Wisdom of a Meaningful Life Course
2025-08-11 18:00 - 19:00 (America/Denver) | CO
Join Our Exclusive 6-Week Online Workshop: The Wisdom of a Meaningful Life with John Bruna

By request, John is opening up a fourth course!
In these challenging times, it is critical to engage in sustainable self-care. There very clear methods to reduce stress, anxiety, and self-critical thoughts. In the process, actually develop skills to experience greater levels of well-being, joy, and purpose in your daily life. These wisdom teachings ultimately empower you to increase your resiliency and find fulfillment even in difficult circumstances. In this course, author and mindfulness teacher John Bruna will unpack these timeless methods in his transformative 6-week workshop based on his acclaimed book, The Wisdom of a Meaningful Life.
This unique program offers a chance to learn directly from John, engage with his life-changing teachings, and develop practical tools to create a more fulfilling and joyful life.
Course Details:

Weekly Live Online Sessions with John Bruna: Engage in interactive online sessions where John will guide you through the book’s core principles, share his insights, and answer your questions.
FREE Copy of the Book: Receive your own signed copy of The Wisdom of a Meaningful Life to dive deeper into the lessons.
Hands-On Practices: Learn proven mindfulness techniques, reflection exercises, and tools to bring more joy and well-being into your life.

Benefits You’ll Receive:

Increased Well-Being: Discover how to cultivate inner peace and lasting joy through mindfulness and purposeful living.
Enhanced Clarity: Align your actions with your values to live a more intentional and meaningful life.
Mental and Emotional Balance: Learn mindfulness practices that overcome unhealthy thinking patterns and habits and increase attention and emotional resiliency.
Greater Resilience: Develop the skills to navigate challenges with grace and confidence.
Improved Relationships: Foster deeper connections with yourself and others through authentic communication and compassion.
A Supportive Community: Connect with like-minded participants on a shared journey of growth and transformation.

Who Should Attend?

Whether you’re looking to reduce stress, find greater purpose, or simply live with more joy, this workshop is for you!
Course Schedule:

You can start anytime. The course includes daily lessons and videos with John unpacking the Wisdom or a a Meaningful Life.
Weekly Online Live Sessions with John Bruna: Engage in interactive online sessions with John and other course participants. These are ongoing live online sessions with John and other current and former course participants. You can attend even after you have completed the course.
Time: Beginning August 18th, Mondays, 6 pm Mountain Time (5 pm PST, 7 pm CST, 8 pm EST)
Location: Online using the Zoom platform (accessible from anywhere!)

Sliding Scale Pricing: We are offering this course on a sliding scale to make it as accessible as possible for everyone. You may pay any amount from $99 to $349.
Reserve Your Spot Now! Don’t miss this opportunity to work directly with John Bruna and unlock the wisdom for a meaningful and joyful life.

Hosted by the Mindfulness in Recovery Institute – Register Here.
Learn more about the book and the course – Wisdom of a Meaningful Life.

TPN Health Presentation: Increasing Engagement in the Therapeutic Process
2025-08-12 10:00 - 11:30 | CO
For mental health professionals – I am delighted to be partnering with TPN Health once again to provide an online training. Here is a brief description:
This presentation will provide clinicians with practical methods to enhance client engagement in the therapeutic process by integrating mindfulness-based skills with Motivational Interviewing techniques. Participants will learn how to foster self-awareness, strengthen motivation for change, and support values-driven recovery while reducing resistance and practitioner burnout.

Fall Living Mindfully Retreat
2025-10-09 - 2025-10-12 | Blazing Mountain Retreat Center, 2541 W Carefree Wy, Crestone, CO, 81131, United States
Fall Living Mindfully Retreat with John Bruna
October 9th-12th, 2025
Early Bird Rate Until June 15!
The Fall retreat will focus on reducing the cognitive distortions, as well as unhealthy mental habits and patterns that create emotional and physical distress. The skills of living mindfully empower you to engage in your lives in ways that reduce stress, develop resiliency, attain greater degrees of self-worth, and cultivate more joy. Though based on Buddhist teachings, these practices are taught in a universal language, honoring and enhancing each person’s spiritual tradition and/or philosophy. Essentially, these are skills to help one live a life they find meaningful and fulfilling.
Hosted by the Way of Compassion Dharma Center. To learn more and register, click here.

