At Peace with Life:
Inner Stillness, Kind Heart, and a Firm, Graceful Stand
Led by Bhante Rāhula
Lama Foundation
San Cristobal, New Mexico
Sunday June 8th - Monday June 16th, 2025
Photos from the 2024 Dharma Gates Retreat led by Bhante Rāhula at the Lama Foundation
About this Retreat
In the midst of life’s uncertainties, we often search for solid ground, a way to feel at ease without closing off, to stand strong without hardening the heart. This retreat invites you to explore the art of being at peace with life, not by turning away from its challenges, but by meeting them with clarity, kindness, and wise resilience.
Through meditation, reflection, and mindful presence, we will cultivate inner stillness, nurturing our kind heart that remains open even in the midst of difficulty, and developing a firm, graceful stand, an inner strength rooted in wisdom.
This retreat is an opportunity to reconnect with ourselves and what truly matters, to prove once more that peace and well being is not something coming from the outside. It is something we grow within.
You are welcome as you are. You will leave with a quieter, clearer mind, a lighter heart, and the gentle power to stand tall in the flow of life.
Join us on this journey led by Bhante Rāhula, and let’s cultivate a joyful, down-to-earth, practical wisdom to carry with us, benefiting many.
The retreat is run entirely by dāna. Find out more about dāna here
Daily Retreat Schedule
note: the schedule for the arrival and departure days will be different than this schedule
6:00 am - Mindful Wakeup
6:30 – Group Meditation
7:30 – Breakfast
8:30 – Instructions, Dhamma Talk
10:00 - Sitting & Walking Meditation
11:40 - Lunch and Lunch Clean-Up
1:30pm - Walking meditation
2:00 - Group meditation
3:00 - 1:1 Interviews with Bhante Rāhula
5:00 - Juice and tea
6:00 - Q&A with Bhante Rahula
7:40 - Cultivation of Loving Kindness (Mettā)
8:00 - Sitting Meditation
9:00 - Rest
Noble Silence
During this retreat we will be practicing in Noble Silence. In short, this means not talking. When the whole group enters into Noble Silence we offer each other and ourselves the gift of being with our experience as it is. This practice supports the mind in settling. Noble Silence includes no unnecessary talking, including social courtesies like saying “good morning” or “excuse me”, no reading or writing unless the teacher specifically encourages you to do so, and no tech use.
You will be invited to give your phone to a retreat manager at the beginning of the week so they can keep it in a safe place for you. You can also keep it in your room turned off. Upon being accepted to this retreat, you will receive emergency phone numbers that we ask you to share with your loved ones so that you will not need to be monitoring your own messages. Retreat managers will be present throughout the entirety of the retreat to support the group. If at any point during the retreat you are feeling ill, are injured, or are in distress please speak with one of the retreat managers.
Housing & Lodging
For this retreat, you have the option to bring your own tent and camp for the duration of the retreat. The Lama Foundation has many beautiful camping spots. If you would like to camp, please indicate on your registration form that you will be camping so we know how many rooms are still available. If you don’t want to camp, there are single and double rooms available. Please email us with any questions about camping or lodging (team@dharma-gates.org).
Food & Meals
The food served at the retreat will be vegan. If you have specific allergies or requests, please let us know in your registration form.
About Dinner: Our retreat will follow the meal schedule observed by Bhante Rāhula, a Theravada monk. In this tradition, monks do not eat after solar noon (midday) and instead have juice in the early evening. In alignment with this practice, we will not be serving a full dinner, but juice will be available for everyone.
Many past participants have found that having a larger breakfast and lunch provides enough nourishment for the day, and that skipping dinner can support deep rest and meditation. That said, we want everyone to feel comfortable—if you prefer to have dinner, we are happy to make arrangements for you. We encourage you to listen to your body’s needs during the retreat. Please email us with any questions about meals.
See below for pictures for last year’s Dharma Gates Retreat led by Bhante Rāhula at the Lama Foundation
About the Teacher
Born in Mexico, Bhante, a former musician-composer, moved to Asia in 2001 when he began the practice and study of the Buddha’s teachings.
