Embracing a New Chapter with a Personal Recommendation
January 30, 2025
As many of you know, leading retreats has been a deep and meaningful part of my path for many years. It has been a privilege to sit in practice with you, to explore the unfolding of awakening together, and to witness the profound ways that retreat space allows us to reconnect with what is most essential.
At this time, I’m writing to let you know that I am stepping back from offering retreats to focus on my health and personal journey. As I undergo more intensive treatment, I am also exploring alternative modalities that feel supportive and hold promise. Through it all, I remain deeply committed to healing, and I continue to hold hope in my heart.
Stepping away from teaching is bittersweet. I know that it’s the right choice for me at this time, yet it also asks me to let go in a way that is its own deep practice. Since I am no longer offering retreats, I want to share an opportunity with you—one that I wholeheartedly recommend.
My dear friend and colleague, Joryu Myosei, with whom I have co-taught my most recent retreats, is offering her Following Aliveness Retreat Series seasonally at the Whispertree Retreat Center in Boonville, CA. Myosei and I taught at her Following Aliveness Winter Retreat in January, so I can speak from my direct experience to how special this series is.
Following Aliveness invites us to engage with our intuitive, imaginal ways of knowing—ways that are often overlooked in daily life yet are essential to realizing our true nature. Through a weaving together of meditation, inquiry, guided journeying, expressive arts, ritual, and time in nature, these retreats offer a deeply embodied, heart-centered approach to awakening. They are an opportunity to listen and open, to move beyond conceptual understanding, and to reconnect with the natural rhythms within and around us.
I see these retreats as a beautiful continuation of the work we have done together—rooted in meditation, inquiry, and deep attunement to nature. I trust Myosei completely to hold this space with wisdom, care, and integrity, and I encourage you to consider joining them.
Though I may not be holding retreat space in the same way, I remain connected to this path and to each of you.
In my heart, I still hold a space for each of you. I feel deeply blessed and honored to have been able to walk along your side and to support and witness your journey. May your practice continue to unfold in ways that nourish and sustain you.
With love and deep gratitude,
Riyaz