workshop Rhinebeck, NY

Touching the Earth

Using Spiritual Practices to Reconnect With Our Wildness

Dates

Aug 16–21, 2026

Tuition

Member: $490.00

Standard: $545.00

Register
Woman next to statue of Buddha

Step into the wild spaces both around and within you, using time-tested wisdom practices and cutting-edge somatic awareness to remember your place in the living web of Earth.

Ji Hyang Padma says the Buddhist path is one of radical inclusivity.

In our technology-saturated culture, we hunger for direct experience of the sacred—for true connectivity that goes beyond the quick fix of images and information. Join Ji Hyang Padma, PhD, and Rochelle Calvert, PhD, to find that connection and discover how the natural world serves as both mirror and medicine for your inner landscape—offering pathways to healing, awakening presence, and reclaiming your authentic wildness.

This integrated approach weaves ancient Buddhist healing rituals with contemporary mindfulness and somatic practices.

What You Experience

Sacred Storytelling & Ritual: Explore how meaning-making bridges inner and outer worlds through the Buddhist understanding that ritual is "embodied narrative." Learn Medicine Buddha practices and elements of Zen as vehicles for spiritual transformation and radical empathy.

Somatic Attunement in Nature: Through Dr. Calvert's evidence-based approach, you learn to calm and regulate your nervous system using the healing presence of the natural world. Discover how mindful connection with earth, water, wind, and growing things can rewire trauma responses and restore embodied wholeness.

Contemplative Outdoor Practices: Engage in guided meditations, walking practices, and earth-based ceremonies that awaken your senses and deepen your capacity for presence. These practices draw from both Zen mindfulness traditions and contemporary nature-based healing modalities.

Inner Wildness Reclamation: Reconnect with the untamed, authentic aspects of yourself that have been domesticated by cultural conditioning. Learn to trust your somatic wisdom and the guidance that emerges when you're fully present to the intelligence of the natural world.

Daily Rhythm: Each day will flow between indoor teachings and outdoor practice, honoring both contemplation and embodied experience. We'll begin with gentle movement and breathing practices, move into nature-based mindfulness sessions, explore ritual and ceremony, and close with group sharing and integration.

More Information

Flexible Elements: Weather and group needs may shift specific timings. Teachers will balance structure with responsiveness to the emerging wisdom of the group.

Between Sessions: Participants are encouraged to spend personal time in nature, practice techniques learned, and journal about their experiences.

Required Reading:

  • Healing With Nature: Mindfulness and Somatic Practices to Heal from Trauma by Rochelle Calvert  

Recommended Reading:

  • Living the Season: Zen Practice for Transformative Times by Ji Hyang Padma
  • Field of Blessings: Ritual & Consciousness in the Work of Buddhist Healers by Ji Hyang Padma

Things to Bring

  • Weather-appropriate outdoor clothing and layers
  • Water bottle
  • Bug spray and sunblock
  • Journal and pen
  • Sit pad or folding chair for outdoor sitting
  • Open heart and curious mind

Workshop Rhinebeck, NY

Aug 16–21, 2026

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Touching the Earth

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  • Ji Hyang Padma

    Ji Hyang Padma

    Ji Hyang Padma has 30 years of experience in Buddhist training and teaching.

  • calvert_rochelle_bio1

    Rochelle Calvert

    Rochelle Calvert, PhD, is a clinical ecopsychologist, ecodharma teacher, and mindfulness teacher.