Loving Awareness with sitaram dass

A Just Love Forest Ashram Spiritual Practice Retreat

Loving Awareness is an open invitation into presence itself. It is the heart practice of resting in what is here, moment by moment, and letting the wisdom of the body, the land, and the heart become our guide. This retreat offers a spacious immersion into the simple yet profound art of being awake with life as it is, without needing to fix or perform. Here at Just Love Forest we trust that the quiet of the woods, the rhythm of the seasons, and the company of kind hearts help each of us remember what we already are.

Loving Awareness is for anyone who longs to reconnect with inner spaciousness, to soften into their own ever-present love, and to meet life with clarity and compassion. Whether you come seeking renewal, grounding, insight, or simple rest, this retreat provides practices that help you come home to yourself.

This retreat is hosted by Sitaram Dass, Ram Dass’ longest term caretaker, a spiritual counselor, author, meditation teacher, kirtan singer, and longtime student of Ram Dass. Sitaram’s path is rooted in bhakti, the yoga of love and devotion, and he has dedicated his life to supporting others in waking up to the heart’s own presence. He is the director of the Sacred Community Project and the author of From and for God, a contemplative collection of spiritual writings. Throughout his work he strives to lower barriers to contemplative and devotional practices, offering accessible support, teachings, and community for seekers around the world. His presence brings warmth, grounded insight, and devotion to every moment of practice.

Over our time together at Loving Awareness we will explore practices that help us rest in the heart’s natural openness. We will move gently between guided meditation, mindful silence, movement that awakens the body, and practices rooted in presence. Forest walks and contemplative time outdoors allow the land itself to become a teacher, helping us deepen our capacity to feel, notice, and receive what arises. Evening gatherings offer shared reflection, quiet ritual, lots of kirtan, and space to integrate the day.

Some days will hold stillness. Others will invite deep listening. All will offer vastness beneath the surface of the ordinary. This retreat is not about becoming someone new but remembering someone ancient: the one who lives from the heart and meets life with warm awareness.

Loving Awareness welcomes all who come with openness and curiosity. Come with what you carry, exactly as you are. Here you will be invited to rest in love’s own awareness and to let that presence shape your experience of the world.

Registration is now open: www.justloveforest.com/lovingawareness

This weekend retreat will be followed by an optional week-long Forest Sadhana Immersion: https://sacredcommunityproject.org/forest-sadhana.

2026 Intimacy Retreat at Just Love Forest

Intimacy & connection Retreat

Registration is now open by clicking here

This year’s Intimacy Retreat at Just Love Forest is our first retreat designed specifically for two people to attend together - whether as romantic partners, close friends, or family members. This is a space for anyone seeking to cultivate deeper connection, trust, and understanding in their relationship.

True intimacy goes beyond words. It’s about presence, vulnerability, and learning to meet each other with openness and curiosity. Through guided exercises, rituals, and time immersed in nature, this retreat provides a unique opportunity to explore what it means to truly see and be seen by another.

Who Is This Retreat For?

- Individuals & romantic partners looking to nurture connection, playfulness, and trust

- Friends who want to deepen their bond through shared experience

- Family members who seek a new way to relate and honor each other

- Any person ready to explore authentic, heart-centered relationships

What You’ll Experience

- Somatic & Trust-Building Exercises to deepen connection and dissolve barriers

- Labyrinth Walk & Fire Ceremony for reflection and transformation

- Sound Journey & Bonding Practices to explore new dimensions of intimacy

- Forest Bathing Hike & Vows Ceremony for connection, renewal, and commitment

- Pre- & Post-Retreat Virtual Gatherings (April 30 & June 5) to integrate and stay connected

What’s Included?

- Two nights of lodging in bell tents, complete with mattress and bedding

- Nourishing plant-based meals and snacks throughout the retreat

- A beautiful natural setting to support rest, renewal, and deep presence

- Carefully curated group experiences, rituals, and time for personal reflection

📅 Retreat Dates: April 24th - 26th, 2026

If you and someone in your life are ready to step into deeper connection whether through love, friendship, or family, this retreat will be a journey of discovery, healing, and shared presence.

