Located in the North Carolina mountains, an hour's drive from Asheville, the Southern Dharma Retreat Center (SDRC) is a nonprofit educational facility that organizes regular meditation retreats. Spiritual teachers from a variety of religions lead those multi-day sessions--including Christians, Hindus, Sufis, and Jews--but the majority are Buddhists from Zen, Vipassana, or Tibetan traditions. Among those Buddhist retreat leaders have been prominent teachers from the state, including Teijo Munnich from the Ashville Zen Center and Sandy Gentei Stewart from Pittsboro's Brooks Branch Zendo. 

The retreats began in 1978, when Melinda Guyol and Elizabeth Kent founded the center. And the facilities now include a meditation hall, dormitory, forest hermitage, as well as primitive creek-side campsites. Individual visits are arranged for private meditation when the facilities are not being used, but thematically focused collective retreats are held throughout the year, with the topics changing regularly. If the topics and teachers for the communal sessions vary widely, all use some form of silent seated meditation as a central practice. By offering a secluded center for meditation, the SDRC aims to provide a comfortable gathering place, removed from everyday distractions, where Buddhists and those who affiliate with other traditions, can find spiritual quiet. Updated 11/14/06

AC

Updated 11/14/06