Drala Mountain Center

Drala Mountain Center Drala Mountain Center is a mountain valley retreat located on 600 acres in northern Colorado hosting meditation and yoga retreats.
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Since 1971 the Center has offered hundreds of programs on Buddhist meditation, yoga and other contemplative disciplines. Tamed by more than fifty years of use as a contemplative retreat, Drala Mountain Center is a place where one of the basic truths of Buddhism—that people can be profoundly open to the wisdom of the present moment—is always readily available.

March is Women’s History & Gender Equality Month! The following highlighted are only a few of the many women who have he...
03/10/2026

March is Women’s History & Gender Equality Month! The following highlighted are only a few of the many women who have helped shape modern Buddhism through scholarship, meditation, and courageous leadership. May their work remind us that the path of awakening belongs to everyone. 🧘‍♀️🙏

🪷 Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo
One of the first Westerners ordained as a Tibetan Buddhist monastic, she has worked tirelessly for gender equality in monastic life. After spending 12 years meditating in a Himalayan cave, she founded Dongyu Gatsal Ling Nunnery in India to give women the same advanced training historically reserved for monks. 💗

🪷 Pema Chödrön
The first American woman in the Vajrayana tradition to become a fully ordained nun. One of the most widely read Western Buddhist teachers and longtime teacher within Shambhala Buddhism, she has brought teachings on compassion and resilience to millions and has even taught at DMC! 🌄

🪷 Thubten Chodron
Founder of Sravasti Abbey in Washington State and a leading advocate for full monastic education for women in the Tibetan tradition. Known for accessible teachings and deep scholarship, she has also collaborated with the Dalai Lama on Buddhist philosophy. ☸️

🪷 Adrienne Chang
A contemporary Shambhala teacher who integrates Dharma practice with social awareness and cultural dialogue. Her work explores identity, community care, and practicing Buddhism in modern life. Check out her upcoming month-long retreat: ✨ Entering the Vajra World: A Three-Yana Retreat! ✨

🪷 Judy Lief
A longtime teacher and scholar affiliated with Naropa University and senior editor of teachings from Chögyam Trungpa. A regular teacher at DMC, her work has helped preserve foundational Dharma teachings for new generations. Check out her book Making Friends with Death: A Buddhist Guide for Encountering Mortality! 📖

🪷 Susan Piver
A bestselling Buddhist author and founder of the Open Heart Project. She focuses on making meditation accessible in everyday life and will lead two retreats at DMC this year: Fearless Creativity: A Meditation and Writing Retreat and Proclaiming Basic Sanity: Living the Bodhisattva Path! 💡

There’s something special about reaching Marpa Point. 🏔️After winding through forest and meadow, hikers arrive at a plac...
03/07/2026

There’s something special about reaching Marpa Point. 🏔️

After winding through forest and meadow, hikers arrive at a place of big sky, sweeping views, and quiet perspective. It’s the kind of spot where you naturally pause to breathe, to reflect, and to take in the vastness of the land around you.

Parts of our Perimeter Trail were impacted by the Cameron Peak Fire, which burned through much of the surrounding landscape. This summer, we’ll be redrawing and rebuilding sections of the trail to help restore access, protect the recovering ecosystem, and create a safer, more sustainable path for future hikers. 🌄🥾

The land is always changing, and walking these trails is one way we stay in relationship with it. 🌲

03/05/2026

Lynn’s connection to the Dharma began at the very first summer of the Naropa Institute in 1974. She was just 12 years old when she first encountered the teachings and soon after, committed to the Buddhist path. That early connection has now unfolded into a lifetime of practice, devotion, and stewardship of the lineage.

At the Three Yanas Retreat, Lynn serves as one of the program organizers and leads shrine room practice, forms, and rituals helping bring the teachings into embodied, lived experience.

📅 Dates: June 21st - July 21st, 2026
📍 Location: Drala Mountian Center | 151 Shambhala Way, Red Feather Lakes, CO
🔗 Registration Link: https://www.dralamountain.org/program/evw626-entering-the-vajra-world-a-three-yana-retreat/
📘Prepatory Class: A 13-week, online course on the shravakayana and mahayana teachings to bring everyone up to speed for the studies at the retreat starting on March 15, 2026.

The Three Yanas Retreat weaves together the depth of the teachings with direct experience, grounding us in a path that is both ancient and alive. 🙏📿✨ Apply today by March 15th!

In the Theravada Buddhist tradition today is a very important holiday, Sangha Day! 📿☸✨Also known as Magha Puja, this fes...
03/03/2026

In the Theravada Buddhist tradition today is a very important holiday, Sangha Day! 📿☸✨

Also known as Magha Puja, this festival celebrates the Buddha's oration, the Ovada Patimokkha, when the outlined and defined the for Buddhist Monastics - or the discipline that goes along with Buddhist doctrine.

We are so grateful to Santi, one of the teachers we bring to Drala Mountain Center, for diving into the teachings offered in this incredible oration, and helping illuminate why Sangha Day is so important in the Theravada tradition.