Registration opening soon

Gay by Nature
3rd Annual Spring Gathering for Gay Men
May 28–31, 2026

A soulful spring retreat for gay men, by gay men, held in the heart of Just Love Forest. Slow down, breathe deeper, and reconnect through forest therapy, yoga, fire-circle sharing, and unhurried time on the land. Expect nourishing plant-based meals, gentle hiking (including a Bhakti Mountain picnic), optional morning meditations with Bala, evening circles, and spacious downtime to simply be.

Dates:
Thursday–Sunday, May 28–31, 2026
Arrival Thursday at 4 PM for dinner, yoga, and a fireside welcome.
Check-out by Sunday late morning, with an optional nearby Little River Canyon excursion before.

Rates (per person + tax)

Deluxe Canvas Bell (Queen): Thu–Sun $900 (Early Bird $800)
Nylon Bell Tent (Twin/Full): Thu–Sun $700 (Early Bird $600)
Self-Camping (BYO tent): Thu–Sun $350 (Early Bird $300)

Early Bird window: February 15 – March 31 2026
All options include 6 plant-based meals, full programming, and access to the yurt gathering space and trails. Payment plans available.

Why come:
Begin or deepen your journey in a circle that welcomes your whole self with softness, strength, curiosity, and joy, held by forest and community.

Questions? bala@justloveforest.com

EARLY REGISTRATION OPENS SOON

UNTAMED: REWILDING THE FEMININE

June 11th - 14th, 2026

Untamed: Rewilding the Feminine is an invitation into the ritual wild. A return to what has always lived beneath the surface. A remembering of the woman who existed before the softening pressures of expectation, the taming of instinct, and the weight of being good. This retreat is for every woman longing to shake off the domestication of shoulds and step into the raw, unedited pulse of her own life force.

Across four days held within the ancient quiet of the forest, we will journey through the elemental gateways of earth, fire, water, and sky. Together we will create a sacred container where grief and joy are not opposites but twin teachers. Through movement, breath, story, and silence we will reclaim the forgotten parts of ourselves, the ones that have waited patiently for space to speak again. This is a place where permission reigns. Where your inner wild woman is not only welcome but wanted.

Our time together will include spacious circles for sharing, guided journeys for remembering, and rituals shaped by the land itself. There will be moments of fierce clarity and moments of soft unraveling, opportunities to rest in sisterhood and opportunities to stand alone beneath the canopy of trees and hear your own heartbeat again. We honor the thresholds each woman carries into this gathering: the losses that altered her, the longings she has not yet spoken, the quiet wisdom she has not yet trusted.

Evenings will invite a deeper descent. Firelight ceremonies. Drum and breath. Gentle forest wanders. Conversations that drift between laughter and tears. Mornings will offer grounding practices, movement to awaken the body, and invitations to meet yourself with tenderness. The pace is intentional, allowing each participant to choose how deeply she steps in. Nothing is forced. Everything is allowed.

Untamed is not about becoming someone new. It is about remembering someone ancient. The woman who knows how to listen to her body, honor her rhythms, and speak from her bones. The woman who has survived loss and still loves. The woman who is both gentle and unbreakable.

The work is deep, but the invitation is simple: come exactly as you are, especially the parts that feel inconvenient, too much, not enough, or still finding their voice. Bring your grief. Bring your wonder. Bring the wild threads of yourself that have waited for a place to belong.

We will hold them all.

Limited to 20 women.

Registration Opens Soon

Being Men: A Retreat for Modern Masculinity

Friday, August 7th – Sunday, August 9th, 2026

Optional Swimming Hole Adventure Stay-Over on Monday

To be a man in this world is to walk a path full of contradictions - strong and soft, protector and nurturer, leader and one who surrenders to the flow of life. Too often, we are told we must be one thing or the other, that vulnerability and power cannot coexist. But we know the truth: that real masculinity is expansive, not restrictive. That to stand fully in who we are means embracing every part of ourselves.

