PUBLIC HEALTH & SAFETY INFORMATION 

Follow this link for our current HEALTH & SAFETY PROTOCOLS SUMMER AND WINTER. These precautions will apply during your retreat. 

Follow this link for a BOARD STATEMENT OF PUBLIC HEALTH, SAFETY, AND ENDEMIC COVID-19 by the Friends of Cloud Mountain Board of Directors. 

A retreat center brings large groups of people together from many different regions, often from across the globe. Retreatants, teachers and staff spend extended periods in close contact. Although our sangha spans all age groups, a large proportion of our meditating community contains older people of 65+, with many falling into high-risk categories. Additionally, even before covid-19 arose, it has been widely understood and even joked about that when it comes to the ease with which viruses, colds and flus are passed around, retreat centers are like kindergartens. Illnesses spread very easily when individuals spend so much time gathered together in close quarters. 

For these reasons, plus considerations around the foundational Buddhist practices of dāna (giving) and sīla (ethics/morality), you can expect a number of precautions geared toward preserving public health and safety to continue as part of how we structure the retreat environment. Specifically, masking and rapid testing before and during the retreat remain vital aspects of our retreat requirements and will for the foreseeable future. 

As we update our public health and safety information, we will update our website and email the most current version to registered retreatants about two weeks prior to the retreat start. 

The Board of Directors, retreat center staff, teachers and retreatants continue to work closely together in assessing current medical research and data so that we all gather together with “informed consent,” responding with kindness, compassion and wisdom to the conditions with which we are presented. We reserve the right to modify our guidelines and requirements at any time in response to changing conditions.