He was ordained in Myanmar under the Most Venerable Sayadaw Dr. Nandamālābhivaṃsa, and since 2004 has received meditation guidance from Sayadaw U Tejaniya and studied Sutta and Abhidhamma with Sayadaw Dr. Ukkamsacara.
In 2019, he completed a course on Buddhist scriptures from Harvard University.
Bhante continued his monastic training at SBS in Malaysia for two years under the guidance of Venerable Ariyadhammika while offering some talks, retreats and activities for the local community.
He leads retreats and Dhamma tours across North and South America, along with weekly online courses using Spanish, Portuguese and English for the past 8 years, with students from over 15 countries.
He is currently building the Mexican Buddhist Forest Center (Paññābhūmi Monastery) to share the Buddha’s teachings in Latin America.
Recognizing the immense challenges and lack of tools in the region, Bhante, with inner cultivation as his priority, supports programs in palliative care centers, universities, youth education and freedom from addictions, a pressing issue that affects the lives of many.
Embracing service as an expression of generosity, Bhante walks shoulder to shoulder with the community, sharing the Dhamma’s blessings while taking care and nurturing the path to liberation.
Frequently Asked Questions
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No. All experience levels are welcome, including beginners.
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Nope. You do not have to be Buddhist to participate in this retreat. Bhante Rahula’s teachings are deeply rooted in the classical early Buddhist and Theravada traditions and include beliefs that may be challenging for some. We invite you to encounter the teachings with an open, discerning, and inquisitive mind.
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The retreat is run on a donation basis in the spirit of dana. There is no required attendance fee. We ask that participants give a deposit of $100 in order to claim your place at the retreat. This deposit is returned back to you at the end of the retreat unless you choose to donate it. We keep your deposit in the case that you don’t show up or cancel within 2 weeks of the start of the retreat.
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The food served at the retreat will be vegan. If you have specific allergies or requests, please let us know. We do our best to able to accommodate all dietary requests.
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The 5 precepts are training guidelines as the foundation of sīla (ethics). Throughout this retreat we will all be maintaining the 5 precepts so that we can we can practice in harmony.
I will not engage in physical violence or intentionally cause bodily harm to myself or others
I will not steal or damage other people’s property.
I will refrain from forced, coercive, or non-consensual sexual contact or any other form of sexual harassment against others. For this retreat we will be practicing celibacy.
I will not intentionally insult or verbally abuse others.
I will not consume intoxicating substances including, but not limited to, alcohol, marijuana, psychedelics or any other illegal substances.
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Dharma Gates wholeheartedly welcomes people of all cultural, ethnic and racial backgrounds, sexual orientations, and gender identities. There will be gender neutral bathrooms available and we may be able to provide single rooms if that would make you more comfortable. Our aim is to make retreat practice accessible to all young people—if there’s something we can to do help you feel comfortable to attending, please do not hesitate to reach out to us (team@dharma-gates.org.)
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This retreat will be at Lama Foundation located near Taos, New Mexico.
The nearest major airport is in Albuquerque, which is about 3 hours south of Lama. The Santa Fe airport offers flights to and from many cities as well and is 2 hours south.
There are several train/bus options to get you from Albuquerue or Santa Fe to Taos. Click here to see those options.Dharma Gates will provide a spreadsheet for participants to self-organize ride shares from major airports and towns.
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Arrival: Please arrive between 2:00pm - 4:30pm on Sunday, June 8th. It is important you arrive during this window so you can go through the check-in process before the evening activities begin. If you would like to arrive earlier than 2pm, you may do that, although our preference is during that window.
Departure: The retreat will end at 12:00pm on Monday, June 16th. -
We ask that everyone who attends wears modest loose clothing, with subdued colors, prints, and minimal/no words for the duration of the retreat.
We also ask you to refrain from using artificial scents and products for this retreat. Some folks are sensitive to those scents and it can negatively impact their retreat experience.
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We are committed to the safety and health of the retreat container. We will likely require a rapid test before arrival, it will depend on COVID rates around the country and what we feel is safest. We will let you know in the weeks leading up to the retreat. Please email us with any questions at team@dharma-gates.org