Being Men is a recurring gathering for those who feel called to a different kind of masculinity - one rooted in camaraderie, authenticity, and self-discovery. Our first event was a powerful reminder of what is possible when men come together with open hearts. This full weekend retreat is the next step. A deeper dive into shared experiences, honest conversation, and the kind of brotherhood that is both rare and necessary.

Over the course of the weekend, we will explore what it means to be a man in today’s world - not through lectures, but through real engagement, through story, through movement, through time spent in nature. Expect deep discussion, shared rituals, nature therapy, and a heck of a lot of fun. Expect moments of laughter, moments of silence, moments of recognition. Expect to be challenged in the best possible way.

And if you want to stretch the experience a little further, we’ll have an optional stay-over on Monday, where we’ll head to the swimming hole and let it all soak in.

If you are seeking something real - if you are ready to stand alongside other men who are asking the same questions, walking the same journey - then this is for you.

Come as you are. Show up for yourself. Show up for each other.

REGISTRATION OPENS SOON

Fourth Annual Ram Dass Summer Camp 🧡🐒

Join us for our largest event of the year! This is a heart-opening journey into the lineage of Bhakti Yoga - the yoga of devotion and love.

This year’s gathering promises a rich tapestry of Aarti rituals, meditation, forest therapy and late-night mountaintop kirtans, where we’ll sing our hearts out beneath the vast summer sky. Gather around the fire for satsang chats, where we’ll share our paths, our questions, and our joys, deepening into the practices of love and remembrance.

Special guests will grace us with soul-stirring kirtan, along with our own beloved Naga Das guiding us in transformative breathwork. And of course, Bala will lead satsang discussions that invite us into the heart of Ram Dass’s teachings. Stay tuned for even more special guests to be announced soon!

This is a community-centered gathering in the forest, intentionally designed to be financially accessible. While there are some basic contribution guidelines, please don’t let finances keep you from this celebration of love. Reach out to us if you feel called.

Come to sing, to share, to sit together, and to deepen into devotion, connection, and love. We can’t wait to welcome you into the circle.

REGISTRATION OPENS SOON

Chant for Love Retreat returns September 10th-13th!

Relax into the first weekend of Spring to experience bliss, love and community with Radha Rose, Bala Yancey and Josh Klein. This weekend retreat will introduce you to mantra meditation and kirtan. Enjoy magical sound healing experiences with sacred mantras enhanced with nature therapy and cacao.

Nurture your spiritual connection. Cultivate a sense of calm, grounding and focus. Replace old habits with inspiring and heartwarming Mantra Meditation, Kirtan and Sound Healing practices.

Enjoy the late summer with a special excursion to Little River Canyon.

Whether this is your first retreat or 108th, if you are brand new or far on your spiritual path:

The CHANT FOR LOVE 2025 Retreat is for you if you seek to open up your heart and your voice with experienced Bhakti yoga guides in an inclusive spiritual community.

See details for the September Retreat

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join us for our first year of our new spiritual festival: Just Love Forest Fest

Just Love Forest Fest is a weekend-long gathering in the heart of the forest devoted to presence, connection, and remembrance of what truly matters.

Over the course of the weekend, you’re invited into 10 thoughtfully curated spiritual workshops and experiential offerings, guided by seasoned facilitators and community members. These experiences span a wide range of paths and practices all rooted in embodiment, listening, reverence for the land, and living from the heart.

Days unfold slowly and intentionally, with opportunities for nature-based practices, contemplative exploration, creative expression, somatic experiences, and shared ritual. There is no pressure to do it all. You’re encouraged to follow what calls you, rest when needed, and trust your own rhythm.

As evening arrives, the forest softens into a different kind of magic. Wholesome devotional and acoustic music gatherings invite us to sing, listen, and be together by firelight. Gentle, embodied dance spaces open naturally, expressive, sober, and heart-centered,offering a joyful way to move energy and celebrate life beneath the stars.

Just Love Forest Fest is alcohol-free, family-friendly, and rooted in care for both people and place. It’s a space for sincere connection, spiritual curiosity, and remembering ourselves as part of something larger - community, earth, and love itself.

Come as you are. Stay as long as you need. Let the forest hold you.

REGISTRATION OPENS SOON