Hilltown Commons Presents: Layers of Light. A Pancakosa Dhyana Retreat with Wisdom Roots Wellness and Yoga Nidhi

Hilltown Commons is delighted to host a weekend workshop with Wisdom Roots Wellness and Yoga Nidhi, offering participants a rare opportunity to study Vedic chanting, breathwork, movement, and meditation while experiencing the tranquil beauty of Hilltown Commons’ 100-acre estate.

Guided by esteemed instructors Sheela & Ravi Shankar of Yoga Nidhi, this retreat explores the five koshas—the layers of being—through a progressive inward journey from the physical body (annamaya-kosa) to the blissful truth within (anandamaya-kosa).

Join us in this sacred space for learning, reflection, and connection.

Program Overview

Over two days, participants will engage in five key practices to harmonize body, breath, mind, and spirit:

• Asana – Mindful movement connecting body and breath

• Pranayama – Conscious breath regulation to still the mind

• Vedic Chanting – Sacred sound as a meditative anchor

• Upanisadic Teaching – Deep philosophical inquiry into the Self

• Music – Classical Indian music and devotional songs to elevate the spirit
  
  

Bonus Offering: Community Kirtan on Saturday evening – An uplifting experience of collective devotion through song.

Retreat Details & Tuition

Dates: May 30th - June 1st (Friday evening to Sunday afternoon)
Location: Hilltown Commons, Rensselaerville, NY
Fee: $880 (all-inclusive)

• Expert instruction from Sheela & Ravi Shankar of Nidhi Yoga

• Private accommodations with en-suite bath

• Chef-prepared meals, including welcome dinner & farewell lunch

• Full access to Hilltown Commons’ scenic 100-acre retreat

Commuter Fee: $320 (includes tuition & meals), email info@hilltowncommons.org to register

Meet Your Teachers

SHEELA SHANKAR, a student of T.K.V. Desikachar who pioneered the use of Vedic Chanting as a meditative practice in Yoga. She has undergone the 2-year teacher training Diploma in Yoga at the Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram (KYM), Chennai. She was one of TKV Desikachar’s foremost teachers of Vedic Chanting and is also a trained classical singer in both the Carnatic and the Hindustani tradition.

Over the years, Sheela has continued to practice and teach Vedic Chanting and bhajans to several individuals and groups from various parts of the world. She is the Vedic Chanting Course Faculty in Yoga Nidhi, India since 2000 and in Sadhana Mala, UK since 2017. She was the keynote speaker at the Association of Yoga Studies Convention, UK in 2019 with Ravi Shankar. She is the Vedic chanting faculty for the Der indische Weg, Miltenberg, Germany, and for Ropana, Japan.

RAVI SHANKAR has been on the path of Yoga for more than 30 years. He is a student of TKV Desikachar and has spent a number of years working under him and continues to teach in the same tradition. He has completed the intensive 2-year teacher training Diploma in Yoga at the Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram. The learning he cherishes most is the years spent working in association with TKV Desikachar on the KYM yoga journal - Darsanam.

He specialises in teaching the philosophy of the Yoga Sutra, Sankhyakarika, Bhagavat Gita, and the Taittiriya Upanisad. In addition, his breath-centric asana programs are very well received for their deeply meditative and therapeutic benefits.

He was the Scholar-in-Residence (2008-09), Denison University, Granville, Ohio. He was earlier the Lilly Scholar at the Laura C. Harris Symposium, March 2007 at Denison University, Granville, Ohio. He has conducted yoga programs for leading corporate houses in India in areas of Wellness, Stress Management, and Learning.

Join the Pond Hill Writers’ Retreat for its inaugural summer at the historic Hilltown Commons, a beautiful 100-acre non-profit retreat center in Rensselaerville, New York–nestled in the hills near the Catskill Mountains and the Hudson River and overlooking the forest, fields and wetlands of the Huyck Preserve.

Whether you’re dedicated to poetry, stories, memoirs, or novels, you can choose from five workshops that approach writing at every stage, from concept to completion. Our accomplished faculty of lauded writers and experienced industry professionals will offer comprehensive expertise guiding the craft of writing as well as insights into the world of publishing. 

Join fellow writers for four days and five evenings of creativity, skills-building, inspiration, excellent food and community, and while you’re with us take advantage of on-site yoga, the adjacent lake for kayaking, and miles of hiking trails. Each of our five distinguished faculty members will welcome writers into a supportive and immersive experience, offering well-appointed accommodations—each with a private bath—along with all meals and expert instruction included.

Meet the Faculty

Barbara Jones

When Your Book-in-Progress Is in a Middle Place. A workshop for writers who’ve completed a partial first draft (fifty or more pages), a full draft, or, even, several drafts of a book-length manuscript (a novel, a memoir, a collection of essays or stories). We’ll spend workshop time considering which kinds of very specific tools of the trade (“the basics”) as well as what kinds of larger conceptual thinking (“the bold”) might benefit each book, nourishing and sustaining it to completion. 

