Springwater Center holds retreats throughout the year on 200 acres of woods, fields and streams in western New York. Retreats are in silence with a non-technical approach to meditation, no ritual, and an entirely optional sitting and walking schedule. Questioning her affiliation with formal Buddhist Zen, Toni Packer left the Rochester Zen Center, where she had been a teacher, with a group of friends in 1981. Springwater was born out of this need to see through the raw material of our everyday lives rather than grapple with traditional koans and practices.
