Rocky Mountain Ecodharma Retreat Center

1466 Meadowlark Dr.
Boulder, CO 80303
Website: rmerc.org

Description of Organization

The Rocky Mountain Ecodharma Retreat Center is a low-cost, supportive retreat center for deep spiritual practice in nature: a place for meditation retreats, workshops and Ecodharma-based spiritual trainings. Buddhism and Dharma is brought back into the natural world where they originated, helping people regain the connection and energy necessary to effectively address ecological and related social issues. Facilities are provided for the following:

  • Meditation retreats, in groups, solo, and local Sanghas for weekends and day-long events and longer retreats.
  • Low-cost retreats that are offered with teachers receiving only expenses and donations.
  • Retreats for underserved communities including people of color, veterans, low-income youth, and other groups who are often unable to attend more expensive meditation centers.
  • Ecodharma workshops and retreats for activists, using the healing power of meditation in nature to ground and transform activism into a spiritual path of service to the community and to the earth.

Grant(s) Awarded

In 2022, a grant in the amount of $10,000 was awarded to support a BIPOC retreat designed for empowering self-identifying people of color involved in change-making work. Participants could be a community organizer, healer or healing arts practitioner, educator, activist, artist, mom, scientist, journalist, lawyer, author or storyteller working for peace and justice.

Through silent hikes, meditation, yoga, guided peer-to-peer dialogue in a strong container of emotional safety and trust, gratitude/grief/rage rituals and other group-work, and talks by the teachers, the retreat will explore how we can deepen activism as a spiritual path, learn to honor and transform our emotions through empathy and connection, face the root cause of our suffering, and act with deep compassion and courage in these difficult times.

In 2021, a COVID-19 Operational Grant of $10,000 was awarded to cover operating losses that arose from short term expenditures when most of the 2020 retreats were cancelled. RMERC was able to hold several Zoom and camping retreats, and implemented a hike on reserved trails for a donations program. 

Due to Covid-19, Rocky Mountain Ecodharma Retreat Center was unable to offer their core programs and offerings including Ecodharma workshops and retreats for activists; low-cost retreats that are offered in the spirit of generosity, with teachers receiving only expenses and donations; silent meditation retreats, in groups and on supported solos; retreats for underserved communities including people of color, veterans, youth, and other groups who have historically borne or will bear the brunt of ecological and socio-economic devastation; and are often at the forefront of spiritually rooted activism.

In 2019, a grant in the amount of $10,000 was awarded to Rocky Mountain Ecodharma Retreat Center to provide scholarship opportunities for disadvantaged people who otherwise would not be able to attend the meditation retreats and workshops.