Dhamma Dena Meditation Center

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Joshua Tree, CA
Dhamma Dena Meditation Center

Dhamma Dena Meditation Center was founded 40 years ago by Ruth Denison. Offering meditation and mindfulness retreats year round in Joshua Tree, California.

02/14/2025

Lunch break during preparations for retreat.

12/30/2024

Feeling called to interrupt suffering and free all beings, I’m writing to invite you to give generously to support Dhamma Dena (https://www.dhammadena.org/donate). The center runs on an annual budget of under $200,000 and raising $50,000 this season will make a significant contribution to sustaining the center and continuing the mission to offer retreats freely.

As of 2023, in an act of deep faith, Dhamma Dena stopped taking fees for registration. As a result of this change, our community is growing! Retreats are now consistently full and have waiting lists. Many applicants and attendees report that Dhamma Dena retreats are the first they've been able to access, including those who are young, BIPOC, q***r and trans, immunocompromised, disabled, don't have money at the moment, need a rest, need refuge, and who need liberation and dhamma.

Dhamma Dena does not have an endowment or significant individual sponsor. Offering retreats on a dana basis and keeping the center open is possible only through collaboration and donations given with an open heart. Money is no longer a condition that visitors need to have to access the Buddha’s teachings, to build community and leadership beyond the limits of consumer transactions, and to experience interdependence with the support of the 8-fold path. Deep bows and appreciation to Dhamma Dena for this opportunity to more deeply integrate the Buddha’s teachings on generosity in all our efforts. This is said to be the core in our path to liberation.

In Jetavana, outside the city of Savatthi, during the time of the Buddha, two chief patrons supported the Buddha materially, Visakha and Anathapindika. Both, having heard the dhamma on separate occasions, gifted Migaramata's Palace and Jetavana Monastery to the Buddha and the Sangha. So moved by the Buddha’s words and positive impact on people, they offered land and materials and meals to support the sangha to gather peacefully, in proximity to the larger community, with access to the Buddha. From these places, the teachings grew and prospered through the full expression of the triple gem: Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha.

When you practice at Dhamma Dena, you find the same: a place for people to come together to cultivate buddha nature, to study the Buddha and Dhamma, to see the way of the desert and how things are, and to find spiritual friendship and community. Dhamma Dena is a garden where the triple gem can blossom, Buddha, Dhamma and Sangha are interconnected and equal parts. As a q***r and trans person of color, arriving at Dhamma Dena felt warm & cozy like home and wild & open like I was free, the perfect elements that first allowed me to be open-minded and receive.

Dhamma Dena has been an important part of my life since 2018, and I am grateful for the influence and contributions from all visitors, past and present, to Dhamma Dena, for your generosity in practicing before me and alongside me and our friends, for the generous touches and efforts to make each space comfortable and inviting, for fresh nourishing food, for spiritual guidance, and setting to grow in a good way. It’s this flow of generosity that has built and sustained Dhamma Dena since 1977. And through this flow, the dhamma has reached each of us.

Please give as generously as you can to Dhamma Dena. Your open-hearted gift joins the strong flow of dana already embodied at Dhamma Dena, and will benefit future meditators and offer new and returning students the chance to learn about the dhamma and receive the priceless benefits of meditation practice.

May your generosity bring you joy!

Give today: https://www.dhammadena.org/donate (Your donations are tax deductible)

12/06/2024

Pomegranate thriving in the high desert nourished with “grey water.”

Photo by Aleksei.

09/27/2024

Registration is open for our Winter QTBIPOC retreat and our New Year's Retreat (open to all). Sign up at: https://www.dhammadena.org/retreats before they fill up!

11/16/2022

Dhamma Dena's Winter QTPOC Retreat is open for registration! Sign up at https://www.dhammadena.org/retreats/winter-qtpoc-retreat

Let’s enhance the season with compassion and joy together! As q***r, trans, gender-fabulous, and intersex People of Color we may find themselves at odds with all the celebration and joy during the holidays. Particularly this year with emboldened media attacks on our bodies and attempts to control our choices to live authentically, many of us may find ourselves left out and alone – separate from the families and communities that we need.

Please join in creating a refuge where we can meet each other as we are with compassion, as we also fuse in meditation, ritual, dharma, and music that encourages joy. We’ll experience silence, nature walking, altar making, and dancing along with lots of freedom and opportunities to rest.

This retreat welcomes all self-identified people of color who are LGBTQIA+ (le***an, gay, bisexual, trans, q***r, intersex, asexual, and beyond). New and seasoned practitioners are welcome.

05/11/2022

Join us for a "A Time for Healing: Disentangling from Doubt" offered in celebration of Arinna's 72nd birthday.

June 4, 2022 | 10 AM - 2 PM PT | Online

Often when we find ourselves lost, far away from our hearts or our wisdom, doubt can be the culprit. Doubt entangles our energies in a cloud of obscurity and misdirects us away from the path of healing and awakening.
This day will be dedicated to exploring these dynamics and calling in faith as the antidote to doubt. Faith is considered the leader or quality of mind that brings along the other beautiful energies of the heart and redirects us towards our well being and happiness."

