FEBRUARY 21-23,2025 – TRANSFIGURATION SPIRITUALITY CENTER with Mary Aubry

Mindfulness and Metta

APRIL 25-MAY 2, 2025 - OAKWOOD RETREAT CENTER with JON AARON & GULLU SINGH

JUNE 13-15, 2025 - TRANSFIGURATION SPIRITUALITY CENTER with Candace Strange

SORRY, REGISTRATION CLOSED

Begin your summer by cultivating mindfulness and stillness in the natural beauty and quiet spaces of Transfiguration Spirituality Center. 

This retreat offers an opportunity to slow down, deepen your practice, and nourish awareness through sustained silent meditation. Along with sitting and walking practice, there will be a Dharma talk and reflections on the Kalama Sutta—the Buddha’s timeless guidance on how to discern which teachings and teachers are worthy of trust. The sutta encourages us not to rely solely on authority, tradition, or personal preference, but to turn to direct experience and thoughtful reflection on what leads to harm or to benefit.

The retreat is suitable for both new and experienced meditators.

Candace Strange has been practicing meditation since 2004 and has studied with Matthew Flickstein and John Yates (Culadasa). She teaches meditation classes through the Buddhist Dharma Center of Cincinnati. She lives in Cincinnati with her orange tabby cat, Julius, and her beagle, Bo.

Location: Transfiguration Spirituality Center - Glendale (basically Cincinnati, OH)
Cost: $240

JULY 10-20, 2025 - OAKWOOD RETREAT CENTER with LEIGH BRASINGTON

Sorry, this retreat is full.

This retreat combines the two main elements of the Buddha’s model of liberation: cultivating the meditative absorptions (jhanas), which lead to calm and clarity, and using the concentrated mind to gain insight in the nature of reality. We will not only look at the insight practices given in the famous Satipatthana Sutta, we will also delve extensively into the Buddha's teaching of the dependent co-origination (paticca-samuppada) of phenomena. This course is limited to those who have completed at least two one-week or longer silent vipassana retreats.

This will be a hybrid retreat with Leigh appearing on Zoom for the morning instructions, the evening dharma talk, and personal interviews, while the students are in residence at Oakwood Retreat Center with an on-site teacher.

Location: Oakwood Retreat Center
Total Cost: $1750
Deposit: $550
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Leigh Brasington is a teacher of insight meditation who was the senior American student of the late Venerable Ayya Khema, who authorized him to teach the jhanas. Leigh has taught them, along with other insight practices, at well over one hundred residential retreats throughout the United States and Europe. He is casual and warm, and is skilled at providing individualized instruction during retreats. Leigh is also the author of the excellent and helpful book “Right Concentration, A Practical Guide to the Jhanas”, which was published in 2015.  He also authored “Dependent Origination and Emptiness” which you can read here at sodapi.leighb.com, and Edited the book “The Path to Peace” by Ayya Khema.

August 19-24, 2025 - OAKWOOD RETREAT CENTER with KEVIN GRIFFIN and GREG PERGAMENT teaching Qigong

Buddhism and Recovery

Sorry, this retreat is full.

Join us for a unique meditation retreat combining traditional Buddhist practices with recovery and Twelve Step work.  Primarily conducted in silence, the retreat focuses on insight/mindfulness meditation, with additional interactive exercises, lectures, and meetings exploring ways that Buddhism and the Steps can complement each other. Daily Qigong practice brings added benefit and energy to the retreat.

The emphasis will be on bringing mindfulness to all our activities, whether in formal meditation, movement, speaking, listening, or eating. Participants will practice Noble Silence outside of the interactive exercises and 12-Step-style meetings. All recovery paths are welcome, whether Twelve Step, Refuge Recovery, substance, process, or relationship-oriented.

The intensive nature of the retreat allows for profound personal openings, insight, and transformation. The support of the community carries us through the sometimes challenging, sometimes inspiring elements of this deep inner work.

