Hey Dharma friends,

Wanted to share a RetreatBase, a personal project I built for meditators to find their next meditation retreat. I've compiled a list of hundreds of retreats and centers in the United States and organized them so they're easy to filter.  

Since it seems to have been useful for other people, (I've already posted it on r/Meditation, https://www.reddit.com/r/Meditation/comments/bly5is/i_compiled_a_list_of_over_500_meditation_retreats/) I thought I'd share it here as well.

Would love your feedback on how to improve it or make it more useful to you! 

R/streamentry might find it useful.

Whoa, look at the cost of those retreats featured on the main page, up to $100 a day! Dhamma ain’t cheap!

And I see your website accepts payments. I take it this is a for-profit site, right?

What does "for-profit site" mean?

And I don't see anything about the site accepting payments - where do you see that?

For-profit site means ... um, for profit. What part is not clear?

On the page linked at the bottom called Get Featured As A Teacher. Text says:

We allow you to manage waitlists, accept payments of multiple different types, accept Dana, and easily communicate with prospective students.

That sounds like the teachers accepting payments, not the site.

Are you asking if the site brings in revenue? If it brings in more revenue than it costs to maintain?

I don't understand what you're asking or why.

Site handles payments = site takes a cut. If you need me to explain why I’m asking, I have to ask why you’re asking. 

I have a problem with teachers charging to teach the dharma. It's unethical, corrupts the dharma, and harms the teacher and student. It's no coincidence that the line of teachers that charge seems to be stuck at anagami while the teachers who don't make it to arahat.

I have no problem with retreat centers charging for food and lodging. In some areas it's impossible to find a hotel for under $100 a night. Similarly I have no problems with websites or other coordinating or ancillary services charging. I'd rather the money go to a website providing useful information than to a teacher - the teacher has no right to be charging and shouldn't be receiving money.

I have nothing to do with the site, if that's what you're implying. Now rather than making cryptic statements, why don't you please tell me why you're asking and what you think.

Does your site list free retreats, as the Dhamma is to be given?

JC, this isn't complicated. As I see it the site may very well represent a for-profit enterprise. Companies who facilitate transactions online have to pay for that service and they almost always do that by taking a share of each transaction as a fee, and that fee is most often marked up to provide for some level of profit. Paul is just pointing that potential (likelihood) out to us. I'd leave it to the originator of the site and/or the poster of the original comment to explain.

I actually throughly enjoy this. Thanks so much for doing this! I’d love to be able to filter the results based on the specific approach they use; Mahayana, vipassana, anapansati, etc.

This is a great resource that I’ll definitely be using. Thanks for doing that! 

On a more technical note, I’d love to contribute to this project. If I can help in any way, please let me know.

J C, with all due respect (and I am sincere in saying so), I think all of us who’ve been paying any attention on DhO know what you think about teachers of the dharma charging money for their services. To keep repeating your arguments smacks of “clinging to views.” Others either agree with you or don’t. 

FWIW, I don’t see how meditation teachers in our times can afford to live up to the ideal you embrace, unless they are independently wealthy. If they are, then it’s nice if they can offer teachings without being paid, but if someone not so situated wants to stay alive in this complex society of ours, it seems reasonable to let them have some way of being remunerated. I am not prepared to get into an argument about this point with you, but just want to point out that there are other opinions out there. 

Thanks for the feedback Travis! Will reach out . 

Hey all - apologies, I didn't realize this would be so controversial. 

I list all retreats, whether they are paid or not - my personal feeling is that most retreat teachers need to earn enough to be able to make teaching their full-time profession and that the more people who are able to teach dharma, the better. 

Our platform does allow teachers to accept payments and manage bookings but we also list many free retreats. 

Thanks for all the feedback, and happy to have an open discussion about the platform!

This looks great!

Any chance you'd consider doing something similiar for European rereats?