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Southern Dharma offers meditation retreats and programs from a variety of lineages in Buddhist and related traditions.

We are hiring! Interested in work that supports yo

We are hiring!
Interested in work that supports your practice?
Looking for a Sangha of goofy colleagues who gather in service to the Dharma?
Yearning to live in the mountains of North Carolina?
Join us! You can find more information on our website.
southerndharma.org/current-openings

Come in out of the cold! Join us at Integrated Dha

Come in out of the cold! Join us at Integrated Dharma with David McKay tonight and every Sunday at 6pm.

📍 227 Edgewood Rd, Asheville, NC 28804

New retreats for this summer are released! Take ti

New retreats for this summer are released! Take time to explore what our teachers have to offer, and mark your calendars for our summer retreat registration day on March 1. Link in Bio!

You’re important to our work and community, so w

You’re important to our work and community, so we wanted you to be the first to know about this change taking place at Southern Dharma. Please read on for a special message from Sonia and the Board. Check our announcement in the link in our bio!

Happy New Year! May this year be the world's most

Happy New Year! May this year be the world's most awakened and aware yet. If you'd like to join us on retreat in 2025, registration is now open! Retreats fill quickly, so be sure to register soon.

Link to website and retreat calendar in bio!

Mark your calendars and set your alarms, registrat

Mark your calendars and set your alarms, registration for all retreats from February - June opens tomorrow at 2pm! See you in peace in 2025 🙏

Our mission is to provide a place of refuge and a

Our mission is to provide a place of refuge and a sacred container for spiritual practices of Noble Silence, meditation, reflection, and mindful awareness. This Giving Tuesday, we invite you to support your practice and the practice of others by supporting Southern Dharma. #GivingTuesday

There is still space left to register for Lama Rod

There is still space left to register for Lama Rod's daylong retreat in Asheville next weekend! We also have special registrations reserved to welcome our LGBTQIA+ and BIPOC sangha members. Find out more information and register through our website - Link in Bio. See you there!

Dear friends of Southern Dharma Oasis, With sadne

Dear friends of Southern Dharma Oasis,

With sadness, due to circumstances beyond our control, we are suspending our Free Store and all programming. Certain programs have been relocated to other sites.

You may continue to make use of the potable water on the side of the building at any time. We are not accepting any donations of supplies, including clothing. Please do not leave any items outside the building. If you have questions about any of the upcoming events or you need supplies, kindly email info@southerndharma.org.

We will communicate regarding next steps through our email newsletter. You can subscribe at our website: www.southerndharma.org

With Metta,

Southern Dharma Staff

Over the last few weeks, we’ve delivered 100+ pr

Over the last few weeks, we’ve delivered 100+ propane heaters to folks without power, including Weaverville’s Hillside Community in Weaverville, who are trying to rebuild their historic community center.
Find more about them at savehillside.org

🪷 TODAY! 🪷 Open House and Song Circle at Sou

🪷 TODAY! 🪷 Open House and Song Circle at Southern Dharma Oasis. Join us for some snacks and some songs, visit with the staff and volunteers and tour the space if you haven't been able to drop by yet. Light refreshments at 12:00, the song circle begins at 1:00. See you there!

Our Hurricane Helene Work Retreat has begun! Here

Our Hurricane Helene Work Retreat has begun! Here is Huxley Coulter, one of our team leads for the retreat, geared up and ready to serve. Interested in volunteering? There's still time to sign up! Find more information at our website, linked in our bio.

Instagram post 17936769404928665

Instagram post 17936769404928665

Four hours and four hardy volunteers later, our v

Four hours and four hardy volunteers later, our volunteer chainsaw team cleared out fallen trees from Hurricane Helene off our SDRC founder Liz Kent’s property. Thanks, team!

☕️ ✨ today at 3pm ✨☕️ Local grief wor

☕️ ✨ today at 3pm ✨☕️

Local grief worker and facilitator Ekua Adisa has transformed one room in Oasis into a nurturing space for people to rest, reflect, and create. The Healing Space will now be open from 3-6pm every Tuesday-Saturday. Come rest and lay down your burdens in a spot of stillness with us.

