Flowering Lotus Meditation is a mobile sangha.
We host meditation retreats at multiple locations across the southern United States and strive to create retreat experiences accessible to all.
We bring in experienced Buddhist teachers to teach students, with any level of experience, meditation.
All retreats and other events are based on Buddhist teachings of mindfulness and compassion.
We welcome anyone to attend.
Meditation & Community Across the Gulf South
Upcoming Retreats
Buddhism and Recovery
with Kevin Griffin
All recovery paths are welcome, whether Twelve Step, Recovery Dharma, Eight Step Recovery, substance, process, or relationship-oriented.
Join us for this unique meditation retreat combining traditional Buddhist practices with recovery and healing. Primarily conducted in silence, the retreat focuses on insight/mindfulness meditation, with additional interactive exercises, lectures, and meetings exploring ways that Buddhism and a recovery program can complement each other.
The emphasis will be on bringing mindfulness to all our activities, whether in formal meditation, movement, speaking, listening, or eating. Participants will practice Noble Silence outside of the interactive exercises and recovery-style meetings.
A minimum of 30 days clean and sober is required for attendance.
Thanks to the generous support of the Hemera Foundation, the only cost to attend this retreat is a $125 registration fee, dana to Kevin Griffin and Flowering Lotus Meditation and a tip to our chef.
Blessed Trinity Shrine Retreat
107 Holy Trinity Rd Fort Mitchell, AL.
In-Person Retreat • June 20-23, 2024
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Cooking as Cultivation:
How to Nurture Love and Awareness
in the Kitchen Using Buddhist Principles
Timothy Charles Davis
with Jennifer Justus
One of the reasons people don’t tend to maintain the same level of practice consistency in the “real world” is due a perceived lack of time. Far better then, not to mention easier, to take things that already exist in your day, and see them through a new lens. Take, for example, cooking. Most of us attempt it at least occasionally. But when our feet are in the kitchen, our minds might be elsewhere.
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This retreat seeks to answer this question: How might we feed our stomachs and souls all at once?
Cooking mindfully can not only help you become a better, more centered person, but also a more accomplished cook. (Consider: most kitchen "disasters" -- cuts, burns, burnt food, undercooking -- are ones of inattention).
The act of cooking is physical and metaphysical all at once. Cooking gets the mind and body -- and, if we’re lucky, the heart – to harmonize. The lessons learned can not only boost our metabolism, but also our spirits. The balance that we can learn, through a mindful cooking practice, can lead to balance in our day-to-day lives. At that point, we can feed others not only with our cooking, but with our presence. The more whole we are, the better we might serve others, in whichever sense of the word. (This isn’t just self-help book quasi-mystical gobbledygook; numerous recent studies have shown a direct link between cooking and positive psychological identification).
This retreat is intended for seasoned cooks, newcomers to the kitchen, and those who are looking to begin again – or anyone seeking more of a spiritual connection to their cooking. It features both traditional guided and “free” meditation, creative exercises, service meditation, and Dharma talks. While the instruction will be group-centric, the “work” we will be doing will be different for everyone.
WJ Kelley Retreat Center
510 N 2nd St, Bay St Louis, MS 39520
In-Person Retreat • July 4-7, 2024
Wild Heart Summer Retreat
with Rev. Mikey Noechel, MS and
Andrew Chapman, LMSW
In retreat, through careful and sustained mindfulness, we experience for ourselves the ever-
changing flow of the mind-body process. Meditation is the vehicle through which we develop
the clarity and compassion needed to accept more fully the pleasure and pain, fear and joy,
sadness and happiness that life inevitably brings. As insight deepens, we develop greater peace
in the face of change—we develop a capacity to meet each arising and passing moment with a
deep curiosity, compassion, and wisdom.
St. Mary’s Sewanee
770 St. Mary's Lane Sewanee, TN 37375
In-Person Retreat • July 18-21, 2024
REGISTRATION CLOSES FOR THIS RETREAT JUNE 21, 2024
Retreat with our Spiritual Director
with Venerable Pannavati
Venerable Pannavati, Maha Theri is a former Christian pastor, uniquely ordained in both Theravada and Mahayana traditions. She is also a Vajrayana teacher. Particularly inspired by her final lineage master, she offers authorized esoteric lineage teachings, empowerments and activities using skillful means. She is co-founder of Heartwood Refuge, an intentional monastic and lay residential community; Correct Cultivation Learning from Buddha Academy, and Embracing Simplicity Hermitage monastic order. Venerable also serves on Buddhist and inter-spiritual leadership boards, internationally, having retired from decades of active work in humanitarian projects advocating and serving women’s advancement, education for Dalits (India’s Untouchables) and full ordination for female monks.
Wesley Center
2350 Methodist Parkway Woodworth, LA 71485
In-Person Retreat • October 11-13, 2024
Awakening into the New Year
with Dave Smith
During this New Years’ Insight meditation retreat we will cultivate a deeper understanding of ourselves through gentle and sustained awareness of our body, breath, heart, and mind. Each day will include periods of silent sitting and walking meditation, Dharma talks and group meetings with the teacher. New Year’s Eve will be held with a special intention-setting ceremony. Together, we’ll develop a greater sense of care for ourselves and for our world through the revolutionary practices of the Dharma.
The practice instructions will be based on the four foundations of mindfulness in combination with exercises in kindness and compassion. This silent retreat will explore the many ways that true spiritual practice is an engagement with life that runs contrary to the confusion in this world. This ancient path of awakening our own deepest wisdom is accessible to all who choose it. The retreat is suitable for both beginning and more experienced practitioners. We hope you can join us for a meaningful and beautiful beginning to the New Year!
WJ Kelley Retreat Center
510 N 2nd St, Bay St Louis, MS 39520
In-Person Retreat • December 30, 2024 -January 2, 2025
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