Spirit of Zen ~ Meditation & Yoga Retreat

with Melissa Berry Appleton & Suniti Dernovsek

September 12-17th, 2023

Stowel Lake Farm, Salt Spring Island

Join Melissa and Suniti this September for our annual retreat on Salt Spring Island. Stowel Lake Farm is a thriving organic farm, retreat center, and community, located on 100 acres of mixed forests, fields, rocky outcrops and rolling hills. The food, the facilities and the land are an exceptional venue to meet all the right elements of retreat. 

This retreat is in the spirit of Zen, Buddhism, and tending to the body with love. It will be about the simple treasures of practice. Beautifully bare bones. Our time together will be a blend of traditional yoga practice, silence, stillness, connection, breath, sound, the ground and deep rest. Together we are gently resurrecting bodies of goodness. 

Spirit of Zen was designed to offer a good taste of the tradition, ritual and form of a Buddhist meditation retreat while also considering accessibility for those who feel more monastic forms of retreat present barriers to attend. We offer this retreat with the heart of a householder, deep respect for the complexities of 21st century living and those who have experienced trauma.

Suniti and Melissa met leading a Zen retreat in the Canadian alpine with Michael Stone. Endless giggles, creativity and liberating conversations keep them coming back together. Suniti and Melissa share curiosities about relationships, marriage, intimacy, parenthood, aging, work, community life and broadening perspectives in tender ways. 

*Please be sure to read all details of the retreat before registration.

Commitment to Learn & Grow

This retreat welcomes diversity in gender, race and form.  

There will be two bursaries offered by Melissa and Suniti at a 50 percent reduced rate to people of the BIPOC and LGBTGQ+ community as a means to remove financial barriers to participation for those whose lived experience is perpetually laced with institutional bias and discrimination. This opportunity is made possible by the generous donations made by the local spring meditation practice period participants in Kelowna.

Stowel Lake Farm has graciously offered an additional two, 50 percent reduced rate spaces at the time our retreat reaches 25 registrants. 

An application for bursary is available and completed forms can be sent to our retreat coordinator. Individuals representing marginalized people who are actively engaged in outreach or social justice initiatives are highly encouraged to apply, in the hopes that these teachings may ripple out to the communities in which you serve.

Each year, we work to provide education on inclusivity for our retreat guests. Diverse attendance has enriched our gathering immensely over the past five years. We have learned to continually educative ourselves and be reflexive to the needs of our guests. We make mistakes, and learn to recover quickly, never being deterred. I am deeply grateful for those who have been my teachers along the way.  

We would love to share this time with you.  May it benefit all beings.   

Bowing, Melissa and Suniti

Dana

This retreat is offered in the spirit of Dana.  Registration fees cover the cost set by Stowel Lake Farm for accommodations, food, and facility use at Stowel Lake Farm.  

In honour of our Buddhist lineage and teachers, Suniti and Melissa offer this week of teachings freely because they are considered priceless. In the Buddhist tradition we practice dana, or generosity, by making monetary offerings for the teachings. Dana is not payment for goods or services rendered; it is given from the heart. Your generosity is a gift that supports not just the teachers, but also the Sangha, the larger Dharma community, and your own practice.

On the last day of retreat you will have an opportunity to express generosity by way of donation to Melissa and Suniti.

Nourished by the Farm

Our incredibly talented kitchen team provides a seasonally inspired farm to table experience, featuring our own fresh organic produce. In direct collaboration with our farmers, retreat meals are prepared simply and beautifully to feature the natural flavourful vitality of fresh whole food ingredients. Meals are served buffet style including options for dairy free, gluten free and vegan. This is one of the many things that keeps people returning to retreat year after year.

Rooms

Our charming & cozy accommodations are all located close to the main facilities. Well built, beautifully crafted, and maintained. Guests will enjoy clean, comfortable bedding with duvets and towels. The yurts have heat and power. 

Getting To Stowel Lake Farm

Stowel Lake Farm on Salt Spring Island is just beautiful.  Check it out here ~

https://www.stowellakefarm.com/aboutus

You are probably travelling by ferry my friends - possibly by bike, foot or car.  If in the event you leave your car behind, we can pick you up and drop you off at the ferry.  We will arrange pick up times one month prior to retreat. Pick up is available at Fulford Harbour only. All other harbours will require your own transportation methods.

What to Bring

- Bring layered clothes for varying temperatures inside and outside - last June was hot!

- Swim suit for ocean dips.

- Flashlight

- Journal and pen.

- Hat, sun screen.

- Loose, comfortable and modest clothing.

- Outdoor wear for helping on the farm.

- Darker shades of clothing without logos and print for meditation (black, navy, grey, brown).

Cancellations

A deposit of 500 dollars is refundable up until June 12th, 2023. There will be no refunds on all payments past July 12th, 2023.  If there is a waitlist for retreat, or someone to take your place, you will receive a refund minus a 100 dollar administration fee.  If you can't attend retreat for a serious medical condition, you will be refunded 80 percent of your payment with the presentation of a formal medical doctor's note.  This would include things like Covid, broken bones and surgery dates.

