eamba Retreats
As mindfulness teachers, we are aware of the benefits of practicing in a collective context as during retreats. We can deepen our own mindfulness practice and gain personal insights that help us embody the practice when teaching.
Retreats offer an opportunity for us to refresh and nourish our passion for mindfulness practices and teaching, allowing us to return to our role with a renewed sense of purpose and inspiration. We can refine our teaching skills by observing how experienced retreat leaders guide participants, as well as through the feedback and guidance received during the retreat.
Moreover, eamba Retreats offer a unique opportunity to practice with a community of mindfulness teachers from different countries in and near Europe. to create or strengthen connections, experience the support of such a wider community, and network with other mindfulness professionals to foster a sense of belonging and shared intentions.
All eamba Retreats are offered on site and online.
Next retreat: 2-7 January 2026 in Germany.
2-7 January 2026 eamba Retreat in Germany, guided by Tatsudo Nicole Baden Roshi in Germany and Online.
Theme: Opening into Original Mind – A Zen Path into freedom from categories
(photo credit Jürgen Frank)
To participate on location in Germany, please book your accommodation directly with Hof Oberlethe.
To participate online, you will receive a Zoom link with the confirmation of your registration.
Opening into Original Mind – A Zen Path into Freedom from Categories
In our everyday experience, perception often feels immediate and effortless. But according to one of Buddhism’s earliest and most practical teachings — the five Skandhas — what we call “experience” is actually a layered, moment-by-moment construction.
From raw sensation (form), we move through feeling, perception, and mental associations, until we arrive at a full-blown inner narrative: consciousness. This process happens countless times each day, mostly without our noticing — and while it’s vital for functioning in the world, it can also lock us into rigid patterns of thought, emotion, and reaction. Without awareness, this mental architecture becomes a cage. But with awareness, it becomes a path.
In this retreat, Nicole Baden Roshi will guide us backward through the Skandhas, offering a way into the freshness and freedom Zen calls Original Mind.
This is not a theoretical inquiry, but a lived and embodied one — grounded in stillness, mindfulness, and the intimate details of our sensorial life.
“Original mind is relatively free from categories. It is an unstructured mind: wild and deeply grounded in the immediacy of sensorial aliveness. From this perspective, perception becomes appreciation and insight. We learn from the world itself: from mountains, misty air, the intricacies of birdsong, the smoke of incense, the look in another’s eye, or the inevitability of death.”
— Nicole Baden Roshi
This retreat is open to practitioners from all traditions and levels of experience who wish to explore a more direct and grounded relationship with mind, perception, and the mystery of the present moment.
Registration via this form please.
—
Biography of the Retreat Guide
Tatsudō Nicole Baden Rōshi *1981 (photo credit Jürgen Frank)
Tatsudo Nicole Baden is the Abbess of the international non-profit organization Dharma Sangha and its two Zen Practice Centers, the Crestone Mountain Zen Center in Colorado, USA and the Zen Buddhist Center in the Black Forest, Germany. Nicole is a Dharma Successor of Zentatsu Baker Roshi in the Soto Zen Lineage. She has been practicing Zen since 2001 and received Dharma Transmission in 2017.
Nicole graduated as a psychologist from the University of Oldenburg in 2008. She also trained at the ‘School for Body Mind Centering’ for four years. She was a member of the council of the German Buddhist Union from 2013-2019 and is currently serving on the advisory council of the mindfulness oriented MBSR Association. She has been living and practicing either at the Crestone Mountain Zen Center or at the Zen Buddhist Center Schwarzwald (ZBZS) in Germany since 2009.
2-7 January 2025 eamba Retreat in Germany, guided by Nicole Baden Roshi.
Hybrid in silence retreat with Tatsudo Nicole Baden Roshi
“Awakening Body, Speech, and Mind”
Zen Practice helps us to notice ‘what we already are’. And ‘what we already are’ is connected to ‘what we want to be’ in the deepest sense. The craft then is to open up those connections. Zentatsu Baker Roshi
Body, Speech, and Mind are three aspects of our existence. From a Buddhist perspective, we can subsume all of our existence into these three categories. Buddhist practice is to open the depth and subtleties of each of these three.
We experientially explored the body from within the experience of the body. We learnt to bring ‘micro attentionality’ to our bodily sensations and to notice the body outside of our usual categories. We explored ‘imaginal body practice’, like the question ‘what is the body of the Buddha?’, ‘How could my experience be the experience of a Buddha’s body?’
