One Moment at a Time
Summer 2025 Offering
The Essence of Change Retreat:
Meditating on The Three Characteristics of Human Experience
taught by Dalila Bothwell, Rae Houseman, & Alison Cohen
June 18-June 22, 2025
5 days / 4 nights, Online via Zoom
“Each moment of the retreat was given with such beautiful intention and each teacher brought their own unique way of offering their wisdom. I truly learned so much from each of you. Thank you! I look forward to the next retreat!”
“I am taking away a new capacity to be present with others in a calm, loving way. I am so profoundly moved and life now has a different flavor; I feel softer and more connected to myself and others. Thank you for your passion, tenderness, great skill, and ability to give so much.”
Why this retreat?
Right now, many of us find ourselves attempting to navigate a world characterized by constant change, unpredictability, and suffering. One of the most profound frameworks to guide us through this era is known in Buddhism as the Three Characteristics of Human Experience: impermanence, dissatisfaction/suffering, and non-self.
Learning how to open to the truth of these characteristics helps us live with greater ease, wisdom, and joy.
This retreat offers a supportive space for all of us to explore these core teachings experientially, as a community. Through meditation, teachings, and discussion, we will come together to explore how the Three Characteristics of Human Experience can provide a roadmap for wisely and compassionately showing up to life as 21st-century human beings.
A quick intro to The Three Characteristics of Human Experience:
Impermanence:
There’s a very human (and painful!) tendency to relate to our current circumstances as though they are permanent, even though change is an ever-present part of life. In this retreat, we will meditate on impermanence in different aspects of our lives, from fleeting thoughts to shifting emotions, so that we can experience greater freedom and clarity.Suffering or dissatisfaction:
As human beings, we often experience unpleasant or unwanted circumstances because life inevitably brings pain, loss, and dissatisfaction. By turning inward through meditation, we will learn to explore the nature of suffering—not as something to avoid or deny, but as a vital part of our experience. Understanding allows us to cultivate compassion for ourselves and others, and to move beyond a reactive response to life’s challenges.Non-Self:
We often cling to a sense of "self," believing that our identities are fixed and separate. But the reality is that each of us is constantly changing and part of an interdependent web of life. Together, we will explore how a nuanced understanding of non-self can shift our relationship to stress, identity, and personality tendencies, helping us to feel more connected to the world around us rather than isolated by our personal struggles.
The Power of Experiential Exploration as a Group
This retreat isn’t just about intellectual understanding of these concepts; it is about experiencing them firsthand. As a community, we will meditate together, share our insights, and hold space for one another. We will learn how our shared humanity can offer strength, support, and collective wisdom as we explore the power of these teachings.
Join us for this journey, where you’ll have the opportunity to deepen your meditation practice, connect with others, and find ways to navigate the complexities of our modern world through this timeless wisdom. Together, we can cultivate mindfulness, compassion, and wisdom—tools that will carry us through even the most challenging times.
Read on for FAQs (including registration information!), the retreat schedule, and teacher bios.
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This meditation retreat is for anyone who wants to deepen their practice of meditation in the context of a supportive community. Whether this is your first meditation retreat or your fiftieth, we're looking forward to co-creating a compassionate communal space. All are welcome.
If you are attending the retreat as fulfillment of the Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Program (MMTCP) retreat requirement, it is important that you are able and willing to participate in the full retreat.
For those of you who have expressed interest in using this retreat as an exploration of an integrated retreat experience, we encourage you to alternate between participating in the retreat and engaging in your daily life responsibilities with mindfulness. You are warmly welcome to join us if these are your circumstances, and if you are not aiming to fulfill the MMTCP retreat requirements. If this is your situation, we encourage you to:
Attend small groups.
Attend or listen to the recorded sessions: morning sit with instructions, the guided heart practice period, and the evening teaching
Choose another 1-2 practice periods you’re committed to attending each day.
Discuss ahead of time what “integrated into life” means for you with those in your household, including designating a specific quiet spot or location from which you can engage in the practice periods as part of the sangha (community of practitioners).
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The Sustainer Rate for this retreat, which represents the per/person cost of offering this retreat, is $450 USD.
