PUBLIC HEALTH & SAFETY INFORMATION

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

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 was 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.

The covid pandemic provided a mirror for all of us in bringing our Dharma understanding into our consciousness of and commitment to public health and safety. Cloud Mountain constructs our public health practices in alignment with the foundational Buddhist practices of dāna (giving) and sīla (ethics/morality). Additionally, we wish to maintain a spirit and culture of health and wellbeing through our concrete choices in practicing and promoting specific actions that have been empirically effective in preventing the spread of illness.

As we update our public health and safety information, we will update our website and keep registered retreatants informed about current health practices prior to the retreat start.

This is an ongoing process. 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.