A Year to Live (YL8T27)

A Year to Live is a yearlong online meditation retreat offered through Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Woodacre, California, and held on Zoom. Inspired by Stephen Levine's book of the same name, it invites people of any age and at any stage of life to contemplate death as a way of living more fully. It is taught in the Insight (Vipassana) and wider Buddhist tradition by Vinny Ferraro and Frank Ostaseski, assisted by Monika Son and Christian Howard.

The program is a sustained exploration of forgiveness, gratitude and letting go. The Buddha encouraged reflection on death not out of fear but to wake up to the fleeting beauty of life, and that is the spirit here.

What to Expect

The year is built around twelve monthly large-group sessions, each three hours in the morning Pacific Time, with the first session running 45 minutes longer. Each one has a theme, moving from The Prognosis and Fear of Death and Dying through Softening to Fear, Practicing Dying, Life Review, Building an Altar, and Who or What Dies? The later months turn to What Comes Next?, What to Do With This Body?, A Will, a Memorial, and an Epitaph, We Are Not Alone, and finally Saying Good-bye. A short graduation gathering follows after the twelfth session.

Sessions combine guided meditation, thoughtful inquiry, teaching, Q&A and breakout discussion. Between them, participants meet monthly in a Home Group of about one hour. Spirit Rock staff assign these small groups, which are self-hosted and self-facilitated, and each group chooses its own meeting time during the first large-group session. Expect roughly five to seven hours of practice a month on top of that: guided meditations, readings and reflections, plus daily meditation.

Before the year begins, everyone attends one of two short orientation sessions and a Community Essentials session. Engaging with this material can be uncomfortable, challenging and difficult at times, and also profoundly liberating.

About the Teachers

Vinny Ferraro has practiced insight meditation (Vipassana) for many years. He is a co-founder of Dharma Punx and has been Guiding Teacher of the Big Heart City Sangha in San Francisco for twenty years. He is also nationally recognized for designing and leading interventions for at-risk adolescents.

Frank Ostaseski is an internationally respected Buddhist teacher, co-founder of the Zen Hospice Project and founder of the Metta Institute. He has lectured at Harvard Medical School, the Mayo Clinic, and companies including Google and Apple, and teaches at major spiritual centers around the world.

Monika Son, PhD, is an educator, chaplain, trauma-informed facilitator and space holder with more than two decades of experience at the intersection of psychology, education and social justice. She is a longtime student in the Soto Zen lineage and a graduate of the Buddhist Chaplaincy program at Upaya Zen Center.

Christian Howard is an interdisciplinary artist, Dharma teacher, death doula and immersive experience designer whose work joins contemplative practice, creative play and end-of-life care. They have over a decade of study and practice in the Indo-Tibetan Buddhist tradition and are an apprentice teacher at East Bay Meditation Center, a Cultivating Emotional Balance trainer, and a certified mindfulness instructor.

Before You Go

Participants need at least three days of silent residential retreat, mindfulness daylongs or workshops, or a combination of the two. A consistent meditation practice, ideally daily, is strongly encouraged, and readiness to engage with death awareness and existential themes matters.

The commitment is firm: one orientation, the Community Essentials session, the first large-group session, at least ten of the twelve large-group sessions live, and every monthly Home Group. Those who cannot meet it are invited to join a future year instead.

The program is offered in English and Spanish. It includes the live sessions, Home Groups, guided meditations, readings, monthly reflective inquiries, the graduation, and lifetime access to recordings and materials. One-on-one teacher consultations and printed workbooks are not included. Sliding-scale and scholarship rates are available, along with payment plans.