Women in Leadership Retreat

The Women in Leadership retreat is an exploration of ways to nourish ourselves in community and bring balance to the masculine and feminine energies embodied in the active membership of Shambhala. It is the fruition of a series of online community conversations; the themes and insights that arose in those discussions will be developed and refined in an environment of deep practice, learning, reflection, and movement activities.

The Women in Leadership retreat welcomes all women and female-identified leaders currently working within the global Shambhala network. The framing structure will be one of open space technology: an environment designed to honor both the participants’ wisdom and the surprises certain to arise in the natural unfolding of co-creation. The retreat is intended to encourage attendees to get to know and learn from each other while clarifying what is important to us as leaders. Together, we aspire to learn how best to model new ways of gathering, being, and leading.

This retreat will be held in real time and space only; no virtual attendance will be possible. We will also not be able to welcome participants from other sanghas at this time—the retreat is specifically intended to advance the understandings gained through Shambhala’s unique history and to empower the women leaders eager to help move our changing sangha forward in a changing world.

Our working group members who will be co-creating the retreat with participants are:

• Tara Templin
• Cindy Sagers
• Irene Woodard
• Judith Simmer-Brown
• Susan Skjei
• Alice Toohey
• Jennifer Woodhull

This retreat and our efforts to support and engage women leaders in our community is generously supported by The Frederick P. Lenz Foundation for American Buddhism.

A symbol that expresses the view of this retreat is the Tibetan letter 'A' (pronounced “ah”). It is the first letter of the Tibetan alphabet and represents space, the openness from which everything arises. The 'A' symbol is the most prevalent representation of what is known as 'the feminine principle' in Tibetan Buddhism. Our retreat structure is based on opening to space and welcoming the wisdom of the group to arise.

Visit our Directions and Transportation page to see different options for traveling to Karmê Chöling including pick-up service from Hanover, Lebanon, White River Junction and Burlington to our front door.

Note: A 50% deposit is required to reserve your accommodation.