Speech, in Buddhism is understood to be any flow of information, way beyond just verbal speech. The word ‘communication’ etymologically means ‘to change together’. We explored speech in this wider sense.
Mind can be understood as ‘sentient space’. Mind can have different structures, architectures. We worked with and explore a wider understanding of mind than our usual daily consciousness, and we learnt how such an experience of mind can be liberating.
It was mainly a in silence-retreat, including daily lectures, body movements, walking meditation, still seated meditation practice, and small groups and inquiries.
About the teacher
Tatsudo Nicole Baden Roshi (*1981) is the Dharma Successor of Zentatsu Baker Roshi in the Dharma Sangha Soto Zen Lineage of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi, author of the book “Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind”. The Dharma Sangha is an international non-for-profit organization founded by Zentatsu Baker Roshi.
Nicole is the Abbot and Head Teacher of the two Dharma Sangha Practice Centers, the Zen Buddhistisches Zentrum Schwarzwald in the Black Forest, Germany and the Crestone Mountain Zen Center, in Colorado, USA. She began practicing Zen in 2001 and has been living in monastic contexts since 2009, either at the Crestone Mountain Zen Center or at the Zen Buddhistisches Zentrum Schwarzwald.
She holds a degree in Psychology from the University of Oldenburg. In 2007, she also graduated from the ‘School for Body Mind Centering©’, a method teaching bodily awareness and therapeutic applications. From 2013-2019 she was a member of the Council of the German Buddhist Union. More about Nicole.
RETREAT FACTS
Location: Hof Oberlethe, Wardenburgerstr. 24, 26203 Wardenburg (near Bremen) Germany.
Please book your accommodation directly with Oberlethe.
www.hof-oberlethe.de
+49 4407 6840 Main office hours: Mon -Fri 09.00 – 13.00
E-mail: info@hof-oberlethe.de
Accommodation
495,00 per person in a double room with bathroom next door, single occupancy 605,00.
530,00 per person in a double room with private bathroom, single occupancy 640,00.
375,00 per person in a group dormitory dormitory/in niches, separated by curtains, on the gallery above the meditation hall, bringing your own bedding sleeping bag/ towels/pillows.
Food
All food was vegetarian, as much as possible organic.
Food intolerances or any other kind of special dietary needs: directly to be communicated to Hof Oberlethe (see above).
REGISTER for Retreat ON SITE: Retreat Fee on site 399€.
REGISTER for Retreat ONLINE: Retreat Fee online 399€.
Enrolment is only complete after filling out this form.
Contact: retreat@eamba.net
Donations
It is eamba’s intention to make eamba Retreats possible for all teachers.
You are welcome to support colleagues by paying something extra when transferring the fee on the invoice for the retreat. Thank you for your solidarity and generosity.
For an impression of the retreat teacher Nicole Baden Roshi guiding the eamba Retreat in January 2024 watch this video.
eamba-retreat-2025/- enrolment form
Zen meets MBSR – joined in mindfulness, stillness and awareness.
This retreat was an exceptional journey – for the first time Zen Practitioners from the Dharma Sangha practiced together with 20 online eamba-participants and 30 onsite participants.
For an extract from the 2-7 eamba retreat, see the video on YouTube with the teacher speaking, Nicole Baden Roshi.
The retreat was guided by Nicole Baden Roshi.
What an intercultural meeting: we came from “all over the planet”: Belgium, Germany, Israel, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Serbia, Sweden, and USA.
Every situation was “our situation”, we made use of the space, which we – Nicole and the eamba retreat team and the participants, plus the venue – provided.
We shifted from silence into stillness.
We moved from consciousness over to awareness and into the intimacy of vastness.
We altogether became a body of awareness, supporting each other in our love for truth.
Thanks to existence and everyone, that made this unforgettable journey possible!
.
Tatini from the eamba retreat team.
Change Changes Changing – A Path of Attentional Bodifulness
The fruits of meditation and mindfulness practice are well studied: We may feel a deeper sense of connectedness, stillness and inner peace, an increased sense of aliveness, clarity, vitality, and happiness – to just name a few.
In this retreat we will use our somatic familiarity with the feel of practice to explore the worldviews, we could say‚ the soil‘, within which these practices take root, grow, and evolve most fully. The fundamental assumption of the Yogic World is that everything changes. Everyone knows this is true! But the depth and consequentiality of this simple fact is usually not experienced. We say, ‘Change changes changing‘, and Buddhist practices can be viewed as the response to the truth of change.
