Entering the stream of the Dharma, we return to our river nature, discovering in our direct experience what it is to be a human being. Through our habits and through the boxes we clump our life into we lose contact with vitality and lightness—the impermanent, flowing life that we are. When we have the opportunity to genuinely rediscover that in ourselves, we rediscover our river-like nature. And we discover that river nature is also the nature of everything: loving awareness, alive, fluid, bright, kind, spacious. It is what connects. It’s the web that connects me to you and us to everything else.
Pamela Weiss
Residential Retreat Teacher
Pamela Weiss is a dual lineage Buddhist teacher in Theravada and Soto Zen, and the author of, "A Bigger Sky: Awakening a Fierce Feminine Buddhism." She has been practicing since 1987, including several years of Zen monastic training and retreat teacher training through Spirit Rock. Pamela was the first lay person to receive full Dharma transmission in the Suzuki Roshi lineage. She lives in San Francisco and is on the Teacher Council at San Francisco Insight and the Board of the Brooklyn Zen Center. She is passionate about weaving women's voices and experience into the fabric of practice.
Pamela Weiss' Upcoming Programs
Retreat | On-Land
October 1 - October 5, 2025 | Wednesday - Sunday | 4 nights
Wild Wise Words: A Mindfulness Meditation and Writing Retreat
Registration Opens - February 19. This retreat will weave together periods of silence and writing as a path to deepening our spiritual and creative lives. Our time together will include Dharma talks, guided meditation, embodied movement, and periods of writing to nurture our inner depths and outer expression. Within a wild, wise field of silence we’ll settle deeply into what is, peel back layers of the judging and restrictive mind, and discover words that express the mystery and majesty alive in each of us.
Retreat | On-Land
November 8 - November 14, 2025 | Saturday - Friday | 6 nights
Grief as a Change Agent of Transformation and Resiliency
Registration Opens - February 19. Grief is not sequestered to the life loss of loved ones. It traverses beyond physical death and seeps into disappointments in relationships, the loss of dreams, ancestral anguish, and unnamed disappearances. Understanding the personal nature of grief and the tenderness of being with a broken heart, we will create a container that honors all individuals moving through their sorrow. We will practice silent meditation indoors and in nature and there will be Dharma talks, meetings with teachers, and embodiment practices.
Dharma Library
Can't join us live online or on the land? Study and practice at your convenience with Pamela Weiss through our new library of recordings, articles, and self-paced online courses.