Spring Householder Retreat
Sunday May 17th - Saturday May 23rd
Flexible schedule - engage at your pace!
Day Long Option only : May 17th
led by Jon and Upayadhi, and the S2M Team
Retreat isn't about going away. It's about coming fully home — to the body, the breath, and to the fulness of being human. We can recover our natural goodness and wonder for life. And we can do that in the thick of our lives, here and now. Without packing a suitcase or getting on a plane.
During this week of home retreat, something will shift. Not because we will escape our day to day and all our responsibilities, but because for seven days we will move through them differently — with more presence, more spaciousness, and more support.
And there is grace and flexibility: we don't have to do it perfectly, or at once, or even according to a set schedule.The retreat we are offering wraps itself around you, and the rythyms of your life. While you can always join us live, practices and talks are recorded and sent to you by email each day, so you can practice and find inspiration in whatever way fits your actual circumstances. Choose your own mindfulness adventure!
Being in the world, and yet not completely of the world. This retreat is about contemplative living as “householders.” It fosters a quality of consciousness within life: together, we create a shared container where ordinary activities become practice. Your morning coffee. Your relationships. Your work. Your errands. Your meals. Your caregiving. Your phone and social media. All of it. It keeps going. Inspired by the rhythms of monastic life, this retreat does not require a withdrawal from the world. No monastery required!
Together, we meditate. We reflect. We create a home altar. We witness and encourage one another. And in that simple act of collective intention, playfulness and witnessing, we develop a felt sense of stillness and spaciousness, even in the thick of our busy and sometimes hectic lives.
What you'll walk away with:
A tangible experience of daily life as meditation
A kick start or reboot of your daily meditation practice
A chance to go deeper: more than meditation as maintenance
Real connection with a warm, living community of fellow travelers
Dharma teachings you can apply to life, in all its coplexity and messiness
Simple rituals you can carry forward
The experience of retreat — without the plane ticket
How it works
Each day has a gentle rhythm: morning meditations, Dharma reflections, mindful co-working, evening gatherings. The structure is there to hold you — not to overwhelm you. Come for as much as you can. Follow alone at your pace with daily recordings when life intervenes. Let the community carry the momentum even on the days you can only catch a single session, or non at all. Join a sharing circle to report back from the “mindfulness trenches” of your life. Commiserate. Laugh. Celebrate the wins. Re-commit.
A taste of the week
Everything is optional, engaged as you can and feel called to:
🧘 Daily guided meditations with Jon & Upayadhi
☕ Mindful coffee ceremony to start each morning (our take on the traditional tea ceremony! 😆)
🪷 Short morning dharma reflections to thread through your day
💻 Mindful co-working or crafting sessions: support your productivity / creativity!
🦻 Listening circles, community check-ins, practice Q&As
🙏 Dharma talks for inspiration
🧽 Mindful house cleaning!
🎶 Poetry & song night
📿 Evening rituals with chanting
🏡 Home altar creation
🎉 Closing circle and celebration
New to meditation? There's a daily drop-in Q&A just for you.
Just want one day of retreat?
Join us for the All-Day Retreat on Sunday, May 17th — a complete retreat experience in a single day, led by Jon & Upayadhi. A beautiful entry point, and the perfect way to begin the week.
What does it cost?
This retreat is offered on the basis generosity — no fixed fee, no one turned away. Here is suggested range:
Full week (May 17–23): $120–$600
Single day (May 17 only): $60–$120
We invite you to practice mutual support. Please give what you can: we cannot pull this off without your material contributions. Every offering sustains this community and keeps these teachings freely available. You can learn more about our sustainability model here.
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We love you anyway (and no one is taking attendance)! Just show up when you can and don’t worry about it. You are glorious!
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Come for as little or as much as you wish. The schedule fully integrates daily life activities and recordings are sent daily.
See this link for our detailed schedule. Subject to change!
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Yes! If you sign up for the retreat, you will receive an email every day with the recordings of that day.
Recorded:
the Daily 8am EST Guided Meditation
Morning Dharma reflections
Dharma talks.