Read more here: https://www.dralamountain.org/happy-magha-puja-celebrating-a-way-of-life-by-santi/

Register for Santi's upcoming retreat at Drala Mountain Center here: https://www.dralamountain.org/program/ob626-one-buddhism-practicing-peace-in-times-of-turmoil/

🕯️Honoring Milarepa Day🕯️Today, Greg and Colin led us in the traditional readings and chants in celebration of Milarepa ...
03/03/2026

🕯️Honoring Milarepa Day🕯️

Today, Greg and Colin led us in the traditional readings and chants in celebration of Milarepa Day. Today, we remember one of Tibet’s most beloved yogis, whose life is a testament to transformation, devotion, and the power of practice.

This day marks Milarepa’s parinirvana and more than that, it’s a living reminder of what’s possible on the path. 🪷 From deep regret to full awakening, his story continues to inspire courage, perseverance, and unwavering trust in the dharma.

The shrine room filled with melody and meaning as Greg and Colin guided us through the chants and sacred texts, carrying forward a lineage of devotion that has echoed for centuries. 🎶📿📖

May Milarepa’s songs of realization continue to resound in our own practice, clearing obstacles and illuminating the way.

03/02/2026

“It's felt like coming home”🏡

Caroline Leech, a psychotherapist trained at Naropa University, shares how the Three Yanas Retreat has helped shape her personal, professional, and spiritual path. 🙏✨

Entering the Vajra World: A Three Yanas Retreat is a space where study, contemplation, and meditation come together. Rooted in the lineage of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, this retreat continues to plant seeds that ripple outward into the world — through therapists, teachers, leaders, and practitioners carrying these teachings into their communities.

These teachings distill 13 years of seminary transmissions into a contemporary, accessible format reating space to hear, reflect, and meditate.

Applications for the 2026 program are open. 🌿 Learn more and apply: https://www.dralamountain.org/program/evw626-entering-the-vajra-world-a-three-yana-retreat/

✨ Six-Planet Parade tomorrow night!🌌Looking up on Saturday evening, skies everywhere may offer a rare celestial gatherin...
02/28/2026

✨ Six-Planet Parade tomorrow night!🌌

Looking up on Saturday evening, skies everywhere may offer a rare celestial gathering — six planets aligned across the evening sky! 🌍🌠

🌙 When: About 30 minutes after sunset on Saturday, February 28

Bright planets like Venus, Jupiter, and Saturn are often visible with the naked eye, creating a gentle arc of light across the dusk. With binoculars or a telescope, you may even glimpse Uranus and Neptune.

There’s something powerful about watching from where mountain earth meets sky. Let this alignment inspire you to feel connected, grounded, and part of something vast and beautiful. 🌌🌲

Whether you’re a stargazer, a meditator, or simply someone who loves the night sky, mark your calendar and step outside for a moment of awe. ✨

02/26/2026

Join international meditation teacher and author Donald Rothberg, Ph.D., to slow down, soften, and return to a steady, grounded presence.

Through seated meditation and gentle Qigong, you can cultivate stability in body and mind. As you settle, clarity begins to emerge allowing you to see your thoughts, emotions, and patterns with greater awareness and compassion. Instead of resisting experience, you learn to stay present with its natural, ever-changing flow.

Supported by loving-kindness (metta) and embodied awareness, this retreat offers:
✨ Daily meditation instruction & evening Dharma talks
✨ Movement practice including Qigong
✨ One small group meeting
✨ Two individual meetings with the teacher for personal guidance

📅 April 17th–24th, 2026
Register here: https://www.dralamountain.org/program/sss426-settling-seeing-and-spacious-awareness/?form=1

Come settle, see clearly, and reconnect with what matters most. 🕊️

Buddhism is often described as a path rather than a belief system, a way of cultivating compassion, awareness, and free...
02/24/2026

Buddhism is often described as a path rather than a belief system, a way of cultivating compassion, awareness, and freedom from suffering. Because of this, many people discover that its practices can live alongside other faiths and spiritual traditions. This "double belonging" means you can remain rooted in another faith or spirituality practice while embracing Buddhist meditation, mindfulness, and loving-kindness. Others walk the Buddhist path fully. There is no single doorway.

📿You can be Buddhist.
🧐You can be curious.
🌲You can be both rooted and exploring.

What matters is the sincere wish to awaken for your own well-being and for the benefit of all beings.

is just one way you can start or deepen your path. 🛤️

02/20/2026

In meditation we practice connecting with our direct experiential understanding. It's part of why the practice of Silent Retreat can be so powerful, and why we're grateful to be able to host silent meditation retreats here at .

If you're interested in attending a Silent Meditation Retreat, there is good news - we have a weekend intensive coming up with Gelong Loden Nyima in March.

Register here: https://www.dralamountain.org/program/smi326-silent-meditation-intensive-the-cradle-of-loving-kindness/

Address

151 Shambhala Way
Red Feather Lakes, CO
80545

Telephone

+19708812184

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