One thing you’ll notice about compassion, lovingkindness, and sympathetic joy is that they have a preference for what’s good, and an understanding that pain and suffering is a misfortune we all face. And yet that preference for the good, and seeing what’s painful as a misfortune, will keep us in our reactivity. With deeper wisdom, as we become intimate with life, as we have lived long enough and felt into what an actual human life is like, we see that there is this up and down motion: there’s pleasure and good fortune, then states that are very difficult when we experience pain and loss. To be an open-hearted human means that we have to come to terms with the fact that there will be some pleasure, there will be some pain, and that we don’t have much control over that. And so equanimity grows over time, with perspective.
Tempel Smith
Residential Retreat Teacher
Tempel Smith teaches Mindfulness, Insight and Metta meditation with an emphasis on Buddhist psychology, neuroscience, and mind-body awareness. He spent a year as a monk in Myanmar with Sayadaw U Pandita and Pa Auk Sayadaw. Tempel serves on the Spirit Rock Guiding Teachers Committee (GTC), has lead the Dedicated Practitioners Program (DPP), frequently teaches one of the month-long retreats at Spirit Rock, and a 3-month online practice intensive for daily life practice. He has lead pilgrimages to India, Sri Lanka, and Myanmar, and has trained in Somatic Experiencing (SE), Dynamic Neural Retraining System (DNRS), and Mindfulness Base Stress Reduction (MBSR).
Tempel Smith's Upcoming Programs
Retreat | On-Land
February 2 - March 28, 2027 | Tuesday - Sunday | 54 nights
2027 Insight Meditation 2-Month Retreat - Application
Application Open! An extended period of retreat offers the rare opportunity for sustained, dedicated practice. This retreat emphasizes quieting the mind, opening the heart, and developing profound clarity and depth of Insight practice. Instruction will follow the traditional Four Foundations of Mindfulness combined with training in lovingkindness and compassion, and practice will be structured around a daily schedule of silent sitting, walking, Dharma talks, and practice meetings with teachers.
Tara Mulay
Tempel Smith
Tuere Sala
Anushka Fernandopulle
Devin Berry
Guy Armstrong
Susie Harrington
Mei Elliott
Kodo Conlin
Kirsten Rudestam
Rasika Link (Movement Teacher)
Teresa Todoroff (Movement Teacher)
Namu (Teacher in Training)
Rae Houseman (Teacher in Training)
Mia Monos (Teacher in Training)
Adam Stonebraker (Teacher in Training)
Retreat | On-Land
February 2 - March 1, 2027 | Tuesday - Monday | 27 nights
2027 February Insight Meditation 1-Month Retreat - Application
Application Open! In this rare opportunity for sustained, dedicated practice, this extended retreat emphasizes opening the heart and developing profound clarity of insight. The teachings will encompass training in the Four Foundations of Mindfulness and the heart qualities of lovingkindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity, with a daily schedule structured around periods of silent meditation, guided instructions, Dharma talks, practice meetings with teachers, and optional mindful movement.
Tara Mulay
Tempel Smith
Tuere Sala
Anushka Fernandopulle
Devin Berry
Rasika Link (Movement Teacher)
Namu (Teacher in Training)
Rae Houseman (Teacher in Training)
Retreat | On-Land
July 7 - July 25, 2027 | Wednesday - Sunday | 18 nights
18-night Retreat: Summer LovingKindness & Insight Retreats
Registration Open. For those seeking an extended retreat experience this summer, we encourage you to consider attending both the Summer Lovingkindness Retreat (July 8–17) and the Summer Insight Retreat (July 17–26) as one continuous 18-night retreat. These two retreats are intentionally designed to complement one another, offering a rare opportunity to deepen in both heart and wisdom practices.
This combined retreat supports a natural progression in the meditative path: cultivating lovingkindness (mettā), the brahmavihāras, and samādhi as a foundation, followed by insight practices (vipassanā) grounded in that settled, compassionate presence. Teachers see this integration as essential. Uniting these practices brings enhanced clarity and depth to both. While each retreat may be attended on its own, we strongly recommend that practitioners who are ready for a longer commitment join both as one cohesive training. BOTH retreats are silent except for teacher-led Q&A, small groups meetings, or other practice meetings.
Tempel Smith
Anushka Fernandopulle
John Martin
Bonnie Duran
bruni dávila
Pawan Bareja
Marcy Reynolds (Movement Teacher)
Retreat | On-Land
July 7 - July 16, 2027 | Wednesday - Friday | 9 nights
Summer LovingKindness Retreat
Registration Open. The Buddha’s liberating teachings on the four divine sanctuaries (brahmavihāras) include meditations on universal friendliness (mettā), compassion (karuā), altruistic joy (muditā), and equanimity (upekkhā). Aimed at purifying our hearts and developing concentration (samādhi), these divine sanctuaries aid our ability to both find inner peace and powerfully engage with the world. This silent retreat will deepen our understanding of selfless love and its role in ending suffering. This retreat is silent except for small groups meetings and other practice meetings with teachers.
Tempel Smith
Anushka Fernandopulle
John Martin
bruni dávila
Pawan Bareja
Marcy Reynolds (Movement Teacher)
Retreat | On-Land
July 16 - July 25, 2027 | Friday - Sunday | 9 nights
Summer Insight Meditation Retreat
Registration Open. The Buddha's unique Insight meditation techniques open a direct experience with our human mind and body, allowing us to deeply see into the nature of impermanence, unsatisfactoriness, and non-self. Having these direct insights uproots the ignorance keeping us trapped in repetitive cycles of suffering. This retreat is silent except for small groups meetings with teachers.
Tempel Smith
Bonnie Duran
Anushka Fernandopulle
bruni dávila
Pawan Bareja
Marcy Reynolds (Movement Teacher)
Dharma Library
Can't join us live online or on the land? Study and practice at your convenience with Tempel Smith through our new library of recordings, articles, and self-paced online courses.