Program Tuition & Basic Accommodations: $1550
Tuition does not include teachers’ dana. Please read below.
*Teacher-administrated program: For more information/questions about this retreat, email Michãel at mpalmer@bozemandharmacenter.org.
The Bozeman Dharma Center and Bozeman Insight Community are thrilled to offer a residential meditation retreat in Montana, embedded in nature supported by three amazing teachers. This retreat experience will provide a loving environment and community to support your practice, whether you have been practicing for decades or this is your first retreat. The teachers will offer wisdom talks, support for silent meditation practices and challenges, and guided mindful movement. The beautiful natural environment of Feathered Pipe Ranch near Helena, Montana is a key part of the retreat as we explore how the qualities of embedded, embodied, and awake can deepen at personal, relational, and environmental levels.
If you have been curious about doing a silent meditation retreat, this is a perfect opportunity for you to give it a try. And, if you are in Montana and had to attend retreats elsewhere, this is an amazing opportunity to stay closer to home and connect with your local community. If you’re not in Montana, this is a wonderful reason to visit! Our community is open to everyone regardless of experience and there is no need to have practiced with us before the retreat. All are welcome.
We are so excited to bring together three excellent and inspiring teachers – Chaim Bryski, Brittany Nepenthe, and James Nepenthe. Chaim lives in Bozeman and teaches regularly at Bozeman Insight Community weekly gatherings. James and Brittany live in rural Vermont and have taught at the Bozeman Insight Community online over the past few years. All three have worked together in the past to teach Mindfulness-based Mind Fitness Training. In addition to their deep dharma training, they are also Somatic Experiencing practitioners offering trauma informed guidance and teachings.
Daily Schedule:
This is a tentative daily schedule that will evolve to also include more unstructured time on the land around Feathered Pipe Ranch.
6:00 am — Wake up
6:30 am — Sitting meditation
7:00 am — Breakfast
8:15 am — Sitting meditation with instructions
9:15 am — Sitting and Walking meditation
10:45 am — Meetings with teachers or meditation on the land
12:00 noon — Lunch
1:45 pm — Walking and sitting meditation periods
3:45 pm — Unstructured meditation on the land
5:00 pm — Dinner
6:15 pm — Sitting and walking meditation
7:30 pm — Dharma talk
8:30 pm — Walking and sitting meditation
9:30 pm — Late tea, further practice or sleep
Fees & Teacher Dana:
The registration fees for the retreat cover the basic costs of putting on the retreat such as the lodging (upgrade accommodation fees not included), meals, staff support, insurance, venue gratuity, and teacher travel. None of the fees go directly to the three teachers who offer Dharma teachings freely. However, given the time and energy spent preparing for and leading retreats, James, Brittany, and Chaim need financial support from the community to continue to offer the teachings. Supporting the teachers financially is also supporting BDC to offer retreats in the future.
Dana is an ancient, foundational Buddhist practice of wholehearted giving, a practice of compassionate, wise activity that arises from meditative awareness. Gratitude and devotion are expressed in acts of generosity – going beyond conventional attitudes of profit and gain. We hope that everyone who benefits from our dharma programs can provide financial support according to their means.
In our busy, commercial world, it can be a profound practice to sincerely consider where and how we direct our financial energy and the impact of our financial decisions on the world. Our actions manifest our intentions. We know that this practice benefits many beings amidst the difficulties of our world, and not just in obvious ways. Offering dana allows teachers to devote their lives to practice and teaching.
Dana practice is done anonymously and what is meaningful and possible is personal to you. For some people, a gift of fifty dollars is very, very generous because they have almost nothing to spare in their household budget. Other people might give $1000 or more and not even feel the financial consequences. What’s important is that it comes from your heart and is a gift of generosity and gratitude, with the intention to support these teachings. If you are having a hard time knowing where to start, you might consider what you are willing to spend in other areas of your life to support your body, mind, and heart (yoga, skiing, therapy, gym time, massage, etc.).
Please plan to offer support to James, Brittany, and Chaim as part of the dana practice. We encourage you to factor this additional need for resources when considering what level of accommodation works for you.
Scholarships
Limited scholarships funds are available. To ensure your place in the retreat, please register and pay the minimum deposit of $350. To apply for a scholarship, please fill out this form. If you are unable to attend after the scholarship amount is decided, your deposit will be refunded.
RETREAT TIP! Extend your time in peace and beauty while savoring Western hospitality by spending some time exploring the great West’s National Park treasures either before or after your time at the Feathered Pipe Ranch. Glacier National Park is a glorious and scenic 3.5-hour drive north and west of Feathered Pipe, while Yellowstone is just a 4.5 hour drive south and east of the Ranch through some of the prettiest Western territory you’ll ever see.
Bozeman Dharma Center (BDC) is a shared home for seven groups representing several Buddhist lineages dedicated to the teachings of the Buddha. It is a place of refuge where we offer a full schedule of sitting mindfulness practices, wisdom teachings, and connection in community through weekly meetings, classes, and retreats in person and online. The vision of the BDC is to realize our awakened minds and compassionate hearts for the benefit of all beings. The mission is to provide a welcoming community for practice, study, and connection. The offerings are to explore the Buddha’s teachings through the practices of multiple traditions. The BDC is committed to cultivating an awareness and appreciation of the value of diversity and to acknowledging the need to recognize and dissolve barriers that separate us from each other. We open our doors and hearts to all. No meditation experience necessary.