Please note: This workshop requires a submission of 15-20 pages (12 pt type, double-spaced) from your work-in-progress, along with your application to the workshop. Barbara will arrive armed with editorial approaches tailored to this particular workshop group’s needs.  

Barbara Jones was an editor for more than thirty years, first in magazines (Harper’s Magazine, Vogue, More) then in books (as editorial director at Hyperion Books and executive editor at Henry Holt). As a magazine editor, she worked with such writers as Jennifer Egan, Elizabeth Gilbert, Christopher Hitchens, Ann Hood, Jean Korelitz, Lorrie Moore, Ann Patchett, and many others. As a book editor, she edited and published numerous bestselling as well as prize-winning titles, by authors such as Paul Auster, Dan Chaon, Susan Choi, Kelly Corrigan, Lauren Groff, Janice Hadlow, Lillian Li, Julie Lythcott-Haims, and many others. She’s now a literary agent with the Stuart Krichevsky Literary Agency.

José Olivarez

Wild Geese. Wild Life. Wild Imagination. Inspired by Mary Oliver and other greats, we will search our lives and our stories for our own wild geese. What are the moments that inspire and haunt us? How can we transform our own habitats–whether they be in the city or out of the city–into lush material for poetry? These are just a couple of the questions we will examine together in a communal workshop meant to encourage and hone our imaginations. 

José Olivarez is the son of Mexican immigrants, and the author of two collections of poems, including, most recently, Promises of Gold—which was long-listed for the 2023 National Book Awards. His debut book of poems, Citizen Illegal, was a finalist for the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award and a winner of the 2018 Chicago Review of Books Poetry Prize. Along with Felicia Rose Chavez and Willie Perdomo, he co-edited the poetry anthology, The BreakBeat Poets Vol. 4: LatiNEXT. Alongside Antonio Salazar, he published the hybrid book, Por Siempre in 2023. He lives in Jersey City, NJ.

Heidi Pitlor

How to Write a Great Short Story. Join the longtime series editor of the perennial bestseller The Best American Short Stories for a rare look inside a beloved genre. Through discussion, generative exercises, close study of successful short stories, and question and answer sessions, Pitlor will guide you toward seeing your own and others’ fiction in a new way. We’ll discuss structure, narrative distance, and characterization, as well how to cultivate your individual process and voice as a writer.

Heidi Pitlor was the series editor of The Best American Short Stories from 2007-2024, and was previously a longtime senior editor at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. She has worked with Stephen King, Margaret Atwood, Karen Russell, Cheryl Strayed, Min Jin Lee, Anthony Doerr, Rainbow Rowell, Jesmyn Ward, and many other prize-winning writers. In 2022, she founded Heidi Pitlor Editorial, a freelance firm that provides editorial services to agents, editors, and published writers. She is also the author of the novels The Birthdays, The Daylight Marriage, and Impersonation. Her writing has been published in The New York Times, The Boston Globe, Lit Hub, Ploughshares, The Huffington Post, and elsewhere.

Christine Pride

How to Develop a Publishable Book Idea. So you want to write a book and get published? In this workshop (a mix of lectures, discussions, and interactive exercises), author and fifteen-year publishing insider Christine Pride explores practical and critical questions that every writer who has a dream of being published must consider: What are agents and editors really looking for? How do I know if I have a marketable idea? How do I know if my book is any good? It’s so competitive out there–how can I increase my chances of getting an agent? Is it all just hopeless? (Spoiler alert: no!)

Christine Pride is a writer, editor, and publishing veteran, who has held editorial posts at various “big five” imprints and has published many bestselling and acclaimed novels and memoirs. As a novelist, she has written two books with Jo Piazza: We Are Not Like Them ( a Good Morning America Book Club Pick) and You Were Always Mine. Her solo debut, All The Men I’ve Loved Again, will be published by Atria Books the week after the Pond Hill Retreat, giving participants a uniquely up- close look at how a book launch begins. 

Steven Rinehart

Writing for Impact: From the Sentence Up. Over the course of the retreat, we will use various strategies to improve both the style and the content of whatever fiction or creative nonfiction you bring with you, whether it’s a first draft, a second draft, or something nearly there that needs one more pass. The workshop will offer techniques that clear away confusion and enable you to look at your work the way a reader would, and then make some of the hard decisions your work deserves. Bring a piece of your writing that you love, that you love to hate, or that perplexes you—we’ll tackle it together.

Steve Rinehart writes and ghostwrites for a former US President, Fortune 100 CEOs, entrepreneurs, and social activists.  He brings a background as a writer of novels, stories, and screenplays, and his awards include a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. His creative, persuasive, and nonfiction writing, both under his byline and for principals, has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, TIME, London Telegraph, GQ, Out, and many others. He has taught fiction for 25 years at New York University and elsewhere, and has contributed essays and forewords for bestselling nonfiction titles across the world.