It's time to begin training and being part of a yearly experience of transformation and community. 

Join ZenMind Academy and master teacher, former monk Rajan Shankara, for 3 nights in a luxurious mountain cabin surrounded by Big Bear Lake in California. 

For this long weekend, Rajan is going to take you through ZenMind's meditation and exhausting performance program, using the same techniques that a monk would experience in a monastery. 

You will be among 5 other guests that are going to spend the weekend with Rajan—meditating, training, eating and working together as a one unit. 

The purpose of this training will be to follow a strict monk schedule among your small community, learn from the best and discover your own unlimited potential. You will leave the cabin with a deeper perspective on life, and have a renewed sense of purpose for the year ahead. 

We want to seclude ourselves from distraction as we work on our nature. This cabin is luxurious with refined amenities in order to refine our character and reflect our best qualities. The woods surrounding the cabin are crisp, quiet and barricaded in by Big Bear Lake. 

As this retreat is designed to transform one's being, we will model a typical monastery schedule that Rajan experienced for 12 years. Students will wake early, meditate, exercise, eat, attend class, have lunch, rest, resume class and workshop, exercise again before evening meditation and drinks around the fire. 

Upon entering the cabin, staff will ask that you turn over electronic devices. You will place your bags on your bunk, and head to the crows nest—our meeting place for the retreat introduction. 

Rajan will go over the detailed schedule and make sure everyone receives their retreat supplies; schedule, writing book, etc. 

Staff will prepare food while we get settled in and introduced. The real fun begins Friday morning. 

5:30am: Roll Call

5:35am: Breath work and meditation training

6:30am: Outdoor exercise

7:30am: Breakfast

8:30am: Morning class

11:00am: Writing

12:00pm: Lunch

1:00 - 3:00pm: Rest

3:00pm: Afternoon class/workshop

6:00pm: Outdoor exercise

6:30pm: Dinner

7:00pm: Campfire and drinks

9:00pm: Lights out

This is a Thursday-Sunday event. Try your best to arrive at Big Bear Lake by 4pm on Thursday, August 26. The address of the cabin will be emailed to you, along with a packing list. 

Rajan Shankara will be giving insight into a rare form of meditation known as Shum—a style created by his guru's guru in 1970 to bring a monk into enlightenment. 

The basics of Shum will be covered and a core understanding of this intense style will be well understood by the end of the retreat. 

Retreat students will also receive a free Academy enrollment, and we will cover the curriculum during the retreat. See more about the curriculum Here.