New Year's Meditation Retreat
2026-01-01 - 2026-01-04 | Mercy Retreat Center, 535 Sacramento St, Auburn, CA, 95603, United States
Begin 2026 at the annual New Year’s meditation retreat with John and Laura at the Mercy Center in Auburn, CA. This is a rare opportunity to be guided in practice by both John Bruna and Laura Bartels!
John and Laura
The retreat is beginner friendly and will also allow for seasoned meditators to deepen their practice. We will focus on developing the foundational methods and practices to sustain a meditation practice that is right for you. The days will include multiple short meditation sessions, quiet reflection time, guidance, and discussion in the group teachings.
The primary meditation will be the foundational practice of shamatha (calm abiding) meditation. Shamatha is a universal practice, applicable to everyone, and is the antidote to an obsessive, compulsive, busy mind. It enhances any other meditation practice and provides the foundation for mental and emotional balance.
There will be ample time for journaling, walks, and spaciousness to gain clarity regarding your life and the way you choose to engage in the year that awaits you.
Register directly with the Mercy Center. Here is a direct link – Mercy Center Retreats.

Daylong Retreat: 3 Principal Aspects of the Path - Online and In Person
2026-03-29 09:30 - 15:30 | Durango Dharma Center, 1800 East 3rd Ave, Ste 109, Durango, CO, 81301, United States
The Three Principal Aspects of the Path: A Daylong Retreat with John Bruna

Hosted by the Durango Dharma Center
Sunday, March 29th from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. IN PERSON & ON ZOOM
In this daylong retreat, John Bruna will explore the timeless wisdom of The Three Principal Aspects of the Path, a short yet profound teaching by Je Tsongkhapa that distills the essence of the entire Buddhist path into just fourteen verses. Together, we will unpack these pith instructions and explore how they speak directly to the challenges, aspirations and inner struggles of modern life.
Drawing from classical Buddhist philosophy while making clear connections to contemporary Western psychology and therapeutic models, this retreat offers both depth and accessibility. It is well-suited for those new to Buddhist thought as well as seasoned practitioners seeking to deepen and integrate their practice.
At the heart of this teaching are three essential qualities that support genuine well-being, inner freedom and compassionate engagement with the world:
Renunciation
Learning to recognize how misperceptions and habitual patterns of mind give rise to unnecessary suffering—for ourselves and others. Renunciation in this context is not withdrawal from life, but a clear-eyed understanding of what truly leads to happiness, freedom and meaning, and how to cultivate those conditions in daily life.
Bodhicitta (Great Compassion)
Discovering the profound strength, resilience and healing that emerge when we cultivate connection and an altruistic motivation to benefit others. Bodhicitta transforms personal practice into a source of purpose, belonging and service.
Wisdom
Developing the capacity to understand ourselves and our experience of the world more accurately. Through this clarity, we begin to loosen deeply ingrained misperceptions that fuel emotional reactivity, distress and confusion—opening the door to greater balance, insight and freedom.
Throughout the retreat, participants will be guided through reflection, contemplation and practice aimed at integrating these teachings into real life—not merely as philosophical ideas, but as living principles that support healing, ethical living and genuine happiness.
Register at the Durango Dharma Center.

John at the Center for Contemplative Research: Becoming an Active Participant in Your Own Life
2026-07-11 10:00 - 23:30 | Center for Contemplative Research, 1 Carmelite Way, Crestone, CO, 81131, United States
From Equanimity to Agency: Becoming an Active Participant in Your Own Life
Saturday, July 11th, 10:00 a.m. to 11:30 am, Mountain Daylight Time (MDT)
9 a.m. PDT / 12 p.m. EDT / 6 p.m. Central European Time (CET)
Ways to attend:

Online via Zoom: Click Here.
In-person at Miyo Samten Ling Hermitage at 10:00 a.m. MDT (1 Carmelite Way, Crestone, CO), in the chapel (the building with the bell tower)

