Vision:
To bring about personal and collective awakening based in mindfulness, wisdom, and ethics.
Mission:
To offer meditation retreats, provide dharma instruction, and support communities, grounded in Buddhist practice traditions.
Values:
- We value awakening and recognize that all beings have the capacity to transform their hearts and minds.
- We value stewardship and make decisions and actions that take the benefit of the Center, its stakeholders, and its living community into account.
- We value hospitality and seek to create an environment where everyone may feel welcome.
- We value compassion and believe that everyone should be free from suffering.
- We value inclusivity and intend to serve all people, no matter their race, age, income level, gender identity, or spiritual tradition.
Chair
Bill Duffield
chair@southerndharma.org
Vice Chair
Stephanie Swann
Finance Chair
Diane LoFaro
Secretary
Anna Smith
Members
Curtis Jordan
Tom Newby
Skip Hudspeth
Charles Warren
Joshua Canter
Executive Director
Cory Adams
Cory Adams has lived in Asheville since 1997 and is a graduate of Warren Wilson College. For many years, she served as the Executive Director at Odyssey School, a local independent school developed to teach from Ken Wilber’s model of the evolution of human consciousness and Howard Gardner’s foundational work in multiple intelligences. As a non-profit leader, Cory has created culturally relevant curriculum with programming that passed an organizational equity audit. She is skilled in non-profit leadership, especially using dynamic governance and trauma-informed communication frameworks that support diversity and inclusion. At Southern Dharma, Cory brings a strategic vision that is founded in the values of community care. A follower of Meher Baba, Cory is a lifelong meditator and finds inspiration off the mat as an author of fantasy and sci fi novels and short stories and as the parent of two incredible young adults.
Retreat Center Director
Donna Blagdan
Donna was the kitchen manager at Southern Dharma from 2009-2012, and the author of Kitchen Dharma: Recipes from Southern Dharma Retreat Center. After leaving Southern Dharma, she enrolled in the two-year chaplaincy program at Upaya Zen Center, working with many wonderful Buddhist teachers, including Roshi Joan Halifax. After graduation from Upaya, she eventually became a board-certified chaplain. As a Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) trainee, and later as a professional chaplain, she cared for patients at Morton Plant Hospital, Suncoast Hospice, the University of North Carolina Medical Center, Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), and Dell Children’s Hospital. Most recently, she was the Director of Spiritual Care at MGH. It is with deep gratitude and great delight that she returns to Southern Dharma to be of service and to continue her studies of life, compassion, community, and meaning.
Programs Manager
Keith Felicity
Keith Felicity Something (they/them) is originally from outside Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and experienced Southern Dharma for the first time at the inaugural LGBTQIA+ retreat in 2019. Their spiritual path has been heavily influenced by their recovery from mental health and substance challenges, finding refuge in Buddhist Recovery and 12 Step programs. Keith Felicity is a NC Certified Peer Support Specialist and has provided mental health services in rural WNC. They have also completed a year long training with Wild Heart Meditation Center in Nashville, TN to become a Buddhist Meditation Instructor and Group Facilitator.
Facilities Lead
Lizeth Sanchez
Lizeth (she/her/hers) emigrated to the USA from Mexico in 2005 and made South Carolina her home. She describes herself as water – needing to be in constant movement to stay clear. Since childhood she has been a free spirit who loves and honors nature. What she enjoys about her role at Southern Dharma is that it provides her with tons of opportunities to be working outdoors in harmony with nature, such as repurposing down trees in improvement projects such as making steps and creating retaining walls.
Kitchen Manager
Joshua Lerman
Josh grew up in the Washington DC area but spent most of his adult life living on the West Coast, predominately the SF Bay Area. His first encounter with formal Buddhist practice was with the San Francisco Zen Center, Suzuki Roshi’s lineage. His path is informed by dharma teachings from several lineages, as well as his Jewish tradition and other Earth-based cultures. He is passionate about art and is an experienced knitter and writer. He has self-published two novels and plans to work on a third when time allows. Josh has worked in the foods service industry for many years in many capacities. He believes cooking for others is a practice of love and service and that our relationship to food is a component of our relationship to the Earth and the Source of Life. He's lived in Western North Carolina since mid 2022 and absolutely loves these mountains!
Facilities
Huxley Coulter
Originally from Tallahassee, Florida, Huxley now lives in Brevard NC and works part-time at SDRC helping with the maintenance of facilities. He enjoys being a member of, what he considers, an intentional community of people working to support those on the dharma path. When he's not working, he enjoys playing guitar and singing harmonies at bluegrass jams, birdwatching, watching professional soccer and being outside, especially in clean cold water.
Registrar & Communications Coordinator
Vanessa Moss
Vanessa (she/her/hers) is a writer and ecologist by training from Sylva NC, who spends her time with Southern Dharma while pursuing her MFA in literature and creative writing. (Fun fact, she's a third generation Southern Dharma practitioner!) If she's not writing, she's gardening or talking to someone about her newest fixation. She lives with her partner and their two dogs on their fledgling homestead in Marshall.