Arriving & Departing

The first three days of retreat offer an immersive daily schedule of sitting, sound, movement, farm work, rest and good food. Each day will offer a period of silence, afternoons to walk, rest or schedule a massage, or even connect with new friends. Saturday offers a lighter schedule to attend the famous Salt Spring Island market and explore the island a little. Practices will be offered on both ends of this day. Those who stay back at the farm have the option to continue silence and immersive practice. Options are created to provide personal agency and care.

We ask that you arrive no earlier or later that the arrival time of 3-5 p.m.  Flights, ferry schedules and shared car rides should be scheduled early enough that they will not impact arriving on time.  Late attendance has a way of delaying settling in for both teachers and attendees. Closing circle is a beautiful way of honoring each other and ends on the last day of retreat at 12 noon.

We ask that you take some time to really consider your ability to attend the full length of retreat, entering, experiencing and commencing all together. 

Schedule

Noble Silence begins at 7:30 p.m. each day when the bells call us into evening practice. This silent period is intended to nourish us through a period of deep listening to our bodies, hearts, minds and the land in the midst of practice.  Silence can be fertile ground for wisdom and compassion. Many people are surprised by their ease with silence, and note the incredible benefit. Silence continues each day all the way through to the end of work practice period. Afternoons are an opportunity to connect with each other in more casual ways.

Tuesday

3-5 pm || arrival

5:30 pm || orientation

6 pm || dinner

7:30 pm || gently entering practice and meditation (silence begins at 9 p.m.)

Wednesday/Thursday/Friday

7 am ||  meditation

8:30 am ||  breakfast

9:30 am ||  meditation

10:45 am ||  yoga practice

12:30 pm ||  lunch 

1:30 pm ||  work practice on the farm (2:30 p.m. bowing out of work practice to end silence)

2:30 pm ||  free time (bookings for massage available)

4 pm ||  optional meditation

5 pm ||  dharma story

6 pm ||  dinner

7:30 pm ||  sound, breath and low to the ground movement

8:15 pm ||  meditation & evening chant

Saturday

*while this day offers the freedom to go out and see the farmers market and more, some guests may choose to stay on the farm and remain in a period of silent practice. Time to lay out in the grass, rest, write or enter the practice hall.

7 am ||  meditation

8:30 am ||  breakfast

9:30 am ||  Salt Spring Farmers Market and free time 

1 pm ||  lunch

3 pm || Yoga

4:30 pm ||  meditation (silent period ends following meditation)

6 pm ||  dinner

7 pm ||  fireside gathering in the orchard.

Sunday

7 am ||  meditation

8:30 am ||  breakfast

9:30 am ||  meditation

10:30 am || closing circle 

12 pm ||  lunch & departure

Melissa Berry Appleton Seikai

Melissa is a Buddhist Chaplain, lay ordained in the Soto Zen Prajna Mountain Order, student of Roshi Joan Halifax and Matthew Palevsky. Chaplaincy is a way of coming alongside the ways people suffer, while supporting the restoration of goodness in their body, heart/mind, and world. She is a Chaplain at the University of British Columbia Okanagan, an educator to Third Space Charity graduate interns and Masters of Clinical Counselling Psychology candidate. A good deal of her work centres around supporting front line workers, people in great transitions, burnout, and addiction recovery.

Her current work explores the domestic monastery, community life, ritual/ceremony, cultural anxiety, trauma, addiction, consumption of information technology, time, and the greater impact on the future of our world.  How does self-care and spiritual formation serve as a collective 'we care' ultimately unfolding our greatest aspirations for parenting, partnership, intimacy, ecological connection, social justice, meaningful work, and influence on generations moving forward.

It has been a great privilege for her to study with some of the world's most renown educators in yoga, movement, Buddhism and academia. This year marks twenty five years of practice and ten years of university at her great age of fifty. Melissa loves the art of collaboration and has had the honour of working with amazing community leaders, Buddhist Practitioners, Clinical Counsellors, Yoga & Movement Specialists, and Wilderness Guides.

Melissa is not enlightened, nor does she seek to be. She is married, has three teens (two off at University), a big black lab, a mid life crisis shepard puppy, and a home tucked into the woods with chores and repairs that are never complete. Previous work includes music & recreation therapist, human resources coordinator, addiction counsellor, and director of a charity. But then everything changed. Everything is still shifting and moving today. 

www.melissaberryappleton.com 

Suniti Dernovsek

An inspired yogini, choreographer, performer and movement educator, Suniti's clear, vibrant, and embodied presence reflects dedicated years of contemplative practice, meditation, and dance. With keen attention to subtlety and precision, Suniti's teaching offers a unique blend of fluidity, creativity, and awareness.

Suniti began studying yoga in 1999 with Iyengar teacher, Janet Lilly. She met her Buddhist teachers, Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche and Lama Padma Drimed Norbu around that same time. Since moving to Portland in 2004 she has studied a variety of yoga traditions. She completed the Dharma Yoga Teacher Training and a Yin Immersion with Uma Kleppinger in 2006 and a 500-hour teacher training with Tiffany Cruikshank in 2010.

Suniti received her BFA in dance from University Wisconsin Milwaukee in 2003, where she had the opportunity to work with many talented choreographers. She is currently the co-artistic director of Bobbevy; a Portland based Dance Company. With over 10 years' professional dance experience, Suniti's brings her love of movement, fondness of detail and creativity into her yoga teaching. She teaches weekly yoga classes and retreats through The People's Yoga in Portland, Oregon.