We are gladdened to offer this 7-night, Residential Silent Meditation Retreat with Rachel Lewis and DaRa Williams at the Bethlehem Retreat Centre in Nanaimo, BC, from July 22 - July 29, 2025.
Retreat Description
Cultivating Love and Wisdom
Gather with us at the height of summer to take a deep dive into practice! An extended retreat like this one gives us an opportunity to pause and relax amidst the busyness of our lives, as well as to learn things we can’t learn any other way. We will be undertaking practices that strengthen the qualities of peace, love, and wisdom in our minds and hearts.
There will be practice instructions at the beginning of each day and the practice schedule will be made up of alternating periods of formal sitting and walking meditation. There will be practice discussion groups and time for questions and answers each day.
This silent retreat is suitable for people with some prior retreat experience: at minimum an in-person day-long. (If you haven't yet done something like this, check out the events that 
Rachel is offering
 
most months as well as the weekend nonresidential retreats 
offered by 
BCIMS
.)
We welcome people from all backgrounds, communities, and life experiences. We will offer at least one “affinity sit” during the retreat for folks who self-identify as BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, people of colour), and at least one for folks who self-identify as LGBTQIA2S+. In an affinity sit, members of that group have the choice to gather in a separate space and sit in silence together during a scheduled sitting period. If you have questions about why we offer this as an option, please email 
rachel.lewis@gmail.com
 before the retreat starts.
Retreat Information
PLEASE READ CAREFULLY BEFORE REGISTERING.
Registration: 
This retreat will go on sale April 22, 2025 at 10am PST. We anticipate tickets will sell quickly. We recommend you register as soon as possible once the tickets go on sale. Pease note that the deadline for for financial assistance is April 8 - see Financial Assistance/DEI Financial Assistance section below for details.
COVID-19:
 It is anticipated that small gatherings will be allowed by the BC Provincial Health Authority at this time. All health guidelines in place at the time of the retreat for small gatherings will be followed and communicated to attendees.
Vaccinations: 
Attendees are strongly encouraged to be fully vaccinated, including the boosters, though we will not be requiring proof during check in.
Masking: 
Masks are optional and encouraged in shared indoor spaces. If a yogi has or develops a cough/runny nose/cold symptoms, they will be asked to take a COVID test and mask while in shared indoor spaces.
COVID Testing: 
ALL yogis will be asked to take a home-COVID test sometime 24 hours BEFORE arriving at the retreat and indicate they have tested negative at check in. All yogis will also be asked to take a COVID test on day 3 of retreat. Commuters will be asked to take a COVID test daily.
Room Rates/Fees:
Private Room
 - $1,995
Shared Room
 - $1,750
Commuter
 (includes meals) - $1,320
If you are in the position to offer a 
Benefactor Rate, 
please consider a donation to 
BCIMS' Donations Page
 (Canada Helps). We are deeply grateful for any amount you are able to contribute to support BCIMS and the sangha, as donations help us to honour requests for financial assistance. Donations via the link above will receive an automatic tax receipt from Canada Helps.
If you select the 
Shared Room
 option, please indicate your room-sharing preferences in the order form (ie: wish to share with a partner or friend also registered for this retreat, gender preference, etc.)
Fees do NOT include a financial offering (dana) to the teachers. There will be an opportunity to offer dana to the teachers once you are at the retreat.
Financial Assistance:
 We are gladdened to offer Financial Assistance for this retreat. You may apply by filling out this 
online form
, or by emailing 
jess@bcims.org
. For this retreat, we are offering financial assistance any amount up to 50% of the retreat fee. If you require additional assistance, please share your request on the form. 
DEI Financial Assistance: 
We also offer financial assistance from our DEI fund (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion). This is intended to offer support to folks from underrepresented and systemically marginalized communities to attend residential retreats. For this retreat, we are offering DEI financial assistance of any amount up to 50% of the retreat fee. If you require additional assistance, please share your request on the form. We encourage folks who identify as BIPOC (black, Indigenous, and/or people of colour), 2SLGBTQIA+, have a visible or invisible disability, or are from other underrepresented and systemically marginalized communities, to apply by filling out this 
online form
, or by emailing jess@bcims.org. Please specify in your email that you are interested in applying for the DEI fund.
The deadline for all financial assistance applications is April 8, 2025.
BCIMS Cancellation Policy:
30 days or more before the start of retreat: refund offered, less a $125 cancellation fee.
Between 30 days to 10 days before start of retreat: 50% refund offered.
Within 10 days of the start of retreat: no refund guaranteed.
Please note, our BCIMS Cancellation Policy applies to all ticket holders, including those with discounted tickets.
Accessibility Needs:
 There will be an opportunity on the Registration Order Form to specify any special needs or accommodations, including any needs or requests on washrooms, dietary, and access needs.
We may not be able to meet everyone’s preferences but we will do our best to accommodate needs and make the retreat as safe and accessible as possible. We encourage you to please reflect on the difference between needs and preferences for your stay as you fill out the Form, as this allows us to more easefully accommodate all retreatants.
Ridesharing: 
The information collected during registration regarding ridesharing will be distributed by email to all interested retreatants about four weeks prior to the retreat. Each individual is then responsible for directly making any ridesharing arrangement.
Dana:
 In the Buddhist tradition, teachings are given freely because they are considered priceless; in the Buddhist tradition we also practice dana, or generosity, by making monetary offerings to the teachers. Dana is not payment for goods or services rendered; it is given from the heart. Your generosity is a gift that supports not just the teachers, but also the Sangha, the larger Dharma community, and your own practice. Note that your registration fee goes toward BC Insight Meditation Society organizational expenses which allow us to continue offering retreats such as this one. More information will be shared with registrants.
About the Teachers
DaRa Williams
 is a trainer, meditation teacher and psychotherapist. DaRa has been a meditator for the past 25 years and is a practitioner of both Vipassana and Ascension meditation. She is a graduate of the Spirit Rock/Insight Meditation Society Teacher Training Program and is an IMS Emeritus Guiding Teacher. She is the program manager and a core teacher in the current IMS Teacher Training Program. DaRa has been a clinician and administrator in the field of mental health for over 25 years and currently maintains a private practice in Manhattan. She is a certified trainer and practitioner of Indigenous Focusing Oriented Therapy and Complex Trauma. DaRa integrates these skills, understandings, wisdom traditions and world views in her intention for contributing to the ending of suffering for all beings.
It is my belief that vipassana meditation and the dharma are ideal for transforming suffering, particularly the trauma of oppression and its many vicissitudes-where the chains around our minds and hearts can be broken and dissolved. Awareness and wisdom become the vehicle for freedom and transforming lives.
 - DaRa Williams
Rachel Lewis
 began practicing insight meditation in 2003, while completing her physics PhD at Yale. Since 2011, she has taught dharma and meditation classes and retreats in British Columbia and beyond. She completed the IMS/IRC 4-year teacher training in 2021, and is a guiding teacher of the British Columbia Insight Meditation Society. Her dharma teaching interests include the power of music, humour, and creativity to increase our capacity for learning, as well as the way that practice supports and is supported by social justice work. See her other events at http://rachelmeditates.ca/
With heartfelt gratitude, BCIMS acknowledges we are based in what is now known as Vancouver, BC, the beautiful, traditional, and unceded lands of the Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) peoples, who live on and have stewarded this land for thousands of years.
Information Source: BC Insight Meditation Society | eventbrite

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