Black Mountain Retreat Center — Cazadero, United States
A Buddhist-run, all-volunteer retreat center on 485 acres in west Sonoma County
The buildings at Black Mountain were not built for contemplation. The California Department of Forestry put them up in 1964 as a minimum-security conservation camp, opened that October to house an 80-man crew working with local fire services on land clearing, telephone line maintenance and road work. The camp ran in various state-run forms until June 1992, then passed through private owners for roughly twelve years.
In early 2004 the Padmasambhava Peace Institute, a 501(c)(3) educational non-profit, acquired the property, fixtures from the camp days included. The institute's all-volunteer community has been in residence since then, united, as the center puts it, by a commitment to a spiritual path of enquiry and formal practice and a belief that serving others is part of that practice. The original redwood and steel construction and high ceilings, which keep the rooms cool in summer, gave the new keepers good bones to work with.
The center is a cluster of one-story buildings among wooded valleys and open meadows, at around 1,100 feet on 485 acres in west Sonoma County, reached by a two-mile paved private driveway off Fort Ross Road. It sleeps up to 125, though a group of twelve is the minimum. Accommodation runs from the 60-bed Manzanita dormitory rooms to the private bedrooms of Tara House, which sleeps up to 14. The Live Oak meeting room holds 100 people in 1,125 square feet, and the center's guests have singled out its vaulted ceiling for its acoustics. Meals are vegetarian or vegan, and the pages describe Ayurvedic cuisine.
The guest list is broad: Zen groups, a 10-day mindfulness retreat, students of Sogan Rinpoche, a Jin Shin Jyutsu group, 12-step recovery retreats, choirs, and a plant spiritual healing group. One participant called it the quietest place they had ever been. Each year the center offers a significant rental discount to the Earth Activist Training program, which runs a two-week permaculture retreat here.
The land is the traditional territory of the Kashaya Pomo. The center runs on substantial solar power, keeps a strict no-killing pest policy, has been entirely no-smoking since 2004 because of wildfire risk, and is replacing invasive species with native plants.
Traditions: Buddhist retreat, Zen, Mindfulness meditation, Jin Shin Jyutsu, Permaculture, Ayurvedic cuisine
Programs: Earth Activist Training two-week permaculture retreat, 10-day mindfulness retreat, Silent retreats, Zen retreats, Choir retreats and rehearsals, 12-step recovery retreats, Jin Shin Jyutsu group retreats, Retreats for students of Sogan Rinpoche