Half-Day and Daylong Retreats

Putting aside our duties, responsibilities, and social engagements for a period of time can be a powerful support for the deepening of insight and for touching into deeper states of calm and peace. During our online retreats we will each do our creative best to maintain a simple and quiet environment. We will intentionally limit our speech with those we live with and put aside our phones for this period of time. The teachers will offer guided meditations, talks, and times for group discussion. We will commit to following a simple schedule of sitting and walking meditations so to better sense that we are taking up this retreat day together. The Buddha taught that a calm & serene mind is capable of seeing clearly the nature of the heart and mind in a way that is liberating, leading onwards to greater wisdom and compassion in our lives. Please join us for these days of practice.

We typically offer a half-day retreat on the first Saturday of the month and a Daylong retreat on the 4th Saturday of the month. Please check the calendar for dates and times

Half-Day Retreats

Half-Day Retreat with Shelly Graf
Saturday, July 1st | 1:00 pm – 5:00 pm
In-person and on Zoom
Register here

Daylong Retreats

Daylong Retreat with Shelly Graf
Saturday, May 27th | 9:30 pm-4:00 pm
In-person and on Zoom
Register here

Daylong Retreat with Mark Nunberg
Saturday, June 24th | 9:30am – 4:00 pm
In-person and on Zoom
Register here

The Practice of Generosity

Continuing in the tradition of Buddhist monasteries in Southeast Asia, all programs at Common Ground, including these online programs, are offered free of charge in the spirit of generosity. This offering is possible because of the generosity of people like you—from the Buddha on down to all the people in our community—who contribute their practice, time, and financial resources to support the continuation of the center.

To make a donation, visit this page and enter the name of the teacher or fund you wish to designate your gift to. As usual, two-thirds of your donation will support the teacher, and one-third will support the operations of the center.

Registration Priority Policy

Common Ground gives priority registration to program participants of the following groups: Black, Indigenous, and people of color, as well as non-binary and transgender people. Two main values informing this policy are justice and safety. Regarding justice, we see this policy as an imperfect and insufficient attempt to remediate current and historical disadvantages faced by these groups by offering an advantage in our registration process. Regarding safety, we see this policy as an imperfect attempt to create a safer space for participants of these groups by making it more likely to not ever be “the only one” at a given program. There are other advantages to this policy, for example, the benefit to all participants of being in a more diverse group. To learn more, contact the center at info@commongroundmeditation.org or 612-722-8260. We welcome feedback on any aspect of this policy.