January Rainy Season Retreat 2026
Wild, Open Heart, with Jayachitta
An Urban Retreat for Mitras, Order Members and Regulars at the SFBC
Every January the San Francisco Buddhist Center offers a special Rainy Season retreat for Order Members, Mitras and people who have a strong commitment to practice with our Sangha. We pause our usual program so we can come together for a sustained period of practice, companionship, and shared spiritual friendship.
In January 2026 we have invited Jayachitta to lead our retreat. Some of you will remember she visited many years ago and led a wonderful retreat at Jikoji. The theme will be Wild open heart – here is some information:
How do we consider our heart, our mind? Do we see it as a garden that needs careful trimming, cultivation and keeping in check? Or is it more like an open space with room for everything and everyone – more like a wilderness, unpredictable, fresh and full of discoveries?
To have an open heart is a beautiful idea – but is it naïve? Can we keep our heart open, in this world that so often seems to be hard, rough, or full of pain?
We live in challenging times, within a society that seems ever more divided, while serious political and environmental issues demand that we find a way to act, to take up positions. This often results in further fragmentation of ‘them’ vs ‘us’. Is there something in our Buddhist practice that can give us the strength, resilience and clarity to find a way through?
With the practice of the Metta Bhavana – of loving kindness – we engage with all we meet in the world with an ever-expanding openness. This is not some sort of denial of the real difficulties that entails, it does not involve rose-tinted spectacles. The practice invites us to shed the covers of our habitual identities, and to be present and alive to the world as we meet it, in joy and in pain.
Do we dare enter the thrilling wilderness that is our own heart?
We will focus on metta and explore each stage of the Metta Bhavana in our heart, mind and bodies, in meditation and in the way we relate to one another. Somatic work will lead into sitting practice, where we research how we can trust what is wild and surprising in ourselves, the mind-heart in its natural state.
Easy physical improvisational exercises will help us to become more present, and open to more light and joy. This will enrich our attention within and outside of meditation with the spirit of discovery. In meditation and in movement improvisation we enter the unknown, a dance with ever new experience. Joining this dance, we can discover where stillness and engagement meet.
Engaging within a spirit of support, play and appreciation makes the retreat very suitable for people who want to discover a fresh approach to the Metta Bhavana, whether it is your favourite practice, or something you struggle with. The methods used from the playbook of ‘The Play of Now’ (https://www.playofnow.com) help us to learn how to be present and engaged in this moment, leaving the next one to come freely, without being weighed down by our plans or assumptions.
Everyone will be encouraged to share of their own experience of meditation or interactive exercises. With the experience Jayachitta has to offer, in both those fields, all participants will be able to deepen their own research of the interrelatedness of movement and stillness.
Program
Wednesday Nights – for Mitras, Order Members and Regulars Jan 7, 14, 21, 28
Saturday Practice: Jan 10 and Jan 17
Weekend Retreat for Order Members: Jan 23 to 25
Going Deeper Groups and other events tbd
Donations
To help cover our January expenses, we suggest a contribution of $50–$100, or whatever you can comfortably offer. Every gift helps sustain the sangha and makes these programs possible.
We’ll also invite dana for our visiting teacher. As always, our teachers offer their teachings freely, and your generosity supports them in being able to do so.