2021 Miyo Samten Ling Long Term Retreat Application

Application for Long-term Meditation Retreat at

Miyo Samten Ling (Land of Unwavering Samādhi)

The Center for Contemplative Research, U.S.A.

Sponsored by the Santa Barbara Institute for Consciousness Studies.

Venue: Nada Hermitage, Crestone, Colorado, US

We ask for your honesty and full-disclosure in providing answers to the questions outlined below. Not to do so will be grounds for rejecting your application and/or for asking you to leave the retreat.

Please fill out this form and submit. You will receive a copy of this application at the email address that you provide.

Since there is very limited space, we regret that we will not be able to accept as many people as we would like.

The information you provide will be reviewed only by the SBI staff and concerned teachers.

Step 1 of 8 - General Information

2021 Miyo Samten Ling Long Term Retreat Application
Please fill out the form in it's entirety. The asterisk * at the end of each question indicates that these are required answers.
Please be aware that acceptance into long-term retreat at the Nada Hermitage CCR is a highly selective process. Due to the limited number of cabins and the large number of qualified applicants, there will several stages in the admission process.
1) Your written application will be reviewed to be sure it is complete (including two reference letters on your behalf) and that all the prerequisites listed below have been met.
2) Completed applications will be read by B. Alan Wallace and possibly by one or more of the other resident teachers of the global CCR. (Please be assured that your application will not be evaluated on the quality of your English or your writing skills.)
3) Following this preliminary review, there is an interview of 15-25 minutes with one or more of the teachers (via Zoom). This interview will be recorded.
4) After a further selection process, individuals may be asked to participate in an interview with a clinical psychologist before final selection is made.
First Name/Given name(s):*
Last Name/Surname:*
Address*
Street Address Address Line 2 City State / Province / Region ZIP / Postal Code Country
Email*
Primary Phone:*
Mobile Phone:*
Gender:*
Occupation:*
Date of Birth:*

(Please write out the month, day, and year)
Emergency Contact Details
Emergency Contact (Include name, address, phone, and email):
Emergency Contact Name:*
Emergency Contact Number:*
Address*
Street Address Address Line 2 City State / Province / Region ZIP / Postal Code Country
Relationship to you:

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Prerequisites:
Please note that in almost all cases, it is a required prerequisite that you have attended at least one 8-week retreat in person with Alan Wallace in the past prior to applying for a long-term retreat at the Nada Hermitage.
Prerequisites:*
- You must be practicing under the guidance of Alan Wallace, whether personally, or by consistently following his teachings from afar.
- In almost all cases, you must have completed at least one solitary meditation retreat in the past, of several weeks or more in duration.
- You must have a current, daily practice of shamatha meditation.
- We are only accepting applications for retreats of three months, six months, one year or more, or else for long-term yogis committed to remaining in open-ended retreat.
Please note that in almost all cases, it is a required prerequisite that you have attended at least one 8-week retreat in person with Alan Wallace in the past prior to applying for a long-term retreat at the Nada Hermitage.
Meditation Experience:
Please describe the arc of your study of Buddhism and meditation over the course of your life. In particular, please include your background in the study and practice of the Four Immeasurables, the Four Applications of Mindfulness, Shamatha, Vipashyana, and Dzogchen in particular, including, if applicable, the outer and inner preliminary practices or their equivalent in any of the major schools of Tibetan Buddhism.*
Who is your primary spiritual mentor, or who is the meditation teacher currently most familiar with your practice? Can you describe your relationship with this teacher, including how long it has lasted and how well this teacher knows you?*
If this teacher is someone other than Alan Wallace, do you intend to engage in your retreat under the direct guidance of this teacher? If so, may we contact him or her? Please provide contact information for your teacher here.*
Please list the 8-week retreat(s) with Alan Wallace that you have attended in person or listened to in their entirety by podcast. Be sure to include the year, location, and topic.*
Please list any 5-10 day retreats you have participated in with Alan Wallace in the past, noting in particular if you have attended in person one of his weeklong Shamatha retreats. Please include the approximate date, location, topic, and format (in person, by podcast and/or any Wisdom online courses).*
Please list the style of practice, duration, and location of any additional intensive meditation practice you have done in a group retreat setting.*
Have you done solitary retreat? If so, please describe your solitary retreat practice, duration, and location.*
Please describe your current daily practice. How many hours do you devote to preliminary practices, shamatha, Dzogchen, and, if you have such commitments, to Vajrayana practices each day?*
As you consider the prospect of solitary long-term retreat in a remote and rustic setting, do you feel that your past experience in retreat has prepared you for weeks and months of total silence and solitude?*

