Inward:

May 5-10, 2026 (5 nights)

Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, Big Sur California

A Special Gathering

In collaboration with our dear friend and Namuna Guide Baelyn Elspeth and our dear friend RY X, we are designing a unique opportunity to join us for five days and four nights for a deep experience in the tranquil energy of Tassajara nestled deep in the Big Sur mountains.

This will be a period of multimodal practice and contemplation, which will give rise to the most ideal energetics for our collective discourse. We will have sessions and workshops held by our Namuna Guides, morning tea ceremony sessions, RY X’s Even Closer activation, engage with the Zenshinji monks, soak in the hot springs and fresh river on the land, and restore our hearts and minds.

Tassajara is full practice cloistered Zen monastery founded by Shunryu Suzuki Roshi in 1967. The monks open the space for a few months per year to welcome aligned guests into their practice, this is how they fund their center. We have been given high trust to open the space for our community and practices.

“The true purpose of Zen is to see things as they are, to observe things as they are, and to let everything go as it goes ... Zen practice is to open up our small mind.”
― Shunryu Suzuki Roshi

Attendance is open for devotees of art, craft, or practice.

This is not a retreat where we are offering transformation to seekers. It is a moment to go inwards, deeply with other masters, share our practices and find a type of stillness that is hard to attain within our often fought-over attention. While Zen and inward exploration will create the container for our time together, this isn’t your typical meditation retreat nor will it be in silence.

This gathering will be curated for our incredible community to meet each other, enjoy beautiful programming by the hot springs, be naked in the rivers, join for tea ceremonies, meditate with the Tassajara monks, and experience multimodal practice to give rise to the most ideal energetics for our collective discourse.

Please plan to be offline for this gathering.

Energetic Exchange

The exchange of this experience includes accommodations, programming, and organic, local, delicious meals for five days and four nights. Attendance is $2750 for shared accommodations. Private rooms are available for an additional cost.

namūna is a 501c3 non-profit and we won’t turn anyone away due to cost. Our donors have made several scholarships available. Please enquire directly if you’d need assistance.

About Tassajara

Our home for the weekend, Tassajara is nestled in a mountain valley located in a remote part of California’s Ventana Wilderness, inland from the Big Sur coast. Anchored by its natural hot springs, the Tassajara valley is home to one of three Soto Zen practice communities that comprise San Francisco Zen Center. Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, also referred to as Zenshinji (Zen Heart-Mind Temple), was founded in 1967 by Shunryu Suzuki Roshi, and is dedicated to embody, express, and make accessible the wisdom and compassion of the Buddha.”

Decades of Zen Buddhist practice have made the Tassajara valley a sacred land not only for the Esselen tribe, its original occupants, but also for Buddhists of all lineages. It is the home of the first Zen monastery outside of Japan. We find Tassajara a beautiful and peaceful center to relax, rest, and integrate while being able to soak in the healing waters of the Big Sur hot springs.

RY X

Even Closer is an intimate experience created by singer, musician, songwriter, and record producer RY X.

Using multiple modalities including meditation, breath practices, gentle somatic movement, and vocal toning — Ry will lead us into a beautiful sessions to connect more deeply with ourselves and each other.

Baelyn Elspeth

Baelyn Elspeth is one of our Namuna Guides, and has journeyed into deeper pathways of Self cultivation through studying various practices in the Sacred arts, is a student of Zen, the Tao, and the “Way of Tea”. To her ceremony and ritual are a way of seeing the world and when practiced daily, a pathway to living a more skillful life.

Currently Baelyn resides in Taos, NM and devotes her time to sharing and facilitating sacred space for communities all around the world, bringing the medicine of Tea and Ceremony wherever she goes. Through immersive retreats, workshops, and online mentorships, she guides others in making space for self-cultivation in their daily lives.

NAMUNA

namuna is a 501c3 nonprofit religion supporting, connecting, and adding value to the unique humans who exist outside traditional boundaries. We support those who dedicate their lives to service and practice.

Our key initiatives aim to support and make accessible to a wider audience a highly vetted and diverse, global community of Guides, Communities, and Sacred Sites. Without dogma or doctrine, we offer similar resources that traditional religions offer their communities.