Weekend Spirituality Retreat [Aug 21-23]

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. Scholarships are offered if needed.

This retreat will feature talks and a chance to interact directly with awakened people (self-reported awakened obviously), other serious spiritual seekers, group inquiry like we do on Mondays, and other interactive activities. It's not like seeing Eckhart Tolle talk to 1,000 people in a theater, it is a much more personal setting, usually 30-40 participants.

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/2026/06/24/august-2026-tat-meeting/

The Return Home
“There’s a vibrant longing that leads us back to consciousness of awareness. It’s reflected in our dissatisfaction, in our desire for unity, completion, wholeness, love, eternality….

“We try to fulfill the vibrant longing ‘out there.’ But its message is that an internal home is the place of completion, of eternality without conflict. When the excitement and adventure of traveling wears thin, it becomes more and more apparent to the weary traveler that fulfillment doesn’t lie over the next hill or around the next bend. As an old hymn intones: ‘Come Home, come Home, ye who are weary, come Home.’”
~ Art Ticknor

“Home” is one of the most evocative of all words with which to portray the spiritual search. And the “return” home points to yet another feeling, familiar, that we somehow lost our way to a place we’ve been before.

This immersive weekend retreat is designed to awaken deeper insight, cultivate authentic connection, and ignite true transformation. Whether you are taking your first steps on the path of self-inquiry or seeking renewed clarity, this gathering offers a rare opportunity to explore life’s deepest questions in an atmosphere of support and sincerity.

Featured presenters:
Paul Rezendes has a particularly compelling life story: leader of two notorious motorcycle gangs, becomes yoga teacher, spiritually awakens, then lives that awakening through his work as a renowned wildlife tracker, teacher, and photographer. Paul points definitively to the conundrum of the self, the seeker, getting in the way of what is sought. Paul is the author of The Wild Within. See Paul’s video from the April 2019 TAT retreat: “A Session in the Now.”

Bob Fergeson is a teacher, writer, photographer, and avid mountaineer. In the winter of 2000, while skiing in the backcountry of Colorado, Bob found what he sought. In his own words, “something happened to me that answered my questions as to who I am and my relationship to life and death, the questions that had somehow haunted me—consciously or not—for most of my adult life.” He is featured in the film Mountain High: Touching the Void. Bob is also the author of The Listening Attention, a simple and profound teaching on finding the gateway to within. He is the co-author of the beautiful book of poetry and photographs, Images of Essence. See Bob’s talk from the April 2011 TAT retreat. See Bob’s Listening Attention website.

Weekend Schedule

Friday Aug 21

• 5:00–7:00 PM — Setup and Arrivals
• 7:00–7:15 PM — Welcome / Opening Session
• 7:15–8:30 PM — Breakout Groups – “Nostalgia & Home”
• 8:30 PM–? — Free Time

Sat Aug 22

• 7:30 to 8:00 AM – Optional group meditation with Paul Constant
• 8:00 to 9:00 AM – Potluck continental breakfast and open discussion
• 9:00 to 9:15 AM – Break
• 9:15 to 9:30 AM – Welcome with Jonathan P.
• 9:30 to 10:30 AM – a session with Paul Rezendes
• 10:30 to 10:45 AM – Break
• 10:45 to 11:30 AM – Q & A with Paul Rezendes
• 11:30 to 12:00 PM – Break
• 12:00 to 1:15 PM – Potluck Lunch
• 1:15 to 3:15 PM – Group Inquiry: Through honest, open dialogue, we help one another clarify our understanding by turning away from untruths. Thus we turn from the illusion of life to Reality. Such questioning is at the core of Richard Rose’s Albigen System. Led by Paul Constant, Shawn Nevins, Mike Gegenheimer, and Bob Fergeson (if a 4th group is needed).
• 3:15 to 3:30 PM – Free Time/Discussion
• 3:30 to 4:30 PM – a session with Bob Fergeson
• 4:30 to 4:45 PM – Break
• 4:45 to 5:15 PM – Q & A with Bob Fergeson
• 5:15 to 5:30 PM – Break
• 5:30 to 7:00 PM – Potluck Dinner
• 7:00 to 8:15 PM – “Speed Inquiry” session with _________________
• 8:15 to 8:30 PM – Break
• 8:30 to 9:00 PM – The Journey Home through Douglas Harding experiments

Sun Aug 23

• 7:30 to 8:00 AM – Optional Silent Rapport Sitting with Mike Gegenheimer and Shawn Nevins.
• 8:00 to 9:00 AM – Potluck continental breakfast and open discussion
• 9:00 to 9:15 AM – Break
• 9:15 to 11:30 AM – ________ TBD
• 11:30 – 11:45 AM – Break
• 11:45 AM to Noon – Meeting wrap-up & feedback for future meetings
• Noon to 2:00 PM – Potluck Lunch/Open Discussion/Adjourn Meeting