The Bozeman Insight Community (BIC) was founded in 1996 to offer resources and support for people in their Insight (Vipassana) Meditation practice. Vipassana is often translated as “seeing inside”, “insight”, or “clear seeing.” Practices often focus on awareness of of present experience through guidance toward observing the mind, body, and heart with affectionate curiosity and without judgement. BIC offers two opportunities to gather per week for teachings and discussion: Tuesdays 10:30-11:30 a.m. MST Kindhearted Awareness practice and discussion (online only) and Thursdays 6:30 – 8:00 pm MST teaching and practice (in-person and online). Everyone is welcome and no meditation experience is necessary.
YOUR GUIDES DURING THIS SUPPORTED SILENT RETREAT:
Chaim Bryski is a Dharma teacher and trauma practitioner based in Bozeman, Montana, where he teaches regularly for the Bozeman Insight Community. He received lay ordination and empowerment to teach in Theravāda and Mahāyāna lineages from the late Venerable Pannavati Bhikkhuni and the late Ashin U Pannadipa. He has taught meditation and the Dharma for over a decade and continues his study and practice with his primary teacher, Akincano M. Weber.
Grounded in the dynamic psychology of early Buddhism, his approach is animated by a deep curiosity about what it means to be human — mentally, emotionally, somatically, and relationally — and how we can cultivate our capacities for aliveness, growth, connection, and freedom. Chaim is a certified practitioner of Somatic Experiencing (SE), a body-based approach to trauma resolution, and of the NeuroAffective Relational Model (NARM) for the healing of complex and developmental trauma, drawing on his extensive experience in these modalities to support each practitioner’s safety, capacity, and agency. In earlier lives, he served as a rabbi and later as a federal prosecutor in Washington, DC.
Brittany Nepenthe is a somatic trauma and stress resolution specialist and resilience trainer, trained in Somatic Experiencing (SE) and Dynamic Attachment Re-patterning experience (DARe). She brings thirteen years of dedicated meditation practice, including regular silent retreats of six weeks to three months, rooted in the teachings of her root teacher, Rodney Smith.
She leads meditation classes and retreats in a variety of settings, offering a grounded and accessible approach founded on the belief that the mind can only settle as far as the body feels safe enough to let it. Brittany’s guidance prioritizes direct experience, inviting participants to see through the illusion of the self in a non-conceptual, embodied way. Her teaching helps participants cultivate resilience and the quiet wisdom that arises from within.
Learn more about Brittany: touchingtheearthsomatics.com
James Nepenthe has practiced in the Insight Meditation tradition since sitting his first silent retreat at age 15. Over the following two decades he has completed more than 500 days of silent retreat, including multiple three-month retreats, with a sustained focus on the Buddha’s teaching of not-self and the direct realization of awakening. He trained as a trauma-informed mindfulness teacher through the Engaged Mindfulness Institute and has studied deeply in the teachings of Rodney Smith, whose emphasis on the reality and accessibility of awakening shapes James’s teaching.
Alongside his dharma practice, James is a Somatic Experiencing practitioner, a DARe practitioner, and a lead trainer in Mindfulness-based Mind Fitness Training (MMFT). He brings precision about the body and nervous system to traditional insight practice, helping students meet what arises with both stability and clear seeing.
Learn more about Brittany: jamesnepenthe.com
Brittany and James live in Lincoln, Vermont with their son. They are committed to deep realization in the midst of ordinary life. As a married couple and new parents, they are devoted to awakening as householders, with no part of life excluded from the path.
PRICING & REGISTRATION:
Program Tuition & Basic Accommodations: $1550
Tuition does not include teachers’ dana. Please read above.
*Teacher-administrated program: For more information/questions about this retreat, email Michãel at mpalmer@bozemandharmacenter.org.
Registration deposit required: A $350 deposit is required to hold your space in our retreat at Feathered Pipe Ranch. Full payment is due eight weeks before the start of the program.
Tuition fee includes: Double/Triple Occupancy Main Lodge Room, Shared/Single Occupancy Yurt/Deluxe Wall Tent/Sai Condo/Tipi/Tent, plus meals, staff support, insurance, venue gratuity, teacher travel and use of all amenities – our bathhouse, sauna, hot tub, as well as all the Feathered Pipe Ranch facilities and grounds. Upgraded accommodations are available.
Additional lodging upgrade pricing: Click here
Full description of accommodations options: Click here.
Feathered Pipe Ranch Map: Click here.
After receiving your non-refundable deposit a welcome letter with follow up information will be sent to your email. For more information/questions about this retreat, email Michãel at mpalmer@bozemandharmacenter.org.
The retreat will include:
— 5-nights indoor or outdoor accommodations (upgraded accommodations require an additional fee)
— All daily classes and group sessions, suitable for all
— Delicious and lovingly prepared international cuisine
— Shuttle service from/to Helena Regional Airport on arrival/departure day
— Full access to the extensive Feathered Pipe grounds (including the hot tub and sauna)
Not included:
— Airfare
— Any/all excursions off-campus
— Bodywork & Massage
— Montana Accommodation Tax $25
— Teacher Dana
— Laundry
Shuttle service: Shuttle service from/to Helena Regional Airport on arrival/departure day is complimentary (free) for all registered guests. Please note that if you are needing pick-up or drop-off on any other day, that there will be a $50 one-way charge.
Arrival and departure: Please plan to arrive between Noon and 3pm on the arrival day (Saturday, 11 September) so you can join us for a welcoming ceremony and light practice at 5pm before dinner at 6:30pm and our group evening orientation following dinner. Please arrange to leave the Ranch on departure day (Thursday, 16 September). Final day room checkout is at 9am. Guests are welcome to stay at the Ranch until their flight leaves that day.
For more information about the Feathered Pipe Ranch in general, visit our FAQ page.
For more information/questions about this retreat, please email Michãel at mpalmer@bozemandharmacenter.org.
Thanks and look forward to seeing you!