Bookkeeper
Amber Gilot (She/They)
Amber is a native to Western North Carolina and has lived here all her life. They are passionate about working with organizations, communities and people who are working to dismantle our capitalistic, colonialist, extractive society and rebuild a society of community care, mutual aid and networks of support for all. She has over 15 years experience in bookkeeping, finance, operations and HR, working with local nonprofits across WNC. They appreciate and love big picture, strategic thinking while being able to break down these ideas into tangible, everyday details.
The Practice Community at Southern Dharma
The Practice Community at Southern Dharma (PCSD) is an intentional sangha or practice community where individuals with a long-standing spiritual practice can live, retreat, study, and meditate with the support of others. Members of the community commit to gather at least four times each year, sitting twice daily when in residence together.
The PCSD is located adjacent to Southern Dharma Retreat Center and reflects Southern Dharma's founding purpose. Practice Community members share Southern Dharma's respect for all spiritual traditions and desire to live in harmony
with others and with nature.
The PCSD is owned and governed by its members with a goal to support and strengthen Southern Dharma as a non-sectarian center practicing tolerance and respect for all spiritual traditions. The Practice Community is organized as a North Carolina limited liability company (LLC).The LLC owns approximately 72 acres of land and consists of eight “holdings”. Each holding consists of a cabin and has an equal ownership interest in the LLC, which also includes a community building used for meditation, meetings, shared meals, and laundry. Each cabin (except one, Elizabeth Kent’s original cabin) has a full bathroom, kitchen, 2nd floor sleeping area, propane heat and electricity. The square footage totals 575 feet; 350 ft. on the ground floor, 175 ft. on the 2nd floor. The ground floor also includes a porch area. The cabins and community building can be seen along the road as one walks to the knoll on the Dharma Path.
Members of the PCSD desire to live simply and quietly in community either part time or full time. There are single owners, couples and it is also possible for two (or more) people to co-own a holding, sharing costs and use of the cabin. If you are interested in learning more about the Practice Community and current availability, contact Ward Simmons (wardsimmons@bellsouth.net) or Gail Goforth (goforthgail@gmail.com).
The need for unity is often misnamed as a need for homogeneity. Difference must be not merely tolerated but seen as a fund of necessary polarities between which our creativity can spark like a dialectic. Only then does the necessity for interdependence become unthreatening. - Audre Lorde
Southern Dharma is deeply committed to further diversifying our teachers, participants, and teaching traditions in a way that creates a safe, welcoming, and inclusive space for growth and liberation for all.
We recognize that, historically, certain specific sub-groups of yogis and teachers have tended to disproportionately dominate the Center since its founding back in 1979: Mostly White, mostly middle to upper class, mostly highly educated, and mostly born before 1960 or so. In more recent years, practitioners aligned with the Theravadan traditions have been particularly active and engaged, which has led to the underrepresentation of other forms of teaching and learning within the Buddhist spectrum. That’s changing, and we are excited to explore the ways in which we can both ground and accelerate that transition – without alienating or otherwise marginalizing all the incredible people who built this jewel of a Center and continue to support its development.
Today, all but two of our Board members and our Executive Director identify as White, though we have good balance in regards to gender and some diversity along other dimensions, including sexual orientation, geographic location, and primary practice tradition. We would love to see more diversity on our Board and staff and we recognize that our organization needs to forge ahead with the important allyship and racial awakening work that we have been doing to identify our blind spots and lay the groundwork for success. This includes multiple internal retreats with Donald Rothberg and other facilitators around transforming racism using the tools of Buddhist practice and learning, ongoing self-study and reflection (see our current reading list), and the creation of public programs and communications that support this critical field of inquiry and practice.
In 2021, Southern Dharma began offering two new in-house scholarship programs: Young Adult and BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color). We are delighted to see how popular these programs have become and how much our retreat environment has been enhanced by the participation of more diverse groups of practitioners. We also started tracking demographic information much more closely in recent years, which has allowed us to measure what matters and chart our progress over time.
There are certain “built-in” aspects of our Retreat Center that make it less accessible and welcoming to many: The challenges of getting here, the fact that the Center is located in a rural area dotted with confederate flags, the rustic nature of our facilities, and a challenging topography for those with mobility issues. We strive to do what we can to minimize the barriers that these features represent, while recognizing the real limits of our site. In 2022, we are beginning to offer programs out of a shared collective space in Asheville with an eye toward meeting people where they are, and supporting the flourishing of the dharma in our local communities.
If you have a question or comment related to our JEDI (Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion) efforts, we welcome your communications! Feel free to email the Executive Director at director@southerndharma.org and/or the Chair of the Board at chair@southerndharma.org.
