FAQs

Where is the retreat?

 The retreat venue is called Earth Spirit Retreat Centre, and is a 25 minute drive via Taxi from Castle Cary Train Station. If catching a train, please ensure your selected train stops at Castle Cary as not all trains do. A train from London Paddington takes approx 1hr 45mins.

Taxi information and additional travel details will be provided after registration.

Can I travel to the retreat by car?

The venue is accessible via car and there is plenty of parking on both sites. 

Further details on travel and arrivals will be sent following registration.

How will I communicate with the teachers in the space of supportive silence?

You will be invited to communicate with teachers and retreat coordinators using a written note system. Spaces each day are scheduled for an opportunity for questions with teachers, and discussions with yogi affinity groups, during which silence may be broken, if you wish.

What happens when all the retreat spaces are full? Is there a waitlist?
After initial tickets have sold out, we will open our waiting list. Registration for the waiting list will not require immediate payment.

Individuals on the waiting list will be invited to share their room sharing preferences and access needs. If you are on the waiting list, and your accommodation needs match a room that becomes available, we will get in touch so you can complete payment and confirm your space. All waiting list tickets are available at standard and benefactor rates only. 

Is there a refund policy? 
Should there be COVID-19 related travel restrictions preventing Lama Rod Owens traveling to the UK, the retreat will be postponed to a later date and all yogis will have the option of receiving a refund or their funds being held for the future date. 

In the case of local lockdowns, local travel restrictions or national lockdowns, refunds will be issued. If you find it necessary to cancel your booking due to COVID-19 related reasons,you can apply your registration funds as credit towards a future event/course organized by Lama Rod’s team (within 1 year of your cancellation request), or receive a refund less a £110 fee. The credit can be used for both in person and online offerings. 

If you cancel one month (or more) before the retreat start date, the cancellation fee will be £110.

If you cancel less than 1 month, but more than 2 weeks before the retreat start date, the cancellation fee will be half the cost of the registration rate that you selected.

If you cancel less than 2 weeks before the start date, we cannot offer a refund. Your registration payment will go towards further supporting those unable to pay the full amount. 

Any applicable cancellation fees can be partially waived in exceptional circumstances.

Do you have any advice on choosing my registration option?

If you are able to meet your monthly outgoing costs with spaciousness, we invite you to lean in and consider this opportunity to be a benefactor to our community. This Pay-It-Forward option allows those who have the material means to support those who would not otherwise be able to attend due to financial constraints. 

The generosity of those who register at a Pay-It-Forward rate allows us to offer a limited number of supported spaces. We freely invite anyone who needs this support to choose this option. We are mindful that even the supported rate cost of the retreat remains inaccessible to some, and we continue to consider ways of resourcing and support for our community. 

If you have additional questions, email [email protected].

Your Teachers

At the end of the retreat you will be invited to offer donations to teachers in recognition of the generosity of their time and teachings.

Lama Rod Owens  

 Lama Rod Owens is a Black Buddhist Southern Queen. An international influencer with a Master of Divinity degree in Buddhist Studies from Harvard Divinity School. Author of The New Saints: From Broken Hearts to Spiritual Warriors and Love and Rage: The Path of Liberation through Anger, and co-author of Radical Dharma: Talking Race, Love and Liberation, his teachings center on freedom, self-expression, and radical self-care.

A leading voice in a new generation of Buddhist teachers with over 11 years of experience, Lama Rod activates the intersections of his identity to create a platform that’s very natural, engaging, and inclusive. Applauded for his mastery in balancing weighty topics with a sense of lightness, the Queen has been featured by various national and international news outlets. 

Highly sought after for talks, retreats, and workshops, his mission is showing you how to heal and free yourself.

sister sadada jackson

sister sadada jackson  (she/they) is a student of liberatory practices: she lives in her body and vacations in her mind. She is a black nipmuc embodied liberation teacher. She works with individuals and groups in the United States and Europe who do healing and education work. sister sadada has earned two masters: in Indigenous Tradition from Harvard Divinity School and  in Secondary Education from UMass Boston. Her work centers clarity, creativity, freedom, and radical self-love.

Since 2015, sister sadada has her own business provided guidance and mentoring services to individuals and groups in the public, private, and non-profit sectors. From development and deepening leadership practices to instructional guidance, she helps those she labors with to curate the causes and conditions for liberatory practice and liberated practitioners. She also co-founded Dharma Queens, a series of conversations on Instagram Live along with Lama Rod Owens, to help people get freer faster.

Daniel Sutton-Johanson 

Daniel Sutton-Johanson (he/they) is the founder and Community Dharma Leader of Southsea Sangha, a small dharma community which is rooted in social justice and removing barriers to the dharma and meditation on the island city of Portsmouth, U.K, where he lives with his son Oshan and their little dog, Stevie Nicks. 

Daniel began dharma practice in 2004, encountering Vipassana at a time of addiction and clinical depression and now practices as a Psychotherapist, trained through the Metanoia Institute masters program. Daniel is a member of the Radical Therapist Network and member of the GSRD (Gender, Sexuality & Relationship Diversity) Special Interest Group for The Person Centred Association.

He is trained by L.A. based Mindful Schools as a mindfulness educator with young people, and has worked as a mentor for young people with iBme UK. Daniel is also part of the organizing group for Beyond Patriarchy, a meditation space from Southsea Sangha. Daniel assists Lama Rod in facilitating workshops and meditation retreats, around gender liberation and undoing patriarchy work with masculine and male identified folks. He identifies as Welsh, a queer white cis male and is currently rooted in co-parenthood, spiritual social justice, exploring the intersections of celtic mythology and Buddhist psychology and building community.

Dr. Sanah Ahsan

Dr. Sanah Ahsan (they/she) is an award-winning poet, writer, clinical psychologist and educator. Sanah’s work sits in the cracks; in the sacred falling apart, centering compassion and embracing each other's madnesses. Their psychological practice is rooted in liberation and community psychology, drawing on therapeutics, embodiment and poetics as life-affirming practices, to support racialised and marginalised people. Sanah’s teaching has allowed them to travel regularly; most recently to LA with Google, speaking to global majority tech leaders from across the world.