A minimum of 30 days clean and sober is required for attendance.

Thanks to the generosity of the Hemera Foundation, Tri-State Dharma is able to offer this retreat at a greatly reduced cost.

Total Cost: $400
Deposit: $200
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Kevin Griffin is a Buddhist teacher and author known for his innovative work connecting dharma and recovery, especially through his 2004 book One Breath at a Time: Buddhism and the Twelve Steps. He is a leader of the mindful recovery movement and one of the founders of the Buddhist Recovery Network. He has been a Buddhist practitioner for over thirty-five years and a teacher for two decades. His latest book is Living Kindness: Metta Practices for the Whole of Our Lives.

Greg Pergament (Chi Kung teacher), is the author of Chi Kung and Recovery. Greg has been in recovery for over two decades and has studied and taught Qigong and Tai Chi Chuan for many years. He has an extensive background in Buddhist Vipassana meditation, is a firetender for Lakota Inipi ceremonies, and has helped facilitate many Vision Quests.

SEPTEMBER 26-OCTOBER 3, 2025 - OAKWOOD RETREAT CENTER with ADAM STONEBRAKER

Location: Oakwood Retreat Center
Total Cost: $1225
Deposit: $350
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Adam Stonebraker has been practicing and studying meditation in various schools since 1999, and began teaching meditation, mindfulness, and yoga in 2010. He is a teacher and leadership council member with Sacred Mountain Sangha (Thanissara & Kittisaro’s teaching organization) and leads teacher trainings, retreats, and workshops internationally, in yin yoga, meditation, and mindfulness.

Adam is a graduate of Sacred Mountain Sangha’s 2-year Dharmapala Training and is a graduate and endorsed teacher with the Insight Yoga Institute. In addition, Adam earned his MA in Mindfulness Studies from Lesley University.

Adam is committed to an all-inclusive dharma, where no aspect of the human experience is left out. He has particular interest in the transformative power of the natural world, inter-faith dialogue, and the bodhisattva way of life.

OCTOBER 24-26, 2025 - TRANSFIGURATION SPIRITUALITY CENTER with JOAN STAUBACH

A quiet weekend to go within, to breathe and relax.  There will be guided meditations to help calm body and mind, with talks about the mind itself, how it works, and understanding peace.

Joan Staubach is an active member president of Tri-State Dharma. She is an experienced practitioner of Insight Meditation. She started practicing Insight Meditation in 1999, and has been on over 40 week-long or longer residential retreats. She has taught and co-taught the New Years Retreat for many years, led daylong retreats, and taught numerous Insight Meditation classes. She has taken training retreats with Matthew Flickstein on Sharing the Dharma. 

Location: Transfiguration Spirituality Center - Glendale (basically Cincinnati, OH)
Cost: $240

DECEMBER 31, 2025 to JANUARY 4, 2026 - OAKWOOD RETREAT CENTER with JOAN STAUBACH

The end of the year is traditionally considered an auspicious time to focus on your practice, to examine it gently, and to renew it. Tri-State Dharma offers a wonderful opportunity to do this each year with a residential New Years Retreat at Oakwood Retreat Center.

This silent retreat will consist of regular sitting and walking meditation periods.  Joan will share the Dharma through talks and optional interviews. The retreat is suitable for both beginning and experienced meditators.  Anyone who is new to the practice will be given instruction.

Joan Staubach is an active member president of Tri-State Dharma. She is an experienced practitioner of Insight Meditation. She started practicing Insight Meditation in 1999, and has been on over 40 week-long or longer residential retreats. She has taught and co-taught the New Years Retreat for many years, led daylong retreats, and taught numerous Insight Meditation classes. She has taken training retreats with Matthew Flickstein on Sharing the Dharma. 

Location: Oakwood Retreat Center
Total Cost: $700
Deposit: $200
Click Here for Driving Directions
Click Here to go to Oakwood’s Website