SACRED COMMUNITY RETREAT
Awakening the Heart through the Path of Grace
Hosted by The Sacred Community Project and Just Love Forest
May 15–18, 2026
In 2024 we welcomed Sitaram Dass, founder of The Sacred Community Project: www.sacredcommunityproject.org and longtime caretaker of Ram Dass, for a deeply moving devotional retreat. His time with Ram Dass profoundly shaped his understanding of Loving Awareness, inspiring him to share this love through gatherings and practices rooted in sacred community.
In the spring, we are honored to host him again. this time for an even more expansive offering:
A four-day Sacred Community Retreat followed by an optional week-long Forest Sadhana Immersion: https://sacredcommunityproject.org/forest-sadhana.
About the Retreat
An inter-spiritual devotional retreat rooted in the lineage of Ram Dass and Neem Karoli Baba, centering the teachings of Bhakti Yoga and Buddhism. Anchored with mantra, meditation, and ritual, the core practice of this retreat is Sacred Community, seeing the Divine everywhere: in nature, in each other, and in ourselves.
Through these practices, we help one another awaken from separation and return to the heart of Love.
Practice
Who we are is deeper than our thoughts, emotions, or roles. These are clouds moving within the vast sky of Awareness. As we awaken to this truth, we discover that Awareness itself is not personal, it is the shared fabric of Reality, the relational web that connects us all.
Ram Dass called this Loving Awareness. As Pavan Dass beautifully says, “Just as sunlight is warm, our Awareness is naturally loving.”
By gathering in Satsang (spiritual community) and engaging in Sadhana (practice), we open to Darshan (vision) and behold this Love everywhere.
New This Year: The Forest Sadhana Immersion
Following the weekend retreat, participants are invited to optionally stay for a seven-day Forest Sadhana, a guided journey of solitude, service, and sacred practice within the forest sanctuary of Just Love Forest. This immersion invites you to deepen your devotion through rhythm, silence, ritual, and communion with the natural world.
Learn more about the inspiration for this practice and apply here:
www.sacredcommunityproject.org/forest-sadhana