SILENT WEEKEND RETREAT: Living Your Values - In-Person/Online Hybrid

[NOTE: An RSVP to this Meetup event is not sufficient for registration. To register and pay for the event, please follow this link.]

# LIVING YOUR VALUES IN CHALLENGING TIMES SILENT WEEKEND RETREAT

January 16-19, 2026
Teachers: Stan Eisenstein and Jennifer Stanley
Claymont Retreat Center, Charles Town, WV | Online via Zoom
Affiliated with the Insight Meditation Community of Washington (IMCW)

ABOUT: "Create a clearing in the dense forest of your life and wait there patiently, until the song that is your life falls into your own cupped hands, and you recognize and greet it." - Marth Postlethwaite

The stillness of winter invites us to go inward, to tune into the deeper currents of life. to sense our deeper spiritual roots. Challenging times help us to clarify what we truly value, and how to act on those values. To distill and discern those values, however, takes time, patience, introspections, wrestling with competing values and beliefs, and tuning to intuitive awareness. Sometimes it takes grieving and letting go. Sometimes it takes the care and support of others. When we can come to clarity about our values, joy, peace, and wisdom start to arise. We know how to proceed in the world.

Through dharma talks, group meetings with teachers, meditation instruction, unguided sitting and walking meditation, and gentle movement practices, you will be invited to open up to an intuitive sense of what is most important.

TEACHERS: Stan Eisenstein has been guiding self-inquiry and other meditation practices since 2012. He is a teacher for the Insight Meditation Community of Washington, with founder Tara Brach. Stan is a an instructor for various courses: Mindfulness-Basted Stress Reduction; Inviting Chronic Pain and Illness to Tea; Self-Inquiry. He is also a mentor for the international Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Program, taught by Tara Brach and Jack Kornfield, and run by Sounds True. You can explore Stan's bio and recordings of Stan's teachings at his website: staneisenstein.com

Jennifer Stanley began her meditation practice in 1986 while living in Michigan. After moving to DC, she began practicing with IMCW in 2000. She has sat many residential retreats with IMCW, the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, MA, and the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies. She is a graduate of the two-year Meditation Teacher Training Institute (MTTI) and began teaching in 2011. In 2014 she became a trained teacher of Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC) and regularly teaches the 8-week series. She leads residential MSC, Vipassanā, and Mettā/lovingkindness retreats. In 2022, she began teaching MSC to staff and patients of the Washington DC VA Medical Center. Jennifer’s graduate training was in ecological/community psychology and she spent many years as a public health systems researcher.

LOCATION: Claymont Retreat Center in Charles Town, WV or Online via Zoom Video Conferencing.

RETREAT FEES:
Single room: $575
Shared room: $525
Online: $250
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Please note that retreat fees only cover direct expenses for this event, such as room, meals, and administrative costs. In keeping with the Buddhist tradition, the teachers and retreat managers receive no payment. Donations offered by students at the end of the retreat are appreciated and support the teachers and retreat managers in continuing to make the teachings available to all.

REGISTRATION : The registration deadline for in-person participation is January 2 and online participation is January 14.

QUESTIONS : Contact manager at imcwretreatmanager@gmail.com

TESTIMONIALS

I have no words at this moment to describe what I learned or how I benefited from attending this retreat other than to say I will carry the truths Stan so skillfully taught, the people I met, and the deep knowing found during our meditation periods with me for the rest of my life. I am profoundly changed, and grateful. ~Melanie

This was a much needed respite from the craziness of the world around us. Stan is a wonderful guide, teaching with love and kindness how to be loving and kind to ourselves during difficult times. His practices gave me a sense of calm and clearing out, and being in community with others (even over Zoom) felt so supportive. Many thanks ~Julie