It is from ‘knowing change‘ not ‘knowing about‘, but rather ‘knowing as and with and through‘ change that we can open our bodily minds and ‘minded bodies’ into a radically different sense of world:
- A world based on attentionality, not conceptuality
- A world of relationality, not reality
- A world of interindependence, not separation and connectedness
- A world in which our reference point is aliveness, not self
We will explore each of these aspects as perspectival shifts, turning points or gates to immerse ourselves into the experience of the ‘Yogic World‘.
Zen practice is primarily based on Buddhist Yogachara teachings. Yogachara means ‘yoga practice’, but the ‘yoga’ of Yogachara is not simply what is meant nowadays in the West by the word ‘yoga’. The ‘yoga practice’ of Zen means the whole of one’s life is a practice of embodying ‘things as they are’, locating yourself in things as they are: as sensorium, as mind, as changing, as interdependent, as other, and as indeterminate. This is the yogic view of Zen and it is a part of the yogic culture of East Asia and India.
The fundamental assumption of yogic culture is that all mental phenomena have a physical component and that all sentient physical phenomena have a mental component. There is no human mind without a body and no alive human body without a mind. It is not that there is a body and a mind, there is a bodymind and a mindbody – otherwise there could be no relationship. Thus, all teachings and practices are both physical and mental.
Zentatsu Baker Roshi in “Yogic Culture“
About the teacher
Tatsudo Nicole Baden Roshi (*1981) is the Dharma Successor of Zentatsu Baker Roshi in the Dharma Sangha Soto Zen Lineage of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi, author of the book “Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind”. The Dharma Sangha is an international non-for-profit organization founded by Zentatsu Baker Roshi.
Nicole is the Vice Abbot and Head Teacher of the two Dharma Sangha Practice Centers, the Zen Buddhistisches Zentrum Schwarzwald in the Black Forest, Germany and the Crestone Mountain Zen Center, in Colorado, USA. She began practicing Zen in 2001 and has been living in monastic contexts since 2009, either at the Crestone Mountain Zen Center or at the Zen Buddhistisches Zentrum Schwarzwald.
She holds a degree in Psychology from the University of Oldenburg. In 2007, she also graduated from the ‘School for Body Mind Centering©’, a method teaching bodily awareness and therapeutic applications. From 2013-2019 she was a member of the Council of the German Buddhist Union.
To find out more about Nicole.
Schedule
The first day Monday January 2 arrival and registration from 11 am and lunch starts at 1 pm. Our program starts at 2:30 pm and continues until 9 pm with dinner between 6:30 to 7:30 pm.
The last day January 7 will end with lunch between 12:30 and 2:30 pm.
Tentative schedule during day 3-6
6:30 am Wake-up
7:00 Mindful movement
8:00 Breakfast
9:30 Morning session
12:30 Lunch and rest
2:30 pm Mindful movement
3:00 Afternoon session
4:30 Tea
4:45 Afternoon session cont.
6:00 Dinner
7:30 Evening session
9:00 Rest
Retreat Facts
For all requests and clarification please send an email to the Retreat working group at retreat@eamba.net
For whom?
This retreat welcomes mindfulness teachers and those in training.
Offered in English.
Date & Time
This five-day hybrid silent retreat is from January, 2 until January 7, 2024.
The program starts on January 2 at 13:00 hrs with lunch, check in from 11:00 hrs, and ends on January 7 at 12:30 hrs.
Retreat fee
240 €, this includes the teacher’s honorarium.
If you pay from an account in a valuta other than EURO, please ensure to add the bank costs of 10€ – 20€ depending on your bank.
Donations are welcome to offer generosity in providing a range of options for participants with limited means.
Contact retreat@eamba.net to be eligible for a lower fee.
Location
The retreat is offered on location and online.
Address
Hof Oberlethe
Bildungs-und Besinnungsstätte
Wardenburgerstraße 14
26203 Wardenburg
Germany
Phone: +49 4407 6840
Fax: +49 4407 5480
E-Mail: info@hof-oberlethe.de
Website: www.hof-oberlethe.de
Accommodation
Please that you need to book your accommodation directly with Hof Oberlethe.
The venue offers three price categories (indicative, for exact numbers please check with Hof Oberlethe).
- 478 € per person for double room with bathroom next door – single occupancy 588 €
- 513 € per person for double room with private bathroom – single occupancy 623 €
- 358 € per person in joint dormitory/in niches, separated by curtains, on the gallery above the meditation hall, bringing your own bedding sleeping bag/ towels/pillows
- 318 € for participants staying outside the yard. (Except in the Lethe Hof)
Food
All food is vegetarian, as much as possible it is organic.