📣We are looking for more local volunteers to re

📣We are looking for more local volunteers to redistribute supplies throughout the region! 📣

We have a particular need for volunteers who are proficient in Spanish, but all local volunteers are welcome. If you can help, please come to our Southern Dharma Oasis distribution site between 3-6pm Tuesdays through Saturdays at 150 Westwood Pl, Asheville, NC 28806.

Come join us for Integrated Dharma in our light-fi

Come join us for Integrated Dharma in our light-filled meditation hall at Southern Dharma Oasis. (The plants are loving it!)

🪷 Where 🪷 Southern Dharma Oasis, 150 Westwood Pl. Asheville NC 28806
🪷 When 🪷 Sunday 10/26 at 6pm
🪷 Who 🪷 Teacher David McKay

And if you're wondering why folks in the Asheville

And if you're wondering why folks in the Asheville area need water pumps, this is what our public utility water looks like straight out of the faucet. These hand washing stations from Down River Equipment let us wash our dishes and hands with potable water (trucked on site by BeLoved Asheville) and keep our community healthy and well.

How do you wash your hands without clean water? Ho

How do you wash your hands without clean water? How do you wash dishes? Our retreat manager Dagny Deutchman knew just the thing from her years working as a river guide: A foot-pump hand wash station by @downriverequipment. @nrsweb donated four hand washing stations to us for Southern Dharma Oasis to use while we continue our aid distribution efforts after Hurricane Helene.

With hundreds of people in attendance and faith te

With hundreds of people in attendance and faith teachers from different backgrounds represented, the Candlelight Vigil held by the @cityofasheville was a beautiful success. We were thrilled to see Venerable Pannavati act as one of the faith leaders for the event. Venerable Pannavati is ordained in both Theravada and Chan traditions, and is the founder and Abbott of Embracing Simplicity Hermitage in Hendersonville, NC.

Three weeks of smiles from Southern Dharma’s wor

Three weeks of smiles from Southern Dharma’s work since Hurricane Helene! 🪷💚🪷

Today is the SDRC team's first day off since Hurri

Today is the SDRC team's first day off since Hurricane Helene hit.
As we move into longer-term restoration and recovery, we hope for our community and the greater community of western Carolina to find respite.
We'll be back open tomorrow at 3 pm to accept volunteers and offer materials to anyone who needs them!

Yesterday was Dagney Deutchman’s last day workin

Yesterday was Dagney Deutchman’s last day working with us as Southern Dharma Oasis’ chief of staff. Dagny has been an extraordinary companion, chaos manager, and somatic grounder for all our recovery efforts. Today she starts her journey back to Montana, and in honor of her service we’d like to share this poem:

To be of use
BY MARGE PIERCY

The people I love the best
jump into work head first
without dallying in the shallows
and swim off with sure strokes almost out of sight.
They seem to become natives of that element,
the black sleek heads of seals
bouncing like half-submerged balls.

I love people who harness themselves, an ox to a heavy cart,
who pull like water buffalo, with massive patience,
who strain in the mud and the muck to move things forward,
who do what has to be done, again and again.

I want to be with people who submerge
in the task, who go into the fields to harvest
and work in a row and pass the bags along,
who are not parlor generals and field deserters
but move in a common rhythm
when the food must come in or the fire be put out.

The work of the world is common as mud.
Botched, it smears the hands, crumbles to dust.
But the thing worth doing well done
has a shape that satisfies, clean and evident.
Greek amphoras for wine or oil,
Hopi vases that held corn, are put in museums
but you know they were made to be used.
The pitcher cries for water to carry
and a person for work that is real.

Please join us for the City of Asheville’s inter

Please join us for the City of Asheville’s interfaith candlelight vigil at 6pm on Tuesday, October 22 to remember all that was devastated and lost by Hurricane Helene.

The Venerable Pannavati has been invited to make remarks on behalf of the Buddhist community for the ceremony.