Libertad 80, Centro, Pátzcuaro, Mich., México
May 22 - 25, 2026
About this Retreat
Marty Janowitz has been a student of mindfulness, awareness, and Buddhism since encountering his teacher Chögyam Trungpa, Rinpoche at the age of 20. Over the decades since he has held a variety of roles in service to Rinpoche, his son Mipham Rinpoche and the broader Kagyu-Nyingma-Shambhala lineages. These included as an Acharya (senior teacher - retired 2019), Kusung Dapön (leader of the personal guardian attendants), and as the Shambhala Warrior General guiding the international Council of Warriors. He has taught the full spectrum of dharma and Shambhala levels and practices as an instructor and guide at many intensive meditation and practice seminaries, retreats and programs in North, Central and South America, Europe and Asia and remotely around the world, always focusing on ways dharma can be grounded personally to ‘walk the talk’.
As a senior teacher within the Shambhala lineage he is committed to its vision of an integrated path of inner and societal transformation that expresses the heart of awareness. In his sanghas in both Boulder Colorado and Nova Scotia Canada, Marty served in an array of initiatives including the creation and 50+ year journey of Naropa University, development of the first comprehensive meditation instructor program and as a pioneering teacher of the Shambhala Training levels. He was an early member of the Boards of Vajradhatu and later Shambhala, and accompanied Trungpa, Rinpoche as his personal secretary and attendant during a number of his worldwide teaching tours.
Marty dedicated his social engagement to environmental organizations locally and internationally, including as the volunteer Chair of the Nova Scotia Roundtable on Environment, President of the Nova Scotia Nature Trust and as Chair of the Authentic Leadership in Action (ALIA) Institute. Over the past eight years, Marty and his wife Susanna transitioned to a new base in central Mexico (Ajijic, Jalisco) where he became the senior teacher at the Heart of Awareness Buddhist sangha, teaching and sharing dharma and meditation instruction. He has offered programs in Mexico City, Tepoztlan and Patzcuaro and many classes remotely. He has also pursued training, certification and practice as an executive and life coach, drawing on the intertwined dimensions of his life experience.
Details of this retreat
Compassion automatically invites you to relate with people because you no longer regard people as a drain on your energy. - Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche
In uncertain times, clarity and compassion are not luxuries but are essential capacities we can train.
This weekend retreat offers an opportunity to pause, reflect, and reconnect with the inner stability, strength, and warmth that are always available to us. Guided by Buddhist teachings, we will explore how fear, confusion, and personal challenges are not immovable barriers but doorways through which we can face our confusions and fears.
Through meditation, study, reflection, and shared experience, we will consider how practice can support a more compassionate and balanced way of engaging with our lives, relationships, communities, and and beyond.
We will touch a few key elements of this journey – common obstacles to becoming true friends with ourselves (maitri), opening us to genuine compassion (karuna) and the six perfections (Paramitas) that has always been our nature. From this foundation, we will begin to explore the Mahayana perspective, where awareness deepens into compassion and the aspiration to benefit others.
This retreat will be offered in English with Consecutive Interpreting in Spanish.
Tentative schedule:
Friday, May 22, 2026, 6 pm - 8 pm, Public talk
Saturday, May 23, 2026, 9:30 am - 6 pm, Group retreat (lunch and snack included)
Sunday, May 24, 2026, 9:30 am - 6 pm, Group retreat (lunch and snack included)
On Monday May 25, there are not program activities, it is just departure day an a continental breakfast will be available for participants.
Full program tuition not including accommodations:
In-person retreat: $1,500 MXN/$85.00 USD
Online retreat: $930 MXN/$50.00 USD
Early bird discount: $350 MXN/$25 USD Valid until April 30 for both online and in-person.
Please note that the Early Bird discount for online participants will be applied after registration
We are committed to including people of all income levels; scholarship and a sliding scale are available. If you need financial assistance, we encourage you to send us an email.
Pay-It-Forward program tuition not including accommodations: $3410 pesos/$193 USD.
We invite all who are able to do so to consider paying the Pay-It-Forward tuition rate. By doing so, you make it possible for us to offer scholarships to others, particularly our Mexico sangha, while also covering the direct cost of your stay here and contributing to our year-round operations. Please select Pay-It-Forward Tuition Add-On in Registration.
Travel arrangements: We recommend flights into Morelia airport (90 minutes away by car). We can help with travel arrangements, please inquire about options. Please visit our How to Get Here page for more info.
If you have any questions regarding this program, please send us an email at: reservations@casawerma.org
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