Please communicate food intolerances or any other kind of special dietary needs directly to Hof Oberlethe.
Donation
It is our intention to make eamba Retreats possible for all teachers.
You are welcome to support colleagues by paying something extra when transferring the fee on the invoice for the retreat.
Thank you for your solidarity and generosity.
eamba Retreats offer a unique opportunity to practice with the community of mindfulness teachers from different countries in and near Europe. The 2023 eamba Retreat will be the 10th annual retreat and it has grown to be a place that many teachers return to every year, as they find it supportive to sit with other colleagues and deepen and refresh their practice. You might want to mark your agenda for 2-7 January 2024.
Retreat Theme: Dimensions of Trust
- What can we trust in?
- What sustains our practice in times like these?
- When many of our known reference points are less and less reliable?
The experience of existential crises was also faced by Prince Siddhartha. In particular, the realisation of change and inexorable impermanence deeply troubled him. This was the starting point for his profound spiritual journey and as Buddha Shakyamuni, he later helped many people who were also going through upheavals, losses, and emotional challenges.
Crises sometimes demand great courage from us – and they can open the mind to deep trust. In Buddhism, trust (Pali: saddha) is central to all Dharma practice and mind training. This retreat is a special opportunity to rediscover and deepen this timeless quality.
More Information: www.tinekeosterloh.com
Retreat Facts
For all requests and clarification please send an email to the Retreat working group at retreat@eamba.net
For whom?
This retreat welcomes mindfulness teachers and those in training.
Offered in English.
Date & Time
This five-day silent retreat is from January, 2 until January 7, 2023.
The program starts on January 2 at 16:00 hrs, and ends on January 7 at 12:30 hrs.
Location
Hof Oberlethe in Germany.
Fee
- Retreat fee
The fee for this retreat is 210 €. This includes the teacher’s honorarium. - Accomodation costs (only for participation in Germany)
Additional costs for accommodation and food (all food is vegetarian. As much as possible, also organic).
The venue may also take possible food intolerances or any other kind of special diet into account.
Address
Hof Oberlethe
Bildungs-und Besinnungsstätte
Wardenburgerstraße 14
26203 Wardenburg
Germany
Phone: +49 (4407) 68 40
Fax: +49 (4407) 54 80
E-Mail: info@hof-oberlethe.de
Website: www.hof-oberlethe.de
Accommodation
Please note that you need to book your accommodation directly with Hof Oberlethe
The venue offers three different price categories – indicative, for exact numbers please check with Hof Oberlethe:
- 390 € per person for double room with bathroom in the corridor
- 420 € per person for double room with private bathroom
- 85 € surcharge for single occupancy
- 285 € per person in joint dormitory/in niches, separated by curtains, on the gallery above the meditation hall, bringing your own bedding (sleeping bag)/ towels/pillows
Donation
It is our intention to make eamba Retreats possible for many teachers.
If you like to support other colleagues to participate, you are very welcome to pay something extra when transferring the fee on the invoice for the retreat.
Thank you for your solidarity!
Retreats organised by eamba Associations locally can be added to the eamba calendar.
To have your retreat supported by eamba you can mail to info@eamba.net.
QR code for Donations
It is eamba’s intention to make eamba Retreats possible for all teachers.
You are welcome to support colleagues by paying something extra when transferring the fee on the invoice for the retreat.
Thank you for your solidarity and generosity.
Cancellation policy
– until 80 days before the start of an eamba retreat (): 70% refund (retreat registration)
– until 40 days before the start of an eamba retreat ( until : 50% refund (retreat registration)
– until 30 days before the start of an eamba retreat ( until : 35% refund (retreat registration)
– 29 days before the start of an eamba retreat () no refund possible.
A cancellation fee of € 25 is due.
Registration closes 4 (four) days before the start of an eamba retreat () to get all details well-organised on time.
For cancellation of the room and catering arrangement, please contact the location management.
All eamba Retreats are offered on site and online.
Next retreat in Germany:
2-7 January 2026.
REGISTRATION is OPEN.
Location
Hof Oberlethe.
Wardenburger Straße 24.
D-26203 Wardenburg. Germany
Phone: +49 4407. 6840
(Core office hours:
weekdays 9:00 – 13:00 CET)
E-mail: info@hof-oberlethe.de
Please book accommodation directly with Hof Oberlethe
if you plan to attend on site.
Donations
It is eamba’s intention to make eamba Retreats possible for all teachers.
You are welcome to support colleagues by paying something extra when transferring the fee on the invoice for the retreat. Thank you for your solidarity and generosity.
