Weekend Spirituality Retreat [Apr 17-19]

Me (Benjy) and a few other group members will be going to this weekend retreat about 1.5 hours from DC near Harpers Ferry. It's $235 (less for members) which includes meals and lodging for the weekend.

This retreat will feature sessions with Awakened people (self-reported awakened obviously) and a chance to speak with them and other serious spiritual seekers. It's not like seeing Eckhart Tolle talk to 1,000 people, it is a much more personal setting, usually 30-40 participants.

There will be Q&A's with speakers, small-group breakouts, meditation, and other sessions. Check out the schedule and list of speakers below. You can also use the registration link to learn more about TAT Foundation, the group putting on the retreat and retreats like this for over 50 years. This is a talk recorded at a past TAT weekend.

***To register, you have to use this link***: https://tatfoundation.org/events/2026/02/28/tat-april-2026-in-person-gathering-the-arc-of-life-april-17-19-charles-town-vw/

Featured Speakers:
Emeline Lambert’s search for truth began early, shaped by a persistent sense of not belonging in a world that felt unreal and without meaning. Beneath years of striving, performance, and inner struggle with depression and anxiety was a question she could not avoid: Who am I? A pivotal retreat experience marked a profound shift in her understanding of self, opening into a deeper recognition of presence and true nature. Since then, meditation, self-observation, and acceptance have grounded her path, transforming her relationships and reframing suffering as part of awakening rather than a detour from it. Emeline speaks about surrendering to what is, and allowing awakening to unfold beyond the mind’s narrative of separation. She emphasizes the role of nature, compassion, and service in spiritual life, and views realization not as a personal achievement but as an ongoing, shared movement of consciousness. She volunteers with a New York–based nonprofit, co-facilitating their Saturday Spirituality Group and leading regular meditations focused on mental health and addiction recovery support. Listen to her “Buddha at the Gas Pump” interview here.

Bob Cergol was 19 when he met Richard Rose in 1972 and soon after attended the April 1973 meeting at Rose’s house in Benwood, WV where TAT was conceived as an organization. He lived with Rose at his house in Benwood, WV, on Rose’s farm, and in the local area on and off over many years. Twenty years later, after living in isolation for a year in a cabin he built on Rose’s farm, and feeling his spiritual path had run its course, he moved away to pursue a secular life. He married and started a family, but soon gravitated back to the path, participating in group work with other TAT members. That group work led to a series of events that triggered a spiritual realization that for Bob was an absolute, and final answer to the existential questions he had been asking for all those years. Listen to Bob’s interview, “Finding Yourself on the Spiritual Path” on the Journals of Spiritual Discovery Podcast here. Bob is the author of “Hope! Life’s Calling: Finding Yourself on the Spiritual Path Called Life.”

Anima Pundeer began meditating in her late teen years and soon realized that underneath all the suffering in the world, the real pain was the pain of feeling a separate self. In June of 2004, Anima had an experience where she realized her All-ness and One-ness…. She finally knew Freedom. She feels immense gratitude for all the help and guidance she got from her fellow seekers. She feels she couldn’t have made this journey without her Guru and her friends—and the only way she feels she can help anyone is by sharing her own struggles and obstacles. She tells her story in the documentary Meetings With Remarkable Women or watch her talk from the June 2021 TAT retreat “Falling In Love With Truth.” Anima is co-author with Art Ticknor of Always Right Behind You. She lives with her family in Houston, Texas. Read her responses to the Finder’s Questionnaire.

Friday, April 17, 2026
5:00 PM to 7:30 PM – Set-up and arrivals
7:30 PM to 9 PM – TAT Foundation members-only business meeting
9 PM – Get to know other participants

Saturday, April 18, 2026
7:30 AM to 8:00 AM – Optional group meditation
8:00 AM to 9:00 AM – Potluck continental breakfast and open discussion
9:00 AM to 9:15 AM – Welcome
9:15 AM to 10:45 AM – Emeline Lambert, “Surrendering to Truth”
10:45 AM to 12:00 PM – Breakout Group Inquiry
12:00 PM to 12:15 PM – Break
12:15 PM to 1:30 PM – Lunch
1:30 PM to 1:35 PM – Reconvene
1:35 PM to 2:15 PM – Silent, outdoor walk (weather permitting)
2:15 to 2:30 PM – Break
2:30 PM to 3:45 PM – Bob Cergol, “How You Became the Reflection You See in the Mirror”
3:45 PM to 5:00 PM – Breakout Group Inquiry
5:00 PM to 5:30 PM – Break
5:30 PM to 7:00 PM – Dinner
7:00 PM to 7:05 PM – Reconvene
7:05 PM to 8:05 – Negating Beliefs: “The Artist’s Way”
8:05 PM – Optional reflection with Shawn Nevins

Sunday, April 19, 2026
7:30 AM to 8:00 AM – Optional group meditation
8:00 AM to 9:00 AM – Potluck continental breakfast and open discussion
9:00 AM to 9:05 AM – Reconvene
9:05 AM to 10:35 AM – Anima Pundeer, “Understanding the Nature of Nature for a Seeker of Truth”
10:35 AM to 11:55 AM – Breakout Group Inquiry
11:55 AM to 12:00 PM – Reconvene
12:00 PM to 12:20 – Meeting Wrap-Up & Feedback
12:20 PM – Break and Cleanup
12:30 PM – Lunch and End of Weekend Meeting