Dharmagiri Sacred Mountain Retreat

27/04/2026

form itself is emptiness
emptiness itself is form

24/04/2026

When we step away from distraction, something natural can unfold. The body softens. Attention steadies. Wisdom has room to surface, not as forced answers, but as quiet understanding.

✨Reconnect with nature
✨Reconnect with yourself
✨Reconnect with your ancestors
✨ Reconnect with contemplative practice
✨ Hear yourself clearly in silence
✨ Rest and recover from exhaustion
✨ Be supported by a compassionate community

You don’t need to be “ready,” experienced, or seeking a particular outcome. You simply need a willingness to pause.

If you are longing for stillness, clarity, or a deeper sense of belonging - this may be your time.

We warmly welcome you. 🙏
*Scholarship Spaces Available*

🔗 Upcoming retreats in bio 📩 [email protected]

21/04/2026

What if awareness isn’t something to achieve - but something to recognise, right here, right now?

Join us for a gentle yet profound silent retreat rooted in stillness, simplicity, and direct experience. Drawing on the teachings in Bruce Van Dongen’s book A Path Through the Forest, this retreat invites you to slow down, listen more closely, and rest deeply in the quiet intelligence of awareness itself.

The retreat includes:
🌱Silent sitting and guided awareness practices
🌱Mindful mountain walking in the Drakensburg
🌱Early morning and evening meditation
🌱Spacious time for personal reflection and rest
🌱The nourishing support of shared sangha
🌱Three delicious veg based meals a day

Bruce Van Dongen is a meditation teacher, retreat facilitator, and founder of the . His teaching is grounded, embodied, and integrate contemplative insights with the texture of everyday life.

From R3,200 | Link in bio
Teaching is offered freely in the spirit of dana. All rates cover food and accommodation.

📩 To book or enquire, visit the link in our bio or contact [email protected]

MountainWalking Sangha BuddhistRetreat Meditation Mindfulness SouthAfricaRetreats KwaZuluNatal BruceVanDongen ContemplativePractice

17/04/2026

Just a photo dump of our post retreat vibes. After a month together our hearts were open and silliness was back.

retreat

13/04/2026

We’re Hiring — Two Live-In Roles at Dharmagiri 🌿🏔️
We’re looking for two people to come and live, work, and deepen their spiritual practice at Dharmagiri Sacred Mountain Retreat — nestled in the heart of the Southern Drakensberg, rooted in the wisdom of Buddhist teachings and the rich traditions of African spirituality.

These roles are at the heart of the centre. The work is shared and adaptive - one person leading on administration and operations, the other on maintenance and infrastructure, with collaboration woven through everything.
We’re looking for people who feel genuinely called to contribute their skills in a practical, grounded, and collaborative way. 🙏🏽

We welcome individuals, couples, existing working partnerships, or two independent candidates who together cover the full range of skills to apply.

📩 Applications close 30 April. For more info and to apply see here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WglJe5qiH-2n3WDHLFiBz3oLD65dvF5dNuvyWiSYvN0/edit?usp=sharing

SpiritualPractice BuddhistRetreat AfricanSpirituality MindfulWork WorkingMeditation CommunityLiving SouthAfrica KwaZuluNatal RetreatCentre ContemplatveLife

13/04/2026

A video diary that beautifully encapsulates the one month retreat from one of our participants. Thank you so much for sharing Buddhist + Mindfulness Meditation Teacher, Somatic Therapist 🇵🇭

30/03/2026

One month. Deep silence. Deep listening. Thunderstorms. Nourishing food. Kalyana mitta. Safe, open spaces for practice at every level.

For our teachers and founders, it was their first retreat at Dharmagiri since 2020 and it felt like a homecoming.

We’re deeply grateful to our and wonderful teachers, our incredible team, and every participant who brought their whole heart to this retreat.
More is coming. Watch this space. 🌧️🙏

16/03/2026

*Scholarship support available*

Most of us know the stillness of meditation. But what about bringing that same presence into conversation, conflict, intimacy, and everyday connection?

"This is the whole of the holy life: admirable friendship, admirable companionship, admirable camaraderie." — The Buddha

The Path of Spiritual Friendship is a weeklong Insight Dialogue retreat exploring kalyāṇa-mittatā — the Buddha's teaching that spiritual friendship is not peripheral but central to liberation.

📅 25 April – 2 May 2026 📍 Dharmagiri Sacred Mountain Retreat 👥 With Dave Leggatt and Nolitha

Insight Dialogue is meditation in relationship. We practise in pairs and small groups, learning to: 

Pause before reacting

Listen with our whole attention 

Speak what is true and present 

Meet difficulty without defence

Trust the unfolding moment

Speak the Truth from direct experience

Between sessions, there is silence, mountain walks, shared meals, and space to integrate what emerges.

Open to all levels. No previous meditation experience

🔗 Full details and bookings in bio 📩 [email protected]

BuddhistPractice MindfulConnection RetreatSouthAfrica Drakensberg RelationalMindfulness

19/02/2026

Dharmagiri’s Going Silent 🕊️

For the next month, we’ll be stepping away for silent retreat - a time to turn inward and rest in the quiet. Our community is entering into deep practice together, and we’ll be offline during this time.

If you need anything, you’re welcome to email [email protected] and we’ll slowly and mindfully respond.

May this be a time of peace for us all. With metta 💫

19/02/2026

At Dharmagiri, retreats mean a chance to gently regulate the nervous system, quiet the mind, and reconnect with what is essential - rest, clarity, healing, or simply the relief of not having to perform.

When we step away from distraction, something natural can unfold. The body softens. Attention steadies. Wisdom has room to surface, not as forced answers, but as quiet understanding.

We offer many pathways:
✨ Rest and recover from exhaustion
✨ Reconnect with contemplative practice
✨ Hear yourself clearly in silence
✨ Be supported by a compassionate community

You don’t need to be “ready,” experienced, or seeking a particular outcome. You simply need a willingness to pause.

If you are longing for stillness, clarity, or a deeper sense of belonging - this may be your time.

We warmly welcome you. 🙏
*Scholarship Spaces Available*

🔗 Upcoming retreats in bio 📩 [email protected]
MindfulLiving RetreatSouthAfrica ConsciousLiving Belonging InnerPeace

07/12/2025

For friends in Cape Town, there's space on this beautiful offering from Sue Cooper Stillmind Retreats.

OPEN THE HEART & STILL THE MIND: End the Year with Kindness, Compassion & Appreciative Joy. 13 - 18 December at near Stellenbosch.

LAST FEW PLACES on our transformative, 5 night silent retreat integrating Buddhist wisdom, psychology, poetry and individual sessions, offering deep, replenishing rest, emotional containment & recovery, time in nature and an opportunity to reflect and prepare for the new year.
🌻
NEW DATES & SHORTER OPTIONS ON REQUEST, starting at 9:30am on Sat 13 Dec.
🌻
THE HARD HUMAN SPRING

We each arrive with a gift hidden in
a wound and many years to birth it, each
given a heat to carry and rough seas to calm
it, each seeded with a worthiness and love after
love through which to accept it, each called to
enter sorrow like an underwater cave with the
breathless chance to break surface in the same
world with everything aglow. If we make it this
far, we can, on any given day, marvel that clouds
are clouds and name ourselves. We can use the
gift born of our wound to find an unmarked spot
from which to live. If we settle there, giving our
all without giving ourselves away, the heart
within our heart will flower and the whole
world will eat of its nectar.

By Mark Nepo in “The Way Under the Way”
🙏🏻❤️