Retreat Program Overview
This silent retreat invites you to embody this teaching, stepping away from the busyness of daily life into a supportive container for sustained Buddhist meditation practice. Along the Green River, the flowing water, open canyons, and changing light offer a living reflection of impermanence, helping the body and mind gradually settle.
As you flow through the days, the retreat fosters an intimate attunement to the rhythm of the river, the changing light in the canyons, and the felt sense of the body moving and resting. Supported by silence, you may discover a quality of timeless openness, where effort softens and attention naturally widens.
Together we will practice and move in silence, allowing each moment — formal meditation, meals, rest, and simple daily activities — to become part of the path. Rather than striving for a particular state, participants are encouraged to meet experience as it unfolds, cultivating mindfulness, steadiness, and kindness toward whatever arises.
The retreat includes instructions for sitting, standing, walking, and lying-down meditation, dharma teachings, group discussions, and time on the river. Nights will be spent camping on sandbars along the Green River. Near the end of the retreat, participants may choose a one-day or overnight solo retreat, camping alone within the retreat container.
Key Logistics at a Glance
Location: Green River, southeast Utah. Pre-retreat orientation in Moab.
Dates: September 28 – October 5, 2026;
arrive in Moab for Mandatory pre-retreat meeting at 4 pm on September 27Pre-Retreat Zoom information meeting: September 2, 6:30pm PT
Travel: Fly into Moab or nearby airports; carpooling/ridesharing encouraged.
Group Size: Approximately 8 canoes (14 - 16 participants).
Physical Requirements: Moderate wilderness fitness; ability to canoe 4–6 hours/day and carry personal gear
Camping & Equipment:
PROVIDED: canoes, dry bags, life jackets, and group cooking gear provided
PARTICIPANT BRINGS: Tent, sleeping bag, pad, mug
Meals: Simple vegetarian meals provided; bring personal snacks and preferred hot/cold drinks (milks and sweeteners provided).
Sanitation: River toilets provided; urination in the river or supplied containers
Silence: This is a noble silence retreat; limited exceptions for instruction and group check-ins
Payment & Registration: $200 deposit required. Full payment of $900 (= Deposit plus $700) due by July 1st. Click HERE for more payment & retreat details.
Retreat Teachers / River Guides
Robin Craig (she/her) is a meditation teacher in The Mind Illuminated tradition and a Nature Dharma teacher who has spent years practicing and teaching Buddhist meditation in outdoor settings.
She has traveled the Green River multiple times and offers retreats in wilderness environments where silence, simplicity, and the natural world foster continuity of mindfulness and insight.
Her teaching emphasizes embodied awareness, steadiness of attention, and a gentle, investigative relationship to experience. Informed by her background as a Licensed Professional Counselor and faculty of Organic Intelligence®, Robin integrates an understanding of nervous system resilience with traditional meditation practice, cultivating conditions for ease, stability, and clarity.
She guides retreats in wild places because sustained practice in close relationship with the natural world deepens presence, reveals interconnection, and supports the natural unfolding of insight both on and off the cushion.
Law Schuessler (He/ Him) is a mindfulness and meditation practitioner, teacher, and outdoor educator. He believes in the healing power of meditation retreats in nature, and he is dedicated to supporting folx in finding ease in wild spaces.
He has spent over twenty-five years guiding and teaching wilderness courses for organizations, universities and nonprofits.
The Green River is one of Lawrence’s most favorite places in the world and he has traveled this section many, many times. He is a graduate of Spirit Rock’s Advanced Practitioner Program, Inward Bound Mindfulness 2 year Teacher Training Program and completed the 2 year Nature Dharma Training with Susie Harrington, Gil Fronsdal, and Mark Coleman. Currently he is in Spirit Rock’s 2 year Community Dharma Leaders program.
Lawrence is based in the Mojave desert where he guides wilderness trips, teaches meditation and goes on long walks in the desert washes all over the Mojave. Lawrence is passionate about relational mindfulness, nature, interpersonal healing, queer rights, and social action.