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The Environment for Solitary Retreat in Crestone, Colorado:
Nada Hermitage is is a remote location, ideally conducive to solitary meditation retreat, but also close enough to well-paved roads that supplies are not too difficult to obtain on a bi-weekly or monthly basis. Nada Hermitage is at an elevation of about 8,000 ft (about 2,400 meters) above sea level. It spreads across 110 acres (44.5 hectares) of semi-arid shrubland just below the foothills of the soaring 14,000+ ft. (4,268 meter) peaks of the Sangre de Cristo range, four rugged peaks known specifically as the Crestones. It is magnificent land, combining expansive views of mountains and the vast San Luis Valley with close proximity to alpine forest colored with deciduous willow and cottonwood trees along the creeks that flow from high-mountain snow-melt.
Wildlife is very peaceful here, consisting mainly of deer, elk, birds, rabbits, squirrels, and coyotes. Black bears do occasionally come down from the mountains in summertime looking for food: bear-proof precautions with respect to food in cars and trash receptacles are essential. However, there is no significant danger from bears to humans. There are no poisonous snakes at this altitude, though scorpions do appear on occasion. The primary insects you will encounter are mosquitoes, flies, wasps, red ants, and small spiders, all of whom can become your friends and teachers in retreat! Desert mice are around outdoors at night, but with care and vigilance you can keep them from entering your cabin.
Crestone can have a harsh, dry climate, with winter temperatures regularly falling below 0° F (-18° C) at night and daytime winter temperatures often remaining below freezing for days or weeks at a time.
However, with brilliant sunshine that melts snow quickly and cabins well-designed to retain passive solar heat, indoor temperatures can remain quite comfortable through much of the day, even in the coldest months. The primary source of interior heat in the evenings and mornings, and during snowstorms, will be a wood-burning stove in the cabin. Summers are warm, with outdoor temperatures regularly rising to 88° F (31° C) and cabins do not have air conditioning. Breezes and afternoon thunderstorms often relieve the hottest days.
Cabins at Nada are solidly built and are fully equipped with electricity, hot and cold running water, a full bathroom with shower, toilet, and sink; and a kitchenette with two electric burners, a sink, microwave, toaster oven, and a small refrigerator. Although electric space heaters are an option, we encourage retreatants to rely primarily on the much more cost-effective wood heat. There is no wifi/internet in the cabins, and phone service varies greatly depending on carrier and the exact location of each cabin.
We ask you to consider carefully whether you feel prepared to live for months or years at a time in a remote location at 8,000 feet, where it is an hour’s drive to the nearest hospital or shopping center, and where you will need to build and maintain wood fires safely on a daily basis.
Do you feel comfortable entering solitary long-term retreat in such a semi-wilderness environment? Please describe any concerns or anxieties you may have with regard to living in the high desert, in a remote and rustic setting.*
Are you at ease with the idea of waking up to a cabin in which the indoor temperature has fallen below 50° F (10° C) or lower overnight without a fire? This may be a normal occurrence between November and February.*
- Yes
- No
Have you spent long periods of time without use of a cellphone or with only limited phone and data service? Does this pose any special difficulty for you?*
Can you plan your needs for groceries and supplies so that you can rely on a Caretaker who only goes shopping once every two weeks?*
- Yes
- No
Do you have any known allergies to medication, food, or environmental factors such as pollen? If yes, please describe.*
Are you aware of your daily health and are you good at maintaining a balanced, healthy diet, especially with sometimes limited resources in a remote, rural area? (Ordering food supplements and easily-shipped supplies through the mail is a workable option here.)*
- Yes
- No
Do you take care of your physical well-being with regular exercise of any kind, including yoga, t’ai chi, walking, hiking, etc.? Please describe. (There is space in the cabins for solitary yoga and there are many miles of dirt roads and trails for solitary walking, if it is appropriate for you to have broad retreat boundaries.)
Do you have physical issues that might make walking on short, sandy footpaths up and down to a cabin difficult? (These pathways from the dirt road are relatively short, but some are steep and uneven underfoot.)*
Can you navigate a four-step interior stairway between the two levels of a cabin (between the bedroom/bathroom area and the living/kitchen area)? (If either of these physical access issues seem difficult to you, currently there are just two smaller cabins with somewhat easier, flat access, so it is important to let us know your exact needs in this respect. We hope to build a few more cabins with easier, flat walking access in the future.)*
Every resident yogi will also be helping to maintain the retreat center. Are you able and ready to participate in solitary or communal work practice for about 2 hours per week, plus special community “work days”? (This said, please be assured that your periods of strict solitary retreat will not be disturbed for community service, and you may propose periods of strict retreat in which no physical work is expected, apart from your private care and cleaning of your cabin, clothes, and wood supply. Everyone will be cooking for themselves in solitary retreat.)*
- Yes
- No
Do you have any specific skills, interests, and abilities in any one or more of the following service areas: cooking for a large group, keeping a temple altar, organic gardening, landscaping (e.g., selecting and planting trees and shrubs suitable to the local climate), land crew (e.g., operating a snow plow), carpentry, ceramic arts, housekeeping, and/or managing finances/book-keeping?

