[noobhacker]

Could you suggest a low cost option for meditation retreat? I'd really like to do one, but the idea of paying $1000 for what's supposed to be a no-frill, minimalist, anti-materialistic experience still trips me up. (As a reference, I rarely spend more than $500 for any kind of leisure trip.)

I understand that I'm being naive here, that "the Dharma is free but the light is not." Perhaps if cheap retreat is not an option, you can also reframe my thinking about the cost.

[dhruvkar]

I haven't done one, but a close friend has done Vipassana [1] a few times, which are free [2] in the USA. They run on donations and are 10 days of silence and meditation.

1. https://www.dhamma.org/en-US/courses/search

2. https://www.dhamma.org/en/about/qanda

edit -- added another link

[ChuckNorris89]

I'm sorry, but in my area in Europe, these retreats are for free. Well, donation based more exactly. At the end of the retreat you can donate as much as you feel like if it helped you.

[mcshicks]

I'm a Zen student and we offer 1 week retreats for around $50 a day for non members. However we have very limited space, we prioritize members or past participants so we are not in general able to offer it to people we don't know. But rather than looking for a retreat, I would suggest looking for a local meditation center that offers retreats at a reasonable rate, and then go check out there weekly sitting. Also they way we can do that rate is we do our own cooking, cleaning, organizing etc. We do offer limited housing, but its generally like a sleeping mat in the meditation hall. Actually to be honest I think your better off not not even worrying about the the retreat, and just find a group to meditate with at first. I don't think it will be to hard to find a reasonably priced retreat if you are sitting with a meditation group. Probably somebody will be able to recommend somewhere they have actually gone themselves.

[rukuu001]

That sounds like it was a Vipassana retreat, and they’re nearly always free (or donation based). They’ll encourage you to return to volunteer at a future retreat, but that’s about it for obligations.

[chaos_emergent]

All Vipassana courses are taught across the world for free, not just in the specific locales mentioned here. Putting a price on a priceless practice cheapens it, so they only allow old students of Vipassana to donate voluntarily.

[q845712]

as others have said there's many donation based retreats available.

I can also offer a rough line-item of where money goes, on retreat that have a sticker price:

1.) Cost. Many communities don't have their own retreat facilities and are thus basically booking room and board at a venue. Every venue has different amenities, costs, and profit models, but even a retreat site that operates at low margins as a gift, where retreatants share rooms and do substantial amounts of their own cooking and cleaning, even that is easily going to top $50 per person per day, while having a basically "resort-ish" experience where the group has single rooms and very little chores can approach $200 per day (in California).

2.) Back into the community who volunteered to organize it. There's probably 100-200+ labor hours behind every retreat, which is done in part so the teachings and practice can flourish, but is also motivated by the need to keep paying rent and other expenses on the community's primary practice and meeting space.

3.) To subsidize others. I think the teacher or leader of almost anything typically pays a reduced rate or nothing in recognition for their skill and leadership. Additionally it's not uncommon for part of the "profit" from retreats to be rolled into a scholarship funds for those whose ability to contribute is less than the bottom line costs, when the amount from donations doesn't match the need.

Also, Buddhism, and even more so mindfulness isn't necessarily concerned with conforming to our ideas of minimalist or anti-materialistic. While it's true that renunciation is often presented as part of the Buddhist path, retreats meet people where they are in their readiness to leave their comforts behind. A 5 - 14 day retreat might offer such comforts as the presence of a swimming pool or lounge furniture during break times so that people don't feel like they've joined monastic boot camp. There's many different things that get called "meditation retreat" and generally they're each well suited for different people at different times.

[riskneutral]

I like the swimming pool idea.