The Giver Rate for this retreat, meaning the rate that covers the cost of your participation in this retreat and generously supports the participation of those who have requested a reduced rate, is $500 USD. If this is possible for you, payments at the Giver Rate allow us to offer financial support when needed.
If you would like to pay in 2 equal installments, one when you register and one in July, please email us at onemomentretreat@gmail.com and we will provide you with the code to input during registration.
If due to your current financial circumstances, you would benefit from a reduced rate, please email us at onemomentretreat@gmail.com. We are currently offering a select number of partial scholarships on an as-needed basis.
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This retreat is structured similarly to how you would participate in a meditation retreat if we were going to be in person together at a retreat center. Please see the schedule below.
The morning sit with instructions, the guided heart practice period, and the evening teaching will all be recorded. These recordings will be posted within 2-3 hours.
Retreat Schedule (approximate)
On Wednesday, July 18, the retreat begins at 1 pm EST. On Sunday, July 22, the retreat ends at 1 pm EST. These first and last days of the retreat will have shortened, modified schedules.
You will receive more detailed information about the schedule after registering.
The Thursday-Saturday approximate daily schedule is as follows; it is subject to slight changes. Because we will be showing up from different time zones, please eat, go to the bathroom, and take care of your body's needs during the times that are appropriate for you, even if there is something else scheduled during that time. Please prioritize attendance at the underlined periods below. Your presence is what makes the retreat powerful for all of us.
7:30-8:15 ET Optional Sit
8:15-9 ET Mindful breakfast (on your own)
9 am-9:45 am ET Sit with instructions
9:45-10 ET Whole group Q & R
10-10:30 am ET Walking meditation or mindful movement alternative
10:30-11 am ET Sit
11-11:30 am ET Walking meditation
11:30-12:30 ET Small groups
12:30-1:15 ET Mindful meal (on your own)
1:15-1:45 ET Sit
1:45-2:30 ET Walk
2:30-3:15 ET Guided heart practices sit
3:15-3:45 ET Walk
3:45-4 ET Break before teaching
4-4:45 ET Teaching offered by one of the teachers followed by a brief silent sit
4:45-5:15 ET Walk
5:15-6 ET Sit
6-7 EST Mindful Meal (on your own)
7:00-7:30 ET Walk
7:30-8:15 ET Sit: Teacher-held
8:15-9 ET Walk
9-9:30 ET Sit
9:30 ET Good night! Rest well and see you in the morning!
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The registration deadline is June 10 at 12 pm ET.
You can register by clicking the “Register Now” button and following the steps.
You will notice that some of the registration questions collect demographic information. We will use this information to ensure the small groups are diverse since that will enhance the retreat learning experience.
You will have the option of registering at the Giver Rate ($500) or the Sustainer Rate ($450).
After you register, you will receive an automated confirmation email.
In the 2-3 weeks prior to the retreat, the One Moment at a Time teaching team will send you additional pre-retreat details via email.
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Yes!
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Yes! We encourage you to read “Guidelines for a Successful Online Retreat,” compiled by the Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Program (MMTCP).
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Yes, for those of you who are in time zones such as CET where the communal retreat components will not begin until the afternoon, we encourage that you still approach each day as an immersive retreat experience by doing the following:
Consider waking up to start your day of practice at 7:30 am. After starting your day with a formal meditation for 45 minutes, you can take 45 minutes to enjoy a mindful breakfast (please time your meals throughout your day appropriately to suit your time zone).
After breakfast, at about 9 am, we encourage you to have another formal practice period for 45 minutes. Following that, at 9:45 am, you can move into an extended walking practice session of 45 minutes. Please continue practicing in this rhythm until you are able to join the schedule of the larger group. If at any point guidance would be supportive, feel free to listen to one of the recordings from an earlier day of the retreat.
Participating in the retreat until 10:45 pm CET (5:00 pm EST) would align with the retreat’s daily schedule and fulfill the Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Program (MMTCP) requirements.
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If you contact us to let us know you can no longer participate in the retreat and it is more than 2 weeks ahead of the retreat's start date, meaning prior to 11:59 pm on June 3, $250 will be refunded to you.
Less than two weeks before no refunds are applicable since we will likely not be able to fill your spot.
