***Finding a Buddhist Meditation Retreat Center

If you are looking into Buddhist meditation and you want to really go deeply into it, then the best way to do that is to go on a Buddhist meditation retreat.

You can find Buddhist meditation centers just about anywhere in the world. However, having completed over thirty meditation retreats, I can tell you that there is no need to travel to some distant country to find the best meditation center.

This is true even if you want to do Tibetan meditation. There is no need to go to Tibet or Nepal for a good Tibetan Buddhist retreat. Tibetan Buddhist meditation centers can be found all over Europe, Canada, the United States, South America… and most likely somewhere within a short plane trip or drive from your home.

Also, if you want to do a seshin, or seven-day Zen retreat, you can find Zen centers in nearly every major city: Dallas, Atlanta, San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York. Just check the phone book in most of these places and you will find one.

I was in Amsterdam last year with my wife, and walking along a canal one day, we noticed a window with a huge Buddha statue in it. I knew right way that we had discovered a Nyingma Tibetan Buddhist center. Those lucky enough to live in Amsterdam could take a paddle-boat to their next retreat.

One Christmas season, when visiting my family, I went out for a drive with an old friend I knew from high school. We took a familiar road, but somehow got so absorbed by our conversation that we went much further down it than we had previously gone. We eventually came to a T in the road and needed to decide whether to turn around or keep going. We went to the left and ten miles on, I began to see Tibetan prayer flags on a large piece of property. As we got closer, I saw a sign that I recognized meant it was a Tibetan meditation center.

Turning onto the circular driveway, we drove by a large home that was in the style of a miniature White House. It was one in the morning, and looking through the window, we notice someone in Tibetan robes vacuuming under the Christmas tree. The sight was so strange that we could hardly believe it, and we shortly turned around to go home.

The next day I found a book store that had a book listing all the Buddhist meditation centers in the US. The one we had stumbled upon the night before - about 20 minutes away from Washington, DC - was run by the first woman in America who had been acknowledged as the reinca
ation of a Tibetan lama. This center was also famous for having the largest private collection of crystals in the world.

Another great resource for finding retreat centers is the internet. There is something sort of funny about monks building web sites and using computers. Still, lots of Buddhist meditation centers, even the ones located in remote parts of Nepal or India where you can't be certain of electricity being on all day, have web sites and email addresses and other ways of locating them.

Just to be clear, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with traveling around the world for your Buddhist meditation retreat or to dive deeper into the study of Buddhist meditation. Going on retreat in some exotic or distant place can be really rewarding for those who like to travel. Usually the locals you meet there will be welcoming, kind, and wonderful people. You will also have the opportunity to meet other travelers from all over the world. Combining both of these could add an entirely new dimension of fun to your meditation vacation.