Attend this five-day Lovingkindness: Cultivating the Open and Wise Heart retreat in Woodacre, California. The retreat takes place at the beautiful Spirit Rock Meditation Center, June 15 to 19, 2013.

The retreat will feature the formal practice of metta, developing greater steadiness of mind and heart, and nurture the development of fundamental kindness.

Presenter Spring Washam is a meditation and dharma teacher based in Oakland, California. She has studied meditation and Buddhist philosophy since 1997. After many years of extensive training with Jack Kornfield, she is a new teacher at Spirit Rock Meditation Center. Co-teacher Donald Rothberg, PhD, has practiced Insight Meditation since 1976, and has also received training in Tibetan Dzogchen and Mahamudra practice and the Hakomi approach to body-based psychotherapy.

Spirit Rock Meditation Center began in 1982 when a small group of sitters in Northern California met to create a west coast retreat center. In 1987, this dedicated group purchased 412 acres in rural Marin County from the Nature Conservancy. The residential retreat center opened in 1998 and currently hosts about 40 retreats per year of varying lengths, from three nights to two months. Its purpose is "to help each individual find peace, compassion and wisdom through the practice of mindfulness and Insight Meditation (Vipassana), and to support the individual in taking those qualities into the world."