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Practical Considerations
The cost of a cabin will be $800 per month for retreats of three months or more. This does not include food or other personal expenses. We will be working on a Yogi Fund to assist in cabin expenses as needed. Please note that this application is need-blind. Applicants will not be accepted or rejected based on their financial status.
Do you expect to be able to fund this monthly rent yourself?*
Please indicate whether you would like to submit a separate financial aid application with respect to the cost of cabin rental.
How do you plan to fund your personal needs on retreat? Please think carefully about your current financial resources and ways in which you might raise funds for your personal retreat expenses (i.e., food, clothing, altar offerings, and personal supplies). Crowd sourcing (such as GoFundMe) has been useful for many yogis in the past, as well as personal website platforms. Please consider how you might make use of such sources of private funding in a totally transparent and ethical way.*
Do you have the support of your family and loved ones in entering long retreat?*
Are there other life circumstances that we should know about, which may affect your ability to enter or remain in retreat? What is your biggest potential obstacle to entering long retreat?*
Are you a U.S. citizen? If not, have you successfully been able to acquire short-term visas to enter the U.S. for three months or more in the past? Do you anticipate being able to acquire such visas again (once the current extreme conditions around U.S. immigration have passed)? If accepted, would you like advice on how to apply for a B-2 visa for an initial period of retreat?*
COVID-19 Proviso: We are taking every precaution to keep Nada Hermitage a coronavirus-free place of quarantine for as long as the pandemic lasts, and we need everyone’s understanding and active participation to make this possible. Anyone who enters Crestone and the Nada Hermitage property from any other U.S. town or another country will be expected to spend a two-week period in strict quarantine in a cabin, during which time any supplies you need will be delivered by a Caretaker and left at your door.*
- Are you willing to undertake this quarantine as a necessary beginning to your solitary retreat?
- And are you willing to abide by precise sanitary guidelines (to be set forth separately), both before your departure from home and once you arrive here, to help keep yourself and everyone else at Nada free of the coronavirus?
In order to maintain the silence necessary for meditation retreat, there will be no pets allowed on the property.*
- I understand and will not bring any pets.

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Our Community Commitments to Courtesy and Respect
While staying at Nada Hermitage all residents will be expected to follow the five basic Buddhist lifetime lay precepts. This means that you agree to follow the principles of:*
- 1) Not intentionally harming life in any form, down to the smallest insect. In particular, this means not deliberately harming the life of another human being or human fetus.
- 2) Not stealing. Although we will all frequently be making use of objects and property that is held in common to the Nada community, this means taking even greater care with these objects and dwelling places than we would with our own home, and leaving behind, in good condition, all objects that you did not bring with you when you arrived (or else paid for to be delivered to you while you were here). Any objects that are accidentally broken or damaged can be replaced through an appropriate monetary or in-kind offering to be worked out in consultation with the Center Manager.
- 3) No sexual misconduct. In strict retreat it is often appropriate even for married couples and committed partners to withdraw from sexual activity, but most importantly, we will each observe extreme respect for every other person’s desire for solitude in retreat and the relationships they hold dear, especially when the other members of those relationships are not physically present at the retreat center. Sexual harassment of any kind may serve as grounds for immediate dismissal.
- 4) No false speech. While our “default mode is silence,” we will all watch our speech and written communications with utmost care, so that all representations we make of our experience or knowledge are as close to our own understanding of our inner and outer situations as possible.
- 5) No intoxicants. In accordance with these Buddhist lifetime lay precepts, possession and/or use of any recreational drugs or alcohol is strictly prohibited and may serve as grounds for immediate dismissal.
Are you willing to abide by these precepts, whether or not you have formally taken them as a Buddhist vow?*
Is there anything else you would like us to know about you?
References:
Please ask two (2) people who know you well to provide confidential reference letters. These can be employers, spiritual friends, teachers, mentors, students—anyone you think knows you in different facets of your life. Please consider that such reference letters will help to paint a picture of you outside of your direct relationship with Alan Wallace, and are essential for a highly selective application process such as this.
Please contact the two people you would like to write your letters, explain what it is you are applying for, and give them the following email address, to which they can submit their letters confidentially:
Please give them the date of 3 weeks after your request to them as a deadline by which to submit their letters, and please ask them to put your name in the subject line of the email: e.g. “Your Name—Retreat Reference Letter”
Signature*
- I acknowledge that all the information I have included in this application is true and complete.*
Electronic Signature*

Please type your full name to acknowledge that all the information your have included in this application is true and complete.*

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2021 Miyo Samten Ling Long Term Retreat Application

Step 1 of 8 - General Information

2021 Miyo Samten Ling Long Term Retreat Application

Please be aware that acceptance into long-term retreat at the Nada Hermitage CCR is a highly selective process. Due to the limited number of cabins and the large number of qualified applicants, there will several stages in the admission process.

Emergency Contact Details

Prerequisites:

Meditation Experience:

Plans for Practice

The Environment for Solitary Retreat in Crestone, Colorado:

Psychological Health

Physical Health

Practical Considerations

Our Community Commitments to Courtesy and Respect

References:

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