Maya Retreat

Introduction

Mindful Awareness for Young Adults (MAYA) offers mindfulness retreats in California and Virginia for teens and young adults ages 14 to 30 from throughout the U.S. and Canada. MAYA Website: www.mayaretreats.org

MAYA's roots extend back to the Insight Meditation Society in western Massachusetts where the revered Burmese meditation master Sayadaw U Pandita implored meditators in the West to begin teaching young people about mindfulness. IMS responded by developing an annual teen retreat that combines traditional silent meditative practices with integrative practices such as movement, discussion and creative expression.

Tempel Smith, one of the original IMS teen retreat staff members, introduced IMS's teen retreat model on the West Coast in 2003 under the sponsorship of the Buddhist Peace Fellowship in Oakland, Calif., holding a summer and winter residential retreat each year and later adding weekend retreats.

In 2007 Tempel and others from the California program helped the Center for Community Development Inc., launch its own teen retreats, and also held the first young adult retreat based on the teen retreat model in California. When BPF underwent a major reorganization in 2008, CCDI agreed to sponsor the youth retreat program and MAYA was born.