Sample coffee ritual
For Q&A sessions, community members with questions will decide if they want their questions to be recorded or not.
For privacy, we will not record the mindful co-working/crafting, evening rituals, poetry/song night, community check-ins or listening circles.
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There will be periods of silence, but this is not a silent retreat. We are householders, not monks or hermits. There are opportunities for mindful speech, sharing, poetry nights, check-ins and more.
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Our guiding and founding teachers of Space2Meditate, Jon and Upayadhi, with the support of the larger team of instructors and volunteers. It takes a village!
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Ha! We are dead serious about the Dharma, but we don’t take ourselves too seriously. Life is too weird and the world has gone rather topsy turvy, so this is not about creating more pressure and stress. Be perfectly imperfect. We are! And, what do you mean by “serious” ? Integrating practice into daily life has been nothing short of transformational — for ourselves and those we serve. Work in progress…
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You will get lots of group time with Jon and Upayadhi, which includes time. They also are very happy to meet 1:1 for a check-in, at a time that works for you. It’s great to build that into your retreat. They do this on the basis of generosity. You can book either of them here.
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Anyone! From beginner to advanced, all are welcome. For those new to meditation there is an optional drop in for instruction and Q&A Monday through Sunday, during the retreat.
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Would would love that! Bring your housemates, colleagues, partners and animal friends! Just forward them this web page for all the details.
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This is just a way to do what we are already doing at home (working, crafting, gardening, whatever…) but with others, and with some support and accountability. Like a co-working or a studio space, but at home. Come and go as you need. Great for focused mindful attention and getting stuff done!
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What is a coffee ceremony?
Like a tea ceremony, sort of, but with coffee. Because we like coffee, but you can drink whatever you wish. We will make our morning beverage together and drink it mindfully. A lovely way to start the day. -
Not at all. Just sign up for the retreat and you will be sent all the information and links. No membership needed.
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We love you! And we still need you to sign up for the retreat programming. There are special links and you will be sent the resources and schedule every day of the retreat.
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We would love that! Get in touch and let’s explore ideas.
Meet the Retreat Leaders
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My journey in the Dharma began in 2004 at the London Buddhist Centre in Bethnal Green. Since stumbling onto my first meditation cushion, I've trained across a range of Buddhist traditions, but I remain rooted in the Triratna Buddhist Order, to which I was ordained in 2018.
My professional background is in leadership development, executive education, and coaching. The 2016 elections were a turning point — I entered Union Theological Seminary in New York, where I studied Buddhism and Inter-religious Engagement. I'm currently pursuing doctoral work in Religious Studies at the University of Chicago Divinity School.
I co-founded Awareness is Revolutionary, a collective cultivating Beloved Community and racial literacy within a Dharmic framework. I'm also a certified MBSR teacher and have practiced as an interfaith chaplain in hospice and hospital settings. When the pandemic hit, Jon Aaron and I co-founded Space2Meditate.
I was born and raised in France, and am of Italian heritage. My name is a reference to the qualities of wisdom (dhi) and compassion in action (upaya) in the Buddhist tradition.
You can find out more about me and my training pathway on my personal website.
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I first encountered meditation in the 1970s, and by the late 1990s I had found my way into the Insight Meditation community, where mindfulness and Buddhism became central to my life. What began as personal practice gradually evolved into teaching. That has included bridging into more secular forms of mindfulness meditation.
I've now taught over 130 cycles of the Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) curriculum and train MBSR teachers across the US, Hungary, and Japan. To deepen my understanding of trauma, I've also trained as a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner.
I teach regularly at the New York Insight Meditation Center, lead a weekly Insight Sangha in Chicago, and co-founded the Space2Meditate community in 2020. I'm also a co-founder of the Mindfulness Teacher Training Alliance and a founding member of the Global Mindfulness Collaborative.
Before turning to teaching full-time, I spent over 30 years as an agent and producer in the performing arts. That chapter shaped me — and this one continues to.
You can find out more about me, my path of training and my teachers on my personal website, as well as through my podcast, Diggin’ the Dharma.
