We actively seeking a retreat registrar.  Must be organized and comfortable with Google Suite: Gmail, Sheets, Docs. Registration will open pending retreat registrar. Email robyn.hennon@mtstream.org for more info.

SAVE THE DATE

6-Night Residential Retreat
Teacher: Ken Bradford
Location: Big Springs Garden Retreat Center, 32613 Highway 49, Sierra City, CA 96125
Dates: Tuesday, August 26 to Monday, September 1, 2025

Retreat Description: The Dzogchen Way of Natural Release
This is a retreat of self-liberation. Dissolve surface tensions and deeper holdings naturally through dropping shields, slipping into yourself and befriending what is as it is. Zing! all-at-once find yourself in the relaxed openness and self-knowing clarity of awareness as such.

Calming down and tuning in to the basic openness of mind with its heart pulse of wakeful awareness ends the compulsive thinking of samsara in its tracks.  In the justness of now, beyond judgements of for or against, emotional reactions and fussy mental fixations dissolve on their own.

Recognizing this is already a genuine moment of bodhi. In Dzogchen, awakening (bodhi) is not a fruit to be realized sometime later and somewhere else, but is always already right here, just now. If, that is, we know how to look, allow awareness to recognize itself, and trust the openness of natural clarity going forward.

In giving imperial ego the day off, this is the way of wonderment - in which release of both dense, disturbing fixations and bright, luminating potentials unfurl in their own way and time.

This is an open retreat which emphasizes both direct introduction to the Nature of Mind and deepening immersion in the spacious awareness of spontaneous – self-liberating - presence.

Big Springs Retreat Center: Nestled in a turquoise forest opening to the natural stupa spires of the Sierra Buttes, Big (Maha) Springs is a spring fed, sky-windowed residential retreat center in the Yuba river drainage. An enchanting, contemplative sanctuary latticed with walking trails, ponds and meditative nooks and crannies, it provides comfortable lodging (single and shared rooms and camping platforms) and serves nourishing food from a master Bodhi Chef

Accommodations: Big Springs Retreat Center has four large cabins beautifully situated beneath the pines that accommodate five to nine people in each cabin. All cabins have three shared bathrooms. In addition, there are two ADA suites with two twin beds each. Every cabin includes a shared tea station and small refrigerator. Retreat participants are also welcome to camp on wooden tent platforms above the main buildings. There is a central Bathhouse with an indoor and outdoor private shower, and two ADA compliant bathrooms.

Registration Rates for this 6-Night Retreat

  • Single Room: $1650 - $2100

  • Shared Room: $1050 - $1350

  • Tent Platform: $630 - $900

*Four ADA compliant twin beds in shared rooms are available.

**Please consider paying at the highest rate that you can afford. Your generosity supports Mountain Stream, staff, and fellow practitioners.

The full registration payment is due upon registration. Included in the registration is a $300 non-refundable deposit.

Cancellation Policy: A partial refund (less the $300 deposit) is possible up until 30 days before the retreat start date (Sun, July 27, 2025). If cancellation occurs less than 30 days prior to the start of retreat and no one is found to take your place, the registration fee is nonrefundable and your registration will go toward covering the cost to sponsor the retreat. 

Donations for Teacher & Staff: In keeping with the Buddhist practice of generosity (dana), there will be an opportunity to offer dana (donation) to our teacher, retreat manager, and bodhi chef. All of whom are not being compensated for their efforts in supporting the retreat.

Teacher Bio: Ken Bradford is a contemplative yogin, author and Dharma teacher integrating a wide arc of Buddhist, Dzogchen and psychological thought and practice. His heart teachers include Chögyal Namkhai Norbu, Joseph Goldstein, Ruth Denison and Tsoknyi Rinpoche, among others. Formerly, he maintained a psychotherapy practice in the San Francisco Bay area and was Adjunct Professor at John F. Kennedy University and CIIS. His publications include Opening Yourself: The Psychology and Yoga of Self-liberation (2021); The I of the Other: Mindfulness-Based Diagnosis & the Question of Sanity (2013); and Listening from the Heart of Silence: Nondual Wisdom and Psychotherapy, Vol. 2 (2007, with John Prendergast); as well as numerous peer-reviewed articles intertwining psychology and spirituality. Website: www.authenticpresence.net