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This is an important inquiry to undertake. We particularly appreciate Spirit Rock Meditation Center's response to this question:
Intensive silent meditation retreats can be a beautiful and transformative experience. However, they can also invoke challenging emotional and mental states that are best engaged when physically and psychologically healthy. If you have experienced trauma and suspect that it would be difficult for you to be alone in silence, intensive retreat may not be the right practice for you at the moment. Recent painful experiences such as the death of a loved one can make silent retreat more difficult for some practitioners while others may find retreat healing or comforting. If you are in doubt about whether retreat is appropriate for you at the moment, consult a therapist or mental health professional.
Though our teachers are trained to recognize the symptoms of trauma and severe distress, they are not in the role of therapists or psychological professionals (even if they hold that training professionally). Retreat teachers are unable to give the kind of individual psychological care necessary to care for acute trauma symptoms.
If you are currently under the care of a psychiatric professional, please discuss your attendance with them. Practitioners should be in a stable period of mental well-being and have adequate self-regulatory resources to attend an intensive silent retreat.
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Yes, there will be the option of giving dana. We will include the details of how to do this in the post-retreat email you’ll receive soon after the end of the retreat.
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Thanks for asking! Please email us at onemomentretreat@gmail.com and we will respond to your email within two business days.
Frequently-asked questions
One Moment at a Time (OMAT) Teaching Team
Dalila Bothwell, Rae Houseman, and Alison Cohen first co-taught on the November 2020 Revolutionary Love Retreat as part of a large Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Program (MMTCP) teaching team. The three of them kept in touch and decided to keep teaching retreats together, retreats that provide the rare opportunity to experience life one moment at a time. Their first multi-day One Moment at a Time Retreat took place in July 2024, followed by a daylong retreat series in late 2024 and early 2025—and the journey continues!
Dalila Bothwell (Retreat Teacher)
Dalila Bothwell’s (she/her) Dharma-meditation practice lives at the intersection of love for community, land, wholeness, and 12-step recovery. The granddaughter of Claudia and Gussie Pearl, she finds refuge and hope in the liberation teachings of revolutionary lovers - from the Buddha to bell hooks. During her nearly decade-long tenure as a director for New York Insight Meditation Center, she learned the priceless value of sangha and the role relationships play in embodying the teachings and in creating kinder human beings.
Dalila is a graduate of the Spirit Rock Community Dharma Leaders Program, formally educated in nutritional science and food studies and has served with the Buddhist Peace Fellowship, Insight Meditation Society, and Dharma communities throughout the US. She loves dancing furiously in her kitchen and taking long walks in the desert with her handsome pup, Brisco. Dalila believes freedom is a holistic art. Learn more about Dalila at www.dalilabothwell.com.
Rae Houseman (Retreat Teacher)
Rae is passionate about integrating mindfulness into daily life. They believe moving toward an embodied practice is what supports growth and happiness. They find patience and humor to be of great benefit when learning to observe the habits and tendencies of the heart/mind.
Rae has practiced extensively in both the Insight Meditation tradition and the Vajrayana tradition, and finds the interweaving of these two approaches to be complementary of a deeply compassionate and discerning practice. They hold a Masters degree in Somatic Psychology and they are a certified Somatic Experiencing Practitioner. Learn more about Rae at www.raehouseman.com.
Alison Cohen (Retreat Teacher)
Alison Cohen (she/her), also known as Ali, loves supporting people in strengthening their capacity to connect: with themselves, with others, and with ancient and contemporary wisdom traditions. Alison’s journey to practice began as a young adult when she was desperate for guidance on how to compassionately navigate her tumultuous internal landscape, not to mention the world. On an Insight Meditation retreat, she found what she was looking for.
A former public school teacher and mindfulness program director, Alison guides Two Wings Mindfulness, which offers courses, retreats, and 1:1 support grounded in the wisdom of trauma-informed mindfulness practice. Alison currently teaches in Tara Brach’s A Year of Courageous Loving program and has mentored in the global Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Program (MMTCP). Since graduating from Harvard College and Fordham’s Graduate School of Education, Alison has trained with Mindful Schools, the UMass Center for Mindfulness (MBSR), and the International Institute for Restorative Practices, as well as under the guidance of several beloved teachers.