Make a donation to CCR – Donate.
Topic Description:
In our previous exploration of equanimity with John Bruna, we examined how a balanced and impartial mind frees us from being controlled by fear, attachment, and reactivity. But understanding this raises another important question: If we already know what leads to greater well-being, why is it often so difficult to actually live that way?
Most of us have experienced the gap between knowing and doing. We know meditation supports our well-being, yet we avoid practicing. We know kindness, patience, exercise, healthy relationships, and meaningful work enrich our lives, yet we often find ourselves pulled toward habits that offer immediate comfort while undermining our deeper aspirations. Why?
This Saturday, July 11, John Bruna will explore the conditioned patterns of mind that continually draw us toward short-term gratification and away from lasting well-being. Drawing from Buddhist psychology, contemplative science, and practical experience, we will examine how our habitual conditioning shapes our choices, why awareness alone is often not enough to create lasting change, and how we can gradually retrain the mind to align with our deepest values.
Equanimity is not the end of the path—it is the foundation that allows us to become conscious participants rather than unconscious passengers in our own lives. Through understanding the nature of conditioning and learning practical methods for cultivating new habits of mind, we discover that genuine freedom is not found in controlling circumstances but in developing the capacity to choose wisely, intentionally, and compassionately, moment by moment.
The invitation is not simply to know what is true, but to become the kind of person who naturally lives it.

11th-Step Retreat
2026-09-10 - 2026-09-13 | Mercy Retreat Center, 535 Sacramento St, Auburn, CA, 95603, United States
11th-Step Retreat Open To All People in Recovery of any Kind, Family, and Friends

Mercy Center, Auburn, CA – September 10-13, 2026

John and Peter are delighted to return to the Mercy Center in Auburn, CA for their annual 11th Step retreat. The retreat will focus on using the skills of meditation, mindfulness, and prayers of one’s own spiritual tradition to deepen their connection with their chosen spiritual path and develop more resiliency, inner peace, and joy in your life. There will be instruction, group discussions, meditation, and private reflection time.

A few quotes on prayer and meditation

“There is a direct linkage among self-examination, meditation, and prayer. Taken separately these practices can bring much relief and benefit. But when they are logically related and interwoven, the result is an unshakable foundation for life” (Page 98, 12 &12).

“Emotional balance is one of the first results of meditation, and our experience bears this out” (Page 47, NA Basic Text).

“Loving-kindness does not mean making sure you’re feeling good all the time – trying to set up your life so that you’re comfortable every moment. Rather, it means setting up your life so that you have time for meditation and self-reflection, for kindhearted, compassionate self-honesty.” Pema Chödrön

This retreat is hosted by the Mercy Center in Auburn, CA. Registration is open. You learn more and register by calling the Mercy Center at 530-887-2019. Here is a direct link to the retreat on their website – 11th Step Retreat.

Steps To Serenity Recovery Retreat
2026-09-18 - 2026-09-20 | Camp Ross Relles, 25001 N. BLOOMFIELD ROAD, Nevada City, CA, 95959, United States
John will be one of the main presenters at the Steps to Serenity Retreat at Camp Ross Relles in Nevada City, California. This is an 11th step focused weekend program, open to all 12 Step fellowship members, the retreat includes a collaborative effort of meetings, workshops, practitioners, and vendors. The primary focus is based on sharing, learning and developing a strong connection with practicing Step 11.
Learn more and register at: Steps to Serenity.

Fall Living Mindfully Retreat
2026-10-01 - 2026-10-04 | Blazing Mountain Retreat Center, 2541 W Carefree Wy, Crestone, CO, 81131, United States
“Mindfulness is much more than present moment awareness; mindfulness includes and facilitates the cultivation of concentration, wisdom, and the ability to make healthy choices that foster genuine happiness and a meaningful life.”— John Bruna

Our Living Mindfully retreats are offered twice a year, in the spring and fall, creating a dedicated space to pause, reflect, and reconnect with what truly matters. Each retreat is thoughtfully designed to help you recognize and gently shift unhealthy mental habits and patterns that often lead to emotional and physical distress.
Through practical, accessible teachings, you will develop skills that support greater clarity, resilience, and balance in everyday life. Living mindfully is not about escaping life. It is about learning how to fully engage with it. These practices can help reduce stress, strengthen your sense of self-worth, and open the door to a deeper, more sustainable sense of joy.
Attend in person or online!
To learn more and to register, visit Fall Living Mindfully Retreat.
