Why support a young person from one of the most affluent countries in the world to spend a week in a beautiful location doing “nothing?” This is a good question.

The purpose of Dharma Gates is not just to help young people suffer less, although this is good. It is to help young people remember that they are vital agents in this world. What young people in privileged countries choose to do with their lives—the careers, friends, mentors, and daily habits they choose—has tremendous systemic impact. Our collective future is highly dependent on the choices young people make, on the people they choose to become, on the values they uphold.

Through meditation training, we learn how it feels to live inside a cruel mind, a kind mind, a distracted mind, and a clear mind. From this understanding, we can then choose how to live. We begin to understand that the burning of the Amazon and scrolling mindlessly on a smartphone are born of the same source: the destructive, conditioned behaviors of the human mind. Conversely, we see that each moment of our life is shockingly precious, and each moment of presence is healing the world. Our small acts of numbness, pretending we are powerless and our actions don’t matter, contribute to larger acts of violence. Our small acts of presence and love support greater peace beyond.

There is something vital missing from our education systems, and from the values and lessons our society passes on to young people, something which rests at the core of every crisis we are facing. Restoring contact with our own basic love and sanity is worth any amount of money.

In 2023, Dharma Gates offered multi-day retreats to 150 participants and one-day retreats to 50 participants. We also offered two online courses exploring living and ethical life and building a sustainable meditation practice to 77 participants over 13 total weeks of programming. We are proud to have maintained our commitment to the dana system: all of this programming has been offered to participants free of charge.

In 2023, 77% of Dharma Gates expenses directly supported our programming while 3% support fundraising costs and 19% support our administrative costs. Our administrative costs provide livable compensation to our young team while allowing them to sit intensive retreats - thereby also supporting our mission.

Dharma Gates' next chapter will require scaling with integrity: continuing to grow our team, building our base of financial support, cultivating relationships with more teachers and communities, and creating systems to more efficiently translate the support we receive into our programming and retreats. We invite you to support Dharma Gates’ retreats in 2024. Whatever you are able to offer will be put to good use to support young people to practice deeply. We thank you for considering a gift.