We continue to draw inspiration from these trainings, offered by teacher Larry Yang:
- Aware of the suffering caused by imposing one’s own opinions or cultural beliefs upon another human being, I undertake the training to refrain from forcing others, in any way—through authority, threat, financial incentive, or indoctrination—to adopt my own belief. I commit to respecting every human being’s right to be different, while working towards the elimination of suffering of all beings.
- Aware of the suffering caused by invalidating or denying another person’s experience, I undertake the training to refrain from making assumptions or judging harshly any beliefs and attitudes that are different or not understandable from my own. I commit to being open-minded and accepting of other points of view, and I commit to meeting each perceived difference in another person with kindness, respect, and a willingness to learn more about their worldview.
- Aware of the suffering caused by the violence of treating someone as inferior or superior to one’s own self, I undertake the training to refrain from diminishing or idealizing the worth, integrity, and happiness of any human being. Recognizing that my true nature is not separate from others, I commit to treating each person that comes into my consciousness with the same loving kindness, care, and equanimity that I would bestow upon a beloved benefactor or dear friend.
- Aware of the suffering caused by intentional and unintentional acts of rejection, exclusion, avoidance, or indifference towards people who are culturally, physically, sexually, or economically different from me, I undertake the training to refrain from relating to people of similar backgrounds as myself and from being only with people who make me feel comfortable. I commit to searching out ways to diversify my relationships and increase my sensitivity towards people of different cultures, ethnicities, sexual orientations, ages, physical abilities, genders, and economic means.
- Aware of the suffering caused by the often unseen nature of privilege, and the ability of privilege to benefit a select population over others, I undertake the training to refrain from exploiting any person or group, economically, sexually, intellectually, or culturally. I commit to examine with wisdom and clear comprehension the ways that I have privilege in order to determine skillful ways of using privilege for the benefit of all beings, and I commit to the practice of generosity in all aspects of my life and towards all human beings, regardless of cultural, ethnic, racial, sexual, age, physical, or economic differences.
- Aware of the suffering caused to myself and others by fear and anger during conflict or disagreement, I undertake the training to refrain from reacting defensively, using harmful speech because I feel injured, or using argument to justify my sense of rightness. I commit to communicate and express myself mindfully, speaking truthfully from my heart with patience and compassion. I commit to practice genuine and deep listening to all sides of a dispute, and to remain in contact with my highest intentions of recognizing Buddha nature within all beings.
- Aware of the suffering caused by the ignorance of misinformation and the lack of information that aggravate fixed views, stereotypes, the stigmatizing of a human being as “other,” and the marginalization of cultural groups, I undertake the training to educate myself about other cultural attitudes, worldviews, ethnic traditions, and life experiences outside of my own. I commit to be curious with humility and openness, to recognize with compassion the experience of suffering in all beings, and to practice sympathetic joy when encountering the many different cultural expressions of happiness and celebration around the world.
- Aware of the suffering caused by the cumulative harm that a collective of people can impose on individuals and other groups, I undertake the training to refrain from consciously validating or participating in group processes, dynamics, activities, decisions, or actions which perpetuate the suffering that these trainings describe on a familial, social, institutional, governmental, societal, cultural, or global level. I commit to exploring, examining and eliminating the ways that I consciously and unconsciously ally myself with forces that cause harm and oppression, and commit myself to working for the benefit and peace of all.
Southern Dharma was founded in 1978 by Melinda Guyol and Elizabeth Kent. Read Elizabeth Kent's reflections on SDRC's early years.
Southern Dharma is located in a hollow about two thirds of the way up Hap mountain, in Madison County North Carolina. The property has been tended with love and care by human communities for thousands of years. From as early as 1200 BCE, the Cherokee and other indigenous peoples resided in the area and used the land for semi-permanent agriculture, as well as hunting and gathering. We honor their stewardship of this land, as well as those who came before them. You are welcome to read more about this land's long history here.
The Blue Ridge mountains are a temperate rainforest and one of the most biodiverse areas in the world. Hap mountain is primarily in mixed hardwood forest, with old growth pines, several different species of oaks and maples, tulip poplars, hickories, and walnuts, as well as plenty of woody or semi-woody understory trees, vines, and shrubs. Home to more than a dozen species of songbirds and all sizes of mostly herbivorous mammals, Southern Dharma is a beautiful place to deepen into relationship with the dharma of Earth, self, and the “interbeing” between them.
Situated on over 150 acres of second growth forest, Southern Dharma offers a system of contemplative trails that weave between creek beds and access roads into meadows, mountain tops, and the slow sloughing boulders of these ancient Appalachian peaks. Retreatants have walking access to anywhere on our property and the adjoining forest. Benches, chairs, swings, and hammocks support quiet, solitary practice throughout the forest and our cultivated gardens. Yogis are invited to support our stewardship of this inspiring space as part of the working meditation periods, volunteer programs, and longer-term residencies.