Register at: https://www.dhammadena.org/retreats/doubt-daylong

This is a Dāna supported retreat

04/23/2022

Dhamma Dena is hiring! We are looking for an Executive Director to lead our transition to becoming a multicultural Vipassana Buddhist Center with a BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) leadership team.

To read the full job description and apply, please visit:
dhammadena.org/about/hiring

12/22/2021

Evening sit for the dark nights 🦉🌌☄️
Peer led sanghas, now meeting every evening and every morning. 7:30 to 8:15 Pacific Time to greet and ground the day together. Our beautiful BIPOC Support Sangha continues to meet every Saturday from 10 to 11:15. All links to sign up to be bellringer and access at dhammadena.org/drop-in
Friends are the whole of the path

EVENINGS
Every Evening Meditation
Dhamma Dena is excited to host a 45-minute silent meditation group every night from 7:30 - 8:15 pm Pacific Time on Zoom. The format will be similar to the existing morning meditation group. The evening meditation group will be anchored by whomever would like to sign up to ring the bell to end the evening practice time and could include brief check-ins before meditation, metta offerings, and a dedication of merit at the end. Arinna Weisman, guiding teacher of Dhamma Dena, and ann uyeda, a q***r BIPOC person who has lived at Dhamma Dena since December 2020, will also be participating. Evening meditation can be a great way to end your day. Meditation both in the morning and evening can provide a useful 12-hour frame of time to focus on your dharma practice in your daily life. We hope you'll be able to join us every evening. Please email sangha@dhammadena.org for the password for the group. Happy practicing!
DETAILS
Every evening | 7:30pm to 8:15pm PT | Online
Evening Practice Leader Signup
PASSCODE REQUIRED
Request passcode | sangha@dhammadena.org
HAVE THE PASSCODE ALREADY?
Join Zoom here
Meeting ID: 851 6347 8488

11/03/2021

Leslie Booker

Booker brings her heart and wisdom to the intersection of Dharma, Embodied Wisdom, and Liberation. She shares her expertise nationally on expanding our vision around culturally responsive teaching, and changing the paradigm of self and community care.

She is a co-founder of the Yoga Service Council at Omega Institute and the Meditation Working Group of Occupy Wall Street. Booker is a co-author of Best Practices for Yoga in a Criminal Justice Setting, a contributor to Georgetown Law’s Center on Poverty and Inequality’s report: Gender & Trauma—Somatic Interventions for Girls in Juvenile Justice, YOGA: The Secret of Life, and contributed to Sharon Salzberg’s book ‘Happiness at Work’. In 2020 she was invited in as Sojourner Truth Leadership Fellow through Auburn Seminary, and was voted by her peers as one of the 12 Powerful Women in the Mindfulness Movement. She is currently based in Philadelphia.

Booker continues to be inspired to hold folks along their journey to find a sense of freedom and liberation within a world that is burdened by greed, hatred, and delusion.

11/03/2021

Ian Challis - Guiding Council, Former Guiding Teacher

Ian Challis has been practicing and studying within the Insight Tradition of Buddhism for more than a decade. He has sat retreats with Rodney Smith, Santikaro, Narayan Liebenson, Larry Yang, Leigh Brasington, and Joseph Goldstein, among many others.

He works as an artist, web and product designer. A long time resident of Seattle, he now makes his full-time home in Palm Springs with his husband David Roos. He is a founding and current board member and past president of Insight Community of the Desert
In addition to teaching at ICD, Ian facilitates the weekly Desert Meditation Group in Rancho Mirage, and he is a graduate of the two year Community Dharma Leader training program at Spirit Rock Meditation Center and is authorized to teach Insight Meditation. Ian is also enrolled in the UC San Diego Mindfulness Based Professional Training Institute.

Supporting your practice of mindfulness meditation is a true joy!

You can find information on Ian’s outside teaching schedule at http://www.ianchallis.com

10/16/2021

🍂We're still accepting applications! 🌝 Dhamma Dena is looking to fill 2 temporary part-time positions!

We are hiring a Facilities Assistant and an Administrative Assistant for 3 months (late Oct - late Jan). These positions pay $20 an hour (or $15/hr if in residence at the Center) and are responsible for attending to some or all of the following within a 10-15 hour a week work schedule that is somewhat flexible.

〰️ Timeline: rolling deadline, first review of applications after Oct 14th
〰️ Anticipated start date: October 25th

To apply, please visit:
dhammadena.org/hiring

[Image description: black text on orange gradient background reads: Two positions open at Dhamma Dena! Temporary Facilitation Assistant and Administrative Assistant]

10/05/2021

🍁Dhamma Dena is looking to fill 2 temporary part-time positions!

We are hiring a Facilities Assistant and an Administrative Assistant for 3 months (late Oct - late Jan). These positions pay $20 an hour (or $15/hr if in residence at the Center) and are responsible for attending to some or all of the following within a 10-15 hour a week work schedule that is somewhat flexible.

〰️ Timeline: rolling deadline, first review of applications after Oct 14th
〰️ Anticipated start date: October 25th

To apply, please visit:
dhammadena.org/hiring

[Image description: photo of the desert plants and blue sky in Joshua Tree. The text centered on the page says "Hiring" with a red line underneath the text.]

Address

65620 Giant Rock Road
Joshua Tree, CA
92252

Telephone

+17603624815

Website

http://www.dhammadena.org/

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