

Stan Eisenstein is a mindfulness and meditation teacher whose work centers on embodiment, self-kindness, self-inquiry and inner guidance. He says his teaching comes largely from life experience, including decades of working to resolve an early trauma through a self-awareness training, therapy, inquiry-based meditation, integrated breathwork, energy practices and ongoing study of Buddhist teachings.

He has meditated since 1988 and practiced Insight Meditation since 2004. He is a full teacher with the Insight Meditation Community of Washington and a graduate of the Meditation Teacher Training Institute. He trained in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction with Jon Kabat-Zinn in 2004, and has also studied Somatic Experiencing, Integrative Breathwork and Tantric Qigong. He holds a Masters of Social Work from the University of Maryland and taught high school physics for 32 years.

The Setting

In-person participants stay at Claymont Retreat Center in Charles Town, West Virginia. Bedrooms are on the second floor, either single rooms offered first-come, first-served or shared rooms for two to four people. Bathrooms on that floor are shared. Meditation, talks, meals and other activities all take place on the first floor.

All meals are ovo-lacto vegetarian. Vegan, gluten-free and other dietary needs, along with allergies, can be shared at registration.

Before You Go

The retreat is taught in English. No particular level of experience is stated; past participants have included Vipassana practitioners and teachers as well as others drawn by Stan's teaching.

The fee covers direct expenses such as room, meals and administration for in-person attendees, and covers the retreat itself for online attendees. Travel to Charles Town is not included. In keeping with the Buddhist tradition of dana, the teachers and retreat managers receive no payment, and participants may make a voluntary, tax-deductible donation at the close of the retreat. Some scholarship support is available through IMCW.

Claymont has no elevator. One single room on the first floor is reserved for participants with mobility challenges, and there is an ADA-accessible shared bathroom on that floor. Anyone with questions about whether the facilities will meet their needs is encouraged to contact the retreat manager through IMCW before registering.