Upcoming External Events
Over the course of a year, our core teachers are invited to be guests at various retreat and Buddhist study centers around the country and beyond.
The section below contains listings and links for retreats that Willa is offering through other venues outside of Natural Dharma Fellowship.
Scroll through the gallery below to see upcoming events and click through for more information & registration.
PLEASE NOTE:
These retreats are held outside of Natural Dharma Fellowship and will not show up on our regular schedule.
Please contact the individual venues for information and registration.
Tech Tip: See more events using the green arrows below.
Publications
The Wakeful Body
Somatic mindfulness is informed by one very simple observation: the mind is distracted but the body is not. The body is not thinking or ruminating. It is just feeling and being present, aware, and vibrant. (2021)
The Arts of Contemplative Care
Powerful and life-affirming, this watershed volume brings together the voices of pioneers in the field of contemplative care--from hospice and hospitals to colleges, prisons, and the military. (2012)
Everyday Dharma
In The Everyday Dharma, Willa Blythe Baker, an authorized Lama in the Tibetan Buddhist Tradition, reworks ancient Buddhist techniques and adapts them for western readers seeking personal transformation. (2009)
Essence of Ambrosia
Essence of Ambrosia: a guide to Buddhist meditation, composed by prolific Tibetan scholar and practitioner Jonangpa Tāranātha ("Liberating Protector of Jonang,"). Translated by Willa Blythe Baker. (2009)
Articles & Interviews
Embodiment– While the way we live as humans has—for many of us—become less embodied, there is much the body can teach the mind.
Podcasts & Video
- Think Act Be Podcast – Easing into the Natural Wakefulness of the Physical Body
- Ten Percent Happier with Dan Harris
- Mind and Life with Wendy Hasenkamp PhD
- Noble Mind with Katerine King PsyD
- Spirit Matters Talk with Philip Goldberg and Dennis Raimondi
- Middle Way Initiative with Elizabeth Mattis Namgyal – Lama Willa Part I – Deep Dive with Lama Willa
- Middle Way Initiative with Elizabeth Mattis Namgyal – Lama Willa Part II – A Students Sacred Outlook
- Sit, Breathe, Bow – The Body is the Divine Door to Wakefulness
- Blue Beryl with Dr. Pierce Salguero – Awakening the Body
- MIT News: Buddhist Lecture Series – Lama Willa Baker challenges MIT audience to look beyond technology to solve the climate crises
- Sangha Live Sunday Sangha Teaching – Rewilding: Dharma as a Journey Home to Wildness, Wonder and Ancestral Ground
- Council for the Uncertain Human Future (CUHF)
- Yab Yum Symbolism, Heteronormativity, and Translating Sexual Yoga – Lama Willa Baker participates in a panel during the fall 2022 Lotsawa Translation and Transmission Conference
- Lama Live! August 6, 2023 – Lama Willa teaches how to embrace our “beautiful monsters” through Five Steps to Befriending Feelings.
Biography
Willa Blythe Baker
Lama Willa is the Founding Teacher and Spiritual Co-Director of Natural Dharma Fellowship in Boston, MA, and its retreat center Wonderwell Mountain Refuge in Springfield, NH. She was authorized as a dharma teacher and lineage holder in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition (Kagyu, Nyingma and Shangpa Lineages) after twelve years of monastic training and two consecutive three-year retreats. In 2013, Willa completed a doctorate at Harvard University, and was Visiting Lecturer in Buddhist Ministry from 2013 to 2017.
Willa is author of several books including The Wakeful Body: Somatic Mindfulness as a Path to Freedom (Shambhala Publications, 2021), The Arts of Contemplative Care: Pioneering Voices in Buddhist Chaplaincy and Pastoral Work (Wisdom Publications, 2012), Everyday Dharma: Seven Weeks to Finding the Buddha in You (Quest Books, 2009), Essence of Ambrosia: A Guide to Buddhist Contemplations (Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, 2005), and the upcoming book Appearances Unleashed: A Memior of Jigme Lingpa (Shambhala Publications, 2023).
Willa's articles and translations have appeared in Tricycle, Lion’s Roar, Buddhadharma, Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies, Tibet Journal, and other periodicals and anthologies. She is a Contemplative Fellow of the Mind and Life Institute, an original member of The Council of the Uncertain Human Future, and an Advisor for One Earth Sangha.
At present, Willa writes and teaches students interested in cultivating a deep meditation practice in daily life. Her teaching interests include the wisdom of the body, eco-dharma, non-dual awareness, and compassion. Her primary translation interests are in the genres of poetry and autobiography.