Hello all,

I graduate from my Master's program in May and have recently been feeling an incredible draw to practice deeply, so much so that I have considered leaving my program even in my last semester of school. I feel that after I finish my program and before I enter into a career, it will be an ideal time for an intensive practice period. I have done several month long retreats in my life so far, and have a daily mediation practice of around 2 hours per day, it is very important to me. My issue, unfortunately, is one of money, coming out of a 3 year Master's program, I obviously have very little left . My absolute ideal situation would be if any retreat centers needed a therapist of some sort, or a job in that vein, on staff , but seeing as that's unlikely, I would love a place I could stay at for an undetermined amount of time and I am very willing to enter into some form of "work-trade" situation. If anyone has any tips, I would be very appreciative.

I'm relatively new here, so I appreciate your willingness to help me out.

Thanks,

Ian

I did a summer of work retreat at Gaia House when in a similar situation between Masters and Medical School, and if you can get to Asia, there are many options, such as MBMC, Panditarama, places in Thailand, etc.

I spent 6 months living at a Goenka meditation center. The standard format is to serve for two 10-day courses, and then sit one course, and repeat. Of course, they are very particular that you must only practice their tradition. I also looked into the same type of thing at Spirit Rock in CA, and they do offer a position which even includes a stipend of $600 a month (along with room and board and credit toward retreats).

Thank you both for the information, I'll check into them!

I stayed for a while at a Goenka center as well. It was wonderful. The karma created by serving dhamma is very strong. On top of that working in the kitchen is so much fun, you meet amazing people, old asian/indian women who can cook you under the table, skinny wierd white guys like us and hot south american girls... the whole gamut

http://www.dhamma.org/en/bycountry/na/


-d