Study · Practice · Realize · Engage
A Monastery Without Walls
Sacred Mountain Sangha (SMS), founded by former Buddhist monastics, Kittisaro & Thanissara, is an international Dharma-based community devoted to the path of awakening, collective well-being, and compassionate action in this time of profound global transformation. As a monastery without walls, we are a living mandala rooted in presence, relationship, and the vow to serve. Drawing from the meditative depth of Theravāda and Mahāyāna, devotional practice, and sacred activism, we bridge inner realization and outer engagement.
Through classes, retreats, and training, we nurture ethical living and spiritual kinship, cultivating a diverse, multi-lineage field of awakening that honors our inter-being within nature’s sacred web of life. Our mission is to embody the Dharma as both refuge and response: rooted in wisdom, expressed through love, and alive in action.
Ānāpānasati:
Mindfulness of Breathing
Featured Online Offering
A live five-week course with Kittisaro
October 4th – Nov 8th, 2026
Sundays, 12:00 – 2:00 pm PT
Thursdays 9:00 – 11:00 a.m. PT
Regular Ongoing Offerings
In these times of profound uncertainty and systemic collapse, our work at Sacred Mountain Sangha (SMS) is dedicated to the reclamation of the sacred—within ourselves, our communities, and the Earth’s great web of life.
Being Dharma:
Monthlong Retreat 2027
Big Bear Retreat Center
A Month-long Residential Retreat for Dedicated and Experienced Practitioners. Taught by Kittisaro, Thanissara, Yong Oh, assisted by Djuna Devereaux.
The overall intention of this retreat, which synthesizes essential teachings and practices from Theravada and Mahayana traditions, is to offer a graduated sequence of complementary and mutually supportive Dharma approaches that guide the practitioner into liberating insight and realignment within the inherent intuitive wisdom of our natural state of being.
* Priority applications to be submitted September 21, 2026
Join Our Newsletter
Newsletters are one of the primary ways that we are in communication with our community. By signing up you’ll receive dharma reflections, information about various SMS events and offerings, and practices for these times.